United Macedonia is an
irredentistIrredentism is any position advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, actual or alleged. Some of these movements are also called pan-nationalist movements. It is a feature of identity politics and cultural...
concept among ethnic Macedonians that aims to unify the transnational region of Macedonia in
southeastern EuropeThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
, which they claim as their homeland, and which they assert was wrongfully divided under the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913, into a single state under Slavic domination with the Greek city of
ThessalonikiThessaloniki , Thessalonica, or Salonica is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the Greek region of Macedonia. It is honorarily called the Συμπρωτεύουσα Symprotevousa of Greece, as it was once called the συμβασιλεύουσα symvasilevousa of the Byzantine Empire...
(
Solun in the Slavic languages) as its capital. Nationalist Macedonian partisans prefer the term to "Greater Macedonia" as freer from the negative connotations that have accrued to the "Greater" nationalities. The concept appeared initially in the late 19th century as variant called
authonomous Macedonia in the documents of IMARO. The organization was founded in 1893 in Ottoman
ThessalonikiThessaloniki , Thessalonica, or Salonica is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the Greek region of Macedonia. It is honorarily called the Συμπρωτεύουσα Symprotevousa of Greece, as it was once called the συμβασιλεύουσα symvasilevousa of the Byzantine Empire...
by a "small band of anti-Ottoman Macedono-Bulgarian revolutionaries, which considered Macedonia an indivisible territory and claimed all of its inhabitants
"Macedonians", no matter their religion or ethnicity. The idea then was strictly political and did not imply a secession from Bulgarian ethnicity, but unity of all nationalities in the area. The term United Macedonia has been in use since the early 1900s, notably in connection with the Balkan Socialist Federation.
Although the following perception is not limited to ethnic Macedonians, or extreme nationalists, the majority of ethnic Macedonians usually break down the region of Macedonia as follows, a categorisation which is considered offensive by itself by both Greeks and Bulgarians:
- Vardar Macedonia
Vardar Macedonia is an area in the north of the Macedonia . The borders of the area are those of the Republic of Macedonia.. It covers an area of .-See also:*Macedonia...
(Вардарска Македонија) - the Republic of MacedoniaMacedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country in the central Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
.
- Aegean Macedonia (Егејска Македонија) - the three Macedonian peripheries
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of Greece in southeastern Europe. Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region...
of northern Greece.
- Pirin Macedonia (Пиринска Македонија) - the unofficial name of Blagoevgrad Province
Blagoevgrad Province , also known as Pirin Macedonia , is a province of southwestern Bulgaria. To the north and east it borders with four other Bulgarian provinces, to the south with Greece and the west with the Republic of Macedonia...
in southwestern Bulgaria
- Mala Prespa and Golo Brdo
Prespa e Vogël and Golloborda , refers to a geographical area situated in southeastern Albania. This region is made of two areas Presa e Vogel is one and Golloborda is the other area...
(Мала Преспа и Голо Брдо) - an area in southeastern Albania (sometimes considered to be a part of Aegean Macedonia).
- Prohor Pchinski
Prohor Pčinjski is a Serbian Orthodox monastery in the deep south of Serbia, located in Pčinja District near the border with Macedonia. According to tradition, it was founded in the 11th century by the Byzantine emperor Romanus IV in honour of St. Prochorus, who prophesied that he would become the...
(Прохор Пчински) - in southern SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
, (this subregion is considered to be a part of Vardar Macedonia).
- Gora
Gora is a geographical region in southern Kosovo, mostly inhabited by the Gorani people. Between 1992 and 1999, Gora was a municipality, and its population was 17,574 people according to 1991 census. Today, the region is part of the municipality of Dragaš...
(Гора) - in southern KosovoKosovo is a disputed territory in the Balkans. Its majority is governed by the partially-recognised Republic of Kosovo , a self-declared independent state which has de facto control over the territory; the exceptions are some Serb enclaves...
(this subregion is also considered to be a part of Vardar Macedonia).
An essential aspect of this concept is the claim that the vast majority of the population in those territories are oppressed ethnic Macedonians and they describe those areas as the
unliberated parts of Macedonia. In the cases of Bulgaria and Albania, it is said that they are undercounted in the censuses (In Albania, there are officially 5,000 ethnic Macedonians, whereas Macedonians nationalists claim the figures are more like 120,000-350,000 . In Bulgaria, there are officially, 5,071 ethnic Macedonians, whereas Macedonian nationalists claim 200,000 ). In Greece, there is a Slavic-speaking minority with various self-identifications (Macedonian, Greek, Bulgarian), estimated by
EthnologueEthnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, primarily to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language.The Ethnologue contains statistics for 7,358 languages...
