Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Масакрот во Ваташа

Масакрот во Ваташа е крвав настан кој се случил на 16 јули 1943 година кога биле стрелани 12 млади луѓе од селото Ваташа во близина на Моклиште кај месноста „Чаир“, на 12 км од Ваташа. Колежот го извршила бугарската воjска и одреди полиција, под команда на полковник Љубен Апостолов, командант на 56. Велешки пешадиски полк од Петтата бугарска армија. По потекло Апостолов бил од Крива Паланка. По тоа време од 40 до 60% од воjниците во полковите на Петтата армија се локални рекрутирани младинци, исто како и голем дел од полициjата, коj бил составен од местни кадри.
Во пролетта на 1943 година, по повеќе акции на партизанските одреди на Третата оперативна зона, три полка бугарска војска и одреди полиција, под команда на полковникот Апостолов, во времето од 7 до 16 јуни 1943 година, презема офанзива заради уништување на партизаните и се нафрла и на мирното население. Кулминација на погромите над цивилното население е масовното стрелање во Ваташа, на 16 јуни 1943 година, кога на роденденот на бугарскиот престолонаследник Симеон ІІ, се убиени 12 младинци. Уште вечерта на 15 јуни низ Ваташа се разнесла веста дека утредента, никој да требе да оди на работа, зашто е роденден на престолонаследникот и во Кавадарци ќе се одржува парада. Кога се разденило на 16 јуни, селото било блокирано од војска и од полиција. Никој не можел да излезе, а оние што тргнувале на работа ги враќале назад.
Во раните утрински часови во селската кафеана во Ваташа биле приведени и сослушани некулмина младинци и девојки. Тие биле скоевци, кои кришум им помагале на партизаните, но биле накодошени. Според Стева Илиева од Кавадарци: "Кметот не собираше од куќите со готов список, сите не имаше по име и презиме". Во кафеана тие се испрашувани и тепани, а потоа се терани да признаат дека се биле сите заедно со партизаните на 1 Мај во месноста Моклиште и дека биле нивни помошници. На крајот на полицискиот распит се ослободени еден младинец и една девојка. Останатите 12 младинци и 4 девојки остануваат со обвинение за врска со партизаните и претстојно бегство во планината. Откако тие ги поднеле сите тортури и измачувања, полиција и воjска ги одвели пешки во колона кон Моклиште. Додека ги воделе младинците, на неколку места ги запирале. Очигледно се премислувале каде да ги стрелаат, додека ним им велеле дека ги носат за да ги фотографираат.
Најстариот од сите, Васо насетил дека нешто лошо се подготвува, па кај месноста „Чаир“ каде биле запрени, почнал да бега, а по него побегнале и други. Тогаш била издадена наредбата 'оган'. Дванаесетте младинци биле застрелани, иако сите војници не сакале да пукаат. Четирите девојки што исто така биле уапсени - Мара Хаџи Јорданова, Стева Ампова, Павлина Касапинова и Ката Ицева - ги тргнале настрана. Полицискиот началник Оперков се спротивставил на поручникот Костов кога сакал да ги убие и девојчињата, а капитан Борис Жеглов, го поддржувал Оперков и така тие биле спасени.Војниците ги вратиле девојките назад во селото, и издале наредба убиените младинци да не се носат назад, туку да се закопаат на место. Денес на тоа место постои мал споменик. По војната, тие се откопани и преместени на друго место, а по трет пат, таму каде што денеска има голем споменик, се закопани во 1963 година.
По две години Народниот суд во НР Македонија, осудил главните раководители и учесници во оваа акција: полковник Љубен Апостолов, капитан Борис Жеглов, поручник Костов и подофицер Петко Опреков на смрт. Пред тоа сите тие, се предадени од новата влада на Бугарија на југословенските власти за судење како фашисти. Апостолов, кој бил командант на војската и ja издал наредбата за стрелање, тврдел дека не е виновен за ваташкиот масакр. Тoj бил суден за повеќе злодела и сите ги признал, но за ваташкиот масакр кажал дека е добил листа со имиња, а на неа стоело дека младинците се партизани уапсени во шумата, а не собрани од нивните куќи. Раскажал и за улогата во настанот на четворица ваташанци-предавници, тројца мажи и една жена.


