Modern Macedonian Salad

In Greece the arguments run as follows:

• Ancient Macedonians were Greeks.


• Medieval Slavs and Bulgars were culturally converted to Byzantine Hellenism and were ethnically assimilated.


• Slav-speaking Macedonians were not necessarily Bulgars or Slavs. Considering their loyalty to the Patriarch and their active contribution to Greek 19th century irredentism, it is evident that they were ethnically Greeks beyond doubt.

In Bulgaria they are not concerned with ancient Macedonians but they argue that:

• Medieval Slavs in Macedonia were absorbed by the Bulgarians, but the latter were not assimilated either by the Greeks or by the Serbs.


• Despite allegiance to the Greek dominated Ecumenical Patriarchate, Slav-speaking Macedonian Bulgars were a separate ethnic group, which in the late 19th century inhabited most parts of Macedonia, but failed to be annexed by Bulgaria.

During the last quarter of the 19th century Serbs also developed their own theories about the identity of Macedonia’s population.They sought to demonstrate that:

• Medieval Slavmacedonians were Serbs. In fact Serbs dominated Macedonia after the Bulgarians in the 14th century; thus, they could not have been assimilated by the latter who were swept out in the early 11th century.


• They preserved a distinctive Serbian culture, a language akin to Serbian and were called “Serbs” for centuries.


• Macedonian Slavs were not identified as Bulgarians until the mid 19th century.

Naturally after World War II Serbian views were abandoned. Serbs were replaced ever after by Slavmacedonians historians who assimilated and further enhanced theories which in the past had been supported chiefly by the Communists. Their main task has been to show that:

• Ancient Macedonians were not Greeks but Slavs.


• Medieval Slavs assimilated ancient non-Greek Macedonians, but were absorbed neither by the Bulgarians nor by the Serbs or Greeks.


• In 19th century a dense and distinct Slav-speaking Macedonian ethnic group, overwhelmingly larger than the Greek one, became the vehicle of Macedonian nationalism, but ethnic Macedonia, having failed to get independence in 1903, was divided in 1913.

We have of course and the US views that run as follows

• Until 1990 considered talk of Macedonian "nation", Macedonian "Fatherland", or Macedonian "national consciousness" to be unjustified demagoguery representing no ethnic, nor political reality, and sees in its present revival a possible cloak for aggressive intentions against Greece.


• After 1990 found Macedonian "nation", Macedonian "Fatherland" or Macedonian "national consciousness". Greek thesis is now a unjustified demagoguery representing no ethnic, nor political reality, and sees in its present revival a possible cloak for aggressive intentions against Republic of Macedonia.