The Macedonian Identity in 19th century

By Dr  Evangelos Kofos

Historian and Balkan expert

With the establishment of the modern Greek state in 1830, Greek national ideology developed on the basis of national continuity. It stressed classical Greek roots but also traced, from Byzantium, through Turkokratia, to Independence, the survival of the Greek nation, the Greek language, Greek customs and, of course, the Greek Orthodox religion.7 In Macedonia, however, emphasis was focused on two important, specific points. The first centred on the grandeur of ancient Macedonia and the saga of Alexander the Great. The magnetism of the great king, his achievements and the name of the Macedonians had been stimulants of Greek national ideology in Macedonia even before the Greek War of Independence;8 during the period of the Enlightenment, Greeks of Macedonia, both locally and in the diaspora, carried the Macedonian name as an additional testimony of their Greekness.9 As yet there was no challenge to the view that the ancient Macedonians were Greeks, and that the Greek inhabitants of Ottoman-held Macedonia were the only bona fide ethnic group entitled to bear the Macedonian name. These modern Makedones took pride in claiming descent from kings Philip and Alexander, just as eighteenth-century Athenian villagers traced their ’imagined’ lineage from Themistocles and Pericles.

The extraordinary revival of Hellenic names, particularly those of ancient Macedonian origin, which were given to children, to cultural clubs and even to towns (Edessa in lieu of Vodena, Monastir in lieu of Bitola) indicates...

Is history of a people transferable?

There are people out there ,self-identified or self-ascribed as "Macedonians" who believe that the history of a people of a neighboring country can be shared with, taken away or transferred to themselves because their country cannot exist or function without a history and, therefore, since the South Slavonian Slavic people of that country don´t have one or think that whatever little history they have is not significant enough to feel proud and honored by it. Obviously, they feel justified to use, steal or expropriate the history of their southern neighbors, namely the Greeks and , in particular, the history of the Greek people of Macedonia because not only it makes it possible for them to acquire a foreign history for themselves but, at the same time, it allows them to indulge themselves in some sort of irredentist ambitions for foreign land speculation, namely the much coveted Macedonian Greek land.

We Greeks in general and especially the Macedonian Greek people are proud and honored to have so much history despite the fact that we are a small country. So, then, we will invest any amount of effort to defend our history against the South Slavonian Slavs who think that they...

Macedonian identity is part of the identity of every single Greek citizen and we will not negotiate on that

.......Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas said in an interview at "Proto Thema" newspaper.

Also Mr Droutsas points out that official Athens insists on negotiations only on the name and thinks that it is a mistake to add issues connected only to the language and identity in the negotiations as the Macedonian identity belongs to every single Greek citizen.

Greece will require amendments to the Constitution of formeR Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia(FYROM) so as to realize the formula for a common name for international use. This is the position expressed by Droutsas, who as if covered the Greek red line with concrete.

UN mediator Matthew Nimetz shouldn’t have added the rest of the issues in this proposal in 2005 but the worse thing was that the previous Greek government of PM Kostas Karamanlis agreed to discuss them, Droutsas remarked.

Whole interview in this link.