VN:F [1.8.1_1037]

Dr.Leonhard Schulze Jena (1872-1955) was a well known German professor of Geography who published this book in 1927:

The book was published in 1927,but Dr.Jena wrote it a few years before,from 1917 till June 1922,as we can ascertain by the dates of the photos,before the population exchange between Greece and Turkey and the settlement in Macedonia of the Greek refugees from Asia Minor,Pontos and Eastern Thrace. He also mentions often the existence of Turks in some regions of Greek Macedonia.So,at the time which was written the book,the only Greek populations of Macedonia were native Macedonians.

He writes in page 193 about a Turkish house he photographed in Iri Budjak near lake Volvi in Thessaloniki and below he mentions that the Greeks and the Turks of Macedonia during the Balkan wars were living peacefully.

And here is the photo of the Turkish house and its owner,Bairam :


In the pages 33-38 he mentions the ethnicities who lived in Macedonia.He mentions at first the Albanians and the Vlachs(or Zinzars).

In page 34 he writes about the Greeks that they came in Macedonia from 2 directions:At first were the Ionian and Dorian colonies in the coastal territories,like Pydna and Methoni inThermaic gulf,Potidea and Olynthos in Halkidiki,Amphipolis in Strymonic gulf and Neapolis near Nestos river.But he says below that besides these Greek colonies,in hinterland Macedonia’s settled a Greek tribe that was separated from the mainly mass of the Indoeuropeans in 3rd millenium and remained in North.They were the Macedonians who were led by Perdicas between 650 and 700 B.C from Haliacmon region in the region of their later area

In page 35 he writes that the value of the Greek culture from south was appreciated very much by the Macedonian kings and the Greek language was spread and dominated in the economically developed Macedonian regions,in the whole of Thessaloniki’s hinterland and in the areas of Vardar and Strymonas rivers.Also he wonders himself below how much was left from the ancient Greek tribe of Macedonia after the endless wars and the Slavic invasions.

In page 36,he mentions the regions of Macedonia where Greeks lived:
The biggest part of Upper Aliacmon area,the southern part of Ostrovo-Servia region,the coastal land of Thermaic gulf,from south-Pieria through Kampania to Thessaloniki anfd from there to Halkididki and its three peninsulas and from there eastwards,from the Strymonic coastal land till Nestos river.
If someone thinks that Dr.Jena was biased in favor of GreeK interests,he also writes below,about the Slavs(Slavenoi) who came in Balkans in 6th century AD,that they managed,without the establishing of a state entity to extinguish the populations they found residing before them and so Macedonia became a Slavic land,with the exclusion of the cities and the highlands,where the old Greek populations were preserved.As for Kyrillos and Methodios,he isn’t sure whether they used a dialekt of those proto-Slavs which they knew from the market or the environs of Thessaloniki,or at that time had already settled in southern Macedonia Slavized Bulgarians.Finally,he mentions the invasion of the Bulgarians in Macedonia in 850.

In page 37 he writes that at the time of Tsar Samouil and emperor Basilios II Boulgoroktonos,the old Slavic language of Macedonia took the form of middle and later of new Bulgarian and from that era the language development in Bulgaria and Slavic Macedonia followed the sawe evolution on the whole.
the second excerpt says that both Bulgarians and Serbians have left from the time of their domination in Macedonia monuments of stone and spirit and in its language Macedonia is connected on the whole to Bulgaria,although in some details Serbian influence is recognizable.
The most interesting excerpt about the language and the ethnicity of Slavs in Macedonia is the last in page 37,where he writes:<We don’t see today the known political predominances that once turned the peasants of Macedonia to Bulgarians and non-Serbs or to Serbs and non-Bulgarians.About the ethnicity of the Slavs,who from the first conquest of Macedonia by the Bulgarians and later by the Serbs,were there residing already 3 centuries we haven’t an answer.This unknown old tribe,has been engrafted by the young travellers of the Bulgarians and the Serbs.Who will decide what from the tribe,what from the one and what from the other bud is engrafted?From this sceptical standpoint it’s for sure right to talk neutral about Macedonic Slavs,but we should do this only untill the area of Scopje.But after all the scepticism for a scientific total judgement there is something that we shouldn’t deny:that the language of the Macedonic peasants,as serious research has taught us,is Bulgarian in its basic construction>.

