By Gyorgy Scrinis
In his review (GLW, March 31) of an SBS documentary on the "Macedonian issue", Michael Karadjis once again uncritically expresses a "Slav-Macedonian" nationalist position and a fairly naive understanding of the construction of national identities.
One way of highlighting Karadjis' fairly one-eyed representation of this conflict is to look at the way he sets up a simple and unproblematic distinction between "Macedonians" and "Greeks" — as if "Macedonians " and "Greeks" were two clearly distinct and defined cultural groups or nationalities. Yet the crux of this conflict centres around definitions of who are the "Macedonians". This is what it's all about, though you wouldn't know it reading Karadjis' analysis.
The dominant positions within the two opposing camps express contrary answers to this question. For most people in Greece, "Macedonians" are, and can only be, Greeks from the Macedonian part of Greece; and they describe the people of "Slavic" descent in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia who refer to themselves as "Macedonians" as "really" being Slavs, or Serbians, or Bulgarians — anything but "Macedonians". On the other hand, for the people of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia who call themselves "Macedonians" (whom I will refer to as "Slav-Macedonians" for brevity's sake), they themselves are the only "true" Macedonians; and for them, all Greeks are simply Greeks.
Karadjis has clearly aligned himself with the latter, Slav-Macedonian nationalist position. For Karadjis, Greek claims to a Macedonian identity are simply the result of Greek government nationalist propaganda; while the (Slav-)Macedonian national identity is seemingly "natural", as if it has not required a nationalist movement and ideology backed by the state.
There is only the space for a few brief comments here to begin to outline an alternative and more critical standpoint on this conflict. Once you begin problematising and qualifying the term "Macedonian", it can get awfully messy trying to follow who said what to whom. But the key to trying to come to grips with this conflict lies in recognising that there are, and have always been, not one, but many types of Macedonian people. We need now to refer to them as either Greek-Macedonian, Slav-Macedonian, Bulgarian-Macedonian, perhaps even Albanian-Macedonian, and so on.
To attempt to use the term "Macedonian" as if it referred to one homogeneous and clearly distinct cultural grouping, is the sort of monopolising strategy that both Greek-Macedonian and Slav-Macedonian nationalists have pursued, and which stands in the way of any dialogue between the two camps.
Apart from the military unity of ancient times, there has never existed a unified Macedonian state or nation, nor ever a Macedonian people. It has always been divided into several administrative areas by its ruling empire.
Throughout medieval and modern times, the greater Macedonian region has been the dwelling place of very diverse groups of people — speaking Greek dialects, Slav dialects, Turkish dialects, Vlach dialects — all of whom were "Macedonian" to the extent that they all lived in the region. However, the name "Macedonian" was not yet used in itself to signify a particular cultural identity; that is, there was no group of people known as "the Macedonians". Nor was there any strong sense of the unity of all the people in Macedonia. The local village remained the dominant level of cultural identity for most of these people.
A "Macedonian" identity per se doesn't seem to emerge till the late 19th century, following the rise of nationalism in the surrounding new nations of Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria earlier that century. Each of these nationalisms attempted to win over the hearts and minds of the people in the Macedonian region. After 1913, following the eviction of the Ottoman empire, the greater Macedonian region was carved up between these three states, to become Greek Macedonia, Bulgarian Macedonia and Serbian (later Yugoslav) Macedonia.
Greek-speaking Orthodox-worshippers in the new province of Greek Macedonia more readily took on a Greek nationalist identity, and "Macedonia" became for them more a regional-cultural identity than a national identity. Greek-Macedonians also "imagine" continuities back to the ancient Macedonians and consider ancient Macedonians as having been essentially culturally the same as the ancient Greeks.
The Slavic-speaking people in Serbian Macedonia were not so willing to adopt Serbian nationalism as their own, partly because they already identified more strongly with Bulgarian nationalism. Instead, these people slowly began to throw off their orientation to either the Serbian or Bulgarian nations, and to transform their Macedonian regional identity into a nationalism in its own right. This was a perfectly "legitimate" development — as far as nationalisms go — and involved clinging to their more local cultural expressions, instead of being made-over by the homogenising impulses of a neighbouring state's nationalism.
It's important to add that while the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia itself remains a culturally diverse "nation", there is also a minority of "Slav-Macedonians" who have been living in the province of Greek Macedonia, and who have been culturally oppressed by successive Greek governments.
But the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has also been extremely provocative over the years by stating its intention to "reclaim" Greek Macedonia, and "reunify" the greater Macedonian region. This ideology has extended into their education system, and to the production of maps of a unified greater Macedonia. Their intention to use the "Vergina Star", an ancient Macedonian symbol, as their national symbol reflects their view of themselves as the (perhaps sole) descendants of the ancient Macedonians.
Both Greek-Macedonians and Slav-Macedonians have lived in the Macedonian region continuously for at least hundreds of years. At the same time, their cultural or national "Macedonian" identities have only recently been "constructed" or "imagined". It seems to me that, in the modern period, no one nation or cultural grouping should now be able to monopolise the use of the term "Macedonia". A qualifying adjective will always be required to specify which Macedonia, and which Macedonians, are being referred to. Until both sides recognise the other's right to use that name, with a qualifier, I cannot foresee an end to this conflict.
Without wanting to impose an alternative name upon the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, a possible name would be "Vardar-Macedonia", which is the name they themselves use to distinguish their state from the two other Macedonian regions.