Macedonians (ethnic group)#Identities

{{Main|History of the Macedonians (ethnic group)}}

{{See also|Macedonian historiography|Macedonian nationalism|}}

In antiquity, much of central-northern Macedonia (the Vardar basin) was inhabited by Paionians who expanded from the lower Strymon basin. The Pelagonian plain was inhabited by the Pelagones and the Lyncestae, ancient Greek tribes of Upper Macedonia; whilst the western region (Ohrid-Prespa) was said to have been inhabited by Illyrian tribes, such as the Enchelae.A J Toynbee. Some Problems of Greek History, Pp 80; 99–103 During the late Classical Period, having already developed several sophisticated polis-type settlements and a thriving economy based on mining,The Problem of the Discontinuity in Classical and Hellenistic Eastern Macedonia, Marjan Jovanonv. УДК 904:711.424(497.73) Paeonia became a constituent province of the Argead – Macedonian kingdom.A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Wiley -Blackwell, 2011. Map 2 In 310 BC, the Celts attacked deep into the south, subduing various local tribes, such as the Dardanians, the Paeonians and the Triballi. Roman conquest brought with it a significant Romanization of the region. During the Dominate period, 'barbarian' foederati were settled on Macedonian soil at times; such as the Sarmatians settled by Constantine the Great (330s AD)Peter Heather, Goths and Romans 332–489. p. 129 or the (10 year) settlement of Alaric I's Goths.Macedonia in Late Antiquity p. 551. In A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Wiley -Blackwell, 2011 In contrast to 'frontier provinces', Macedonia (north and south) continued to be a flourishing Christian, Roman province in Late Antiquity and into the Early Middle Ages.{{cite journal | last1 = Curta | first1 = Florin | year = 2012 | title = Were there any Slavs in seventh-century Macedonia? | journal = Journal of History | volume = 47 | page = 73 }}

Linguistically, the South Slavic languages from which Macedonian developed are thought to have expanded in the region during the post-Roman period, although the exact mechanisms of this linguistic expansion remains a matter of scholarly discussion.{{harvtxt|Curta|2004|p=148}} Traditional historiography has equated these changes with the commencement of raids and 'invasions' of Sclaveni and Antes from Wallachia and western Ukraine during the 6th and 7th centuries.{{harvtxt|Fine|1991|p=29}} However, recent anthropological and archaeological perspectives have viewed the appearance of Slavs in Macedonia, and throughout the Balkans in general, as part of a broad and complex process of transformation of the cultural, political and ethnolinguistic Balkan landscape before the collapse of Roman authority. The exact details and chronology of population shifts remain to be determined.T E Gregory, A History of Byzantium. Wiley- Blackwell, 2010. p. 169{{Harvard citation text|Curta|2001|pp=335–345}} What is beyond dispute is that, in contrast to "barbarian" Bulgaria, northern Macedonia remained Roman in its cultural outlook into the 7th century. Yet at the same time, sources attest numerous Slavic tribes in the environs of Thessaloniki and further afield, including the Berziti in Pelagonia.Florin Curta. Were there any Slavs in seventh-century Macedonia? 2013 Apart from Slavs and late Byzantines, Kuver's "Sermesianoi"The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Denis Sinor, Cambridge University Press, 1990, {{ISBN|0521243041}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ST6TRNuWmHsC&dq=bulgars++kuber&pg=PA215 pp. 215–216.] – a mix of c. 70,000 Byzantine Greeks predominantly, also Bulgars and Pannonian Avars – settled the "Keramissian plain" (Pelagonia) around Bitola in the late 7th century.{{sfn|Fine|1991|pp=71}}{{lang|mk|Во некрополата "Млака" пред тврдината во Дебреште, Прилеп, откопани се гробови со наоди од доцниот 7. и 8. век. Тие се делумно или целосно кремирани и не се ниту ромеjски, ниту словенски. Станува збор наjвероjатно, за Кутригурите. Ова протобугарско племе, под водство на Кубер, а како потчинето на аварскиот каган во Панониjа, околу 680 г. се одметнало од Аварите и тргнало кон Солун. Кубер ги повел со себе и Сермесиjаните, (околу 70.000 на број), во нивната стара татковина. Сермесиjаните биле Ромеи, жители на балканските провинции што Аварите ги заробиле еден век порано и ги населиле во Западна Панониjа, да работат за нив. На Кубер му била доверена управата врз нив.}} In English: In the necropolis 'Malaka' in the fortress of Debreshte, near Prilep, graves were dug with findings from the late 7th and early 8th century. They are partially or completely cremated and neither Roman nor Slavic. The graves are probably remains from the Kutrigurs. This Bulgar tribe was led by Kuber... Средновековни градови и тврдини во Македонија. Иван Микулчиќ (Скопје, Македонска цивилизација, 1996) [http://www.kroraina.com/macedon/mik_3_2.html стр. 32–33.]"The" Other Europe in the Middle Ages: Avars, Bulgars, Khazars and Cumans, East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450 – 1450, Florin Curta, Roman Kovalev, BRILL, 2008, {{ISBN|9004163891}}, p. 460.W Pohl. The Avars (History) in Regna and Gentes. The Relationship Between Late Antique and Early Medieval Peoples and Kingdoms in the Transformation of the Roman World. pp. 581, 587 Later pockets of settlers included "Danubian" Bulgarians They spread from the original heartland in north-east Bulgaria to the Drina in the west, and to Macedonia in the south-west.; На целиот тој простор, во маса метални производи (делови од воената опрема, облека и накит), меѓу стандардните форми користени од словенското население, одвреме-навреме се појавуваат специфични предмети врзани за бугарско болјарство како носители на новата државна управа. See: Средновековни градови и тврдини во Македонија. Иван Микулчиќ (Скопје, Македонска цивилизација, 1996) стр. 35; 364–365.Dejan Bulić, The Fortifications of the Late Antiquity and the Early Byzantine Period on the Later Territory of the South-Slavic Principalities, and Their Re-occupation in Tibor Živković et al., The World of the Slavs: Studies of the East, West and South Slavs: Civitas, Oppidas, Villas and Archeological Evidence (7th to 11th Centuries AD) with Srđan Rudić as ed. Istorijski institut, 2013, Belgrade; {{ISBN|8677431047}}, pp. 186–187. in the 9th century; Magyars (Vardariotai)Florin Curta. 'The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, C. 500 to 1050: The Early Middle Ages. pp. 259, 281 and Armenians in the 10th–12th centuries,Studies on the Internal Diaspora of the Byzantine Empire edited by Hélène Ahrweiler, Angeliki E. Laiou, p. 58. Many were apparently based in Bitola, Stumnitsa and Moglena Cumans and Pechenegs in the 11th–13th centuries,Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185–1365. Istvan Varsary. p. 67 and Saxon miners in the 14th and 15th centuries.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kxKBMhz3e7AC&q=saxon+miners+macedonia&pg=PA89|title=Balkan Worlds|access-date=18 March 2015 |isbn=9780765638519| last1=Stoianovich| first1=Traian| date=September 1994|publisher=M.E. Sharpe }} Vlachs (Aromanians) and Arbanasi (Albanians) also inhabited this area in the Middle ages and mingeled with the local Slavic-speakers.Czamanska, Ilona. (2016). Vlachs and Slavs in the Middle Ages and Modern Era. Res Historica. 41. 11. 10.17951/rh.2016.0.11. Гюзелев, Боян. Албанци в Източните Балкани, София 2004, Редактор: Василка Танкова, ИМИР (Международен центур за изследване на малцинствата и културните взаимодействия), {{ISBN|9789548872454}}, стр. 10-22.

Having previously been Byzantine clients, the Sklaviniae of Macedonia switched their allegiance to the Bulgarians with their incorporation into the Bulgarian Empire in the mid-800s.{{sfn|Fine|1991|pp=110–111}} In the 860s, Byzantine missionaries Cyril and Methodius created the Glagolitic alphabet and Slavonic liturgy based on the Slavic dialect around Thessaloniki for a mission to Great Moravia.{{harvnb|Fine|1991|pp=113, 196 |ps=: "Two brothers ... Constantine and Methodius were fluent in the dialect of Slavic in the environs of Thessaloniki. They devised an alphabet to convey Slavic phonetics."}}Francis Dvornik. The Slavs p. 167Ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State, p. 310 After the demise of the Great Moravian mission in 886, exiled students of the two apostles brought the Glagolitic alphabet to the Bulgarian Empire, where Khan Boris I of Bulgaria ({{reign | 852 | 889}}) welcomed them. As part of his efforts to limit Byzantine influence and assert Bulgarian independence, he adopted Slavic as official ecclesiastical and state language and established the Preslav Literary School and Ohrid Literary School, which taught Slavonic liturgy and the Glagolitic and subsequently the Cyrillic alphabet.{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=29BAeKHwvuoC&pg=PA43 |title= Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe|isbn= 978-0-63122039-8|last1= Price |first1= Glanville |date= 2000-05-18|publisher= Wiley}}{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=fWp9JA3aBvcC&pg=PA51 |title= The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity|isbn= 978-1-44433361-9 |last1= Parry|first1= Ken|date= 2010-05-10|publisher= John Wiley & Sons}}{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=QwNlKqyNC7EC&pg=PA58 |title= Interaction and Isolation in Late Byzantine Culture|isbn= 978-1-85043944-8|last1= Rosenqvist |first1= Jan Olof|year= 2004|publisher= Bloomsbury Academic}} The success of Boris I's efforts was a major factor in making the Slavs in Macedonia—and the other Slavs within the First Bulgarian State—adopt the common demonym Bulgarians and transforming the Bulgar state into a Bulgarian state.{{sfn|Fine|1991|pp=127|ps=: "Thus there was a Bulgarian state but as yet there were many people in it who did not have a sense of being Bulgarian. The Slavonic mission was to be a major means of making these Slavs in Macedonia—and other Slavs within the Bulgarian state as well—into Bulgarians."}}{{cite book|last=Hupchick|first=Dennis|title=The Balkans: From Constantinople to Communism|year=2002|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|isbn=978-1-4039-6417-5|page=44|quote=Boris I welcomed the refugees with open arms, offered them his atronage, and helped them establish a missionary operation centered on Ohrid in Bulgar Macedonia, where they trained youths for the clergy and translated the entire Orthodox liturgy into Slavic. The newly trained Slavic-speaking priests then were sent among the state's Slav subjects. As their influence spread and the numbers of converts multiplied, a new sense of community and state was created within the population. Separate ethnic identities slowly merged into a common Bulgarian one, and regional or tribal loyalties perceptibly shifted to the state, personified by its now-Christian ruler. A state of Bulgaria, as opposed to a Bulgar state, was born.}} Subsequently, the literary and ecclesiastical centre in Ohrid became a second cultural capital of medieval Bulgaria.Alexander Schenker. The Dawn of Slavic. pp. 188–190. Schenker argues that Ohrid was 'innovative' and 'native Slavic' whilst Preslav very much relied on Greek modelling.Per Curta, Preslav was the center from which the scriptorial innovation associated with the introduction of Cyrillic spread to other regions of Bulgaria. Florin Curta (2006). Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250. Cambridge University Press. p. 221. {{ISBN|9780521894524}}.

{{See also|Macedonian Bulgarians|Slavic speakers in Ottoman Macedonia}}

After the final Ottoman conquest of the Balkans by the Ottomans in the 14th/15th century, all Eastern Orthodox Christians were included in a specific ethno-religious community under Graeco-Byzantine jurisdiction called Rum Millet. Belonging to this religious commonwealth was so important that most of the common people began to identify themselves as Christians.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=htMUx8qlWCMC&q=millet++bulgarian+identity+detrez&pg=PA47|title=Europe and the Historical Legacies in the Balkans|access-date=18 March 2015|isbn=9789052013749|last1=Detrez|first1=Raymond|last2=Segaert|first2=Barbara|year=2008|publisher=Peter Lang }} However, ethnonyms never disappeared and some form of primary ethnic identity was available.Raymond Detrez. "Balkan cultural commonality and ethnic diversity". Ghent University, Belgium.{{fcn|reason=Source not identifiable from this little information. Provide enough to make it verifiable|date=January 2025}} This is confirmed from a Sultan's Firman from 1680 which describes the ethnic groups in the Balkan territories of the Empire as follows: Greeks, Albanians, Serbs, Vlachs and Bulgarians.Georgi Bakalov (2004), {{lang|bg|История на българите. Късно средновековие и Възраждане}} [History of the Bulgarians. Late Middle Ages and Renaissance], vol. 2, TRUD, {{ISBN|9545284676}}, p. 23 {{in lang|bg}}

Throughout the Middle Ages and Ottoman rule up until the early 20th century[http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/pdf/cedime-se-bulgaria-macedonians.PDF "Macedonians of Bulgaria"]. Center for Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe, Southeast Europe (CEDIME-SE). p. 14. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060723084106/http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/pdf/cedime-se-bulgaria-macedonians.PDF |date=23 July 2006 }} the Slavic-speaking population majority in the region of Macedonia were more commonly referred to (both by themselves and outsiders) as Bulgarians.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ppbuavUZKEwC&q=Who+are+the+Macedonians|title=Who are the Macedonians?|access-date=18 March 2015|isbn=9781850655343|last1=Poulton|first1=Hugh|year=2000|publisher=Hurst }}{{cite web|url=http://www.kroraina.com/knigi/im3/im_6_1.htm|script-title=bg:Средновековни градови и тврдини во Македонија |first=Ivan |last=Mikulchikj |publisher=Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts |location=Skopje |year=1996 |page=72 |access-date=18 March 2015}}{{cite web |url=http://www.kroraina.com/knigi/da/da_summary.htm|title=Formation of the Bulgarian nation (summary) |first=Dimitŭr Simeonov |last=Angelov |publisher=Sofia-Press |year=1978 |pages=413–415 |access-date=18 March 2015}} However, in pre-nationalist times, terms such as "Bulgarian" did not possess a strict ethno-nationalistic meaning, rather, they were loose, often interchangeable terms which could simultaneously denote regional habitation, allegiance to a particular empire, religious orientation, membership in certain social groups.{{efn|See:J. V. A. Fine. "When Ethnicity Did Not Matter in the Balkans". pp. 3–5.Paul Wexler. "Relexification Hypothesis in Rumanian". p. 170Istvan Vasary. "Cumans and Tartars: Oriental military in the pre-Ottoman Balkans". p. 18Paul Stephenson. "Byzantium's Balkan Frontier". p. 78–79{{fcn|reason=None of these sources are identifiable from the information given. Provide at least enough to make them verifiable|date=January 2025}}}} Similarly, a "Byzantine" was a Roman subject of Constantinople, and the term bore no strict ethnic connotations, Greek or otherwise.Florin Curta (2013). The Edinburgh History of the Greeks. 500–1250: The Middle Ages. p. 294 (echoing Anthony D Smith and Anthony Kaldellis): "no clear notion exists that the Greek nation survived into Byzantine times ... the ethnic identity of those who lived in Greece during the Middle Ages is best described as Roman." Overall, in the Middle Ages, "a person's origin was distinctly regional",Mats Roslund (2008). Guests in the House: Cultural Transmission Between Slavs and Scandinavians. p. 79 and in the Ottoman era, before the 19th-century rise of nationalism, it was based on the corresponding confessional community.

The rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire in the early 19th century brought opposition to this continued situation. At that time, the classical Rum Millet began to degrade. The coordinated actions, carried out by Bulgarian national leaders and supported by the majority of the Slavic-speaking population in today's Republic of North Macedonia (the second anti-Greek revolt was in Skopje) to have a separate "Bulgarian Millet", finally bore fruit in 1870 when a firman for the creation of the Bulgarian Exarchate was issued.Selcuk Aksin Somel (2010), The A to Z of the Ottoman Empire, Scarecrow Press, 2010, {{ISBN|1461731763}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=UU8iCY0OZmcC&dq=bulgarian+millet+macedonia&pg=PA168 p. 168.] In September 1872, the Ecumenical Patriarch Anthimus VI declared the Exarchate schismatic and excommunicated its adherents, accusing them of having "surrendered Orthodoxy to ethnic nationalism", i.e., "ethnophyletism" ({{langx|el|εθνοφυλετισμός}}).{{cite web|website=Orthodox History: The Orthodox Church in the Modern World|title=The Longest Schism in Modern Orthodoxy: Bulgarian Autocephaly & Ethnophyletism|last=Namee|first=Matthew|date=15 March 2022|url=https://orthodoxhistory.org/2022/03/15/the-longest-schism-in-modern-orthodoxy-bulgarian-autocephaly-ethnophyletism/}} At the time of its creation, the only Vardar Macedonian bishopric included in the Exarchate was Veles.{{cite web|last=Tashev|first=Spas|title=Facsimilise of Sultan's Firman with English Translation|url=http://www.promacedonia.org/en/turk/turk_2.html}}

However, in 1874, the Christian population of the bishoprics of Skopje and Ohrid were given the chance to participate in a plebiscite, where they voted overwhelmingly in favour of joining the Exarchate (Skopje by 91%, Ohrid by 97%)Petŭr Petrov, Hristo Temelski (2003), [http://www.promacedonia.org/pp_ht/pp_ht_4.html Църква и църковен живот в Македония], Sofia: Macedonian Scientific Institute.Duncan M. Perry (1998), The Politics of Terror: The Macedonian Liberation Movements, 1893–1903, Duke University Press, {{ISBN|0822308134}}, p. 15. Referring to the results of the plebiscites, and on the basis of statistical and ethnological indications, the 1876 Conference of Constantinople included all of present-day North Macedonia (except for the Debar region) and parts of present-day Greek Macedonia.Raymond Detrez (2010), The A to Z of Bulgaria, Scarecrow Press, {{ISBN|0810872021}}, p. 271. The borders of new Bulgarian state, drawn by the 1878 Treaty of San Stefano, also included Macedonia, but the treaty was never put into effect and the Treaty of Berlin (1878) "returned" Macedonia to the Ottoman Empire.

For Christian Slav peasants, however, the choice between the Patriarchate and the Exarchate was not tainted with national meaning, but was a choice of Church or millet. Thus adherence to the Bulgarian national cause was attractive as a means of opposing oppressive Christian chiflik owners and urban merchants, who usually identified with the Greek nation, as a way to escape arbitrary taxation by Patriarchate bishops, via shifting allegiance to the Exarchate and on account of the free (and, occasionally, even subsidized) provision of education in Bulgarian schools.{{cite book|first=Hans|last=Vermeulen|chapter=Greek cultural dominance among the Orthodox population of Macedonia during the last period of Ottoman rule|title=Cultural Dominance in the Mediterranean Area|editor1-first=Anton|editor1-last=Blok|editor2-first=Henk|editor2-last=Driessen|location=Nijmegen |publisher=Katholieke Universiteit |url=https://www.academia.edu/1603900|pages=225–255|year=1984}}{{cite journal|last=Gounaris|first=Basil G.|year=1995|title=Social Cleavages and National 'Awakening' in Ottoman Macedonia|journal=East European Quarterly|volume=29|issue=4|pages=409–426}} Alignment of the Slavs of Macedonia with the Bulgarian, the Greek or sometimes the Serbian national camp did not imply adherence to different national ideologies: these camps were not stable, culturally distinct groups, but parties with national affiliations, described by contemporary observers as "sides", "wings", "parties" or "political clubs". Furthermore, any expression of national identity among the majority of Macedonian Slavs was purely superficial and imposed by the nationalist educational and religious propaganda or by terrorism from guerrilla bands. Also, more astute foreign observers who visited Macedonia at the time concluded that Macedonian Slavs linguistically were neither Bulgarians nor Serbs.{{cite book|author=Mark Biondich|title=The Balkans: Revolution, War, and Political Violence Since 1878|year=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-929905-8|page=67}} Considering all of the previous circumstances, it is possible to argue that the Macedonian Slavs formed a separate nationality.Jelavich, Barbara (1983). History of the Balkans: Volume 2. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0521252490}}. p. 91

File:Georgi Pulevski.jpg is the first known person, who in 1875 put forward the idea on the existence of a separate (Slavic) Macedonian language and ethnicity.Roumen Daskalov, Alexander Vezenkov as ed., Entangled Histories of the Balkans – Volume Three: Shared Pasts, Disputed Legacies; Balkan Studies Library, BRILL, 2015; {{ISBN|9004290362}}, p. 454.]]

The first expressions of Macedonian nationalism occurred in the second half of the 19th century mainly among intellectuals in Belgrade, Sofia, Thessaloniki and St. Petersburg.Loring M. Danforth, The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, 1995, Princeton University Press, pp. 56–60, {{ISBN|0-691-04356-6}} Since the 1850s some Slavic intellectuals from the area adopted the Greek designation Macedonian as a regional label, and it began to gain popularity.Roumen Daskalov, Tchavdar Marinov, Entangled Histories of the Balkans, Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies, BRILL, 2013, {{ISBN|900425076X}}, pp. 283–285. In the 1860s, according to Petko Slaveykov in his newspaper Makedoniya, some young intellectuals from Macedonia were claiming that they are not Bulgarians, but rather Macedonians, descendants of the Ancient Macedonians.The Macedonian Question an article from 1871 by Slaveykov published in the newspaper Macedonia in Carigrad he wrote: "We have many times heard from the Macedonists that they are not Bulgarians, but they are rather Macedonians, descendants of the Ancient Macedonians and we have always waited to hear some proofs of this, but we have never heard them." In a letter written to the Bulgarian Exarch in February 1874 Petko Slaveykov reports that discontent with the current situation "has given birth among local patriots to the disastrous idea of working independently on the advancement of their own local dialect and what's more, of their own, separate Macedonian church leadership."A letter from Slaveykov to the Bulgarian Exarch written in Solun in February 1874 The activities of these people were also registered by the Serbian politician Stojan Novaković,Балканска питања и мање историјско-политичке белешке о Балканском полуострву 1886–1905. Стојан Новаковић, Београд, 1906. who promoted the idea to use the Macedonian nationalism in order to oppose the strong pro-Bulgarian sentiments in the area."Since the Bulgarian idea, as it is well-known, is deeply rooted in Macedonia, I think it is almost impossible to shake it completely by opposing it merely with the Serbian idea. This idea, we fear, would be incapable, as opposition pure and simple, of suppressing the Bulgarian idea. That is why the Serbian idea will need an ally that could stand in direct opposition to Bulgarianism and would contain in itself the elements which could attract the people and their feelings and thus sever them from Bulgarianism. This ally I see in Macedonism...." except from the report of S. Novakovic to the Minister of Education in Belgrade in Cultural and Public Relations of the Macedonians with Serbia in the XIXth c., Skopje, 1960, p. 178. The nascent Macedonian nationalism, illegal at home in the theocratic Ottoman Empire, and illegitimate internationally, waged a precarious struggle for survival against overwhelming odds: in appearance against the Ottoman Empire, but in fact against the three expansionist Balkan states and their respective patrons among the Great Powers.{{Cite book|url=http://research.policyarchive.org/11853.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190128222837/http://research.policyarchive.org/11853.pdf|archive-date=2019-01-28|title=Macedonia and the Macedonians: A History|publisher=Hoover Institution Press|first=Andrew|last=Rossos|author-link=Andrew Rossos|date=2008|isbn=978-0817948832|access-date=28 January 2019}}

The first known author that overtly speaks of a Macedonian nationality and language was Gjorgjija Pulevski, who in 1875 published in Belgrade a Dictionary of Three languages: Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish, in which he wrote that the Macedonians are a separate nation and the place which is theirs is called Macedonia.Rečnik od tri jezika: s. makedonski, arbanski i turski [Dictionary of Three languages: Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish], U državnoj štampariji, 1875, p. 48f. In 1880, he published in Sofia a Grammar of the language of the Slavic Macedonian population, a work that is today known as the first attempt at a grammar of Macedonian. In 1885, Theodosius of Skopje, a priest who held a high-ranking position within the Bulgarian Exarchate, was chosen as a bishop of the episcopacy of Skopje. In 1890 he renounced de facto the Bulgarian Exarchate and attempted to restore the Archbishopric of Ohrid as a separate Macedonian Orthodox Church in all eparchies of Macedonia,Theodosius of Skopje Centralen D'rzhaven istoricheski archiv (Sofia) 176, op. 1. arh.ed. 595, l.5–42 – Razgledi, X/8 (1968), pp. 996–1000. responsible for the spiritual, cultural and educational life of all Macedonian Orthodox Christians, as he considered that there was an ethnic difference between Macedonians and their Orthodox Christian neighbors.{{cite book |editor=Diana Mishkova |title=We, the People: Politics of National Peculiarity in Southeastern Europe |date=2009 |publisher=Central European University Press |isbn=9786155211669 |page=132}} During this time period Metropolitan Bishop Theodosius of Skopje made a plea to the Greek Patriarchate of Constantinople to allow a separate Macedonian church, and ultimately on 4 December 1891 he sent a letter to the Pope Leo XIII to ask for a recognition and a protection from the Roman Catholic Church, but failed. Soon after, he repented and returned to pro-Bulgarian positions.Писмо на Теодосий до вестника на Българската екзархия "Новини" от 04.02.1892 г. In the 1880s and 1890s, Isaija Mažovski designated Macedonian Slavs as "Macedonians" and "Old Slavic Macedonian people", and also distinguished them from Bulgarians as follows: "Slavic-Bulgarian" for Mažovski was synonymous with "Macedonian", while only "Bulgarian" was a designation for the Bulgarians in Bulgaria.Блаже Конески, Македонскиот XIX век. том 6, Составиле: Анастасија Ѓурчинова, Лидија Капушевска-ДракулевскаЫ Бобан Карапејовски, белешки и коментари: Георги Сталев, МАНУ, Скопје, 2020, стр. 72.

In 1890, Austrian researcher of Macedonia Karl Hron reported that the Macedonians constituted a separate ethnic group by history and language. Within the next few years, this concept was also welcomed in Russia by linguists including Leonhard Masing, Pyotr Lavrov, Jan Baudouin de Courtenay, and Pyotr Draganov.{{cite book |title=The Macedonian Question and the Macedonians |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TWYHEAAAQBAJ&dq=karl+hron+macedonia&pg=PA152 |author= Alexis Heraclides |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781000289404 |year=2020 |page=152 }}{{cite book |title=The Politics of Terror |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OTxtAAAAMAAJ&q=hron |author=Duncan Perry |publisher=Duke University Press |year=1988 |page=20 | isbn=9780822308133 }} Draganov, of Bulgarian descent, conducted research in Macedonia and determined that the local language had its own identifying characteristics compared to Bulgarian and Serbian. He wrote in a Saint Petersburg newspaper that the Macedonians should be recognized by Russia in a full national sense.{{cite book |title=Lingua e nazionalità in Macedonia |year=1985 |author=Marco Dogo |publisher=Jaca Book |isbn=9788816950115 |page=50 |quote=In quella data aveva appunto fatto ritorno da una missione in Macedonia il filologo Draganov, di origine bulgaro-bassarabiana, i cui contributi scientifici avrebbero introdotto il pubblico colto della capitale russa all'esistenza di un'area linguistica slava, in quella regione dei Balcani, dotata di caratteri individuanti propri e non assimilabili a quelli serbi e bulgari; ancora in tempi recentissimi Draganov era intervenuto a sostenere, sulle colonne di un autorevole giornale di Petroburgo, il buon diritto degli Slavi macedoni - o meglio Macedoni nel pieno sneso nazionale, e non piu solo geografico, della parola - al riconoscimento da parte russa quale nazionalita a se stante ed anzi maggioritaria in casa propria, in Macedonia. }}

Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization leader Boris Sarafov in 1901 stated that Macedonians had a unique "national element" and, the following year, he stated "We the Macedonians are neither Serbs nor Bulgarians, but simply Macedonians... Macedonia exists only for the Macedonians."[https://books.google.com/books?id=48NyoQdOWH0C&pg=PA175 The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Uncertainties of Nation], Keith Brown, Princeton University Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0691099952}}, p. 175Mercia MacDermott, Freedom or Death, The Life of Gotsé Delchev, Journeyman Press, London & West Nyack, 1978, p. 379. Gyorche Petrov, another IMRO member, stated Macedonia was a "distinct moral unit" with its own "aspirations",{{cite book |title=The Macedonian Question and the Macedonians |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dUYHEAAAQBAJ&dq=sarafov+%22neither%22&pg=PT74 |author= Alexis Heraclides |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781000289404 |year=2020 }} while describing its Slavic population as Bulgarian.Information from a book by Gyorche Petrov on the ethnic composition of the population in Macedonia: The Macedonian population consists of Bulgarians, Turks, Albanians, Wallachians, Jews The total number of the population and that of each nationality cannot be defined exactly as there are no statistics... Bulgarians constitute the bulk of the population in the vilayet I am describing. In spite of all distortions in the official statistics, they again figure as more than half of the population. I could not personally collect any data about the number of the population, that is why I am not quoting figures. I made a description of the Bulgarian population in the section on Topography, that is why it is not necessary to repeat the same again or go into detail... (G. Petrov, Materials on the Study of Macedonia), Sofia, 1896, pp. 724-725, 731; the original is in Bulgarian. Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of History, Bulgarian Language Institute, Macedonia. Documents and materials, Sofia 1978, Document # 40.]