, and the Greek Helsinki Monitor as being between 100,000-200,000 (according to the Greek Helsinki Monitor only an estimated 10,000-30,000 have an ethnic Macedonian national identity ). Macedonian nationalists have claimed that there is a Macedonian minority numbering up to 800,000 .
The roots of the concept can be traced back to 1910. One of the main platforms from the First Balkan Socialist Conference in 1910 was the solution to the Macedonian Question,
Georgi DimitrovGeorgi Dimitrov Mikhaylov , also known as Georgi Mikhaylovich Dimitrov , was a Bulgarian Communist leader.- Early career :...
in 1915 writes that the creation of a "Macedonia, which was split into three parts, was to be reunited into a single state enjoying equal rights within the framework of the Balkan Democratic Federation".
The concept about United Macedonia was used by revolutionaries from the
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary OrganizationThe Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization , was the name of from a revolutionary, Bulgarian national liberation movement in the Ottoman territories in Europe, that operated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
(IMRO) too. In 1920-1934 their leaders - Todor Alexandrov, Alexandar Protogerov,
Ivan MihailovIvan Mihailov Gavrilov Ivan Mihailov Gavrilov Ivan Mihailov Gavrilov was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary in Ottoman and interwar Macedonia, leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary...
, etc., accept this concept with the aim to liberate the territories occupied by Serbia and Greece and to create Independent and United Macedonia for all Macedonians - Bulgarians, Greeks, Serbians, Albanians, etc.
The idea of reunification of all of Macedonia under Communist rule was abandoned in 1948 when the Greek Communists lost in the
Greek Civil WarThe Greek Civil War was fought from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek governmental army, backed by the United Kingdom, United States, and the Democratic Army of Greece , the military branch of the Greek Communist Party , backed by Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania...
, and Tito fell out with the Soviet Union and pro-Soviet Bulgaria.
Before and just after the Republic of Macedonia's independence, it was assumed in Greece that the ideology of a United Macedonia was still state-sponsored. In the first constitution of the newly independent Republic of Macedonia, adopted on 17 November 1991, Article 47 read as follows :
- (1) The Republic cares for the status and rights of those persons belonging to the Macedonian people in neighboring countries, as well as Macedonian expatriates, assists their cultural development and promotes links with them. In the exercise of this concern the Republic will not interfere in the sovereign rights of other states or in their internal affairs.
- (2) The Republic cares for the cultural, economic and social rights of the citizens of the Republic abroad.
This was seen in Greece as a declaration of a right to interfere in Greece's internal affairs.
Finally, on 13 September 1995, the Republic of Macedonia signed an Interim Accord with Greece in order to end the economic
embargoAn embargo is the prohibition of commerce and trade with a certain country, in order to isolate it and to put its government into a difficult internal situation, given that the effects of the embargo are often able to make its economy suffer from the initiative. It is similar to a blockade, as in...
Greece had imposed, amongst other reasons, for the perceived land claims. Amongst its provisions, the Accord specified that Macedonia would renounce all land claims to neighboring states' territories.
The United Macedonia concept is still found among official sources in the Republic, and taught in schools through school textbooks and through other governmental publications
See also
- Macedonia (terminology)
The name Macedonia is used in a number of competing or overlapping meanings to describe geographical, political and historical areas, languages and peoples in a part of south-eastern Europe. It has been a major source of political controversy since the early 20th century...
- Demographic history of Macedonia
- Early history :The region of Macedonia is known to have been inhabited since Paleolithic times. Early historical inhabitants of the region were the Phrygians , Thracians and Illyrians. Thracians in early times occupied mainly the eastern parts of Macedonia but were also present in Eordaia and...
- Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization
The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization , was the name of from a revolutionary, Bulgarian national liberation movement in the Ottoman territories in Europe, that operated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
- History of the Republic of Macedonia
-Ancient period:In antiquity, most of the territory that is now the Republic of Macedonia was included in the kingdom of Paeonia, which was populated by the Paeonians, a people of Thracian origins, but also parts of ancient Illyria and Dardania, inhabited by various Illyrian peoples, and Lyncestis...
- Macedonism
- The Ten Lies of Macedonism
- Titoism
Titoism is an adaptation of communist ideology named after Josip Broz Tito, leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, primarily used to describe the specific socialist system built in Yugoslavia after its refusal of the 1948 Resolution of the Cominform, when the Communist Party of...