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Slavic Ethnic
Group in Macdonia |
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Slavic Ethnic Group in Macdonia |
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The
Macedonians[1] (Macedonian: Македонци,
Latinic:Makedonci) - also referred to
as Macedonian Slavs [2] - are a South
Slavic ethnic group who are primarily
associated with the Republic of
Macedonia. They speak the Macedonian
language, a South Slavic language. The
overwhelming majority of ethnic
Macedonians live in the Republic of
Macedonia, although there are also
minority communities in neighboring
Serbia, Greece, Albania and Bulgaria,
as well as in diaspora communities in
a number of other countries.
The vast majority
of Macedonians live in the valley of
the river Vardar, the central region
of the Republic of Macedonia and form
about 64.18% of the population of the
Republic of Macedonia (1,297,981
people according to the 2002 census).
Smaller numbers live in eastern
Albania, southwestern Bulgaria,
northern Greece, and southern Serbia,
mostly abutting the border areas of
the Republic of Macedonia. A large
number of Macedonians have immigrated
overseas to Australia, USA, Canada and
in many European countries: Germany,
UK, Italy, Austria, etc.
Origins and
identities
The geographical
region of Macedonia, which spans
portions of Bulgaria and Greece, and
the Republic of Macedonia, has been
inhabited by a variety of peoples,
including Greeks, ethnic (Slav)
Macedonians, Albanians, Bulgarians,
Jews, Turks, Serbs, Roma and Vlachs.
The oldest recorded continuous
presence are the Greeks (who are also
referred to as Macedonians).
In Bulgaria, and
to some extent in Greece, the question
of whether the Macedonians constitute
a distinct ethnic group is
controversial - the popular and the
academic consensus in these countries
regards them as a branch of the
Bulgarians. The majority of
international organizations consider
modern ethnic Macedonians to be a
distinct cultural, if not ethnic
group.
Historians
generally date the arrival of the
Slavs in Macedonia and the Balkans to
the 6th or 7th centuries AD. Ethnic
Macedonians (assuming such a group
existed) had little or no political
national identity of their own until
the 20th century. Any Macedonian
identity during the Byzantine
centuries is mostly expressed through
the Greek medium. Medieval sources
traditionally describe them as
Bulgarians, a definition which
survived well into the period of
Ottoman rule as attested by the
Ottoman archives and by descriptions
of historians and travelers, for
example Evliya Celebi and his Book of
Travels.
During the
Ottoman rule, there is no
documentation attesting to a specific
Macedonian national identity, be it
Slav, Greek or otherwise, until the
20th century. From the 17th century,
authors who declared themselves
'Macedonian' did so in the context of
publishing Greek books and belonging
to the Greek nation. 19th century
ethnographers and travelers were
generally united in identifying the
Slavic speakers as Bulgarians, at
least until the period between 1878
and 1912 when the rival propaganda of
Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria succeeded
in engaging the Slavophone population
of Macedonia into three distinct
parties, the pro-Serbian, the
pro-Greek or the pro-Bulgarian (Henry
Brailsford).
In the late 19th
century and the beginning of 20th
century, there were many clashes
between Serbophile Chetniks
(originating from Macedonia) and
Bulgarophile Komitas from all over
Slavic-speaking Macedonia, which shows
the lack of a distinctive urge to form
a Macedonian nation state.
The key events in
the formation of a distinctive
Macedonian identity thus emerged
during the first half of the 20th
century in the aftermath of the Balkan
Wars of 1912-1913 and especially
following the Second World War. |
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The History of Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia |
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Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia, According to the 2002 Census
Albanians (Shqiptare in Albanian, Албанци/Albanci
in Macedonian) are the largest ethnic minority in
the Republic of Macedonia. The largest Albanian
communities live in the regions of Tetovo (Tetova),
Skopje (Shkupi), Gostivar (Gostivari), Debar (Dibra),
Kicevo (Kerçova),..
For more here! |
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Albanian
Second Largest City in Macedonia Tetovo
Tetovo is located at the foothills of the Shar
Mountain in north-western Macedonia, 468 m above
the sea level, on the edge of the Polog Valley.
The city is separated by the river Pena, which
flows from the Shar mountain.
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