{{See also|Macedonian Question|Macedonian Struggle}}

File:Krste-Misirkov-portrait.jpg in 1903 attempted to codify a standard Macedonian language and appealed for eventual recognition of a separate Macedonian nation when the necessary historical circumstances would arise.]]

In 1903, Krste Misirkov published in Sofia his book On Macedonian Matters, wherein he laid down the principles of the modern Macedonian nationhood and language. This book, written in the standardized central dialect of Macedonia, is considered by ethnic Macedonians as a milestone of the process of Macedonian awakening. Misirkov argued that the dialect of central Macedonia (Veles-Prilep-Bitola-Ohrid) should be adopted as a basis for a standard Macedonian literary language, in which Macedonians should write, study, and worship; the autocephalous Archbishopric of Ohrid should be restored; and the Slavic people of Macedonia should be recognized as a separate ethnic community, when the necessary historical circumstances would arise.The term 'project' tackles likewise the specific temporal orientation of the initial stage of formation of Macedonian ethnic nationalism: the Macedonian self-determination is seen by Misirkov as a future ideal and his national manifesto on the Macedonian Matters (Sofia, 1903) recognizes the lack of actual correlation between the concept of Macedonian Slavic ethnicity and the real self-identifications of the majority of Macedonian Slavs. In a rather demiurgical way, Misirkov is the first who exposes the basic 'ethnographic' characteristics of what he regards as 'inexistent' but 'possible' and 'necessary' Macedonian Slavic ethnicity... Tchavdar Marinov, "Between Political Autonomism and Ethnic Nationalism: Competing Constructions of Modern Macedonian National Ideology (1878–1913)", p. 3.

Another major figure of the Macedonian awakening was Dimitrija Čupovski, one of the founders of the Macedonian Literary Society, established in Saint Petersburg in 1902. One of the members was also Krste Misirkov. In 1905 the Society published Vardar, the first scholarly, scientific and literary journal in the central dialects of Macedonia, which later would contribute in the standardization of Macedonian language. [http://www.philol.msu.ru/~slavphil/books/sv2/usikova.pdf Iz istorii makedonskogo literaturnogo iazyka, R.P. Usikova, 2004] In 1913, the Macedonian Literary Society submitted the Memorandum of Independence of Macedonia to the British Foreign Secretary and other European ambassadors, and it was printed in many European newspapers. In the period 1913–1914, Čupovski published the newspaper Македонскi Голосъ (Macedonian Voice) in which he and fellow members of the Saint Petersburg Macedonian Colony propagated the existence of a Macedonian people separate from the Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbs, and sought to popularize the idea for an independent Macedonian state.

From 1878 until 1918, most independent European observers viewed the Slavs of Macedonia as Bulgarians or as Macedonian Slavs, while their association with Bulgaria was almost universally accepted.{{harvnb|Demeter|Bottlik|2021|p=114}}. Original manuscript versions of population data mentioned "Macedonian Slavs", though the term was changed to "Bulgarians" in the official printing.{{harvnb|Demeter|Bottlik|2021|p=199}}. Western publications usually presented the Slavs of Macedonia as Bulgarians, as happened, partly for political reasons, in Serbian ones.{{harvnb|Demeter|Bottlik|2021|p=95}}. Prompted by the publication of a Serbian map by Spiridon Gopčević claiming the Slavs of Macedonia as Serbs, a version of a Russian map, published in 1891, in a period of deterioration of Bulgarian-Russian relations, first presented Macedonia inhabited not by Bulgarians, but by Macedonian Slavs.{{harvnb|Demeter|Bottlik|2021|p=96, 93}}. Austrian-Hungarian maps followed suit in an effort to delegitimize the ambitions of Russophile Bulgaria, returning to presenting the Macedonian Slavs as Bulgarians when Austria-Bulgaria relations ameliorated, only to renege and employ the designation "Macedonian Slavs" when Bulgaria changed its foreign policy and Austria turned to envisaging an autonomous Macedonia under Austrian influence within the Murzsteg process.{{harvnb|Demeter|Bottlik|2021|p=96, 105}}.

The term "Macedonian Slavs" was used either as a middle solution between conflicting Serbian and Bulgarian claims, to denote an intermediary grouping of Slavs, associated with the Bulgarians, or to describe a separate Slavic group with no ethnic, national or political affiliation.{{harvnb|Demeter|Bottlik|2021|p=114}}. The differentiation of ethnographic maps representing rival national views produced to satisfy the curiosity of European audience for the inhabitants of Macedonia, after the Ilinden uprising of 1903, indicated the complexity of the issue.{{harvnb|Wilkinson|1951|p=133-4}}. Influenced by the conclusions of the research of young Serb Jovan Cvijić, that Macedonia's culture combined Byzantine influence with Serbian traditions, a map of 1903 by Austrian cartographer Karl Peucker depicted Macedonia as a peculiar area, where zones of linguistic influence overlapped.{{harvnb|Wilkinson|1951|p=134-5}}. In his first ethnographic map of 1906, Cvijic presented all Slavs of Serbia and Macedonia merely as "Slavs".{{harvnb|Wilkinson|1951|p=146-88}}. In a pamphlet translated and circulated in Europe the same year, he elaborated his ostensibly impartial views and described the Slavs living south of the Babuna and Plačkovica mountains as "Macedo-Slavs" arguing that the appellation "Bugari" meant simply "peasant" to them, that they had no national consciousness and could become Serbs or Bulgarians in the future.{{harvnb|Wilkinson|1951|p=148-50}}. Cvijić thus transformed the political character of the IMRO's appeals to "Macedonians" into an ethnic one.{{harvnb|Wilkinson|1951|p=151}}. Bulgarian cartographer Anastas Ishirkov countered Cvijić's views, pointing to the involvement of Macedonian Slavs in Bulgarian nationalist uprisings and the Macedonian origins of Bulgarian nationalists before 1878. Although Cvijic's arguments attracted the attention of Great Powers, they did not endorse at the time his view on the Macedo-Slavs.{{harvnb|Wilkinson|1951|p=152-3}}.

File:Ethnographic map of the central Balkans, ca. 1900.png|Austrian ethnographic map of the vilayets of Kosovo, Saloniki, Scutari, Janina and Monastir, ca. 1900.

File:Cvijic map 1909.jpg|Ethnographic map of the Balkans from the Serbian author Jovan Cvijić (1909)

File:Ethnographic Map of Central and South Eastern Europe.jpg|Ethnographical Map of Central and Southeastern Europe - War Office, London (1916)

File:Hellenism in the Near East 1918.jpg|Greek map by Georgios Sotiriadis submitted to the Paris Peace Conference (1919)

File:Macedonians coloured on this map from 1922.jpg|Ethnographic map of the Balkans in the New Larned History (1922)

Cvijić further elaborated the idea that had first appeared in Peucker's map and in his map of 1909 he ingeniously mapped the Macedonian Slavs as a third group distinct from Bulgarians and Serbians, and part of them "under Greek influence".{{harvnb|Demeter|Bottlik|2021|p=118}}.{{harvnb|Wilkinson|1951|p=135, 164}}. Envisioning a future agreement with Greece, Cvijic depicted the southern half of the Macedo-Slavs "under Greek unfluence", while leaving the rest to appear as a subset of the Serbo-Croats.{{harvnb|Wilkinson|1951|p=164-5}}.{{harvnb|Demeter|Bottlik|2021|p=118}}. Cvijić's view was reproduced without acknowledgement by Alfred Stead, with no effect on British opinion,{{harvnb|Demeter|Bottlik|2021|p=121}}.{{harvnb|Wilkinson|1951|p=166}}. but, reflecting the reorientation of Serbian aims towards dividing Macedonia with Greece, Cvijić eliminated the Macedo-Slavs from a subsequent edition of his map.{{harvnb|Demeter|Bottlik|2021|p=119}}. However, in 1913, before the conclusion of the Treaty of Bucharest he published his third ethnographic map distinguishing the Macedo-Slavs between Skopje and Salonica from both Bulgarians and Serbo-Croats, on the basis of the transitional character of their dialect per the linguistic researches of Vatroslav Jagić and Aleksandar Belić, and the Serb features of their customs, such as the zadruga.{{harvnb|Wilkinson|1951|p=172, 175, 177}}. For Cvijić, the Macedo-Slavs were a transitional population, with any sense of nationality they displayed being weak, superficial, externally imposed and temporary.{{harvnb|Wilkinson|1951|p=177-8}}. Despite arguing that they should be considered neutral, he postulated their division into Serbs and Bulgarians based on dialectical and cultural features in anticipation of Serbian demands regarding the delimitation of frontiers.{{harvnb|Wilkinson|1951|p=178-9}}.

A Balkan committee of experts rejected Cvijić's concept of the Macedo-Slavs in 1914.{{harvnb|Wilkinson|1951|p=203}}. However, Bulgaria's entry into World War I on the side of the Central Powers in 1915, after the Allies failed to convince Serbia to hand over the ‘Uncontested Zone’ in Macedonia to Bulgaria, precipitated a complete turnaround in the Allies' opinion of Macedonian ethnography, and several British and French maps echoing Cvijić were released within months.{{sfnp|Wilkinson|1951|pp=215, 221, 223}} Thus, as the Entente approached victory in the First World War, a number other maps and atlases, including those produced by the Allies replicated Cvijić's ideas, especially its depiction of the Macedo-Slavs.{{harvnb|Wilkinson|1951|p=181-2}}.{{harvnb|Demeter|Bottlik|2021|p=129-30}}. The prevalence of the Yugoslav point of view, obliged Georgios Sotiriades, a professor of History at the University of Athens, to map the Macedo-Slavs as a distinct group in his work of 1918, that mirrored Greek views of the time and was used as an official document to advocate for Greece's positions in the Paris peace conference.{{harvnb|Wilkinson|1951|p=192-3}}.{{harvnb|Demeter|Bottlik|2021|p=122}}. After World War I, Cvijić's map became the point of reference for all Balkan ethnographic maps,{{harvnb|Wilkinson|1951|p=172}}. while his concept of Macedo-Slavs was reproduced in almost all maps,{{harvnb|Wilkinson|1951|p=203}}. including German maps, that acknowledged a Macedonian nation.{{harvnb|Demeter|Bottlik|2021|p=130}}.

After the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) and the World War I (1914–1918), following the division of the region of Macedonia amongst the Kingdom of Greece, the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Serbia, the idea of belonging to a separate Macedonian nation was further spread among the Slavic-speaking population. The suffering during the wars, the endless struggle of the Balkan monarchies for dominance over the population increased the Macedonians' sentiment that the institutionalization of an independent Macedonian nation would put an end to their suffering. On the question of whether they were Serbs or Bulgarians, the people more often started answering: "Neither Bulgar, nor Serb... I am Macedonian only, and I'm sick of war."Историја на македонската нација. Блаже Ристовски, 1999, Скопје."On the Monastir Road". Herbert Corey, National Geographic, May 1917 ([http://www.promacedonia.org/gall/ng1917/217E0388.JPG p. 388.]) Stratis Myrivilis noted a specific instance of a Slav-speaking family wanting to be referred to, not as "Bulgar, Srrp, or Grrts", but as "Makedon ortodox".When narrating, in his autobiographical anti-war novel Life in Tomb, his convalescence in the house of a family of farmers in Velušina, a Slav-speaking patriarchist village near Bitola/Monastir, during his participation in the Macedonian front of World War I, Greek novelist Stratis Myrivilis wrote of its inhabitants that they "do not want to be 'Bulgar', neither 'Srrp', nor 'Grrc'. Only 'Makedon Ortodox'". See: {{cite news|last=Μυριβήλης|first=Στράτης|date=1923-09-25|access-date=2022-07-11|script-title=el:Ἡ Ζωὴ ἐν τάφῳ. Κεφάλαιο ιζ΄|script-newspaper=el:Καμπάνα|url=http://invenio.lib.auth.gr/record/46755/files/arc-2006-17817.pdf#page=4}}{{cite journal |script-title=el:Στράτης Μυριβήλης: Από το Βλάντοβο στη Βελουσίνα, 1924-1955 |url=https://www.academia.edu/43134400|first=Μαρία|last=Μανδαμαδιώτου|journal=Λεσβιακό Ημερολόγιο 2019, Σελ. 93-104}} {{cite book|title=Spotlights on Russian and Balkan Slavic Cultural History|chapter=Naming the Other: From "Greek Bulgarians" to "Local Macedonians"|author=Tasos Kostopoulos|editor1=Alexandra Ioannidou |editor2=Christian Voß|year=2009|location=Munich/Berlin |publisher=Verlag Otto Sagner|page=108}} {{cite book|last=Mackridge|first=Peter|year=2009|title=Language and National Identity in Greece, 1776-1796|url=https://archive.org/details/languagenational00mack|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/languagenational00mack/page/303 303]|isbn=978-0-19-921442-6 }} On Velusina's population, see also: {{cite book|author=Brancoff, D.M.|title=La Macédoine et sa Population Chrétienne|location=Paris |publisher=Plon-Nourrit et C|year=1905|pages=168–169|url=https://archive.org/stream/lamacdoineetsap01mishgoog#page/n183/mode/2up}} By the 1920s, following a negative reaction to the national proselytization of the previous decades, a majority of Christian Slavs inhabiting Greek and Vardar Macedonia used the collective name "Macedonians" to describe themselves, either as a nation or as a distinct ethnicity.{{cite book|first=Nada|last=Boškovska|title=Yugoslavia and Macedonia Before Tito: Between Repression and Integration|location=London / New York|publisher=I. B. Tauris|year=2017|pages=5–10}} The 1928 Greek census recorded 81,844 Slavo-Macedonian speakers, distinct from 16,755 Bulgarian speakers.Mavrogordatos, George. Stillborn Republic: Social Coalitions and Party Strategies in Greece, 1922–1936. University of California Press, 1983. {{ISBN|9780520043589}}, p. 227, 247 In 1924 the Politis–Kalfov Protocol was signed between Greece and Bulgaria, concerning the protection of the Bulgarian minority In Greece. However, it was not ratified by the Greek side, because public opinion stood against the recognition of any “Bulgarian” minority". Prior to the 1930s, "it seems to have been acceptable" for Greeks to refer to Slavs of Macedonia as Macedonians and their language as Macedonian, Ion Dragoumis had argued this viewpoint.

