Association of Serbo-Macedonians

Background

Main article: Macedonian nationalism

Macedonian nationalism asserts a distinct Macedonian identity, and first emerged as a thin intellectual movement in the 1860s.{{Cite book

The Association of Serbo-Macedonians looked to Serbia for support in petitioning the Ottoman Empire in favor of its political aspirations.{{cite book

Establishment and activities

In Belgrade, the group's members met with the Serbian politician Stojan Novaković who pledged his support. Novaković proposed to spread Serbophilia so as to counteract the strong Bulgarian influence in Macedonia. The decision to create the association in Istanbul was taken at a meeting of the Serbian government in early August 1886. At the same meeting was taken also a decision to create the Saint Sava society, both for dissemination of the Serbian propaganda in the region of Macedonia. Novakovic's diplomatic activity in Istanbul played a significant role for the realization of this idea, especially through the establishment of the Association of Serbo-Macedonians. He was sent as the Serbian envoy in the capital of the Ottoman Empire, considered as one of the most important posts in that period.

Shortly afterwards Novaković took up his appointment, where he met with two members of the Macedonian committee to initiate the plan: Kosta Grupchev and Naum Evrov. Although this was only partially successful, Serbian schools were opened in the region of Macedonia, and books were printed in the Macedonian dialect with strong Serbian linguistic influence. Despite the fact, initially this schools attempted to develop a middle road between Serbian and Macedonian dialects. In 1889, when asked to the reprinting of these texts in the Macedonian dialect, Novaković recommended only the Serbian language should be used. He claimed, the anticipated attraction of the Macedonian dialect had not eventuated. In accordance with Novaković's plans the "Macedonism" was seen as a stage of the gradual Serbianisation of the Macedonian Slavs. As result, on the eve of the new century, he and his collaborators promoted already only pro-Serbian ideas.

According to Atanas Shopov, who served as a secretary of the Bulgarian Exarchate in Constantinople at that time, Kosta Grupchev propagated that the Slavs in Macedonia were Serbs and Bulgarians as much as they are Russians, Czechs or Poles. Grupchev claimed also that the Macedonians were a perfectly separate Slavic nationality, descendants of Alexander the Great, with a glorious past and a great history. However per Shopov, Grupchev didn't dare to preach openly that the Bulgarians in Macedonia were Serbians, because he knew that everybody would laugh at him. Because of that, Grupchev's weird preaches were cunningly concocted by the Serbian propaganda, in order to inspire the Macedonian Bulgarians with a completely new and attractive ideas, but his attempts were unsuccessful. Shopov wrote later about Evrov, who returned to Struga and they met there. Shopov describes him as an unhappy and sick man. Evrov once again served the Serbian propaganda, and the locals made fun with him. According to Shopov, Evrov asked if he could find him a job as Bulgarian teacher.

Program

The political aspirations of the Association closely mirrored those of its predecessor, and their program can be summarized in the following points:{{cite journal |trans-title=Macedonism as a political conception at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century |trans-title=Macedonism and the resistance of Macedonia against it |trans-title=On the development of Macedonian national thought to the creation TMORO

• that the interests of the Ottoman Empire be protected;
• that a newspaper (Macedonian Voice) be printed in Istanbul in the "pure Macedonian language";
• that the Macedonian Slavs abandon the Bulgarian Exarchate;
• that the Archbishopric of Ohrid be restored (under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate);
• that the Bulgarian influence in Macedonia be countered with Serbophilia;
• that the Bulgarian bishops and teachers be expelled from Macedonia;
• that schools be opened where teachers will use the local Macedonian vernacular.
• and that Bulgarian linguistic influence be replaced with a Serbian one.

