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Macedonians (ethnic group)
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The Macedonians also referred to as Macedonian Slavs are a South Slavic people who are primarily associated with the Republic of Macedonia. They speak the Macedonian language, a South Slavic language. About two thirds of all ethnic Macedonians live in the Republic of Macedonia, although there are also communities in a number of other countries.
ancestry of present-day Macedonians is mixed. Their linguistic and cultural origins stem from the 6th century when various Slavic tribes migrated to, and settled in, the region of Macedonia.
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Encyclopedia
The Macedonians also referred to as Macedonian Slavs are a South Slavic people who are primarily associated with the Republic of Macedonia. They speak the Macedonian language, a South Slavic language. About two thirds of all ethnic Macedonians live in the Republic of Macedonia, although there are also communities in a number of other countries.
Origins
The ancestry of present-day Macedonians is mixed. Their linguistic and cultural origins stem from the 6th century when various Slavic tribes migrated to, and settled in, the region of Macedonia. Some early 20th century researchers as William Z. Ripley, Coon and Bertil Lundman described the Slavic speakers in Macedonia as Bulgarians, and often placed the both populations in a common racial subgroup. Other authors, like H. N. Brailsford, described Slavic speakers from Macedonia as related both with Serbs and Bulgarians, but without clear defined ethnic consciousness. Brailsford considered a part of the people of North West Macedonia as Serbs and the people of the region of Ohrid as Bulgarians.
The Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts accepts that as a whole the modern Macedonian genotype developed as a result of the absorption by the advancing Slavs of the local peoples living in the region of Macedonia prior to their coming. This position is backed by the findings of most ethnographers such as Vasil Kanchov, Gustav Weigand, and the anthropologist Carleton S. Coon, which state that the Slavs in 6th century actively assimilated other tribal peoples by absorbing part of the indigenous populations of the area, including Greeks, Thracians and Illyrians. By absorbing parts of the peoples living there the Slavs also absorbed their culture, and in that amalgamation a people was gradually formed with predominantly Slavic ethnic elements, speaking a Slavonic language and with a Slavic-Byzantine culture. Furthermore, the genetic studies support the theories that Macedonians genetic heritage is derived from a mixture of ancient Balkan peoples as well as the relatively newly arrived Slavs with deep European roots.
Population genetics studies using HLA loci have been used in light of unanswered questions regarding Macedonians' origins and relationship with other populations. Macedonians are most closely related to other Balkanians as Croats, Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians and Romanians. It is also corroborated that there is some non-European, inflow in the modern Macedonians.
Population
The vast majority of Macedonians live along the valley of the river Vardar, the central region of the Republic of Macedonia and form about 64.18% of the population of the Republic of Macedonia (1,297,981 people according to the ). Smaller numbers live in eastern Albania, south-western Bulgaria, northern Greece, and southern Serbia, mostly abutting the border areas of the Republic of Macedonia. A large number of Macedonians have immigrated overseas to Australia, United States, Canada and in many European countries: Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Austria, among others.
Macedonians in the Balkans
Serbia
Serbia recognizes the Macedonian minority on its territory as a distinct ethnic group and counts them in its annual census. 25,847 people declared themselves Macedonians in the .
Bulgaria
In the 2001 census in Bulgaria, 5,071 people declared themselves ethnic Macedonians (see the official data in Bulgarian ). Krassimir Kanev, chairman of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, claimed 15,000 - 25,000 in 1998 (see ). In the same report Macedonian nationalists (Popov et al, 1989) claimed that 200,000 ethnic Macedonians live in Bulgaria. However, Bulgarian Helsinki Committee stated that the vast majority of the Slavic population in Pirin Macedonia has a Bulgarian national self-consciousness and a regional Macedonian identity similar to the Macedonian regional identity in Greek Macedonia. Finally, according to personal evaluation of a leading local ethnic Macedonian political activist, Stoyko Stoykov, the present number of Bulgarian citizens with ethnic Macedonian self-consciousness is between 5,000 and 10,000 (). (The Encarta Encyclopaedia states that Macedonians make up 2.5% of the total population, i.e. approximately 190,000, with no mention of how this figure is obtained, as it is evidently refuted by the latest census figures, see .)
Macedonian groups in the country have reported official harassment (see Human rights in Bulgaria), with the Bulgarian Constitutional Court banning a small Macedonian political party in 2000 as separatist and Bulgarian local authorities banning political rallies. A political organization of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria – UMO Ilinden-Pirin – claims that the minority has experienced a period of intensive assimilation and repression. It should be noted though that the Republic of Macedonia banned a similar pro-Bulgarian organization - - as separatist.
On the other hand during the last few years in which Bulgaria saw economic prosperity and admission to the EU, around 60,000 citizens of Republic of Macedonia have applied for Bulgarian citizenship claiming Bulgarian origin. Another 14,000 have even received Bulgarian passports.
Albania
Albania recognizes ethnic Macedonians as an ethnic minority and delivers primary education in the Macedonian language in the border regions where most ethnic Macedonians live. In the 1989 census, 4,697 people declared themselves ethnic Macedonians.
Ethnic Macedonian organizations allege that the government undercounts their number and that they are politically under-represented — there are no ethnic Macedonians in the Albanian parliament. Some say that there has been disagreement among the Slav-speaking Albanian citizens about their being members of a Macedonian nation as a significant percentage of their number are Torbeš and self-identify as Albanians. External estimates on the population of ethnic Macedonians in Albania include 10,000 , whereas ethnic Macedonian sources have claimed that there are 120,000 - 350,000 ethnic Macedonians in Albania .
Greece
- See also: Aegean Macedonians, Slavophone Greeks, Slavic language (Greece)
According to the latest Greek census of 2001, there are 962 citizens of the Republic of Macedonia in Greece, although it should be noted that Greek census, like the censuses of some other EU member states (Italy, Spain, Denmark, France etc.), do not take into account the ethnicity of the inhabitants of the country.
Claims regarding the existence of an ethnic Macedonian minority in Greece are rejected by the Greek government. These claims are directed at the Slavic-speaking community of northern Greece, which dominantly self-identifies as Greek (not as ethnic Macedonian) and defines its language as "Slavic" or Dopia (a Greek word for 'local'). This community numbered 41,017 people according to the latest Greek census to include a question on mother tongue held in 1951, and local authorities in Greece continue to acknowledge its existence. Depending on dialect, this language is classified by linguists as either Bulgarian or Macedonian. Other estimates of the number of Slavophones in Greece range from 180,000 to 300,000.
The size of the community identifying as ethnic "Macedonians" today is estimated by the Greek Helsinki Monitor, at around 10,000-30,000 any others resenting having their Hellenism questioned. GHM is basing this figure on the electoral performance of the ethnic Macedonian political party the region of Greek Macedonia: the Rainbow, which received 7,300 votes in 1994 elections and and 5,000 in 1999 elections. In 2007, it did not stand for elections. The overwhelming majority of Greece's Slavic-speaking community is composed of people with Greek consciousness, which are pejoratively referred to with the term Grkomani by people in the Republic of Macedonia and trans-national ethnic Macedonian communities. In 1993, at the height of the name controversy and just before joining the UN, the government in Skopje claimed that there were between 230,000 and 270,000 Macedonians living in northern Greece, while the Athens government claimed there were around 100,000 Greeks in the Republic of Macedonia..
Population estimates
The Macedonian Diaspora
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