File:Dimitar Vlahov, revolucioner.jpg played a crucial role in the adoption of the Resolution of the Comintern on the Macedonian question that, for the first time by an international organization, recognized the existence of a separate Macedonian nation, in 1934]]

The consolidation of an international Communist organization (the Comintern) in the 1920s led to some failed attempts by the Communists to use the Macedonian Question as a political weapon. In the 1920 Yugoslav parliamentary elections, 25% of the total Communist vote came from Macedonia, but participation was low (only 55%), mainly because the pro-Bulgarian IMRO organised a boycott against the elections. In the following years, the communists attempted to enlist the pro-IMRO sympathies of the population in their cause. In the context of this attempt, in 1924 the Comintern recognized a separate Macedonian nationality and organized the filed signing of the so-called May Manifesto, in which independence of partitioned Macedonia was required.Victor Roudometof, Nationalism, Globalization, and Orthodoxy: The Social Origins of Ethnic Conflict in the Balkans (Contributions to the Study of World History), Praeger, 2001, p.187 In 1925 with the help of the Comintern, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (United) was created, composed of former left-wing Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) members. This organization promoted for the first time in 1932 the existence of a separate ethnic Macedonian nation.The Situation in Macedonia and the Tasks of IMRO (United) – published in the official newspaper of IMRO (United), "Македонско дело", N.185, April 1934.Произходът на македонската нация - Стенограма от заседание на Македонския Научен Институт в София през 1947 г....Да, тоа е точно. И не само Димитар Влахов. Павел Шатев, Панко Брашнаров, Ризо Ризов и др. Меѓутоа, овде тезата е погрешно поставена. Не е работата во тоа дали левицата се определуваше за Србија, а десницата за Бугарија. Тука се мешаат поимите. Практично, ни левицата ни десницата не ја доведуваа во прашање својата бугарска провениенција. Тоа ќе го доведе дури и Димитар Влахов во 1948 година на седница на Политбирото, кога говореше за постоењето на македонска нација, да рече дека во 1931-1932 година е направена грешка. Сите тие ветерани останаа само на нивото на политички, а не и на национален сепаратизам... Акад. Иван Катарџиев. "Верувам во националниот имунитет на македонецот". мега-интервју за списание "Форум", архива број 329, Скопје, 22.07.2000. In 1933 the Communist Party of Greece, in a series of articles published in its official newspaper, the Rizospastis, criticizing Greek minority policy towards Slavic-speakers in Greek Macedonia, recognized the Slavs of the entire region of Macedonia as forming a distinct Macedonian ethnicity and their language as Macedonian.{{Cite journal |title="Η Μακεδονία κάτω από το ζυγό της ελληνικής κεφαλαιοκρατίας". Ένα ρεπορτάζ του Ριζοσπάστη στις σλαβόφωνες περιοχές (1933) |journal=Αρχειοτάξιο |url=https://www.academia.edu/12612739 |language=el |last=Κωστόπουλος |first=Τάσος |volume=11 |pages=12–13 |year=2009}} The idea of a Macedonian nation was internationalized and backed by the Comintern which issued in 1934 a resolution in which Macedonian national identity was recognized.Резолюция о македонской нации (принятой Балканском секретариате Коминтерна — Февраль 1934 г, Москва. This action was attacked by the IMRO, but was supported by the Balkan communists. The Balkan communist parties supported the national consolidation of the ethnic Macedonian people and created Macedonian sections within the parties, headed by prominent IMRO (United) members.

{{See also|World War II in Yugoslav Macedonia}}

File:Čento-vsv.jpg was the first president of the Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia after the Second World War.]]

The available data indicates that despite the policy of assimilation, pro-Bulgarian sentiments among the Macedonian Slavs in Yugoslavia were still sizable during the interwar period as a result of the repressive Serbianisation policy.{{efn|See:"Within Greece, and also within the new kingdom of Yugoslavia, which Serbia had joined in 1918, the ejection of the Bulgarian church, the closure of Bulgarian schools, and the banning of publication in Bulgarian, together with the expulsion or flight to Bulgaria of a large proportion of the Macedonian Slav intelligentsia, served as the prelude to campaigns of forcible cultural and linguistic assimilation...In both countries, these policies of de-bulgarization and assimilation were pursued, with fluctuating degrees of vigor, right through to 1941, when the Second World War engulfed the Balkan peninsula. The degree of these policies' success, however, remains open to question. The available evidence suggests that Bulgarian national sentiment among the Macedonian Slavs of Yugoslavia and Greece remained strong throughout the interwar period, though they lacked the means to offer more than passive resistance to official policies." For more see: F. A. K. Yasamee, Nationality in the Balkans: The case of the Macedonians. Balkans: A Mirror of the New World Order, Istanbul: Eren Publishing, 1995; pp. 121–132."As in Kosovo, the restoration of Serbian rule in 1918, to which the Strumica district and several other Bulgarian frontier salients accrued in 1919 (Bulgaria also having lost all its Aegean coastline to Greece), marked the replay of the first Serbian occupation (1913–1915). Once again, the Exarchist clergy and Bulgarian teachers were expelled, all Bulgarian-language signs and books removed, and all Bulgarian clubs, societies, and organizations dissolved, The Serbianization of family surnames proceeded as before the war, with Stankov becoming Stankovic and Atanasov entered in the books by Atanackovic... Thousands of Macedonians left for Bulgaria. Though there were fewer killings of "Bulgarians" (a pro-Bulgarian source claimed 342 such instances and 47 additional disappearances in 1918 – 1924), the conventional forms of repression (jailings, internments etc.) were applied more systematically and with greater effect than before (the same source lists 2,900 political arrests in the same period)... Like Kosovo, Macedonia was slated for Serb settlements and internal colonization. The authorities projected the settlement of 50,000 families in Macedonia, though only 4,200 families had been placed in 280 colonies by 1940." For more see: Ivo Banac, "The National Question in Yugoslavia. Origins, History, Politics" The Macedoine, Cornell University Press, 1984; {{ISBN|0801416752}}, pp. 307–328.Yugoslav Communists recognized the existence of a Macedonian nationality during WWII to quiet fears of the Macedonian population that a communist Yugoslavia would continue to follow the former Yugoslav policy of forced Serbianization. Hence, for them to recognize the inhabitants of Macedonia as Bulgarians would be tantamount to admitting that they should be part of the Bulgarian state. For that the Yugoslav Communists were most anxious to mold Macedonian history to fit their conception of Macedonian consciousness. The treatment of Macedonian history in Communist Yugoslavia had the same primary goal as the creation of the Macedonian language: to de-Bulgarize the Macedonian Slavs, and to create a national consciousness that would inspire identification with Yugoslavia. For more see: Stephen E. Palmer, Robert R. King, Yugoslav communism and the Macedonian question, Archon Books, 1971, {{ISBN|0208008217}}, Chapter 9: The encouragement of Macedonian culture.The Serbianization of the Vardar region ended and Yugoslavization was not introduced either; rather, a policy of cultural, linguistic, and "historical" Macedonization by de-Bulgarianization was implemented, with immediate success. For more see: Irina Livezeanu and Arpad von KlimoThe Routledge as ed. History of East Central Europe since 1700, Routledge, 2017, {{ISBN|1351863428}}, p. 490.In Macedonia, post-WWII generations grew up "overdosed" with strong anti-Bulgarian sentiment, leading to the creation of mainly negative stereotypes for Bulgaria and its nation. The anti-Bulgariansim (or Bulgarophobia) increased almost to the level of state ideology during the ideological monopoly of the League of Communists of Macedonia, and still continues to do so today, although with less ferocity... However, it is more important to say openly that a great deal of these anti-Bulgarian sentiments result from the need to distinguish between the Bulgarian and the Macedonian nations. Macedonia could confirm itself as a state with its own past, present and future only through differentiating itself from Bulgaria. For more see: Mirjana Maleska. With the eyes of the "other" (about Macedonian-Bulgarian relations and the Macedonian national identity). In New Balkan Politics, Issue 6, pp. 9–11. Peace and Democracy Center: "Ian Collins", Skopje, Macedonia, 2003. ISSN 1409-9454.After WWII in Macedonia the past was systematically falsified to conceal the fact that many prominent 'Macedonians' had supposed themselves to be Bulgarians, and generations of students were taught the pseudo-history of the Macedonian nation. The mass media and education were the key to this process of national acculturation, speaking to people in a language that they came to regard as their Macedonian mother tongue, even if it was perfectly understood in Sofia. For more see: Michael L. Benson, Yugoslavia: A Concise History, Edition 2, Springer, 2003, {{ISBN|1403997209}}, p. 89.Once specifically Macedonian interests came to the fore under the Yugoslav communist umbrella and in direct confrontation with the Bulgarian occupation authorities (during WWII), the Bulgarian part of the identity of Vardar Macedonians was destined to die out – in a process similar to the triumph of Austrian over German-Austrian identity in post-war years. Drezov K. (1999) Macedonian identity: an overview of the major claims. In: Pettifer J. (eds) The New Macedonian Question. St Antony's Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London; {{ISBN|978-0-333-92066-4}}, p. 51.Additionally, some 100,000 people were imprisoned in the post-1944 period for violations of the law for the "protection of Macedonian national honor," and some 1,260 Bulgarian sympathizers were allegedly killed. (Troebst, 1997: 248–50, 255–57; 1994: 116–22; Poulton, 2000: 118–19). For more see: Roudometof, Victor, Collective Memory, National Identity, and Ethnic Conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian Question, Praeger Publishers, 2002. {{ISBN|0-275-97648-3}}, p. 104.}} Although a Macedonian national consciousness was growing as well. The sense of belonging to a separate Macedonian nation gained credence during World War II when ethnic Macedonian communist partisan movement was formed. The Yugoslav communists recognized the existence of a Macedonian nationality during WWII to quiet fears of the Macedonian population that a communist Yugoslavia would continue to implent the former policy of Serbianization. In 1943 the Communist Party of Macedonia was established and the resistance movement grew up.Nation, R.C. (1996). A Balkan Union? Southeastern Europe in Soviet Security Policy, 1944–8. In: Gori, F., Pons, S. (eds) The Soviet Union and Europe in the Cold War, 1943–53. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 125–143.Marinov, Tchavdar & Vezenkov, Alexander. (2014). 6. Communism and Nationalism in the Balkans: Marriage of Convenience or Mutual Attraction?. in R. Daskalov, D. Mishkova, Tch. Marinov, A. Vezenkov,

Entangled Histories of the Balkans. Vol. 4: Concepts, Approaches, and (Self-)Representations (Brill, 2017), pp. 440-593. After the World War II ethnic Macedonian institutions were created in the three parts of the region of Macedonia, then under communist control,History of the Balkans, Vol. 2: Twentieth Century. Barbara Jelavich, 1983. including the establishment of the People's Republic of Macedonia within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ). The codification of Macedonian language and the recognition of the Macedonian nation had as a main goal to finally subvert the Bulgarian irredentism towards Yugoslav Macedonia, as well the claims that Macedonians are Bulgarians, the same applying to the Serbian claims that Macedonians were Serbs, and their Greater Serbia idea.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bNvbHCUs3tUC&q=macedonian+consciousness+vardar+macedonia+interwar+period&pg=PA229 |title=Politics, power, and the struggle for democracy in South-East Europe|author1=Karen Dawisha|author2=Bruce Parrott|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=1997|isbn=978-0-521-59733-3|pages=228-230}} As a result, Yugoslavia subdued the pro-Bulgarian feeling among parts of its population.{{cite book | last =Djokic | first =Dejan | title =Yugoslavism: Histories of a Failed Idea, 1918–1992 | publisher =C. Hurst & Co. Publishers | year =2003 | page =122| isbn =978-1-85065-663-0 }} Bulgarian sources claim around 100,000 pro-Bulgarian elements were imprisoned for violations of the special Law for the Protection of Macedonian National Honour, and 1,260 were allegedly killed.Bulgarian sources assert that thousands lost their lives due to this cause after 1944, and that more than 100,000 people were imprisoned under the law for the protection of Macedonian national honour 'for opposing the new ethnogenesis'. 1,260 leading Bulgarians were allegedly killed in Skopje, Veles, Kumanovo, Prilep, Bitola and Stip... For more see: Hugh Poulton, Who are the Macedonians? C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000, {{ISBN|1850655340}}, p. 118.John Phillips, Macedonia: Warlords and Rebels in the Balkans. (2004) I.B. Tauris (publisher), {{ISBN|186064841X}}, p. 40.

{{See also|Macedonism}}

File:Киро Глигоров 03 (28-01-1993).jpg was the first president of the Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) after the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991.]]