Дванаесетте млади од селото се: Перо Видев (15 г.), Ванчо Гурев (19 г.), Данко Давков (17 г.), Илија Димов (17 г.), Ристо Гондев (17 г.), Блаже Ицев (17 г.), Пане Мешков (17 г.), Герасим Матаков (17 г.), Ферчо Попѓорѓиев (25 г.), Васо Хаџиjорданов (27 г.), Диме Чекоров (20 г.) и Пане Џунов (17 г.).

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Macedonia is noted on a map from the 13th century

13th century map of Europe

Source: “An Early Thirteenth-Century Map in Dublin: A Window into the World of Giraldus Cambrensis” by Thomas O’Loughlin, published in Imago Mundi, Vol. 51 (1999), pp. 24-39.

Macedonians noted on Hungarian ethnographic map, 1893-1897

Title page


Translation of the Legend:
1. Serbs
2. Serbs and Macedonians
3. Bulgarians
4. Albanians
5. Greeks
6. Osmans
7. Rumanians and Tsintsars
8. Albanians and Serbians
9. Greeks and Albanians
10. Greeks and Osmans
11. Bulgarians and Osmans


Source: Pallas Nagy Lexikona, name of the map “A BALKÁN-FÉLSZIGET NÉPRAJZI TÉRKÉPE” translated into English “Ethnographic Map of the Balkan Peninsula”

Macedonians noted on a ethnographic map of Jugo-Slavia and Greece, 1921



Source: “The New World: Problems in Political Geography” by Isaiah Bowman, pages 234 and 260, 1921.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Macedonian bloody wedding from 1900


Vojdan Pop Georgiev-Chernodrinski, was born in 1875 in the village Selce, located half way betwen Struga and Debar. The beginnings of the Macedonian theatre and Macedonian drama literature are connected with the name and the work of Jordan Hadzi Konstantinov – Dzinot, but the Macedonian drama art from that period is mostly connected with the name of Vojdan Pop Georgiev-Chernodrinski.Almost each of his screenplays treats the problem of the life and struggle of the Macedonian nation for freedom. Vojdan Chernodrinski encouraged the spirit of the Macedonians and suggested the idea that the time for showdown with the declining Ottoman Empire had come. In fact, that is how he supported the activities and actions undertaken for preparation of a future uprising in Macedonia, making the foreign observers sympathize with the Macedonian nation. Through his work, Chernodrinski and his theatre group, the Young Macedonian Company, carried out an important dramatic and national mission.Chernodrinski wrote several plays: “Zlo za zlo” (Evil for Evil) in 1903, The Slave and the agha (1902), “Majstor” (The Cratfsmen), “Od glavata si patime” (From our head we suffer), “Duhot na slobodata” (The spirit of the freedom), “Srekja” (Fortune). His most famous play is the tragedy “Makedonska krvava svadba” (Macedonian bloody Wedding) performed for the first time on the 7th of November 1900 among the Macedonian emigration in Sophia, Bulgaria. This play is still included in the current repertoires of today’s Macedonian theatres. Chernodrinski was also the founder of numerous theatre troupes in the period from 1894 to 1943.Here is the front page of his play “Makedonska Krvava Svadba” please notice that this play is written in the Macedonian language.

Macedonian-Greek lexicon from 1907


Sumvolai eis tin Diglossian ton Makedonon ek sugkriseos tis Slavophanous Makedonikis glossis pros tin Ellinikin upo K. I. Tsioulka, Athens 1907.

Translation:

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE BILINGUISM OF MACEDONIANS THROUGH THE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE SLAVIC-LIKE MACEDONIAN AND GREEK LANGUAGES By K. I Tsioulka, Athens 1907.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

A great poem by Pulevski

This is a poem by Pulevski, quoted from “Makedonski Slavjanski Sbornik” by P. Draganov, St. Petersburg, 1894.

