From: lb@cs.man.ac.uk (Luben Boyanov)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.bulgaria,soc.culture.greek
Subject: Re: An article on Macedonia in "The Guardian" - 13th Nov.
Summary: historical case for Bulgarians and Macedonians
Date: 22 Nov 92 22:39:18 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.bulgaria
Organization: Dept Computer Science, University of Manchester, U.K.

In article <1992Nov18.181225.5757@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> gd8f@kelvin.seas.Virginia.EDU (Gregory  Dandulakis) writes:
>In article <6757@m1.cs.man.ac.uk> lb@cs.man.ac.uk (Luben Boyanov) writes:
>>
>>Hi,
>
> Hi Luben, too!
>
>>But maybe the new initiative by the Greek gov (about border guarantees)
>>will bring new development for Macedonia? I still believe that the main
>>reason for Greece's objections is (and Serbia's) is the fear of Macedonia
>>uniting with Bulgaria (as both countries realise quite well that the
>>history and the hidden/changed Bulgarian ethnicy of the Vardar Macedonians is
>>towards its end). This was the well known goal of the Macedonian Bulgarians
>>during the struggle for autonomous Macedonia 70 - 100 years ago but now the
>>matters are different and Greece shouldn't fear about such developments.
>
>
> I cannot see why Greece would object any Bulgaria-Skopjia unification.

Gregory, this is my private opinion (+ I can easily agree that it may not
be true). The Bulgarian nation has been ruthlessly divided by the Berlin
Congress and since then (one of the reasons for the creation of the Macedonian
problem) this same nation never got it's unity. The change of nationality
for the majority of Bulgarians living outside the borders of Bulgaria for
the period since WWI (in neighbouring countries - not in Bessarabia) makes
the present ethnic picture on the Balkans rather different than the one
before WWI, hence the national inspirations of the Bulgarian nation are
different. Nowadays one can't speak in the same terms as 70 years ago as
there are (probably) not so many people in neighbouring Bulgaria countries who
still feel Bulgarians. As for objections for unification (IN THE PAST !!!)
between Bulgaria and Macedonia ... by Bulgaria's neighbours ... one can write
a book on the subject. As I mentioned above, there has been a lot such
objections since Bulgaria became independent. However, I reckon that's
irrelevant for the present situation, which it's very much different.

> As long as there is no Russian inspired (for bypassing the Dardanelles)
> irredentism against Greece again.

Pan-hellenism and pan-slavism and their struggle during the 19th century
are a matter of history and history books. One can hardly see any of those
movements having any significance on the Balkans as they are nowadays. As
for the 19th century - there are so many books on the matter.

> My assessment though is that Bulgarian-Skopjian relations are not
> that of West-East Germany, but that one of all the Arab countries
> (500 years of Ottomans has left deep roots on the way which the
> people conduct their ambitions, inspirations and both public and 
> private relations).

Bulgarian-Macedonian (sorry but we use the words Macedonia and Macedonians
in a different than the Greek way and this is for many years - no one can
change books, documents, etc. which existed for many years :-( ) relations
are an interesting subject for discussion. They come out from the communist
years, during which Macedonians were told as if Bulgarians were their
main enemies (and not ethnic brothers). This was the propaganda tool to hide
the true Bulgarian ethnicy of those people. On the other hand, Bulgarians were
told nothing and/or virtually banned to ask Qs (or discuss) on Macedonia (i.e.
kept in complete darkness on the matter). Now both people are amazed how much
in common they have. Fortunately documents and books from all over the world
are kept (and not only SELECTED - yes - even the archive in Skopie is closed
for researchers  - the same archive of the Macedonian institute in Sofia
which was given to Tito by Dimitrov after 1944), people have interest to
learn the real facts from history (and not only what those who changed their
nationality for political reasons wrote) and let us hope better relations
will follow. A lot of people still have personal (from g-fathers/mothers)
knowledge on the matter, and (at least I) we hope that Bulgarians and
Macedonians will live as good friends and neighbours in the future. I'm sure
that the same will be with the Greeks.

> (If you think that Pan-Bulgarianism has stronger
> medieval and modern historical case than Pan-Arabism, I would like 
> to be informed the rational).

There has never been 'Pan-Bulgarianism' to my best knowledge. As one British
author said - Bulgarians were strong in anything else but not in propaganda
and diplomacy. In Bulgaria there is a saying (dating from the Balkan wars) 
that the Bulgarian wins on the battlefields were waisted on the diplomatic
table. As for a strong historic case for links between the people of Bulgaria
and Macedonia - one can hardly find a stronger case in world history :-).
Do you know what is the real name (as it's title has been forged in Skopie)
of the book, published 131 years ago, which Macedonians nowadays regard as a
book containing 'their' folk songs:

			"BULGARIAN FOLK SONGS"

And songs are part of the ethnicy, aren't they :-). Or what about the greatest
Macedonian hero Goce Delchev who regarded himself as Bulgarian ... How is it
possible the Bulgarian and Macedonian people not to have historical case ...
But at the same time it's obvious that the majority of the contemporary
Vardar Macedonians don't feel Bulgarians ...

> Best regards,
>
> Gr

Likewise

Luben