Following the collapse of Yugoslavia, the issue of Macedonian identity emerged again. Nationalists and governments alike from neighbouring countries, especially Greece and Bulgaria, espouse the view that the Macedonian ethnicity is a modern, artificial creation. Such views have been seen by Macedonian historians to represent irredentist motives on Macedonian territory. Moreover, some historians point out that all modern nations are recent, politically motivated constructs based on creation "myths",Smith A.D. The Antiquity of Nations. 2004, p. 47 that the creation of Macedonian identity is "no more or less artificial than any other identity",{{Cite book | last1 = Rae | first1 = Heather | title = State identities and the homogenisation of peoples | year = 2002 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | location = Cambridge | isbn = 0-521-79708-X | page =278}} and that, contrary to the claims of Romantic nationalists, modern, territorially bound and mutually exclusive nation-states have little in common with their preceding large territorial or dynastic medieval empires, and any connection between them is tenuous at best.Danforth, L. The Macedonian Conflict. Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World. p. 25 In any event, irrespective of shifting political affiliations, the Macedonian Slavs shared in the fortunes of the Byzantine commonwealth and the Rum millet and they can claim them as their heritage. Loring Danforth states similarly, the ancient heritage of modern Balkan countries is not "the mutually exclusive property of one specific nation" but "the shared inheritance of all Balkan peoples".Ancient Macedonia: National Symbols. L Danforth in A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Wiley –Blackwell 2010. p. 597-8

Following the Greek veto on the 21st NATO Summit in 2008, the then ruling party VMRO-DPMNE pursued a policy called "Antiquisation" by its critics.{{cite web|last=Georgievski |first=Boris |url=http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/ghosts-of-the-past-endanger-macedonia-s-future |title=Ghosts of the Past Endanger Macedonia's Future |publisher=Balkan Insight |date=2013-05-03 |access-date=2015-09-04}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sgfc1TosZGYC&q=antiquization&pg=PA48 |title=Reading the City: Urban Space and Memory in Skopje, Sonderpublikation des Instituts für Stadt- und Regionalplanung|publisher=Technische Universität Berlin|author1=Langer Benjamin|author2=Lechler Julia (Hrsg.)|author3=Herold Stephanie|date=2010|isbn=978-3798321298|pages=42–43}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lkYFVJ3U-BIC&q=Antiquisation&pg=PA583|title=A Companion to Ancient Macedonia, Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World|author1=Joseph Roisman|author2=Ian Worthington|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|date=2010|isbn= 978-1405179362|page=583}} Proponents of this view see modern Macedonians as direct descendants of the ancient Macedonians.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZmesOn_HhfEC&q=ancient+macedonism&pg=PA45 |title=The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World – Loring M. Danforth |page=45 |date= 1997-04-06|access-date=2015-09-04|isbn=978-0691043562 |last1=Danforth |first1=Loring M. |publisher=Princeton University Press }} This view faces criticism by academics as it is not supported by archaeology or other historical disciplines and also could marginalize the Macedonian identity.The Handbook of Political Change in Eastern Europe, Sten Berglund, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013, {{ISBN|1782545883}},[https://books.google.com/books?id=hmtuqFnuDZwC&dq=antiquisation+macedonia=&pg=PA622 p. 622.]Transforming National Holidays: Identity Discourse in the West and South Slavic Countries, 1985–2010, Ljiljana Šarić, Karen Gammelgaard, Kjetil Rå Hauge, John Benjamins Publishing, 2012, {{ISBN|9027206384}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=F0aecYH2yQMC&dq=antiquization+macedonia&pg=PA207 pp. 207–208.] Surveys on the effects of the controversial nation-building project Skopje 2014 and on the perceptions of the population of Skopje revealed a high degree of uncertainty regarding the latter's national identity. A supplementary national poll showed that there was a great discrepancy between the population's sentiment and the narrative the state sought to promote.{{cite journal | last1 = Muhić | first1 = Maja | last2 = Takovski | first2 = Aleksandar | year = 2014 | title = Redefining National Identity in Macedonia. Analyzing Competing Origins Myths and Interpretations through Hegemonic Representations. | journal = Etnološka Tribina | volume = 44 | issue = 37| page = 144 | doi = 10.15378/1848-9540.2014 | doi-access = free }}

Additionally, during the last two decades, tens of thousands of citizens of North Macedonia have applied for Bulgarian citizenship.Sinisa Jakov Marusic, More Macedonians Apply for Bulgarian Citizenship. [https://balkaninsight.com/2014/08/05/more-macedonians-apply-for-bulgarian-citizenship/ Aug 5, 2014, Balkans Inside.] In the period since 2000 more than 100,000 acquired it, while ca. 50,000 applied and are still waiting.{{lang|bg|Предоставяне на българско гражданство, Справка за преиода 22.01.2002–15.01.2012 г. (Bulgarian citizenship Information for the period 22.01.2002–15.01.2012 year); Доклад за дейността на КБГБЧ за 2012–2013 година (Report on the activities of the CBCBA for 2012–2013 year), p. 7 Доклад за дейността на КБГБЧ за периода 23.01.2013 – 22.01.2014 година (Report on the activities of the CBCBA for the period 23.01.2013–22.01.2014 year), p. 6; Годишен доклад за дейността на КБГБЧ за периода 01.01.2014–31.12.2014 година (Annual report on the activities of the CBCBA for the period 01.01.2014–31.12.2014 year), p. 5; Годишен доклад за дейността на КБГБЧ за периода 01.01.2015–31.12.2015 година (Annual report on the activities of the CBCBA for the period 01.01.2015–31.12.2015 year), p. 6; Годишен доклад за дейността на КБГБЧ за периода 01.01.2016–31.12.2016 година (Annual report on the activities of the CBCBA for the period 01.01.2016–31.12.2016 year), p. 6; Доклад за дейността на комисията по българско гражданство за периода 14 януари – 31 декември 2017 г. (Activity Report of the Bulgarian Citizenship Commission for the period 14 January – 31 December 2017); Доклад за дейността на комисията по българско гражданство за периода 01 януари – 31 декември 2018 г. (Activity Report of the Bulgarian Citizenship Commission for the period 01 January – 31 December 2018); Доклад за дейността на комисията по българско гражданство за периода 01 януари – 31 декември 2019 г. (Activity Report of the Bulgarian Citizenship Commission for the period 01 January – 31 December 2019). Доклад за дейността на комисията по българско гражданство за периода 01 януари – 31 декември 2020 г.}} (Activity Report of the Bulgarian Citizenship Commission for the period 01 January – 31 December 2020). Bulgaria has a special ethnic dual-citizenship regime which makes a constitutional distinction between ethnic Bulgarians and Bulgarian citizens. In the case of the Macedonians, merely declaring their national identity as Bulgarian is enough to gain a citizenship.Bulgaria which has an ethnic citizenship regime and has a liberal dual citizenship regime makes a constitutional distinction between Bulgarians and Bulgarian citizens, whereas the former category reflects an ethnic (blood) belonging and the later the civic (territorial) belonging. In line with this definition, naturalization in Bulgaria is facilitated for those individuals who can prove that they belong to the Bulgarian nation...The birth certificates of parents and grandparents, their mother tongue, membership in Bulgarian institutions as the Bulgarian Church, former Bulgarian citizenship of the parents and so on are relevant criteria for the establishment of the ethnic origin of the applicant. In the case of Macedonian citizens, declaring their national identity as Bulgarian suffices to obtain Bulgarian citizenship, without the requirement for permanent residence in Bulgaria, or the language examination etc. For more see: Jelena Džankić, Citizenship in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro: Effects of Statehood and Identity Challenges, Southeast European Studies, Ashgate Publishing, 2015, {{ISBN|1472446410}}, p. 126. By making the procedure simpler, Bulgaria stimulates more Macedonian citizens (of Slavic origin) to apply for a Bulgarian citizenship.Raymond Detrez, Historical Dictionary of Bulgaria, Historical Dictionaries of Europe, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, {{ISBN|1442241802}}, p. 318. However, many Macedonians who apply for Bulgarian citizenship as Bulgarians by origin,Jo Shaw and Igor Štiks as ed., Citizenship after Yugoslavia, Routledge, 2013, {{ISBN|1317967070}}, p. 106. have few ties with Bulgaria.Rainer Bauböck, Debating Transformations of National Citizenship, IMISCOE Research Series, Springer, 2018, {{ISBN|3319927191}}, pp. 47–48. Further, those applying for Bulgarian citizenship usually say they do so to gain access to member states of the European Union rather than to assert Bulgarian identity.Michael Palairet, Macedonia: A Voyage through History (Vol. 2, From the Fifteenth Century to the Present), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016, {{ISBN|1443888494}}, p. 347. This phenomenon is called placebo identity.Mina Hristova, In-between Spaces: Dual Citizenship and Placebo Identity at the Triple Border between Serbia, Macedonia and Bulgaria in New Diversities; Volume 21, No. 1, 2019, pp. 37–55. Some Macedonians view the Bulgarian policy as part of a strategy to destabilize the Macedonian national identity.Risteski, L. (2016). "Bulgarian passports" – Possibilities for greater mobility of Macedonians and/or strategies for identity manipulation? EthnoAnthropoZoom/ЕтноАнтропоЗум, (10), 80–107. https://doi.org/10.37620/EAZ14100081r As a nation engaged in a dispute over its distinctiveness from Bulgarians, Macedonians have always perceived themselves as threatened by their neighbor.Ljubica Spaskovska, Country report on Macedonia, November 2012. EUDO Citizenship Observatory, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, p.20. Bulgaria insists its neighbor admit the common historical roots of their languages and nations, a view Skopje continues to reject.Bulgaria asks EU to stop 'fake' Macedonian identity. [https://www.dw.com/en/bulgaria-asks-eu-to-stop-fake-macedonian-identity/a-55020781 Deutsche Welle, 23.09.2020.] As a result, Bulgaria blocked the official start of EU accession talks with North Macedonia.Bulgaria blocks EU accession talks with North Macedonia. [https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/bulgaria-blocks-eu-accession-talks-with-north-macedonia Nov 17, 2020, National post].

Despite sizable number of Macedonians that have acquired Bulgarian citizenship since 2002 (ca. 9.7% of the Slavic population), only 3,504 citizens of North Macedonia declared themselves as ethnic Bulgarians in the 2021 census (roughly 0.31% from the Slavic population).{{cite web|title= Address by the Director of the State Statistical Office on the completion of the Census 2021|url=https://popis2021.stat.gov.mk/Активности/Обраќање-на-директорот-на-Државниот-завод-за-статистика-по-повод-завршувањето-на-Попис-2021/}} The Bulgarian side does not accept these results as completely objective, citing as an example the census has counted less than 20,000 people with Bulgarian citizenship in the country, while in fact they are over 100,000.Лилия Чалева, Скопие преброи 19 645 души с двойно гражданство [https://dnes.dir.bg/svyat/skopie-prebroi-19-645-dushi-s-dvoyno-grazhdanstvo-balgarsko-i-makedonsko 29 април 2022, Dir.bg].

{{See also|Macedonians (obsolete terminology)}}

The national name derives from the Greek term Makedonía, related to the name of the region, named after the ancient Macedonians and their kingdom. It originates from the ancient Greek adjective makednos, meaning "tall",[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2364596 μακεδνός], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus which shares its roots with the adjective makrós, meaning the same.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dmakro%2Fs1 μακρός], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus The name is originally believed to have meant either "highlanders" or "the tall ones", possibly descriptive of these ancient people.[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Macedonia Macedonia], Online Etymology DictionaryEugene N. Borza, Makedonika, Regina Books, {{ISBN|0-941690-65-2}}, p.114: The "highlanders" or "Makedones" of the mountainous regions of western Macedonia are derived from northwest Greek stock; they were akin both to those who at an earlier time may have migrated south to become the historical "Dorians".Nigel Guy Wilson, Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, Routledge, 2009, p.439: The latest archaeological findings have confirmed that Macedonia took its name from a tribe of tall, Greek-speaking people, the Makednoi.

During the early modern era, some Dalmatian pan-Slavic ideologists like Mavro Orbini believed the ancient Macedonians were Slavs. Under these influences in 19th century some intellectuals in the region developed the idea of direct link between the local Slavs, the early Slavs and the ancient Macedonians.Roumen Daskalov, Tchavdar Marinov, Entangled Histories of the Balkans, Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies, BRILL, 2013, {{ISBN|900425076X}}, pp. 280–287.

With the conquest of the Balkans by the Ottomans in the late 14th century, the name of Macedonia disappeared as a geographical designation for several centuries. The name was revived just during the early 19th century, after the foundation of the modern Greek state with its Western Europe-derived obsession with ancient history.Jelavich Barbara, History of the Balkans, Vol. 2: Twentieth Century, 1983, Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|0521274591}}, page 91.John S. Koliopoulos, Thanos M. Veremis, Modern Greece: A History since 1821. A New History of Modern Europe, John Wiley & Sons, 2009, {{ISBN|1444314831}}, p. 48. As a result of the rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire, massive Greek religious and school propaganda occurred which led to some "Macedonization" among Slavic-speaking population of the area.Richard Clogg, Minorities in Greece: Aspects of a Plural Society. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2002, {{ISBN|1850657068}}, p. 160.Dimitar Bechev, Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Scarecrow Press, 2009, {{ISBN|0810862956}}, Introduction, pp. VII-VIII. Accordingly, the name Macedonians was applied to the local Slavs, aiming to stimulate the development of close ties between them and the Greeks, linking both sides to the ancient Macedonians, as a counteract against the growing Bulgarian cultural influence into the region and the Bulgarian Exarchate propaganda.Drezov, Kyril (1999). Macedonian identity: an overview of the major claims. In: Pettifer, James. (eds) The New Macedonian Question. St Antony's Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London, {{ISBN|0230535798}}, pp. 49–51.Anastas Vangeli, Nation-building ancient Macedonian style: the origins and the effects of the so-called antiquization in Macedonia. Nationalities Papers, the Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity, Volume 39, 2011 pp. 13–32. Since the 1850s the Macedonian Slavic intellectuals adopted it as a regional identity, and this name began to gain popularity, and some of them would drew from it to imagine a ethnic Macedonian nation, which would eventually come to fruition in 1944.{{cite book|author1=Klaus Roth|author2=Ulf Brunnbauer|title=Region, Regional Identity and Regionalism in Southeastern Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6RveDmHbIv8C&pg=PA150|year=2008|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|isbn=978-3-8258-1387-1|page=139}}Raymond Detrez, Pieter Plas, Developing cultural identity in the Balkans: convergence vs divergence, Volume 34 of Multiple Europesq Peter Lang, 2005, {{ISBN|9052012970}}, p. 173.

