Re: Appeal to OSCE from the ethnic Macedonians

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Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 09:10:11 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Re: Appeal to OSCE from the ethnic Macedonians

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Stephan Nikolov <[email protected]>

Re: Appeal to OSCE from the ethnic Macedonians


Dear Colleagues and Friends,

My name is Stephan E. Nikolov, I am a sociologist and political
scientist, and one of my fields of professional interest are
minorities in Bulgaria and neighbor countries. In addition to my
professional interest, I feel me especially devoted as a person in the
fate ot the ethnic groups of former Yugoslavia, since my own
background is from areas, which, according to the Neully Agreement of
1919 (by the way, today is the 80th anniversary of it) were given to
Yugoslavia as a part of the measures against the defeated Bulgaria.

I want to leave aside, however, each kind of emotions, and to describe
only some facts in connection with the so called ethnic Macedonians in
Bulgaria. I won't also go too much to the past to avoid entirely the
controversial issue about Macedonian nation as a whole and their
state. My basis is that there is Macedonian nation with its special
identity, incl. language, and here I am not interested if it is a
descendant of the ancient Macedonians of Alexander the Great, or a
more recent product of the Bulgarian ethnic group.

Authors of the Appeal speak about some 2.5 Mln Macedonians living
outside the current borders of the Rep. of Macedonia, i.e., in
Albania, Bulgaria, and Greece. This makes about 1 Mln. Macedonians to
be residents of Bulgaria. Other sources, for example, the US CIA
mentions a number of 250-280 thousand, while the US Department of
State puts this number at much lower level. Where is the truth? 

When communists seized power in both Yugoslavia - where for the first
time a Republic of Macedonia was created as a part of the federal
state - and in Bulgaria, under the pressure of Stalin was initiated a
process of reunification (cessession) of the Bulgarian part of
Macedonia - Pirin Macedonia - with the Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,
as well as a more delayed one of integration of Bulgaria itself into
Yugoslavia. While the later one was hindered by the international
situation, the former - Macedonization of Pirin Macedonia - took some
speed especially in 1945-48, i.e., until the famous quarrel between
Stalin and Tito and following confrontation between the Moscow-led
bloc of communist countries and CPs from Western countries (the
so-called Cominformbureau). Recently opened classified papers from the
communist archives in Sofia shed light on this process. In the 1946
census in Bulgaria, data from which are largely used as a source to
prove the Macedonian identity of the population of Pirin Macedonia,
people, residing in the area, which was expected to be ceded to
Macedonia/Yugoslavia, were forced to sign as Macedonians. There are
hundreds of police or local CP committees reports which reveal how
difficult this process was, and which methods were used to meet the CP
leadership orders, for example - reports that obedient CP members
write in themselves as Macedonians, while non-party members claim to
be Bulgarians; then beating, tortures and threats came to permit
matching the required number of 70-80% of "Macedonians" in that
region. Instructions were clear: all non-Moslem population - i.e.,
with the exception of the Bulgarian Moslems (Pomaks), Turks and part
of the Roma/Gupsy population - have to be reported as of Macedonian
origin, which led to such curious cases as of a Russian emmigre, who
suddenly became a Macedonian. It is worth to be mentioned that the
then leader of the Bulgarian CP, George Dimitrov, who himself was born
in the same area, as well as another leading member of the
Politbureau, Vladimir Poptomov, despite being strongly in support of
these moves, never ceased to identify themselves as Bulgarians. In the
same time, teachers from the Yugoslav Rep. of Macedonia were sent to
Bulgarian part of Macedonia to teach children in their "mother tongue"
- am enterprise, which proved to be a total failure, because neither
the pupils, nor their parents were able to understand well this
apparently close, but nevertheless different language. The same
repeated with the attempts to spread printed in Skopje newspapers and
books: very few were subscribing or buying them, and only the imposed
requirements on CP members were saving face of the campaign.

After the confrontation between Moscow and Belgrade, this process was
stopped, and a long-years period of alienation between Bulgaria and
Yugoslavia came. Many people, who failed on time to change their views
according to the shift of the party line, suffered again. But this was
only one example of the legacy of the communist past, one of terror
and manipulations.

Since the beginning of the postcommunist changes in Bulgaria a census
was held in 1992, and after some hot debates, a question about the
ethnic and confessional identification was reintroduced. In order
mainly to simplify the questionnaire, only three categories, that
prevail among population - Bulgarians, Turks, and Roma/Gypsies, plus
and "Other" - were provided. Though unaccepted by many interested
parties, outcomes revealed that about 87% of the population identifies
as Bulgarians, about 9% - as Turks, about 3% - as Roma/Gypsy, and
about 1% - as other (among them less than 7,000 - as Macedonians).

My opinion both as a scholar and a person is that numbers are
important for the statistics, and they have to be carefully proved,
and not to be invented outside the place itself - in Skopje or another
places. I know a lot of people in Pirin Macedonia; among these are,
indeed, people, who consider themselves as Macedonians, but the vast
majority never would deny their Bulgarian origin; moreover - it is
namely in that region, probably namely because of the painful
historical experience, I've met the most decisive and inspired
defenders of the Bulgarian identity. 

However, it is totally different issue that if there is even one
person, who identifyes him/herself
as a Macedonian, his/her view has to be respected. The big difference
between the democratic and totalitarian society is that ethnic
identification is not an issue to be determined and decided at
important high-level sessions behind the doors, but one of a personal
choice. That is why I do not approve such steps, which impose any
restriction on the right of people to enjoy their own langauage,
customs, and culture, incl. in the case of the Bulgarian citizens, who
identify themselves as Macedonians. Nothing could justify cases such
as police violence against members of the Macedonian national
minority, who simply want to put flowers on the grave of Jane
Sandanski, a leader of the struggles against the Turkish domination,
who is oficially considered in Bulgaria as a Bulgarian hero. And if
there are grounds for subversive groups, who explicitly reveal as
their main goal secession of Bulgarian territory - because there is no
such country in the world which could afford to favour such groups and
activities - there are no fair grounds to ban any organization which
works in the frames of the national Constitution. Currently such
attempts are under way against the OMO Ilinden PIRIN political party,
which was registered by the Sofia district court earlier this year,
and was able to receive about 3,000 votes in the recent local
elections in Bulgaria, which permitted them to have now two mayors and
some members of municipal coincils. Constitutional Court of Bulgaria
now is under pressure to proclaim it as anticonstitutional. Bulgarian
Constitution has provisions, which outlaw political parties and
organizations based on ethnic or confessional divisions - which,
indeed, is by far not a democratic solution; however, in the case of
OMO Ilinden PIRIN accusations are based only on analogies with other
organizations with openly separatistic platforms, and thus a decision
to ban it would be far not a democratic and just one.

In any case, both suppression of ethnic rights, and invention of
ethnicities, as well as attempts to decide fate of certain population
without counsulting their own opinion could severely complicate the
Balkan situation, which is enough complicated otherwise.

With great respect and concern,

Sincerely yours,

Stephan E. Nikolov, PhD
Editor-in-chief, Bulgarian Sociological Review

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