Macedonian identity: an overview of the major claims

Abstract

In 1991 the former Yugoslav Socialist Republic of Macedonia became an independent state under the name ‘Republic of Macedonia’. The identity of this state, its name, symbols, language and history, emerged as one of the most contentious issues in the Balkans. Even the most moderate Greek historians and politicians reject the use of the unqualified adjective ‘Macedonian’ in describing the state that has emerged north of their border, and its majority population and language. Bulgarian academics and politicians accept the name ‘Macedonia’ as a legitimate geographic and state designation, but unanimously reject the existence of a separate Macedonian nation and language before 1944, and many of them deny their existence even after that date. Even the most level-headed Serbian intellectuals remain sceptical about the historical existence of any fixed ethnic identity among Slays in present-day Macedonia before the twentieth century. In turn, Macedonian intellectuals and politicians project the contemporary reality of their statehood, nation and language on to the nineteenth century and before, many of them going as far back as ancient Macedonia. All these ‘schools of thought’ are accepted in varying degrees by non-Balkan academics and politicians, who rarely remain even-handed and instead consciously or unconsciously take sides in the ongoing Balkan ‘debate’ on the Macedonian identity.

Only those Macedonians who feel direct descendants of Philip and Alexander in unbroken continuity will remain eternally immune to the assimilation propagandas of the neighbouring states and will never betray the Macedonian race.

A programmatic statement of Makeilonsko Sonce, the weekly organ of the

World Macedonian Congress