In page 38 Dr. Jena says that it’s very controversial where are the boundaries between Greeks,Bulgarians and Serbs and he continues:
<Of the compete Slavs in Macedonia were in the past centuries the Bulgarians sooner and more energetic in their plan than the Serbs.
There can’t be any doubt,according to the accounts of older travellers who didn’t know any <Macedonian question>,that the Macedonic Slavs considered themselves in the whole as Bulgarians and as such were regarded.How long it’s valid today,of this could-may God helps that it never happens but till now it was in all the Balkan national disorders an unmistakable criterion-could be a testimony the Art of the treatment that now the Macedonians experience in the Jugoslavian state.

In pages 71-72 the author writes about the names and the surnames in the villages Konjsko,Huma and Sermenli.The population of these villages was of Vlach origin but is now Bulgarized.Some of the names are common to both Bulgarians and Serbs,some are Serbian,2-3 are Greek but the most are Bulgarian.The surnames in these villages have pure Bulgarian surfix.


In page 105 we read that the basin of Giannitsa was inhabited by Bulgarian-speaking peasants who are mainly of Slavic stock.

In page 106,Dr. Jena says that Veroia and Naousa are predominantly Greek cities.The inhabitants of southern Kampania,Pieria,Halkidiki,with the exception of small Turkish settlements,are in their language,traditions,cultural belonging consciousness,national will and church confess so absolutely Greeks as those in southern Greece.
Below:someone should observe,how the Greeks have attracted totally on them,by the predominance of the Greek language,the young blood of the Slavic population that was yet bilingual in the elder genarations. I think this phrase of Jena is all the money-the Slavophones of Greek Macedonia were bilinguals a few generations before the Balkan wars.
In the last excerpt he calls Ohrid a <Bulgarian province>,the <strongest of the Bulgarians>.<Southern of the line Thessaloniki-Vodena is the region of the purest Hellenisation,with the big gymnasium in Veroia as central point.Northern of the mentioned line,mainly in the lower-Vardar land,the Bulgarians developed big activity.

In page 107,we read about Kampania,a region in Emathia,where Gidas is located,the hometown of our friend Andrew that was a few years later renamed to Alexandreia : <Kampania got off lightly from previous struggles as well.The population could here stronger than in any other region of Macedonia
exhibit proudly its ancient peculiarity.The Turkish term <Roumlouki> makes the impression that here Eastroman,that means Greek peculiarity survived over the centuries of forreign domination>.

In page 112 Dr. Jena writes about the traditional woman costume of Gidas and especially about the famous head cap that resembles the ancient Greek helmets : < But the costume of the girls and the women in the land is regarded as landmark of ancient Hellenism….The whole thing reminds a helmet.The part of the forehead is exactly like that of Pallas Athena.The legend refers to the time,when Alexander the Great once punished his men for cowardice allowing the women to bear helmets>.






Page 150:Soon the attitude of the victoriously drawn in Serbs to the established Christian population sharpens:The peasants explain that they are of Bulgarian stock,till whiping blows make it seem more advisable to declare themselves <Macedonians>.

Page 152: Such connections make it intelligible that in the highlands of the upper Vardar region Bulgarian stock found entrance as well as Serbian language in todays undisputed Bulgarian land.