{{Ethnic Macedonians}}

The vast majority of Macedonians live along the valley of the river Vardar, the central region of the Republic of North Macedonia. They form about 64.18% of the population of North Macedonia (1,297,981 people according to the [https://web.archive.org/web/20040621055714/http://www.stat.gov.mk/english/glavna_eng.asp?br=18 2002 census]). Smaller numbers live in eastern Albania, northern Greece, and southern Serbia, mostly abutting the border areas of the Republic of North Macedonia. A large number of Macedonians have immigrated overseas to Australia, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and to many European countries: Germany, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Austria among others.

{{See also|Slavic-speakers of Greek Macedonia}}

The existence of an ethnic Macedonian minority in Greece is rejected by the Greek government. The number of people speaking Slavic dialects has been estimated at somewhere between 10,000 and 250,000.{{efn|See:{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FnxZfdDXC7gC&q=number+of+slavophone+greece&pg=PA234|title=Bulgaria and Europe|access-date=18 March 2015|isbn=9781843318286|last1=Katsikas|first1=Stefanos|date=15 June 2010|publisher=Anthem Press }}{{cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=GR|title=Ethnologue report for Greece|work=Ethnologue|access-date=13 February 2009}}[http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?LangID=42&menu=004 UCLA Language Materials Project: Language Profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110209045725/http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?LangID=42&menu=004|date=9 February 2011}}.[http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?LangID=37&menu=004 UCLA Language Materials Project: Language Profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605045853/http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?LangID=37&menu=004|date=5 June 2011}}.L. M. Danforth, The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World 1995, Princeton University Press.Jacques Bacid, PhD Macedonia Through the Ages. Columbia University, 1983.Hill, P. (1999) "Macedonians in Greece and Albania: A Comparative study of recent developments". Nationalities Papers Volume 27, 1 March 1999, p. 44(14).Poulton, H.(2000), "Who are the Macedonians?", C. Hurst & Co. Publishers.}} Most of these people however do not have an ethnic Macedonian national consciousness, with most choosing to identify as ethnic Greeks{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZmesOn_HhfEC&q=number+of+slav+macedonians+in+greece&pg=PA74|title=The Macedonian Conflict|access-date=18 March 2015|isbn=0691043566|last1=Danforth|first1=Loring M.|date=6 April 1997|publisher=Princeton University Press }} or rejecting both ethnic designations and preferring terms such as "natives" instead.{{cite web|url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61651.htm|title=Greece|publisher=Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor|access-date=27 October 2016}} In 1999 the Greek Helsinki Monitor estimated that the number of people identifying as ethnic Macedonians numbered somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000,[http://dev.eurac.edu:8085/mugs2/do/blob.html?type=html&serial=1044526702223 Report about Compliance with the Principles of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (Greece) – GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR (GHM)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030523145306/http://dev.eurac.edu:8085/mugs2/do/blob.html?type=html&serial=1044526702223 |date=23 May 2003 }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tD3TZJy5HagC&q=number+of+macedonians+in+greece&pg=PA152|title=Culture and Rights|access-date=18 March 2015|isbn=9780521797351|last1=Cowan|first1=Jane K.|last2=Dembour|first2=Marie-Bénédicte|last3=Wilson|first3=Richard A.|date=29 November 2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press }} Macedonian sources generally claim the number of ethnic Macedonians living in Greece at somewhere between 200,000 and 350,000.L. M. Danforth, The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World 1995, Princeton University Press, p. 45 The ethnic Macedonians in Greece have faced difficulties from the Greek government in their ability to self-declare as members of a "Macedonian minority" and to refer to their native language as "Macedonian".

Since the late 1980s there has been an ethnic Macedonian revival in Northern Greece, mostly centering on the region of Florina.Detrez, Raymond; Plas, Pieter (2005), Developing cultural identity in the Balkans: convergence vs divergence, Peter Lang, pp. 50 Since then ethnic Macedonian organisations including the Rainbow political party have been established.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110928045606/http://www.novamakedonija.com.mk/NewsDetal.asp?vest=6110956302&id=9&setIzdanie=21996 Second Macedonian newspaper in Greece] – "Втор весник на Македонците во Грција...Весникот се вика "Задруга"...За нецел месец во Грција излезе уште еден весник на Македонците/A Second Macedonian Newspaper in greece...The Newspaper is Called "Zadruga/Koinothta"...Barely a month ago in Greece another newspaper for the Macedonians was released." Rainbow first opened its offices in Florina on 6 September 1995. The following day, the offices had been broken into and had been ransacked.[http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/pdf/rainbow-english.pdf Greek Helsinki Monitor & Minority Rights Group- Greece; Greece against its Macedonian minority] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061209033640/http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/pdf/rainbow-english.pdf |date=2006-12-09 }} Later Members of Rainbow had been charged for "causing and inciting mutual hatred among the citizens" because the party had bilingual signs written in both Greek and Macedonian.[https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur25/044/1998/en/ Amnesty International; Greece: Charges against members of the "Rainbow" party should be dropped] On 20 October 2005, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) ordered the Greek government to pay penalties to the Rainbow Party for violations of 2 ECHR articles. Rainbow has seen limited success at a national level, its best result being achieved in the 1994 European elections, with a total of 7,263 votes. Since 2004 it has participated in European Parliament elections and local elections, but not in national elections. A few of its members have been elected in local administrative posts. Rainbow has recently re-established Nova Zora, a newspaper that was first published for a short period in the mid-1990s, with reportedly 20,000 copies being distributed free of charge.[http://www.utrinski.com.mk/?ItemID=37A12ADE09614C45AA6D0395682BF917 Македонците во Грција треба да си ги бараат правата] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110823234401/http://www.utrinski.com.mk/?ItemID=37A12ADE09614C45AA6D0395682BF917 |date=23 August 2011 }} – ""Нова зора"...печати во 20.000 примероци/Nova Zora...is printed in 20,000 copies"[http://www.a1.com.mk/vesti/default.aspx?VestID=122849 "Нова зора" – прв весник на македонски јазик во Грција] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100509162418/http://www.a1.com.mk/vesti/default.aspx?VestID=122849 |date=9 May 2010 }} – ""Нова зора" – прв весник на македонски јазик во Грција...При печатењето на тиражот од 20.000 примероци се појавиле само мали технички проблеми/Nova Zora – the first Macedonian-language newspaper in Greece...There were only small technical problems with the printing of the circulation of 20,000"[http://www.vreme.com.mk/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=2&tabid=1&EditionID=2001&ArticleID=138979 Нема печатница за македонски во Грција]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} – "Весникот е наречен "Нова зора" и треба да се печати во 20.000 примероци/The Newspaper is called Nova Zora and 20,000 copies are printed."

{{Main|Macedonians in Serbia}}

Within Serbia, Macedonians constitute an officially recognised ethnic minority at both a local and national level. Within Vojvodina, Macedonians are recognised under the Statute of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, along with other ethnic groups. Large Macedonian settlements within Vojvodina can be found in Plandište, Jabuka, Glogonj, Dužine and Kačarevo. These people are mainly the descendants of economic migrants who left the Socialist Republic of Macedonia in the 1950s and 1960s. The Macedonians in Serbia are represented by a national council and in recent years Macedonian has begun to be taught. The most recent census recorded 22,755 Macedonians living in Serbia.{{cite web|url=http://pod2.stat.gov.rs/ObjavljenePublikacije/Popis2011/Nacionalna%20pripadnost-Ethnicity.pdf |title=Ethnicity: Data by municipalities and cities |access-date=2015-06-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140811224233/http://pod2.stat.gov.rs/ObjavljenePublikacije/Popis2011/Nacionalna%20pripadnost-Ethnicity.pdf |archive-date=11 August 2014 |df=dmy |website=Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia |date=2011}}

{{Main|Macedonians of Albania}}

Macedonians represent the second largest ethnic minority population in Albania. Albania recognises the existence of a Macedonian minority within the Mala Prespa region, most of which is comprised by Pustec Municipality. Macedonians have full minority rights within this region, including the right to education and the provision of other services in Macedonian. There also exist unrecognised Macedonian populations living in the Golo Brdo region, the "Dolno Pole" area near the town of Peshkopi, around Lake Ohrid and Korce as well as in Gora. 4,697 people declared themselves Macedonians in the 1989 census.Artan Hoxha and Alma Gurraj, Local Self-Government and Decentralization: Case of Albania. History, Reforms and Challenges. In: Local Self Government and Decentralization in South — East Europe. Proceedings of the workshop held in Zagreb, Croatia 6 April 2001. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Zagreb Office, Zagreb 2001, pp. 194–224 ([http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/kroatien/50257.pdf PDF]).

{{Main|Ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria}}

Bulgarians are considered most closely related to the neighboring Macedonians, and it is sometimes claimed that there is no clear ethnic difference between them.{{cite book |title=Political and economic dictionary of Eastern Europe |last1=Day |first1=Alan John |last2=East |first2=Roger |last3=Thomas |first3=Richard |year=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=1-85743-063-8 |page=94}} A total of 1,143 people officially declared themselves to be ethnic Macedonians in the last Bulgarian census in 2021. During the same year, there were five times as many Bulgarian residents born in North Macedonia, 5,450.{{cite web|website=Eurostat|title=Population on 1 January by age group, sex and country of birth|url=https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/migr_pop3ctb__custom_8772350/default/table?lang=en}} Most of them held Bulgarian citizenship, with only 1,576 of them being citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia.{{Cite web |date= |title=НАСЕЛЕНИЕ КЪМ 7 СЕПТЕМВРИ 2021 ГОДИНА |url=https://nsi.bg/sites/default/files/files/pressreleases/Census2021_population.pdf |access-date=2023-05-11 |website=nsi.bg|page=12}} According to the 2011 Bulgarian census, there were 561 ethnic Macedonians (0.2%) in the Blagoevgrad Province,[https://censusresults.nsi.bg/Census/Reports/2/2/R9.aspx?OBL=BLG Население по етническа група и майчин език в област: Благоевград.] the Bulgarian part of the geographical region of Macedonia, out of a total of 1,654 Macedonians in the entire country.[http://www.nsi.bg/census2011/NPDOCS/Census2011final.pdf Преброяване 2011 – окончателни резултати, гл. ІІІ. Основни резултати, стр. 23.] Also, a total of 429 citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia resided in the province.[https://www.struma.com/obshtestvo/za-bratya-galevi-i-kmeta-yanev-az-kazvah-na-glas_19918/ 323 552 души е населението на Пиринско.]

In 1998, Krassimir Kanev, chairman of the non-governmental organization Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, claimed that there were 15,000–25,000 ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria (see [https://web.archive.org/web/20060723084106/http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/pdf/cedime-se-bulgaria-macedonians.PDF here]). In the same report, Macedonian nationalists (Popov et al., 1989) claimed that 200,000 ethnic Macedonians lived in Bulgaria. However, according to the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, the vast majority of the Slavic-speaking population in Pirin Macedonia had a Bulgarian national self-consciousness and a regional Macedonian identity similar to the Macedonian regional identity in Greek Macedonia. According to ethnic Macedonian political activist, Stoyko Stoykov, the number of Bulgarian citizens with ethnic Macedonian self-consciousness in 2009 was between 5,000 and 10,000.

{{cite web

|url=http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=f1218

|title=FOCUS Information Agency

|publisher=focus-fen.net

|access-date=14 March 2009

}}

In 2000, the Bulgarian Constitutional Court banned UMO Ilinden-Pirin, a small Macedonian political party, as a separatist organization. Subsequently, activists attempted to re-establish the party but could not gather the required number of signatures.

File:Map of the majority ethnic groups of Macedonia by municipality.svg|Macedonians in North Macedonia, according to the 2002 census

File:Macedonians in Serbia.png|Concentration of Macedonians in Serbia

File:MalaPrespaiGoloBrdo.png|Regions where Macedonians live within Albania

File:Torbesija.png|Macedonian Muslims in North Macedonia

{{Further|Macedonian diaspora}}

[[File:Map of the Macedonian Diaspora in the World.svg|thumb|300x300px|Macedonian diaspora in the world (includes people with Macedonian ancestry or citizenship).

{{Legend|#000000|North Macedonia}}

{{Legend|#BA9B15|+ 100,000}}

{{Legend|#F9D616|+ 10,000}}

{{Legend|#FFF0B3|+ 1,000}}]]

Significant Macedonian communities can also be found in the traditional immigrant-receiving nations, as well as in Western European countries. Census data in many European countries (such as Italy and Germany) does not take into account the ethnicity of émigrés from the Republic of North Macedonia.

Most Macedonians can be found in Buenos Aires, the Pampas and Córdoba. An estimated 30,000 Macedonians can be found in Argentina.Nasevski, Boško; Angelova, Dora. Gerovska, Dragica (1995). Македонски Иселенички Алманах '95. Skopje: Матица на Иселениците на Македонија.

{{further|Macedonian Australians}}

The official number of Macedonians in Australia by birthplace or birthplace of parents is 83,893 ([https://web.archive.org/web/20041028074111/http://www.crc.nsw.gov.au/statistics/Sect1/Table1p08Aust.pdf 2001]). The main Macedonian communities are found in Melbourne, Geelong, Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle, Canberra and Perth. The 2006 census recorded 83,983 people of Macedonian ancestry and the 2011 census recorded 93,570 people of Macedonian ancestry.{{cite web|title=The People of Australia: Statistics from the 2011 Census|url=https://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/research/people-australia-2013-statistics.pdf|publisher=Australian Government|page=58|year=2014|access-date=23 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170417222156/https://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/research/people-australia-2013-statistics.pdf|archive-date=17 April 2017}}

An estimated 45,000 people in Brazil are of Macedonian ancestry.{{cite book

|script-title=mk:Македонски Иселенички Алманах '95

|last= Nasevski

|first= Boško

|author2=Angelova, Dora |author3=Gerovska, Dragica

|year= 1995

|publisher= Матица на Иселениците на Македонија

|location= Skopje

|pages= 52–53 }} The Macedonians can be primarily found in Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Curitiba.