Ye, Macedonian inhabitans, listen. Nothing awaits us
Except the Asiatic’s tyranny and disgrace abroad.
A foreign country is unpleasant; there, you are looked at suspiciously
And all are called unbearable drones.
In foreign lands, Macedonians, are said all sorts of things,
They are looked at sternly and called rudely.
Have, you, Macedonians, heard what old people say:
“There have not been bolder people than the Macedonians.”
“The Tsar Alexander the Macedonian, three hundred
years before Christ”
“Conquered the whole planet with the Macedonians.”
Our king Philip is a Slav, the Tsar Alexander is a Slav,
They have been given birth to by our Slavonic
grandmothers.
Macedonians! remember Macedonian heroism
And follow the path of your ancestors!
It is better to lose our lives in our dear country
Than bear all kinds of maltreatment.”

Macedonian a language group according to the linguist Tore Janson

Here we can clearly see that Macedonian is acknowledged as a separate language group from both Greek, Albanian and Serbo-Croatian.


From the book “Speak: A Short History of Languages” By Tore Janson, 2002, page 37.
 

Some information about the author and the book.
This book is a history of human speech from prehistory to the present. It charts the rise of some languages and the fall of others, explaining why some survive and others die. It shows how languages change their sounds and meanings, and how the history of languages is closely linked to the history of peoples. Writing in a lively, readable style, distinguished Swedish scholar Tore Janson makes no assumptions about previous knowledge. He takes the reader on a voyage of exploration through the changing patterns of the world’s languages, from ancient China to ancient Egypt, imperial Rome to imperial Britain, Sappho’s Lesbos to contemporary Africa. He discovers the links between the histories of societies and their languages; he shows how language evolved from primitive calls; he considers the question of whether one language can be more advanced than another. The author describes the history of writing and looks at the impact of changing technology. He ends by assessing the prospects for English world domination and predicting the languages of the distant future. Five historical maps illustrate this fascinating history of our defining characteristic and most valuable asset.


Macedonians acknowledged in a Greek census from 1920

In the census of 1920, immediately after Greece’s occupation of the “New Territories” the government of the day offers some revealing information. In the census of 19 December, 1920, the official Greek census form had a separate area asking: “what is your mother tongue? What is the language you speak at home? If your mother tongue is not Greek do you understand Greek?” This census document can be found in the book by M. Houliarakis (Geografiki, dioikitiki kai plithismiaki ekseliksi tis Ellados tom G’ page 363)
The data obtained from the census of 1920 offers great detail about the population to the point of distinguishing between deaf males and deaf females. It also includes the data on language and mother tongue.
Unfortunately, the census information relating to the population of the “New Territories” was never made public. This information preceded the exchanges of Christian and Muslim populations between Turkey and Greece or the so-called “voluntary” population exchanges between Greece and Bulgaria.
At that time Greece only published the results from the geographic area of “old Greece” (Sterea, Evoia, Thessalia, Arta, Ionian Islands, Cyclades, Peloponese…). Five volumes containing census data from the “New Territories,” which included information on religion and language, were prohibited from being made public.
In the archives of the Census Council or the General Archives of the Greek state we shall not find census data on the northern territories (the new territories of Macedonia and Western Thrace) for the census period of 1920.
However, page 182 of the volume of census data for 1920 (published in 1929) for the area of Trikala (in Thessaly and Arta just south of the new territories) the following linguistic categories are reported for mother tongue:
Greek, Spanish, Romi, Koutsovlach, Albanian, Bulgarian, Serbian and 37 individuals from Trikala who declared their mother tongue as Macedonian.
This is official census data published by the Greek government wherein, not only is the Macedonian language documented by the census authority but it is rightly distinguished from Bulgarian and Serbian.

