THE FORGOTTEN HELLENISM OF NORTH MACEDONIA

The northern part of historical Macedonia is another enslaved homeland forgotten by the Greeks, where even until 1993 a significant number of Greeks lived with the admission of the state of Skopje itself.

The Greeks inhabit the area known historically as Pelagonia and Upper Macedonia since ancient times [1]. Historian Nicholas Hammond writes: «Pelagones in the region of Prilep, the Lyncestae in the region of Florina, the Orestae in the region of Kastoria, and the Elimeotae in the region of Kozani. These tribes were all Epirotic tribes and they spoke the Greek language but with a different dialect, the Northwest Greek dialect, as we know now from the local questions which were put to the god of Dodona» [2]. 

Despite the raids and settlements of foreign tribes and races in the Middle Ages (mainly Slavs), the presence of Greeks in the Northern Macedonian region was more than significant during the Ottoman Period. The most important and famous center of Hellenism was Monastiri, also known as Bitola, which was inhabited by Greek-speaking Greeks and Greek Vlachs. This is what the French traveller Michel Pallaires observes in 1905: «Undoubtedly, the Greeks hold the scepter of Monastir [...] Of the 23 doctors in the city, 20 are Greek. All European consulates recognize that the Greek community... is the strongest and most prosperous» [3]. Pallaires also notes: «In Monastiri, the Romanian center of action, all Koutsovlachs are Greeks to the core, with Greek traditions and ideals. They send more than two thousand children to Hellenic schools, enriching them with their contributions. They are at the head of the hardest and most relentless fight against Bulgaria and Romania. They set up a secret committee that is the terror of committee-men. Neither the metropolitan nor the Greek consul can moderate their raging patriotism» [3]. After Greeks, Slavs were the second largest ethnic group [4]. The situation was the same in the wider homonymous administrative district or Vilayet of Monastir. Christian Greeks formed the majority, numbering about 286.001 in 1906 [5] and 350.000 in 1911 [6]. 

The Greek influence in the region was

preserved and promoted mainly by

Aromanian Greeks who according to

Krste Bitoski "they were fanatical

Grecophiles, gradually came to constitute

the Bishopric of Pelagonia's principal

allies in its struggle for the advancement

of Greece's Great Idea. By the middle of

the 19th century the churches and the

schools in the city of Monastir were all in

Greek hands" [7]. Greeks were also found

around Lake Ohrid, where already in

1670, Evliya Çelebi recorded that all the

inhabitants of the city of Ohrid spoke

Slavic and Greek, while Struga's populace

was "mainly Bulgarian and Greek

infidels" [8]. Constantin Jirecek, Czech

professor of History and Minister of

Education of the Bulgarian state during

the second half of the 19th century,

confesses that "Ohrid was from the 12th

century a bastion of Hellenism in

Macedonia" [9], while the German

Hermann Wendel calls it "the citadel of

Hellenism" [10]. Another important Greek

city was Strumica (Stromnitsa in Greek),

inhabited by 13.726 Christian Greeks and

2.965 Slavs in the 19th century [11].

Except for the urban centers, the Greeks

also formed the majority in some villages

of North Macedonia. The village of

Meleniko (today's Melnik) primarily

consisted of Greeks, but also of

Bulgarians, Turks and Romani [12]. We also find interesting information in the

folklore of Skopje, specifically in the book

"ILINDEN 1903", published in Skopje in

1970, by the Institute of National History

of Skopje that includes a Slavic

Macedonian folk song about the

Aromanian village Kruševo in Pelagonia

which is characterised as "small

Greece" ("Крушово - грчка мала") [13].

Aromanian Greeks also inhabited

Gevgelija, a town now situated in the

Greek-Skopjan border. According to the

statistics of the French geographer

Alexandre Synvet, the town had a total

Christian population of 290 families

(1.740 people) in 1878, consisting of 35

Bulgarian Christian ones and 255 Greek

Christian families, while it had 4 Greek

schools [14].

