Around the same time as the Greek uprising against the Ottoman Turks in Macedonia, the Turks were signing a peace treaty (Treaty of San Stefano; March 3, 1878) with Russia after the Ottoman Empire lost the Russo-Turkish War. The Treaty of San Stefano forced Turkey to give all of Macedonia to Bulgaria and create ‘Great Bulgaria’. This allowed Russia to have a ’slav’ satellite in the Balkans where her influence could extend down to the Aegean Sea. This Russian attempt was later cancelled by the European Powers (The British Empire and France) and the treaty was never allowed to take effect. Instead the Treaty of Berlin was signed and no Great Bulgaria was created.
Ethnicity in the Balkans was defined by church affiliation. Russia and Bulgaria had created the Bulgarian Exarchate Church for political reasons on February 28, 1870. It split from the Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople. Anyone pledging allegiance to the Exarchy was Bulgarian and anyone pledging allegiance to the Patriarchate was Greek. Thousands of people living in Macedonia never wanted anything with the Exarchate and said they were Greek EVEN IF THEY SPOKE BULGARIAN and its dialects. They were considered peculiar to the Bulgarians who did not understand this. They were called discriminatorily ‘Grecomans’ by the Bulgarians. Today’s Skopjeans call these Greeks ‘Grkomans’. WHY? Because the Skopjeans were really BULGARIANS once even if they don’t want to admit it now.
 
The Greeks in Macedonia were in an uproar when they heard that they would suddenly go from Turkish rule to Bulgarian rule.  Therefore, many letters of complaint were written to Athens protesting the Exarchy and asking for help from ‘Free Greece’. Below is an example of an original letter written by the Greek Consulate in Bitolia (Monastiri) and contained 14 000 signatures. The letter also mentions that similar protests had already taken place in Skopje, Florina, and Kastoria! These people were Greek and they pledged their allegiance to the ‘Patriarcheion’ as is evident in the letter written in Greek!!!
 
One last note: The town of Monastiri was known by various names through time: MONASTIRI in Greek; BITOLIA (pronounced Vitolia) in Greek; from the Bulgarian name BITOLIA (БИТОЛЯ); MANASTIR in Turkish from the Greek Monastiri. Notice in the letter of 1878, it is written Bitolia in Greek because in the region of Macedonia lived Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Albanians, and Turks: NEVER ‘ethnic-Macedonians’. The name BITOLA was changed after 1944 when the current Serbo-Bulgarian dialect of Skopje was created and many previous Greek and Bulgarian influences and grammar were removed from the Bulgarian dialect spoken in Monastiri!!! The Skopjeans now call this language: ‘Macedonian’!!!

The letter is found on page 80 of the book by Konstantinos Douflias: ‘Macedonia, The Macedonian Conflict, Greece-Macedonia 4000 Years; Copyright 1992 by Aegean Publications’.

The Document

Tags: 14000, 1878, bitolia, bulgaria, consul, exarchy, grecomans, greeks, grkomans, macedonia, ottomans, russia, san stefano, turkey

THE PROCLAMATION OF THE TEMPORARY GOVERNMENT OF MACEDONIA REQUESTING UNIFICATION WITH GREECE;

 REVOLUTION ON MT. OLYMPUS. 

 

 

This proclamation shatters 3 Skopjan myths (lies) about Macedonia:
 
Myth (Lie) #1: The name ‘Macedonia’ was not used by Greeks until after 1988. Until 1988, the area was known as ‘Northern Greece’ or ‘Northern New Territories’.
As is evident in the Proclamation written in pure Greek by Macedonian Greeks this is simply not true. ‘The Ministry of Northern Greece’ changed its name to ‘The Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace’ in 1988…not the department/province!
 
Myth (Lie) #2: There were no Greeks in Macedonia until after Greece invaded and expelled the ‘Macedonians’ in 1912 and brought more Greeks from Turkey in 1923.
Again, shameless lies. This document is proof that Greeks in Macedonia, not wanting to be ruled by Turkey anymore, took up arms and started a revolution. They formed a government and appealed to Greece and the European Powers to unite them with their motherland Greece! All this as Turkey was getting ready to sign the Treaty of San Stefano which allowed Russia to give Macedonia to Bulgaria.
 
Myth (Lie) #3: There was no Greek revolution against Turkey in Macedonia as happened in Southern Greece because there were no Greeks living in Macedonia.
This lie can now be destroyed along with the rest of Skopjean Macedonism and irredentism. To continue to propagate these lies is not worthy of a civil society.