{{further|Macedonian Canadians}}

The Canadian census in 2001 records 37,705 individuals claimed wholly or partly Macedonian heritage in Canada,{{Cite web |url=https://www.census.gov |title=U.S. Census website |access-date=28 March 2020 }} although community spokesmen have claimed that there are actually 100,000–150,000 Macedonians in Canada.{{cite encyclopedia |entry= |encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia |url=http://www.canadianencyclopedia.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1SEC823709 |access-date=7 March 2006 |title=Archived copy |archive-date=20 July 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120720212139/http://www.canadianencyclopedia.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1SEC823709 |url-status=dead }}

{{further|Macedonian Americans}}

A significant Macedonian community can be found in the United States. The official number of Macedonians in the US is 49,455 ([https://www.census.gov 2004]). The Macedonian community is located mainly in Michigan, New York, Ohio, Indiana and New Jersey{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20050319231734/http://www.euroamericans.net/euroamericans.net/macedonian.htm Euroamericans.net]}}

{{further|Macedonians in Germany}}

There are an estimated 61,000 citizens of North Macedonia in Germany (mostly in the Ruhrgebiet) ([https://web.archive.org/web/20060405204342/http://wohnbevoelkerung_in_deutschland.know-library.net/ 2001]).

There are 74,162 citizens of North Macedonia in Italy ([http://demo.istat.it/str2006/query.php?lingua=eng&Rip=S0&paese=A12&submit=Tavola Foreign Citizens in Italy]).

{{further|Macedonians in Switzerland}}

In 2006 the Swiss Government recorded 60,362 Macedonian Citizens living in Switzerland.[https://web.archive.org/web/20120425144012/http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/fr/index/themen/01/07/blank/key/01/01.Document.20578.xls bfs.admin.ch]

{{further|Macedonians in Romania}}

Macedonians are an officially recognised minority group in Romania. They have a special reserved seat in the nation's parliament. In 2002, they numbered 731.

{{further|Macedonians in Slovenia}}

Macedonians began relocating to Slovenia in the 1950s when the two regions formed a part of a single country, Yugoslavia.

Sizeable Macedonian communities can also be found in the United Kingdom, as well as in European Union countries, like the Netherlands, Austria and France.

{{Main|Culture of North Macedonia}}

{{more citations needed|section|date=August 2019}}

The culture of the people is characterized with both traditionalist and modernist attributes. It is strongly bound with their native land and the surrounding in which they live. The rich cultural heritage of the Macedonians is accented in the folklore, the picturesque traditional folk costumes, decorations and ornaments in city and village homes, the architecture, the monasteries and churches, iconostasis, wood-carving and so on. The culture of Macedonians can roughly be explained as Balkanic, closely related to that of Bulgarians and Serbs.

File:Robevihouse.JPG architecture in Ohrid.]]

File:Makedonski Nosii 2.jpg

The typical Macedonian village house is influenced by Ottoman Architecture. Presented as a construction with two floors, with a hard facade composed of large stones and a wide balcony on the second floor. In villages with predominantly agricultural economy, the first floor was often used as a storage for the harvest, while in some villages the first floor was used as a cattle-pen.

The stereotype for a traditional Macedonian city house is a two-floor building with white façade, with a forward extended second floor, and black wooden elements around the windows and on the edges.

{{main|Cinema of North Macedonia}}

The history of film making in North Macedonia dates back over 110 years. The first film to be produced on the territory of the present-day the country was made in 1895 by Janaki and Milton Manaki in Bitola. In 1995 Before the Rain became the first Macedonian movie to be nominated for an Academy Award.{{cite web |title=The 67th Academy Awards {{!}} 1995 |url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1995 |website=Oscars.org {{!}} Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences |date=5 October 2014 |access-date=27 August 2019 |language=en}}

From 1993 to 1994, 1,596 performances were held in the newly formed republic, and more than 330,000 people attended. The Macedonian National Theater (drama, opera, and ballet companies), the Drama Theater, the Theater of the Nationalities (Albanian and Turkish drama companies) and the other theater companies comprise about 870 professional actors, singers, ballet dancers, directors, playwrights, set and costume designers, etc. There is also a professional theatre for children and three amateur theaters. For the last thirty years a traditional festival of Macedonian professional theaters has been taking place in Prilep in honor of Vojdan Černodrinski, the founder of the modern Macedonian theater. Each year a festival of amateur and experimental Macedonian theater companies is held in Kočani.

{{main|Music of North Macedonia}}

Macedonian music has many things in common with the music of neighboring Balkan countries, but maintains its own distinctive sound.

The founders of modern Macedonian painting included Lazar Licenovski, Nikola Martinoski, Dimitar Pandilov, and Vangel Kodzoman. They were succeeded by an exceptionally talented and fruitful generation, consisting of Borka Lazeski, Dimitar Kondovski, Petar Mazev who are now deceased, and Rodoljub Anastasov and many others who are still active. Others include: Vasko Taskovski and Vangel Naumovski. In addition to Dimo Todorovski, who is considered to be the founder of modern Macedonian sculpture, the works of Petar Hadzi Boskov, Boro Mitrikeski, Novak Dimitrovski and Tome Serafimovski are also outstanding.

In the past, the Macedonian population was predominantly involved with agriculture, with a very small portion of the people who were engaged in trade (mainly in the cities). But after the creation of the People's Republic of Macedonia which started a social transformation based on Socialist principles, middle and heavy industries were started.

{{main|Macedonian language}}

Macedonian ({{lang|mk|македонски јазик}}) is a member of the Eastern group of South Slavic languages. Standard Macedonian was implemented as the official language of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia after being codified in the 1940s, and has accumulated a thriving literary tradition.

The closest relative of Macedonian is Bulgarian,{{Harvcoltxt|Levinson|O'Leary|1992|p=239}} followed by Serbo-Croatian. All the South Slavic languages form a dialect continuum, in which Macedonian and Bulgarian form an Eastern subgroup. The Torlakian dialect group is intermediate between Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian, comprising some of the northernmost dialects of Macedonian as well as varieties spoken in southern Serbia and western Bulgaria. Torlakian is often classified as part of the Eastern South Slavic dialects.

The Macedonian alphabet is an adaptation of the Cyrillic script, as well as language-specific conventions of spelling and punctuation. It is rarely Romanized.

{{main|Macedonian Orthodox Church – Ohrid Archbishopric|Macedonian Orthodox Church|Roman Catholicism in North Macedonia|Macedonian Greek Catholic Church|Protestantism in North Macedonia|Islam in North Macedonia}}

File:2011 Ochryda, Cerkiew św. Pantelejmona (02).jpg in Ohrid.]]

Most Macedonians are members of the Macedonian Orthodox Church. The official name of the church is Macedonian Orthodox Church – Ohrid Archbishopric and is the body of Christians who are united under the Archbishop of Ohrid and North Macedonia, exercising jurisdiction over Macedonian Orthodox Christians in the Republic of North Macedonia and in exarchates in the Macedonian diaspora.

The church gained autonomy from the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1959 and declared the restoration of the historic Archbishopric of Ohrid. On 19 July 1967, the Macedonian Orthodox Church declared autocephaly from the Serbian church. Due to protest from the Serbian Orthodox Church, the move was not recognised by any of the churches of the Eastern Orthodox Communion. Thereafter, Macedonian Orthodox Church was not in communion with any Orthodox Church, until 2022 when it was reintegrated.The encyclopedia of Christianity, Volume 3. By Erwin Fahlbusch, Geoffrey William Bromiley. p. 381 A small number of Macedonians belong to the Roman Catholic and the Protestant churches.

Between the 15th and the 20th centuries, during Ottoman rule, a number of Orthodox Macedonian Slavs converted to Islam. Today in the Republic of North Macedonia, they are regarded as Macedonian Muslims, who constitute the second largest religious community of the country.

{{Main|Culture of North Macedonia#Macedonian names|l1=Macedonian names}}

{{Main|Macedonian cuisine}}

File:Грав во тава(тафче гравче) (3).jpg, the national dish of Macedonians.]]

Macedonian cuisine is a representative of the cuisine of the Balkans—reflecting Mediterranean (Greek) and Middle Eastern (Turkish) influences, and to a lesser extent Italian, German and Eastern European (especially Hungarian) ones. The relatively warm climate in North Macedonia provides excellent growth conditions for a variety of vegetables, herbs and fruits. Thus, Macedonian cuisine is particularly diverse.

Shopska salad, a food from Bulgaria, is an appetizer and side dish which accompanies almost every meal.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}} Macedonian cuisine is also noted for the diversity and quality of its dairy products, wines, and local alcoholic beverages, such as rakija. Tavče Gravče and mastika are considered the national dish and drink of North Macedonia, respectively.

{{See also|List of flags of North Macedonia|National symbols of North Macedonia}}

Symbols used by members of the ethnic group include:

• Lion: The lion first appears in the Fojnica Armorial from the 17th century, where the coat of arms of Macedonia is included among those of other entities. On the coat of arms is a crown; inside a yellow crowned lion is depicted standing rampant, on a red background. On the bottom enclosed in a red and yellow border is written "Macedonia". The use of the lion to represent Macedonia was continued in foreign heraldic collections throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.Matkovski, Aleksandar, Grbovite na Makedonija, Skopje, 1970.Александар Матковски (1990) Грбовите на Македонија, Мисла, Skopje, Macedonia — {{ISBN|86-15-00160-X}}
  Nevertheless, during the late 19th century the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization arose, which modeled itself after the earlier Bulgarian revolutionary traditions and adopted their symbols as the lion, etc.Duncan M. Perry, The Politics of Terror: The Macedonian Liberation Movements, 1893–1903, Duke University Press, 1988, pp. 39–40.J. Pettifer as ed., The New Macedonian Question, Springer, 1999 {{ISBN|0230535798}}, p. 236. Modern versions of the historical lion has also been added to the emblem of several political parties, organizations and sports clubs. However, this symbol is not totally accepted while the state coat of arms of Bulgaria is somewhat similar.

File:Flag of Macedonia (1992–1995).svg

• Vergina Sun: (official flag, 1992–1995) Referred to as the Sun of Kutleš, is used unofficially by various associations and cultural groups in the Macedonian diaspora. The Vergina Sun is believed to have been associated with ancient Greek kings such as Alexander the Great and Philip II, although it was used as an ornamental design in ancient Greek art long before the Macedonian period. The symbol was depicted on a golden larnax found in a 4th-century BC royal tomb belonging to either Philip II or Philip III of Macedon in the Greek region of Macedonia. The Greeks regard the use of the symbol by North Macedonia as a misappropriation of a Hellenic symbol, unrelated to Slavic cultures, and a direct claim on the legacy of Philip II. However, archaeological items depicting the symbol have also been excavated in the territory of North Macedonia.{{Cite web|url=https://haemus.org.mk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Ohrid-World-Heritage-Site.pdf|title=Macedonian Cultural Heritage: Ohrid World Heritage Site|access-date=28 June 2020|archive-date=28 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628032610/https://haemus.org.mk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Ohrid-World-Heritage-Site.pdf|url-status=dead}} In 1995, Greece lodged a claim for trademark protection of the Vergina Sun as a state symbol under WIPO.http://www.wipo.int/cgi-6te/guest/ifetch5?ENG+6TER+15+1151315-REVERSE+0+0+1055+F+125+431+101+25+SEP-0/HITNUM,B+KIND%2fEmblem+ {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060329000458/http://www.wipo.int/cgi-6te/guest/ifetch5?ENG%206TER%2015%201151315-REVERSE%200%200%201055%20F%20125%20431%20101%2025%20SEP-0%2FHITNUM%2CB%20KIND%2FEmblem%20 |title= wipo.int|date=29 March 2006 }} In Greece the symbol against a blue field is used vastly in the area of Macedonia and it has official status. The sun of Kutleš on a red field was the first flag of the independent Republic of Macedonia, until it was removed from the state flag under an agreement reached between the Republic of Macedonia and Greece in September 1995.Floudas, Demetrius Andreas; {{cite news |publisher=24 (1996) Journal of Political and Military Sociology, 285|url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3719/is_199601/ai_n8752910 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060127053906/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3719/is_199601/ai_n8752910 |archive-date=27 January 2006 | title= A Name for a Conflict or a Conflict for a Name? An Analysis of Greece's Dispute with FYROM |access-date=24 January 2007 | year=1996}} On 17 June 2018, Greece and the Republic of Macedonia signed the Prespa Agreement, which stipulates the removal of the Vergina Sun's public use across the latter's territory.{{cite web |url=http://s.kathimerini.gr/resources/article-files/symfwnia-aggliko-keimeno.pdf|title=Final Agreement for the Settlement of the Differences as Described in the United Nations Security Council Resolutions 817 (1993) and 845 (1993), The Termination of the Interim Accord of 1995, and the Establishment of a Strategic Partnership Between the Parties |website=eKathimerini |access-date=13 June 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://www.crashonline.gr/epikairotita/1164670/chanetai-kai-o-ilios-tis-verginas-ti-orizei-i-symfonia-gia-to-sima/|title=Also the "Sun of Vergina" is being lost: what the agreement (original: Χάνεται και "ο Ηλιος της Βεργίνας": Τι ορίζει η συμφωνία για το σήμα)|publisher=Crash Online|date=14 June 2018|access-date=22 June 2018|archive-date=30 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930184116/https://crashonline.gr/epikairotita/1164670/chanetai-kai-o-ilios-tis-verginas-ti-orizei-i-symfonia-gia-to-sima/|url-status=dead}} In a session held on early July 2019, the government of North Macedonia announced the complete removal of the Vergina Sun from all public areas, institutions and monuments in the country, with the deadline for its removal being set to 12 August 2019, in line with the Prespa Agreement.{{cite web|url=https://greekcitytimes.com/2019/07/14/north-macedonia-remove-star-vergina-public-spaces/|title=North Macedonia to remove the Star of Vergina from all public spaces|date=14 July 2019|publisher=GCT.com|access-date=15 July 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://www.news247.gr/politiki/voreia-makedonia-o-zaef-aposyrei-apo-pantoy-ton-ilio-tis-verginas.7474687.html|title=North Macedonia: Zaev removes from anywhere the Vergina Sun (original title: "Βόρεια Μακεδονία: Ο Ζάεφ αποσύρει από παντού τον Ήλιο της Βεργίνας")|publisher=News247|access-date=15 July 2019|date=14 July 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://english.republika.mk/news/macedonia/kutlesh-star-no-longer-to-be-seen-in-public-use/|title=Kutlesh star no longer to be seen in public use|publisher=Republika.mk|access-date=15 July 2019|date=12 July 2019}}

File:PLOS 3.PNG), B (Y-DNA) and C (mtDNA) on the plots (Macedonian samples are marked as Mc in brown colored circle).]]