Unfortunately, the Greeks of North

Macedonia will not be lucky enough to be

freed during the Balkan wars, since

Pelagonia will fall into the hands of the

Serbs in 1912 and this region along with

Vardar "Macedonia" will be named South

Serbia (Južna Srbija) or "Old

Serbia" (Stara Srbija). We do not have

much information about the Greeks of

what had become "Southern Serbia". The

only detailed information is given by the

Serbian historian Jovan Hadži-Vasiljević

in his book "prosvetne i političke prilike u

Južnim Srpskim oblastima u XIX

v." (="Educational and political conditions

in the South Serbian regions in the 19th

century") published in 1928.

Hadži-Vasiljević mentions various regions

in South Serbia that had Greek influence,

but he highlights Bitola and Ohrid,

describing them as centers of Hellenism

and Greek education [15]. Georgios

Modis, a Greek Vlach from Bitola, having

read Hadži-Vasiljević's book writes his

memoirs in 1947: «Ohrid! Štip! Pristina!

Veles! Niš! In these areas it is confessed

by Serbs themselves that an exceptional

Hellenism flourished» [16].

Until 1993 it was known that the Greeks

of Pelagonia form a significant number,

according to Skopjans themselves. The

president of the newly created republic of

"Macedonia" Kiro Gligorov had admitted

the existence of 100,000 Greeks in his

state, during an interview published by

"Český Deník". K. Gligorov stated: «The

Greeks say that there are 250,000 Greeks

here, while according to the statistics,

there are only 100,000» [17]. Really, the

State of Skopje that accuses Greece of

oppressing a "Macedonian" minority, why

don't they first explain to us what

happened to these hundreds of

thousands of Greeks in their state?

____________________

Sources/References:

[1] John Boardman and N. G. L.

Hammond, The Cambridge Ancient

History Volume 3, Part 3: The Expansion

of the Greek World, Eighth to Sixth

Centuries BC, p. 284

[2] N. G. L. Hammond, Collected Studies:

Further Studies on Various Topics, p. 158

[3] Michel Paillares, L' imbroglio

Macedonien, p. 493

[4] Population de la Macédoine -

Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911, p. 217

[5] Kemal Karpat (1985), Ottoman

Population, 1830-1914, Demographic and

Social Characteristics, The University of

Wisconsin Press, p. 168-169

[6] Ottoman Census of 1911, link:

https://web.archive.org/web

/20060527053759/http://www.univ

.trieste.it/~storia/corsi/Dogo/tabelle

/popolaz-ottomana1911.jpg

[7] Dejnosta na Pelagoniskata Mitropolija

1878-1912, Skopje 1968, pp. 35-43

[8] Evliya Çelebi, Seyahatname - A

Journey around Lake Ohrid, 1670

[9] C. Jirecek: Geschichte der Bulgaren, p.

211

[10] H. Wendel: Der Kampf der Sudslaven

um Freiheit und Einheit, Frankfurt 1825, p.

35

[11] Kemal Karpat, Ottoman Population,

1830-1914, Demographic and Social

Characteristics, p. 134-135

[12] Maria Couroucli, Tchavdar Marinov,

Balkan Heritages: Negotiating History

and Culture, Volume 1 of British School at

Athens - Modern Greek and Byzantine

Studies, p. 83

[13] Mihailo Apostolski, Ilinden 1903,

Skopje: Institut za nacionalna istorija,

1970, p.599

[14] Synvet, A., Les Grecs de l'Empire

ottoman: Etude statistique et

ethnographique, Constantinople ("L

Orient illustre") 1878, p. 50

[15] Jovan Hadži-Vasiljević, Prosvetne i

političke prilike u Južnim Srpskim

oblastima u XIX v., 1928, p. 124,127

[16] George Modis, On Macedonia, p.51

[17] Kiro Gligorov, "Ethnically pure states

is an anachronism" Český Deník, June 10,

1993, Prague, interview with Teodor

Marjanović and Stanislav Drahný