From: lb@cs.man.ac.uk (Luben Boyanov)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.bulgaria
Subject: Re: Articles on relations between Bulgaria and (Republic of) Macedonia
Date: 9 Jan 93 14:31:58 GMT
Organization: Dept Computer Science, University of Manchester, U.K.


I shall respond to the several 'Macedonian' articles at the end of this
month (or later) but at this very moment I couldn't resist to
"support" and "agree more" on some of the statements presented in:

In article <8JAN199315580512@envmsa.eas.asu.edu> bliznako@envmsa.eas.asu.edu (Bliznakov, Plamen) writes:

[deleted - thanks for the articles]

>Anti-Bulgarian Antanta Still Does Not Exist
>But today, as it was in 1912, we are left without a strategic ally, 
>claim three historians

(doesn't exist de-facto, but declarations, propaganda and actions of some
of our neighbours, indicate without any doubt that behind Bulgaria's back -
just like in 1912 - serious games are played against Bulgaria. Alas,
Bulgarian politicians do nothing on the matter.) 


>Prof. Nikolay Genchev, Rector of the St. Climent Ohridski Sofia University
>
>Our contemporary politicians should first study the Macedonian question in 
>all of its aspects.

Thanks God that there are other people (and not only me :-) ) who are
saying the same. Alas, who is listening.

> This matter is not known to our state men since even in 
>our historical literature it is very messed and is always interpreted in 
>one nationalistic style.

Absolutely agree. Neither the politicians, nor the Bulgarians (in general)
know the matter (at least what is agreed by everybody when talking about
different periods of history) and most of the undisputed facts. And those
facts absolutely everybody can check for himself from older books and
sources outside the Balkans and from non-Balkan sources. Unfortunately,
this lack of knowledge and the silence because of it, leaves the world
listening and believing the nonsence and fabrications, spread by some loud
and very active propaganda machines.

> And there are some undisputed things here.

Absolutely. Amongst them are:

1) Macedonia has not been Greek for 4000 years. Neither in political state
boundaries, nor in ethnic sense. Even more - the name alone (Macedonia)
has not been in use in the regions for a very long period of time !!!

2) There hasn't been Macedonian nation with its distinct history and
culture the region until WWI - WWII (British, French, German, American,
Italian, Russian, etc, sources leave no doubt on the matter). Until as late
as after the Balkan wars, the 'Slav' people in the region considered
themselves Bulgarians and belonging to the Bulgarian nation.

3) Travelers, explorers, scholars, people who have lived in the region (for
the time before 1870-1881) from Turkey, Britain, France, Germany, Austria,
Hungary, Russia, Serbia, etc, etc were all unanimous, that the majority of
the population in Macedonia were ethnic Bulgarians. This is also apparent
in British, Austrian, French, German, Russian, American, Italian ethnic
maps from the last century. For Serbian ethnic maps, linguists and
politicians - true until 1881, not true after that.

4) For people from the local population, which were educated and had
expressed (and freely) their national consciousness (far before the
reestablishment of the Bulgarian state in 1878) - that consciousness was
undoubtedly a Bulgarian one. There were many famous personalities (not only
before 1870, but also until 1912, after which the non-Turkish rule was 
harsher and less tolerant than the absolute Ottoman yoke) from Macedonia
and it is no surprise that only Bulgaria "have" famous people from
Macedonia (OOOOps - sorry - also Turkey - Kemal Attaturk :-) ).

5) The IMRO (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - this year
is going to be celebrated 100 years since its foundation), despite its
struggle for autonomous Macedonia was a Bulgarian organization. The leaders
of IMRO were Bulgarian in their national consciousness and such was (in its
character) the Ilinden uprising in 1903.

6) Nobody supported the Ilinden uprising (neither Serbs, nor Greek) but
Bulgarians only and all Great Powers knew that autonomous Macedonia will
join Bulgaria in the same manner as it happened with Eastern Roumelia in
1885. 


>Now, when the problem about Macedonia is again on the agenda, the Bulgarian 
>politicians should be absolutely clear and consistent.

But they are not :-(. How can they be when they don't know the undisputed
facts and what other propaganda machines spread all the time.

> Nobody should dictate
>his own opinion <"da se natrapva" in the original> to this population how 
>to determine their own ethnic belonging. 

That is also true. Nowadays the feeling for ethnic belonging of those
people (i.e. the Macedonians in Vardar Macedonia) is not at all what was in
1912 and before that.


>I don't think we have made a mistake, when we were first to recognize the 
>independence of Macedonia, but the bad thing is that again we didn't show 
>consistency.

Also agreed on this.


>When you have spiritual advantage in a region - cultural, linguistic, etc. 
>there is no need in political aggression. This was the mistake which we in 
>fact made in 1912. Unfortunately, now we are in the same situation - 
>isolated and confronted to all our neighbours.

Either Prof Genchev wanted to say something slightly different, or his
words were not recorder in a correct way. I mean - "now we are in the same
situation", where in the sentence above he speaks about the Bulgarian
cultural, etc, advantage in the region. It's 100% clear that the Bulgarian
culture, linguistic, etc. influence in the moment is NOT at all as it was
in 1912. Even worse - the 'Macedonians' (at least the present generation
and the one before it) are very much anti-Bulgarians and believe myths like
the one that Bulgarians have been trying to change their nationality for
150 years (and not the undisputed fact that others have been trying to
change the Bulgarian nationality of the inhabitants of Macedonia) and that
in contemporary Bulgaria, 'Macedonians' are treated as "second class"
citizens.


>Assoc.Prof. Stayko Trifonov, lecturer at the Historical Faculty of Sofia 
>University, teaching National Liberation Movements on the Balkans
>
>Today part of the politicians holding key positions in the state management - 
>Tatarchev <General Prosecutor>, Yanchulev <Mayor of Sofia>, Staliyski 
><Minister of Defense at that time>, Stoyan Ganev <Minister of Foreign 
>Affairs at that time>, Edvin Sugarev <former vice-president of the UDF, ruling 
>at that time>, Konstantin Mishev <advisor of Filip Dimitrov, former 
>prime-minister>, may be there are more, are with heritage from Macedonia. 
As a matter of fact, the ex-chief prosecutor is ancestor of the "brain" of
IMRO - Dr. Hristo Tatarchev.

Amongst other famous 'Macedonians' from the past, one can mention Andrei
Lyapchev, who was Prime Minister of Bulgaria (good example for a very
suppressed 'minority'), Simeon Radev, who was Bulgarian ambassador to
Washington, and many famous writers, poets, composers, etc, etc. 


Best regards

Luben

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"Let us not allow splits and splintering to frighten us. It is, indeed, a
pity, but what can we do, since we are Bulgarians and all suffer from one
common disease"
				Gotse Delchev
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