Anthropologically, Macedonians possess genetic lineages postulated to represent Balkan prehistoric and historic demographic processes.{{cite journal | last1 = Peričić | first1 = Marijana | display-authors = etal | title = High-Resolution Phylogenetic Analysis of Southeastern Europe Traces Major Episodes of Paternal Gene Flow Among Slavic Populations | journal = Molecular Biology and Evolution | volume = 22 | issue = 10| pages = 1964–1975 | doi = 10.1093/molbev/msi185 | pmid = 15944443 | date = October 2005 | doi-access = free }} Such lineages are also typically found in neighboring South Slavs such as Bulgarians and Serbs, in addition to Greeks, Albanians, Romanians and Gagauzes.{{efn|See:{{Cite journal|url=http://www.fsigenetics.com/article/S1872-4973(11)00079-2/fulltext|title=Genetic data for 17 Y-chromosomal STR loci in Macedonians in the Republic of Macedonia|journal=Forensic Science International: Genetics|volume=5|issue=4|pages=e108–e111|access-date=18 March 2015|doi=10.1016/j.fsigen.2011.04.005|pmid=21549657|year=2011|last1=Jakovski|first1=Zlatko|last2=Nikolova|first2=Ksenija|last3=Jankova-Ajanovska|first3=Renata|last4=Marjanovic|first4=Damir|last5=Pojskic|first5=Naris|last6=Janeska|first6=Biljana|url-access=subscription}}{{cite journal |vauthors=Petlichkovski A, Efinska-Mladenovska O, Trajkov D, Arsov T, Strezova A, Spiroski M |title=High-resolution typing of HLA-DRB1 locus in the Macedonian population |journal=Tissue Antigens |volume=64 |issue=4 |pages=486–491 |year=2004 |pmid=15361127 |doi=10.1111/j.1399-0039.2004.00273.x}}{{cite journal |title=European Journal of Human Genetics – Y chromosomal heritage of Croatian population and its island isolates. | volume=11 |issue=7 | doi=10.1038/sj.ejhg.5200992 |pmid=12825075 |journal=European Journal of Human Genetics |pages=535–542|year=2003 |last1=Barać |first1=Lovorka |last2=Peričić |first2=Marijana |last3=Klarić |first3=Irena Martinović |last4=Rootsi |first4=Siiri |last5=Janićijević |first5=Branka |last6=Kivisild |first6=Toomas |last7=Parik |first7=Jüri |last8=Rudan |first8=Igor |last9=Villems |first9=Richard |last10=Rudan |first10=Pavao |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal|last1=Semino |first1=Ornella |url=http://hpgl.stanford.edu/publications/Science_2000_v290_p1155.pdf |title=The Genetic Legacy of Paleolithic Homo sapiens sapiens in Extant Europeans: A Y Chromosome Perspective |journal=Science |volume=290 |pages=1155–1159 |year=2000 |pmid=11073453 |doi=10.1126/science.290.5494.1155 |last2=Passarino |first2=G |last3=Oefner |first3=PJ |last4=Lin |first4=AA |last5=Arbuzova |first5=S |last6=Beckman |first6=LE |last7=De Benedictis |first7=G |last8=Francalacci |first8=P |last9=Kouvatsi |first9=A |display-authors=8 |issue=5494 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031125151213/http://hpgl.stanford.edu/publications/Science_2000_v290_p1155.pdf |archive-date=25 November 2003 |df=dmy |bibcode=2000Sci...290.1155S }}{{cite journal|url=http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mksg/tan/2000/00000055/00000001/art00009;jsessionid=t6k1ukjgmoic.alexandra|title=HLA-DRB and -DQB1 polymorphism in the Macedonian population|access-date=18 March 2015|date=January 2000|doi=10.1034/j.1399-0039.2000.550109.x|last1=Hristova-Dimceva|first1=A.|last2=Verduijn|first2=W.|last3=Schipper|first3=R.F.|last4=Schreuder|first4=G.M.tH.|journal=Tissue Antigens|volume=55|issue=1|pages=53–56|pmid=10703609|url-access=subscription}}{{cite journal | last1 = Rebala | first1 = K | display-authors = etal | year = 2007 | title = Y-STR variation among Slavs: evidence for the Slavic homeland in the middle Dnieper basin | journal = Journal of Human Genetics | volume = 52 | issue = 5| pages = 406–414 | doi = 10.1007/s10038-007-0125-6 | pmid = 17364156 | doi-access = free }}{{cite journal | last1 = Kushniarevich | first1 = Alena | display-authors = etal | year = 2015 | title = Genetic heritage of the Balto-Slavic speaking populations: a synthesis of autosomal, mitochondrial and Y-chromosomal data | journal = PLOS ONE | volume = 10 | issue = 9| page = e0135820 | doi = 10.1371/journal.pone.0135820 | pmid = 26332464 | pmc = 4558026 | bibcode = 2015PLoSO..1035820K | doi-access = free }}{{cite journal|last1=Novembre|first1=John|display-authors=etal|title=Genes mirror geography within Europe|journal=Nature|date=2008|volume=456|issue=7218|pages=98–101|doi=10.1038/nature07331|pmid=18758442|pmc=2735096|bibcode=2008Natur.456...98N}}{{cite journal |author=P. Ralph |title=The Geography of Recent Genetic Ancestry across Europe |journal=PLOS Biology |volume=11 |issue=5 |year=2013 |doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.1001555 |page=e105090 |pmid=23667324 |pmc=3646727 |display-authors=etal|quote=Furthermore, our Greek and Macedonian samples share much higher numbers of common ancestors with Albanian speakers than with other neighbors, possibly a result of historical migrations, or else perhaps smaller effects of the Slavic expansion in these populations |doi-access=free }}}}

Y-DNA studies suggest that Macedonians along with neighboring South Slavs are distinct from other Slavic-speaking populations in Europe and near half of their Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups are likely to be inherited from inhabitants of the Balkans that predated sixth-century Slavic migrations.{{Cite journal|last1=Rębała|first1=Krzysztof|last2=Mikulich|first2=Alexei I.|last3=Tsybovsky|first3=Iosif S.|last4=Siváková|first4=Daniela|last5=Džupinková|first5=Zuzana|last6=Szczerkowska-Dobosz|first6=Aneta|last7=Szczerkowska|first7=Zofia|date=2007-03-16|title=Y-STR variation among Slavs: evidence for the Slavic homeland in the middle Dnieper basin|journal=Journal of Human Genetics|volume=52|issue=5|pages=406–414|doi=10.1007/s10038-007-0125-6|pmid=17364156|issn=1434-5161|doi-access=free}} A diverse set of Y-DNA haplogroups are found in Macedonians at significant levels, including I2a1b, E-V13, J2a, R1a1, R1b, G2a, encoding a complex pattern of demographic processes.Renata Jankova et al., Y-chromosome diversity of the three major ethno-linguistic groups in the Republic of North Macedonia; Forensic Science International: Genetics; Volume 42, September 2019, Pages 165–170. Similar distributions of the same haplogroups are found in neighboring populations.Trombetta B. "Phylogeographic Refinement and Large Scale Genotyping of Human Y Chromosome Haplogroup E Provide New Insights into the Dispersal of Early Pastoralists in the African Continent" http://gbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/7/7/1940.long{{cite journal | last1 = Spiroski | first1 = Mirko | last2 = Arsov | first2 = Todor | last3 = Krüger | first3 = Carmen | last4 = Willuweit | first4 = Sascha | last5 = Roewer | first5 = Lutz | year = 2005 | title = Y-chromosomal STR haplotypes in Macedonian population samples | journal = Forensic Science International | volume = 148 | issue = 1| pages = 69–74 | doi = 10.1016/j.forsciint.2004.04.067 | pmid = 15607593 }} I2a1b and R1a1 are typically found in Slavic-speaking populations across EuropeAnatole Klyosov, DNA Genealogy; Scientific Research Publishing, Inc. USA, 2018; {{ISBN|1618966197}}, p. 211.{{cite journal | last1 = Underhill | first1 = Peter A. | last2 = Poznik | first2 = G. David | last3 = Rootsi | first3 = Siiri | last4 = Järve | first4 = Mari | last5 = Lin | first5 = Alice A. | last6 = Wang | first6 = Jianbin | last7 = Passarelli | first7 = Ben | display-authors = etal | year = 2015| title = The phylogenetic and geographic structure of Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a | journal = European Journal of Human Genetics | volume = 23 | issue = 1| pages = 124–131 | doi = 10.1038/ejhg.2014.50 | pmid = 24667786 | pmc = 4266736 }} (Supplementary Table 4) while haplogroups such as E-V13 and J2 occur at high frequencies in neighboring non-Slavic populations. On the other hand R1b is the most frequently occurring haplogroup in Western Europe and G2a is most frequently found in Caucasus and the adjacent areas. According to a DNA data for 17 Y-chromosomal STR loci in Macedonians, in comparison to other South Slavs and Kosovo Albanians, the Macedonian population had the lowest genetic (Y-STR) distance against the Bulgarian population while having the largest distance against the Croatian population. However, the observed populations did not have significant differentiation in Y-STR population structure, except partially for Kosovo Albanians.{{cite journal | last1 = Jakovski | display-authors = etal | year = 2011 | title = Genetic data for 17 Y-chromosomal STR loci in Macedonians in the Republic of Macedonia | url = | journal = Forensic Sci. Int. Genet. | volume = 5| issue = 4| pages = e108–e111| doi = 10.1016/j.fsigen.2011.04.005 | pmid=21549657}} Genetic similarity, irrespective of language and ethnicity, has a strong correspondence to geographic proximity in European populations.{{Citation |vauthors=Lao O, Lu TT, Nothnagel M, etal |title=Correlation between genetic and geographic structure in Europe |journal=Curr. Biol. |volume=18 |issue=16 |pages=1241–1248 |date=August 2008 |pmid=18691889 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2008.07.049 |s2cid=16945780 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2008CBio...18.1241L }}

In regard to population genetics, not all regions of Southeastern Europe had the same ratio of native Byzantine and invading Slavic population, with the territory of the Eastern Balkans (Macedonia, Thrace and Moesia) having a significant percentage of locals compared to Slavs. Considering that the majority of Balkan Slavs came via the Eastern Carpathian route, lower percentage in the east does not imply that the number of the Slavs there was lesser than among the Western South Slavs. Most probably on the territory of Western South Slavs was a state of desolation which produced there a founder effect.Florin Curta's An ironic smile: the Carpathian Mountains and the migration of the Slavs, Studia mediaevalia Europaea et orientalia. Miscellanea in honorem professoris emeriti Victor Spinei oblata, edited by George Bilavschi and Dan Aparaschivei, 47–72. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române, 2018.A. Zupan et al. The paternal perspective of the Slovenian population and its relationship with other populations; Annals of Human Biology 40 (6) July 2013. The region of Macedonia suffered less disruption than frontier provinces closer to the Danube, with towns and forts close to Ohrid, Bitola and along the Via Egnatia. Re-settlements and the cultural links of the Byzantine Era further shaped the demographic processes which the Macedonian ancestry is linked to.Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages: 500–1250. Florin Curta, 2006 https://books.google.com/books?id=YIAYMNOOe0YC&q=southeastern+europe,+curta Nevertheless, even present-day Peloponnesian Greeks carry a small, but significant amount of Slavic ancestry; the admixture ranged from 0.2% to 14.4%.{{Cite journal |last1=Stamatoyannopoulos |first1=George |last2=Bose |first2=Aritra |last3=Teodosiadis |first3=Athanasios |last4=Tsetsos |first4=Fotis |last5=Plantinga |first5=Anna |last6=Psatha |first6=Nikoletta |last7=Zogas |first7=Nikos |last8=Yannaki |first8=Evangelia |last9=Zalloua |first9=Pierre |last10=Kidd |first10=Kenneth K. |last11=Browning |first11=Brian L. |last12=Stamatoyannopoulos |first12=John |last13=Paschou |first13=Peristera |last14=Drineas |first14=Petros |date=2017 |title=Genetics of the peloponnesean populations and the theory of extinction of the medieval peloponnesean Greeks |journal=European Journal of Human Genetics |language=en |volume=25 |issue=5 |pages=637–645 |doi=10.1038/ejhg.2017.18 |pmid=28272534 |pmc=5437898 |issn=1476-5438}}

{{Portal|North Macedonia}}

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{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

{{reflist}}

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|date=19 April 2018 |url=https://theconversation.com/greeces-macedonian-slavic-heritage-was-wiped-out-by-linguistic-oppression-heres-how-94675|publisher=The Conversation|access-date=19 April 2018}}

• {{cite news|last=Margaronis|first=Maria|title=Greece's invisible minority – the Macedonian Slavs|work=BBC News|date=24 February 2019|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-47258809|access-date=24 February 2019}}

{{wikiquote|Macedonians (ethnic group)}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060113204437/http://newbalkanpolitics.org.mk/OldSite/Issue_2/ismail.eng.asp New Balkan Politics – Journal of Politics]
• [http://www.macedonians.co.uk/ Macedonians in the UK]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100305065457/http://www.umdiaspora.org/ United Macedonian Diaspora]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080629050307/http://www.smk.org.mk/ World Macedonian Congress]
• [http://www.maticanaiselenici.com/ House of Immigrants]

{{Ethnic groups in North Macedonia}}

{{North Macedonia topics}}

{{Slavic ethnic groups}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macedonians (Ethnic Group)}}

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