References

References

1. Kulturno-opětestvenite vrski na Makedoncite so Srbija vo tokot na XIX vek, Kliment Džambazovski, 1960, str. 163.
2. Entangled Histories of the Balkans, Roumen Dontchev Daskalov, Tchavdar Marinov, BRILL, 2013, {{ISBN. 900425076X, p. 317.
3. (2001). "Modern hatreds: the symbolic politics of ethnic war". Cornell University Press.
4. 3825813878, p. 127.
5. 0847698092, p. 236.
6. (2003). "Limiting institutions?: the challenge of Eurasian security governance". Manchester University Press.
7. According to [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition]], at the beginning of the 20th century the [[Macedonian Bulgarians]] constituted the majority of the population in the whole region of Macedonia. They are described in the encyclopaedia as "Slavs, the bulk of which is regarded by almost all independent sources as Bulgarians": 1,150,000, whereof, 1,000,000 Orthodox and 150,000 Muslims (the so-called Pomaks); Turks: ca. 500,000 (Muslims); Greeks: ca. 250,000, whereof ca. 240,000 Orthodox and 14,000 Muslims; Albanians: ca. 120,000, whereof 10,000 Orthodox and 110,000 Muslims; Vlachs: ca. 90,000 Orthodox and 3,000 Muslims; Jews: ca. 75,000; Roma: ca. 50,000, whereof 35,000 Orthodox and 15,000 Muslims; In total 1,300,000 Christians (almost exclusively Orthodox), 800,000 Muslims, 75,000 Jews, a total population of ca. 2,200,000 for the whole of Macedonia.
8. 1-85065-492-1, p. 67.
9. 0-691-04356-6, pp. 65-66.
10. [[Krste Misirkov]], ''On the Macedonian Matters'' (''Za Makedonckite Raboti''), Sofia, 1903: "And, anyway, what sort of new Macedonian nation can this be when we and our fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers have always been called Bulgarians?"
11. (1999). "The eye expanded: life and the arts in Greco-Roman antiquity". University of California Press.
12. Македония: История и политическа съдба, Автор Петър Петров, Редактор, Издател "Znanie" OOD, 199, стр. 252.
13. The Macedonian Historical Themes, Lazo Mojsov, Jugoslovenska stvarnost-Medjunarodna politika, 1979, p. 82.
14. "Part of Novakovic's correspondence concerning the Association of Serbo-Macedonians".
15. Andrew Rossos. (6 June 2008). "Macedonia and the Macedonians: A History". Hoover Press.
16. "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...." from the report of S. Novakovic to the Minister of Education in Belgrade about Macedonism: Cultural and Public Relations of the Macedonians with Serbia in the XIXth c., Skopje, 1960, p. 178.
17. Kliment Džambazovski. (1960). "Kulturno-opětestvenite vrski na Makedoncite so Srbija vo tokot na XIX vek".
18. Angel G. Angelov, ''The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms'', 1470-1316, Volume 2, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 411 – 417.
19. Църнушанов, К. Македонизмът и съпротивата на Македония срещу него, София, Университетско издателство "Св. Климент Охридски", 1992, 31 и сл.
20. Collective Memory, National Identity, and Ethnic Conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian Question, Victor Roudometoff, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002 {{ISBN. 0275976483, p. 92.
21. Contested Ethnic Identity: The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto, 1900-1996, Chris Kostov, Peter Lang, 2010, {{ISBN. 3034301960, p. 65.
22. Dimitar Bechev. (13 April 2009). "Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia". Scarecrow Press.
23. Далибор Станковиќ (2020). Социјалистите во македонското револуционерно движење 1893-1912. Магистерска теза. Филозофски факултет, Скопје, стр. 74-75.
24. А. Шоповь, Изь новата история на Бьлгаритеь вь Турция, Пловдивь, Тьрговска печатница, 1895, с. 78.
25. Шоповъ, А. Изъ живота и положението на българитѣ въ вилаетите. Пловдивъ, Търговска Печатница, 1893. стр. 312 - 313.
26. [http://www.promacedonia.org/srbi/drugi.html The program of the Association of Serbo-Macedonians received in August, 1886 in Belgrade. (Bg)]
27. ''To write in a purely Macedonian language, but since the Macedonian literary language is still processed, to throw every Bulgarian expression, and to replace it with Serbian one. To adopt the Serbian alphabet as the most convenient for the Macedonian language and by its writing to use the Serbian grammar''. Excerpt of the Association's program.