Page 181
Page 182

 Here is a highlight of the census were the Macedonians are mentioned:

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

The first school district to teach in Macedonian, Kostur, 1892

Report about the first school district to start teaching in Macedonian language – 1892 in Kostur

DIMITRIJE BODI TO VLADAN DORDEVICH 
20th August 1892
Consulate of the Kingdom of Serbia No. 786 20th August 1892 Bitola To the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Vladan Dordevic Belgrade
Dear Sir,
I have to inform You, dear Sir, that some intellectualist movement among the local teachers has recently appeared in the town of Kostur, which insists upon rejection of Greek and Bulgarian propaganda, and the introduction of the Macedonian dialect as the language of teaching in the schools. This initiative has in fact been started, Sir, by several town teachers hostile to Hellenism and Bulgarianism, due to their policies concerning education, and especially due to the discrimination of the local teaching staff.
I was particularly intrigued by these events, since “where two are quarrelling, the third profits,” so that I found out through my confidential agents on the spot that there had ben a secret meeting of six teachers, They decided to propose to the local Church and school community that the vernacular be introduced in the town school instead of Bulgarian.
If You are interested in these matters, Sir, please answer me with a ciphered telegram.
Dimitrije Bodi 

DIMITRIJE BODI TO VLADAN DORDEVICH
26th August 1892
Consulate of the Kingdom of Serbia 26th August 1892 Bitola To the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Belgrade
In connection with Your telegram of 24th August this year, it is my honour to let you know that I have taken steps for providing closer information concerning the events in Kostur. According to my humble opinion, Sir, what has been happening in this town could have far-reaching consequences for our cause in this region, where we have so far had little success indeed. For the time being, it is essential for us to suppress foreign propaganda, and later it will be an easy job. It is sufficient for us to find a priest and a few people, and the job is done. l have heard from my own people that the local community at its meeting of 22nd August this year, decided that the teaching in the new 1892/1893 school year should be done in the Macedonian dialect. The town teachers were even given the task of working a programme for the language teaching and a provisional grammar of the Macedonian dialect. If the teaching in the town school should prove to be successful, then after the autumn semester it will also be spread to the neighbouring villages of Mavrovo, Licista, Tiholista and Sestovo. A commission of three teachers was charged with begining the work and it has already been meeting in the Economy boarding-school.
This is the latest news for the time being, Sir, as regards the movement in Kostur. As soon as I hear other news, I shall report it immediately to You. Please receive on this occasion as well my deepest respect,
Dimitrije Bodi


DIMITRIJE BODI TO THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
1st September 1892
Consulate of the Kingdom of Serbia No. 791 Belgrade lst September 1892 Bitola
To the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Belgrade
Dear Sir,
I informed You in my letter of 26th August, this year, about the news concerning the action for introducing the Macedonian dialect into the town school in Kostur. Having the importance of this question in mind, I committed myself fully to it. I sent a man from the Consulate to Kostur, who, after his one-day stay informed me that the Commission for the establishment of a Macedonian literary language, which would be the language of instruction in the town school in Kostur, had already for some time had attheir disposal quite a large amount of material for creating a Macedonian grammar and Macedonian dictionary. Yet, even at their first meeting, the Commission encountered huge difficulties in supplementing the vernacular with words it does not possess. Our man, who met the members of the Commission, acted cleverly and advised them to fill the gaps in the Macedonian vocabulary with words from the Serbian literary language. The members of the Commission did not reject the suggestion, although they did not accept it etiher, saying that they would consult the church-school community. If we promised aid to the Community for the printing of the dictionary and the grammar, Sir, I hope they would accept our linguistic assistance. And not only that. They would agree to replace the other Bulgarian textbooks with Serbian ones. If you approve my step, Sir, please give me more extensive instructions.
Please accept, Your Excellency, expressions of my deepest respect.
Dimitrije Bodi

Monday, October 8, 2012

Тријазичник - Пулевски

Тријазичник - Пулевски

Page 49
The Dictionary is a conversational phrasebook composed in question-and-answer style in three parallel columns, first column is in Macedonian, second is in Albanian and the third is in Turkish, all three spelled with the Cyrillic alphabet.
Here is a translation of the first part of page 49 which is an answer to the question posed on the end of page 48:
Question:
What do we call a nation?
Answer:
People who are of the same
origin and who speak the same
words and who live and make
friends of each other, who have
the same customs and songs and
entertainment are what we call
a nation, and the place where
that people lives is called the
people’s country. Thus the
Macedonians also are a nation
and the place which is theirs is
called Macedonia.

