The Contest For Macedonian Identity 1870-1912

Book Review by Risto Stefov

August 27, 2008

rstefov@hotmail.com



The book “The Contest For Macedonian Identity 1870-1912”, written by Nick Anastasovski and published by Pollitecon Publications is a scholarly publication which describes in detail ongoing attempts first by the Ottoman Empire then by Macedonia’s neighbours Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria to dominate Macedonia and control the Macedonian people. After colonizing Macedonia, the Muslim Ottoman Empire economically influenced many Macedonians to convert to Islam. Then when the Ottoman Empire fell apart Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria fought by any means possible to turn Macedonians into Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians including the use of State-sponsored teachers, priests, and terrorism through armed interventions.

Nick Anastasovski in his book “The Contest For Macedonian Identity 1870-1912” carefully examines in detail the fierce competition between the various factions and shows how they fought at the political, religious, educational and day-to-day level. He analyzes numerous Ottoman, Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian and other sources and introduces new and original research which he conducted in the Bitola region, western Macedonia and other parts of ethnic and Ottoman Macedonia.

Besides offering historical and personal accounts of people and events that shaped Macedonia in the last two hundred years or so, Nick also provides maps, statistical and demographic charts from various sources, does his own comparative analysis and reaches his own conclusions.

The book is full of historical facts not only about Macedonia’s history but also about the Macedonian peoples’ culture, centuries old traditions and customs. Nick dedicates an entire chapter to Bitola in which, among other things, he describes the various customs and traditions observed in the region including those of marriage, the role of women in society and the home, religious celebrations, holidays, rain rituals and more. The customs and traditions may vary a little but equally apply to every corner of Macedonia. The tradition I liked best, which Nick describes in his book on page 263, is the Dudule. I have always been fascinated by the rain ritual performed during droughts especially by the lyrics in the various chants. The rain dance is not exclusive to Macedonia, it is a world phenomenon most popularized by the indigenous people of North America.

I also found a map on page 118, which I have been looking for. It is a map of the three Ottoman Macedonian Vilayetes of 1900. Did you know that Kosovo was part of the Skopje Vilayet and most of Albania was under the Vilayet of Bitola?

The book is subdivided into six chapters. Chapter one examines the colonization of Macedonia and the role religion played in the political and economic classification of people. Chapter two examines the inconsistencies and contradictions of ethnographic data on Macedonia. Chapter three outlines demographic data of the Bitola Region. This chapter also describes how political insecurity initiated by the rivalry of the Balkan States created general economic instability and gave rise to the emigration of temporary workers known as pechelbari. Chapter four provides an overview of the establishment and role of foreign religious organizations in Macedonia. Here the reader will not only learn about the role of the Patriarchate and Exarchate Churches but also about the role Western Churches played in Macedonia. Chapter five analyzes the impact of schools in both the Bitola rural environment as well as the urban center to determine what effects foreign education had on the Macedonian identity. Chapter six seeks to evaluate the impact of islamicisation upon identity, social structure and village rituals in the Dolna Reka, Debar Region.

By far the strongest of Nick’s abilities here is his understanding and presentation of the roles of each of the competitors vying for Macedonia and how each manipulated situations to gain an advantage over the others and particularly over the Macedonian people.

In his abstract he writes, “As a contested space Macedonia in the late nineteenth century suffered political, religious and paramilitary incursions made upon the population by the neighbouring nascent states and the disappearing Ottoman Empire. Territorial claims were rationalized by ethnographic maps and statistical population data. Interested commentators viewed Macedonia in accordance with government policy and presented their studies as academic and scientific, even though these studies were clearly political in nature. The European Powers maintained their own pretence and acted as patrons of the small Balkan States. Although churches, schools and paramilitary bands were the primary instruments of the Greek, Bulgarian and Serb states, expansion into Macedonia was ultimately achieved by a full military mobilization when the armies of Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia marched into Macedonia in October 1912 and drove out the Ottoman Turks. The territorial division of Macedonia and claims upon the Macedonians have continued to be a matter of contention between the Balkan States into contemporary times.”

In regards to population data compiled by non-Balkan Europeans supporting views of the respective Balkan States, on page 148 he writes: “Of primary importance to the European powers was Macedonia’s strategic geographical location. Since ancient times Macedonia had been a strategic stepping stone between east and west for invading armies and empires. In the late nineteenth-century Macedonia found herself the central focus of conflicting European power struggles. Russian and Austrian hopes for access to Solun had to be achieved via Serbian or Bulgarian territories, and Russia offered Macedonia to Serbia and Bulgaria from time to time in the course of negotiations. The English and French encouraged the idea of a greater Greece in order to forestall Russian and Austrian attempts to gain access to the Mediterranean. The imperialist designs of the European Powers took precedence over ethnographic questions and views based on Macedonia being a ‘territory of dispute’ were more in line with existing political agendas. There was no shortage of individuals willing to link their ethnographic findings to political positions. As we have seen, subsequent population statistics are generally unreliable and ‘either compiled to project specific national claims, or, as with certain foreign census takers, based on insufficient or intentionally distorted facts and sources’.”

On page 92 he writes “Expressions of Macedonian national identity were disregarded, or otherwise poorly grasped by many nineteenth-century commentators. Visitors to Macedonia would tour the country in tow of a representative of one or another of the interested rivals and the traveler ‘assimilated the ideas of his guide rather than divined the nationalism of the people’. Other commentators attested that Macedonians possessed no national consciousness and simply identified as Christians.”

