About the Macedonian Language Primer the "Abecedar"

rstefov@hotmail.com

A book of great importance to Macedonian linguistics and historiography was published in Athens 81 years ago; a primer known as the 'ABECEDAR' (the A B Cs), printed in the Latin alphabet, and intended for the children of the Macedonian ethnic minority in Greece - the "Slav speaking minority" as Sir Austin Chamberlain, British diplomat and delegate to the League of Nations, and Sir James Erick Drummond, General Secretary to the League of Nations, referred to the Macedonians in Greece.
In 1920 Greece signed a treaty before the League of Nations obliging it to grant certain rights to the minorities of non-Greek origin in Greece. Four years later, in 1924, at the suggestion of the League of Nations, Greece and Bulgaria signed the Kalfov-Politis Protocol under which Bulgaria was obliged to grant the Greek minority in Bulgaria their minority rights while Greece, recognizing the Macedonians from the Aegean part of Macedonia as a "Bulgarian" minority, was to grant them their minority rights. This agreement was seemingly very much in favour of Bulgaria, but when in 1925 the Greek government undertook certain concrete steps towards the publication of the first primer made for the specific needs of that minority, it made it clear that there were no grounds on which Bulgaria could be officially interested in any "Bulgarian minority" or expect the primer to be in Bulgarian, for that minority - though speaking a Slav language - was neither Bulgarian nor Serbian.
The very fact that official Greece did not, either de jure or de facto see the Macedonians as a Bulgarian minority, but rather as a separate Slav speaking group, is of particular significance. The primer, published in the Latin alphabet, was based on the Lerin - Bilola dialect. After Gianelli's Dictionary dating from the 16th Century, and the Daniloviot Chetirijazichnik written in the 19th century (yet another book written in the Macedonian vernacular). The primer was mailed to the Kostur, Lerin and Voden regions in Western Aegean-Macedonia where school authorities were preparing to give lessons to Macedonian children from the first to the fourth grade in their mother tongue.
Greek governments have never made a sincere attempt to solve the question of the Macedonians and their ethnic rights in Greece. Thus, while measures were being undertaken for the opening of Macedonian schools, a clash between the Greek and Bulgarian armies at Petrich was concocted, which was then followed by a massacre of the innocent Macedonian population in the village of Trlis near Serres. All this was aimed at creating an attitude of insecurity within the Macedonians so that they themselves would give up the recognition of their minority rights and eventually seek safety by moving to Bulgaria. Greek governments also skillfully used the Yugoslav-Bulgarian disagreements on the question of the Macedonians in Greece, and with organized pressure on the Macedonian population, as was the case in the village of Trlis, tried to dismiss the Macedonian ethnic question from the agenda through forced resettlement of the Macedonian population outside of Greece.
The ABECEDAR, which actually never reached the Macedonian children, is in itself a powerful testimony not only to the existence of the large Macedonian ethnic minority in Greece, but also to the fact that Greece was under an obligation before the League of Nations to undertake certain measures in order to grant this particular minority their rights. (Source Hristo Andonovski).
The Macedonian question, it seems, remained stagnant for almost a century until 1991 when the Republic of Macedonia broke away from the Yugoslav Federation and became a sovereign and independent State. Even so, not all Macedonians, especially those living on Macedonian occupied territories inside Greece and Bulgaria, have been recognized as Macedonians, a distinct ethnic group with its own unique language and culture. Even though both Greece and Bulgaria acquired fully populated Macedonian territories just like Serbia did through the 1912, 1913 Balkan Wars, they still refuse to recognize the majority of those populations as belonging to the indigenous ethnic Macedonian group. Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia (later Yugoslavia), throughout the early 20th century, all produced demographic statistics proving no Macedonians existed, yet in 1991 when the Republic became independent from Yugoslavia its demographics painted a different picture. Nearly 75% of the population declared itself ethnic Macedonian. Macedonians have always existed and have always been the majority in the Macedonian occupied territories as they are today.
In spite of all evidence to the contrary, official Greece and Bulgaria still deny the existence of Macedonians.
This is one reason why our Macedonian compatriots and their Greek friends in Greece have brought light to the existence of the Abecedar, the unique Macedonian language primer invented by the Greek government exclusively for the Macedonian people in Greece. Resurrecting the Abecedar is a way of bringing attention to an old issue that for Greece and Bulgaria, refuses to go away.
Macedonians worldwide, including those living in Greece and Bulgaria, have made it clear that they want to be recognized by the world as ethnic Macedonians, as equals with full rights and privileges and will not stop until they do.
The reprinting of the Abecedar is a way of bringing world attention to an unresolved issue that urgently needs to be resolved. My role in this will be to keep you informed.