Picture of Pulevski in his traditional dress from Galichnik, taken in 1878


Austrian atlas notes the Macedonians and the Macedonian language, 1921

Front page
PROFESSOR HICKMANN’S GEOGRAPHICAL-STATISTICAL UNIVERSAL-ATLAS 1921

Title page
PROFESSOR HICKMANN’S GEOGRAPHICAL-STATISTICAL UNIVERSAL-ATLAS 1921
COMPLETELY REWORKED BY ALOIS FISCHER


γ) South Slavs 15.8 million.
Serbs, Croats, Slovenes (in Yugoslavia
and in the bordering
parts of Italy and Austria) … 10.2 million
Bulgarians, Macedonians … 5.6 million


Classification of the languages (1920):
I. Indo-Germanic languages 931 million.
3. Newgreek 6 million.
9. Slavic languages 164 million:
 i) Serbian 6 million, j) Croatian 2.8 million, k) Slovenian 1.2 million, l) Bulgarian 4.6 million, m) Macedonian 1 million.


Slavs
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Bulgarians and Macedonians


 Races and Peoples of the Earth (estimated at the end of 1920)


g.) Slavs 157 million
Bulgarians, Macedonians 5.6 million
Serbs, Croats, Slovenes 10.2 million


Bulgaria
4.6 million
a) Bulgarians and Macedonians 4 million = 86.9%
b) Turks 300.000 = 6.6%
c) Jews 40.000 = 0.9%
d) Others 250.000 = 5.5%


Greece
a) Greeks 3.9 million = 68.4%
b) Turks 1 million = 17.6%
c) Bulgarians and Macedonians 500.000 = 8.8%
d) Albanians 100.000 = 1.7%
e) Jews 75.000 = 1.3%
f) Others 125.000 = 2.2%


Yugoslavia
a) Serbs, Croats and Slovenes 9.5 million = 80.2%
1.) Serbs 5 million = 42.2%
2.) Croats 2.8 million = 23.7%
3.) Slovenes 950.000 = 8%
4.) Muslim Serbo-Croats 750.000 = 6.3%
b) Macedonians 600.000 = 5%
c) Germans 600.000 = 5%
d) Hungarians 500.000 = 4.2%
e) Jews 60.000 = 0.5%
f) Others 600.000 = 5%



The Kingdom of Bulgaria
Highlighted in red.
z. = Census
b. = Estimation
b. = 1920: 4,500.000



Highlighted in yellow and underlined in red.
The statistical data has its origins directly from official sources……
From the latest Censuses are…. Bulgaria (31./12. 1920; Ber.), Yugoslavia (31./1. 1921)




The Konikovo Gospel, a bilingual Macedonian-Greek manuscript, 1852

Page 1
Transliterated into the Latin alphabet:

OU’T PERVO BESHE RETCHTA, I RETCHETA BESHE SOS BOGA, I BOG BESHE RETCHTA. VOA BESHE OT PERVO SOS BOGA. SITE RABOTI ZARDI NIZ LAKARDIATA SE TCHINIA, I BEZ NEGO NESATCHINE NIKOE OT KOLKU SE TCHINIA. OUT NEGO BESHE ZHIVOT – I ZHIVO
Page 4
 Transliterated into the Latin alphabet:
KE VIDOA GOSPODA.
I JESUS PAK MU KAZHA – MIR NA VAS – KE ME POSHTI TATKO, I JAZE POSHTAM NA VAS
I KE RETCHE VOA, DOINA NA NIH, I RETCHE ZEMAITE DUH SFETIJ
I NA KOGOTO GREHOVETAI PROSTITE, SE PROSTENI, I NA KOGO ZAPRITE SE ZAPRENI
I THOMA SE VELISHE BLIZNAK, EDNO OT DVANAISTE, NE BESHE SOS NIH, KOGA DOIDE JESUS. MU VELEA (……..) DRUZITE UTCHENITSOI – VIDOHME GOSPODA
I ON MU RETCHE – AKO NE VIDAM NA RATSETEMU NISIANITAIOT KARFIITE, I AKO NE KLADAM PRASTOTMI NA NISIANITE OT KARFIITE, I AKO NE KLADAM RAKATAMI NA REBROTOMU, NEKE VERUVAM
BOGA NIKOI NEKOI PAT NEGO VIDE – EDINORODNIOT SIN, SHTO EI OT PA ZVATA NA TATKOTO, ON GO RAZRETCHE – I VEA EI MARTURIATA NA JOANNA – KOGA POSHTIA