On page 92-93 Nick provides an example of religion being used to substitute for ethnic or national identity. He writes “A parallel account was given in 1888 by the Greek Professor Valavanes concerning his native Cappodocian village. Valavanes concluded that: Hellenism exists almost intact in the Christian community, the Asia Minor Greek ‘does not even know the name of the tribe to which he belongs’. Asked what he is ‘he will answer you promptly Christian’. ‘Very well, others are Christian too, the Armenians, the French, the Russians. ...’ ‘I don’t know’, he will tell you, ‘yes, they too (may) believe in Christ, but I am a Christian’. ‘Aren’t you perhaps a Hellene?’ ‘No, I’m not anything (of the sort). I told you I am a Christian, and again I tell you I am a Christian!’ he will answer you impatiently. According to Valavanes, this demonstrates the close relationship of the notions of Christianity and ethnicity for these people, and they ‘love Russia as a bulwark of the faith against the enemy of Christ’.”

I have always believed that Macedonians had never had the need to define themselves as anything other than Macedonians. Here is what Nick has to say: “A popular term of identification indicating separateness from, others, and acknowledges an individual or group as being Macedonian, is the term ‘nash’ or ‘nashi’, literally meaning ‘ours’ -or ‘one of ours’.

These terms of identification persist even at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Similarly Macedonian Muslims, when referring to other Macedonian Muslims, used the term ‘nash Turchin’ (‘one of us’ / ‘ours – Turk’) instead of simply ‘Turchin’, as was the case when referring to a Muslim Turkish speaker. Depending upon which particular Balkan church maintained religious jurisdiction over a village, the inhabitants might have used the terms ‘Exarchists’ (Eksarhisti) or ‘Patriarchists’ (Patriarhisti) when referring to ‘others’, or when intending to use derogatory labels one could refer to ‘others’ as ‘Bugari’ (Bulgarians) or ‘Grci’ (Greeks). These labels were understood as being representative of a religious association and not as a form of ethnic or national identification.”

Nick in his book also tackles another controversial but less known subject, the role of the Muslim Albanians in Macedonia. On page 454 he says: “From the end of the eighteenth century, Albanian Muslim colonists, more hostile and violent than the Ottoman Turks, commenced moving into Macedonia and over the coming centuries, to the end of Ottoman rule, were notorious persecutors of the Christian population. Although a limited number of historians have acknowledged that Albanian persecution of Christians resulted in Christians emigrating from western Macedonia, the Albanian role in the Islamicisation of the Macedonian Christian population has been largely unnoticed by historians.”

Another less noticeable subject that Nick has tackled in his book is how religion was used to manipulate census numbers. Here is what he has to say on page 454: “Islamicisation can be viewed as a strategy aimed at securing Ottoman rule. At the end of the nineteenth century; when the Empire was in a process of decay, and the Ottomans were attempting to prolong their rule in the land, they claimed that the Muslim element constituted the majority element in Macedonia. The numerical importance of Islamicised Macedonians saw them incorporated into the overall Turkish/Muslim population figures.

Contemporary and modern, accounts of the political rivalry of late nineteenth-century Ottoman Macedonia fail to examine the position of the Macedonian Muslim population. Ottoman Macedonia is too often viewed only from a Christian perspective -in relation to the struggle of the Balkan States for the adherence of the Macedonian Christian population. In contrast, the present work has considered Macedonians of the Muslim religion in terms of perceptions of their own identity. Furthermore, Macedonian Muslim perceptions of Macedonian Christians are of vital importance to the overall aims of this thesis. Evidence obtained indicates that Macedonian Christians were viewed as the same people, but of a different religion, and not as ‘Bulgarians’, ‘Greeks’ or ‘Serbs’. Macedonian Muslims of the sample Reka district had no concept or understanding of the terms ‘Patriarchists’ and ‘Exarchists’ as labels for Macedonian Christians.”

Nick Anastasovski has made use of over sixty primary and more that one hundred and thirty secondary sources as well as numerous other documents to put this book together.

With 520 pages and a large format, “The Contest For Macedonian Identity 1870-1912” is a well researched and easy to read book that everyone should own. It is an excellent defensive weapon to use in the protection of the Macedonian identity.

“The Contest For Macedonian Identity 1870-1912” is the ninth Macedonian book published by Pollitecon Publications. It is available in Australia for $35 plus $10 postage.



In North America the book can be purchased from the Canadian Macedonian Historical Society’s web page www.macedonianhistory.ca for $ 45 Canadian. See http://www.macedonianhistory.ca/html/books.html



The Contest For Macedonian Identity 1870-1912

By Nick Anastasovski



Published by

POLLITECON PUBLICATIONS

PO Box 3102 Abbotsford NSW 2046

Australia Ph: (02) 9715 7608

Fx: (02) 9713 1004

Em: info@pollitecon.com

Web: www.pollitecon.com



Editor & Publisher: Victor Bivell



Front Cover: A Macedonian family from the Reka region of western Macedonia circa early 20th century.



ISBN 978-0-9804763-0-9



@ Copyright 2008



About the author:



Nick Anastasovski was born in 1965 in Bitola, Macedonia. He arrived with his family in Australia in early 1966 and grew up in the western suburbs of Melbourne. He graduated from La Trobe University with a Bachelor of Arts degree with majors in Sociology and Philosophy. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Victoria University in 2006 for The Contest for Macedonian Identity 1870-1912 (under the title of Contestations over Macedonian Identity 1870-1912). In recognition of Nick's academic performance, he was awarded Outstanding Final Year Research Student in the School of Social Sciences at Victoria University in 2006.