Pages 155,156,157:
<I was limited thus to as far a as possible to determine into which direction was the population’s self sense of nationality and show a clear third point judgement in the broader area of Skopje and Veles. If one wants as foreigner with the advantage of the neutrality to dare the attempt of the allocation of an area’s villages, on the basis of these criteria,then one must be supported by authorities, which have through a decades long habitation the necessary place and local historical knowledge and are even so far politicaly impartial, because they don’t have any interest for more assignment to one or the other ethnicity. Intelligent Turks in Skopje and Veles, which saw their own political roll finally out-played,who personally trust me,in their statements later tested, have prove themselves reliable in the question of the distribution of Albanian, Serbian and Bulgarian municipalities in the upper Vardar country>.
Below it writes about the Christian Bulgarian villages that consist the mainly mass and belong to the tshiflik owners.There are also mentioned the villages of the Muslim Bulgarians,the Pomaks,Albanian villages,some Serbian villages northern of Scopje and some villages in southwestern,where the inhabitants had formerly Bulgarian feelings but there was operated by the Turkish authorities a plan for their Serbianization.
In the bottom:
<If we look around for proofs from other sources of the same time,we’ll find three of them:1)The eagerness of Serbia to cede to Bulgaria the biggest part of Slavic Macedonia (only for the allotment of the regions around Skopje and Koumanovo should decide a neutral arbiter) in the case of a victory against the Turks and the partition of the Turkish booty.2)The stream of the Macedonic volunteers at the start of the war to the Bulgarian flags.
Page 157 :
3)The classification of Slavic Macedonia to the Bulgarian language territory as a result of serious literary assumption-unanimous by the two interested partners,a clear sense of belonging of the asked population,finally a scientific knowledge.All these three are in unison with the strenght of the Bulgarian settlements in our map>. (There is a map in the book but i didn’t post it because the scan is very bad).
Below it writes about the Serbian king Marko who was also a hero for the Bulgarians.



Page 158: <The bigest part of the population of the Pelagonian plain is consisted of Slavs with Bulgarian language and attitude.between them are living Turks and Albanians,mainly Muslim Gegs and rare Orthodox Tosks in some vollages in the southern and southeast of Florina.In the toponyms have left their tracks even the Armenians.In the Christian populations from the south till the area of Bitola the Greeks are compact and Hellenized with schools and churches >.
<The Serbs have reach their most southern base with a gymnasium in Bitola.There were also the Bulgarians and the Greeks with the bigest gymnasium.A Romanian school and an Albanian,that was financed by American money-in order to separate them from the Turks as masters-made the picture more colored.In Krusevo was the Greek school superior in the number of the pupils of the Serbian,the Bulgarian and the Romanian,in Prilep the Bulgarian of the Greek,the Serbian and the Romanian and in Florina the Greek of the Bulgarian>.

In page 167 we read that the Greeks dominate in the area of Kozani.

In page 180 the author describes something that is really unique in the whole of Macedonia:In some villages easterly of Serres,the native Greeks were Turkish-speaking.They weren’t refugees from Asia Minor,they were natives and according to the elder,the Turks imposed to to their ancestors to speak only Turkish.But the German author couldn’t explain how was it possible that in Macedonia where residing native Turkish-speaking Christian people and he writes that the Greeks have managed in this region to turn some Turks from Muslims to Christians.I know this first hand,since i’m living 20 km away from these villages,which are mentioned by Dr.Jena with their former names:Ziliahovo(today Nea Zichni) which was the biggest with 2200 inhabitants and is called by Dr.Jena as <the center of this bastard culture>,Kato Nouska (Dafnoudi),Horovista(Agios Christoforos),Rahova(Mesorachi)and Porna(Gazoros).As far as i know,Dr. Jena makes 2 mistakes here:Only in Nea Zichni and Gazoros where the Christian Greek inhabitants Turkish-speaking and not all of them,at least a 30-40% in Nea Zichni and 70-80% in Gazoros were Greek-speaking.
Below he writes about Kavala and Serres :
<During the last years of Ottoman time,Greeks and Turks in almost equal parts consist the mainly mass of the population in Kavala,the most important city in the Strymonic area,while the Jews were predominating in Thessaloniki>.
<In interior,Serres is the bastion of Hellenism,with churches and gymnasium as corner stones.But even if they weren’t visible,the destiny of the city under the occupation by the Bulgarians would be a testimony about its national belonging.From northern of the compact hinterland reach in the Strymonic field masses of ethnic Bulgarians.A part of them is Hellenized>.