The Konikovo Gospel (Bibl.Patr.Alex. 268 ) 

A bilingual vernacular Gospel manuscript from Macedonia (first half of the 19th century)

In the winter of 2003/04, researchers from the University of Helsinki found an interesting bilingual manuscript, written in what is now Greek Macedonia during the first half of the 19th century. It contains a Greek evangeliarium (Gospel lectionary for Sunday services) and its Slavic translation, both written in Greek letters. What makes the manuscript unique is its bilinguality, and the fact that both the Greek and the Slavic text represent the vernacular, not church language. The Slavic part is the oldest known text of greater scope that directly reflects the living dialects of Southern Macedonia. It is also the oldest known Gospel translation in Modern Macedonian.
The beginning of the Slavic text, with corrections by Pavel Božigropski, was printed in Thessaloniki in 1852–1853, and it has been known in Slavic studies as the “Konikovo Gospel” after Pavel’s home village (nowadays known as Dytikó). The newly found manuscript shows, however, that the translation came into being earlier and in a fashion other than has been assumed. The manuscript also reflects the sound structure of the local dialect better than the printed text did. Moreover, after the Second World War the short printed portion of the Konikovo Gospel has not been at the disposal of the scholarly community – it seems that not a single copy has survived, and no scholarly edition was ever prepared.
The manuscript must originally have contained about 124 pages, 74 of which have been preserved. The Slavic part is a valuable source for research into the dialects and more recent history of Macedonian. The Macedonian language is the closest relative of Bulgarian. It did not acquire a definitive standard language until after World War II.
The Greek text in the manuscript represents a vernacular Gospel tradition that originated in the 17th century. During the 19th century, these vernacular Gospels gradually fell out of use in the church.
The first to take notice of the manuscript in the library of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa was Mika Hakkarainen, who is carrying out research in the library on the basis of an agreement between the Partriarchate and the Academy of Finland’s Centre of Excellence “Ancient and Mediaeval Greek Documents, Archives, and Libraries”, led by Jaakko Frösén. In Helsinki, the manuscript is now being studied by a group that includes, besides Hakkarainen, the scholars Nina Graves, Jouko Lindstedt (research group leader), Juhani Nuorluoto and Max Wahlström (all four from the Department of Slavonic and Baltic Languages and Literatures, University of Helsinki), as well as Maria Basdekis and Martti Leiwo (both from the Department of Classical Philology, University of Helsinki).
The Helsinki research group is preparing a scholarly edition of the Konikovo Gospel in a close collaboration with a Macedonian research group, led by Prof. Ljudmil Spasov from the University of Skopje.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Abecedar the Macedonian language primer published in Greece, 1925

ABECEDAR

The Macedonian-language primer entitled Abecedar, which was published in Athens in 1925 as a result of recognition of Macedonian ethnic minority after the World War I.
The Abecedar, featuring the letters of the Macedonian language spoken in the Aegean part of Macedonia, was printed in Latin alphabet as Greek authorities wanted to make a distinction between the Macedonian, Serbian and Bulgarian language.
In 1920 the League of Nations initiated the signing of treaties relating to the protection of the minorities in a number of European countries, which specified the obligations of the states with regard to providing such minorities with civil and political equality. On August 10, 1920 such a treaty for the protection of the non-Greek ethnic minorities in Greece was signed between the Great Powers and Greece; it was named the Treaty of Sevres. The Treaty of Sevres guaranteed that minorities in Greece free use of their mother tongue in their personal and official relations.
The Abecedar never reached the Macedonian children, it was only used as proof by the Greek government towards the Great Powers that they had fulfilled their obligation set in the Treaty of Sevres, most books were later burned.
Here are some examples from the book:


Monday, October 1, 2012

Harvard Encyclopedia on the Macedonian Language, 1980


Taken from “Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups” by Stephan Thernstrom, Ann Orlov and Oscar Handlin, 1980, page 690.