Ethnological Composition of Macedonia -1925

In my previous article with the title Racial Migrations In Macedonia During The Years 1912-1924 I quoted that in the book " Slavphone moovements (1913-1930), War Statistics" the writer Iakovos Michailides publish and analyze for a first time two secret statistics as about the Slavphones populations that done from the Greek authorities in Macedonia and Thrace.

This confidential statistical account of the Governorship-General of Macedonia referring to the population of the region as it was in the first quarter of 1925, estimates the Slavmacedonians at 173,954 persons. Of those, 97,836 or 7.1% of the total population were listed as bearing pro-Bulgarian sympathies (former Exarchists) and 76,118 or 5.5% as 'Patriarchists', that is, of pro-Greek sympathies. Of the 97,836 'Schismatic' Slavmacedonians, however, 11,238 were expected to emigrate; thus their number would be reduced to 86,398. The remaining 88% of the total population of Macedonia, consisting of indigenous Greeks, Hellenized Vlachs, a few pro-Romanian Vlachs, a few Muslim Albanians, a considble number of Jews and the Greek refugees settled in the region.

As is clear from this table in 1925 the majority of the Slavmacedonians who opted to remain in Greece lived in the districts of Fiorina and Kastoria in western Macedonia, as well as in Karatzova, Pella, and Giannitsa in central and Serres in eastern Macedonia. The credibility of this source is evidenced by a number of other official documents which estimate that the number of all Slav Macedonians, both Exarchists and Patriarchists, was about 160,000.

In 2006 the Oxford University publish a new book with the title....Population Exchange in Greek Macedonia: The Forced Settlement of Refugees 1922-1930 that include this confidential account. Dr Elisabeth Kontogiorgi has analytical desciptions not only from the specific statistical account but examine all the migration procedure that took place in Macedonia incuding recurring themes as the geographical distribution of the refugees, changing patterns of settlement and toponyms, the organization of health services in the countryside, as well as the execution of irrigation and drainage works in marshlands. Kontogiorgi also throws light upon and analyses the puzzling mixture of achievement and failure which characterizes the history of the region.

Below is the editorial review from Amazon :

Following the defeat of the Greek Army in 1922 by nationalist Turkish forces, the Convention of Lausanne in 1923 specified the first compulsory exchange of populations ratified by an international organization. The arrival in Greece of over 1.2 million refugees and their settlement proved to be a watershed with far-reaching consequences for the country. Dr Kontogiorgi examines the exchange of populations and the agricultural settlement in Greek Macedonia of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Asia Minor and the Pontus, Eastern Thrace, the Caucasus, and Bulgaria during the inter-war period. She examines Greek state policy and the role of the Refugee Settlement Commission which, under the auspices of the League of Nations, carried out the refugee resettlement project. Macedonia, a multilingual and ethnically diverse society, experienced a transformation so dramatic that it literally changed its character. Kontogiorgi charts that change and attempts to provide the means of understanding it. The consequences of the settlement of refugees for the ethnological composition of the population, and its political, social, demographic, and economic implications are treated in the light of new archival material. Reality is separated from myth in examining the factors involved in the process of integration of the newcomers and assimilation of the inhabitants - both refugees and indigenous - of the New Lands into the nation-state. Kontogiorgi examines the impact of the agrarian reforms and land distribution and makes an effort to convert the climate of the rural society of Macedonia during the inter-war period. The antagonisms between Slavophone and Vlach-speaking natives and refugee newcomers regarding the reallocation of former Muslim properties had significant ramifications for the political events in the region in the years to come. Other recurring themes in the book include the geographical distribution of the refugees, changing patterns of settlement and toponyms, the organisation of health services in the countryside, as well as the execution of irrigation and drainage works in marshlands. Kontogiorgi also throws light upon and analyses the puzzling mixture of achievement and failure which characterizes the history of the region during this transitional period. As the first successful refugee resettlement project of its kind, the 'refugee experiment' in Macedonia could provide a template for similar projects involving refugee movements in many parts of the world today.