 

THE DOCUMENT

 

 

DECLARATION OF THE TEMPORARY GOVERNMENT OF MACEDONIA

 

To the Governments of the European powers

 

            The long lasting sufferings which the respectable governments have heard about from their representatives, and which by now have reached a state of stressful despair, have obliged the inhabitants of Macedonia to take up arms in order to defend their lives, their honour and property. Calling a meeting today the representatives of the various communities in Macedonia, overthrew the Sultan’s tyrannical authority, declared the union of Macedonia with mother Greece, and chose us in order to form the Temporary Government of the revolution with the obligation to ask from the Christian super powers their mighty protection for the justification of our fight…(Macedonia) is ready to be freed and connected to mother Greece, even if it needs to be delivered to fire and disaster rather than continue living under the tyranny of various Turkish notables. They destroyed and violated the honour and sanctity of family life. All promises and obligations that the Turkish authorities gave to its subjects have proved by now to be nothing more than purposely sly and deceptive. The Turkish government has several times granted rights but tyranny has never been loosened. On the contrary, our misfortunes became endless and horrible because this government has neither power nor authority. Therefore, we were forced to seek our arms so that we may die as men as Greeks if we are not allowed to live like logical and free men.

 

[Signed] In Litohoro, Mt. Olympus [on] 19^th February, 1878 [by the members of]

 

The Temporary Government of Macedonia:

 

Evangelos Korovangos, President;

A. Asteriou;

G.V. Zahariadis;

Nikiforos, Monastic priest;

Athanasios Georgiou;

Ioannis G. Vergidis;

Giannis Nikolaou

 

We ask the Consul General of Greece to read [and transmit] the present document.

 

CONSULATE’S LETTER

 

 

 

Pages 81, 84, 116, and 117

From the book:

Macedonia, Macedonian Struggle, Greece-Macedonia 4000 Years

By: Konstantinos Douflias, Historian-Folklorist-Journalist

1992

Aegean Publications

 

Book is available in Greek and English.

 

Thanks to Christos

Tags: 1878, asteriou, consul, Douflias, georgiou, government, Greece, macedonia, nikolaou, olympus, temporary, unification, vatikiotis, vergidis, zahariadis

1. Modern writers about the Bulgarian origin of FYROMs Slavs - John Foster Fraser 

2. Modern writers about the Bulgarian origin of FYROM slavs - Keith Brown

3. Modern writers about the Bulgarian origin of FYROMs Slavs - Francis Seymour Stevenson

4. Modern writers about the Bulgarian origin of FYROMs Slavs - William Miller

5. Modern writers about the Bulgarian origin of FYROMs Slavs - Kemal H. Karpat

6. Modern writers about the Bulgarian origin of FYROMs Slavs - Isaac Asimov

7. Modern writers about the Bulgarian origin of FYROM slavs - Ashmead-Bartlett Ellis

8. E. G. Ravenstein in 1877 - No “Macedonians” but Bulgarians

9. French consul in 1831: Macedonia consists of Greeks and Bulgarians

10. Foreign consuls about Macedonia in 1903

11. Linguist Vladimir I. Georgiev “Introduction to the History of the Indo-European Languages” 

12. Linguist A. Vaillant, “Le probleme du Slave Macedonien”, 1938

13. Linguist Fr. Scholz, “Slavische Etymologie”, 1966

14. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 1994

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18. The outgoing Turk : impressions of a journey through the western Balkans (1897) 

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20. C.M. Woodhouse,The Struggle for Greece 1941-1949

21. Allen Upward, The East End of Europe, London 1908

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23. Loring Danforth,The Macedonian Conflict. Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World

24. Edward J. Erickson - Defeat in Detail: The Ottoman Army in the Balkans, 1912-1913″

25. Arthur Douglas Howden Smith, “Fighting the Turk in the Balkans: An American’s Adventures with the Macedonian Revolutionists”, 1908

26. N.S. Derzhavin, “Bulgaro-Serb Relations and the Macedonian Question”, (1918)

27. Elisabeth Barker, “Macedonia, its place in Balkan power politics”, 1950

28. John Van Antwerp Fine, The Early Medieval Balkans: a critical survey from the sixth to the late twelfth century

29. John G. Leishman, US Ambassador to the Sublime Porte (1900 - 1908)

30. Dimitar Miladinov letter

31. The Nationalities of Europe, Robert Gordon Latham ,1863

32. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics

33. Tom Gallagher - Outcast Europe

34. James Pettifer - The New Macedonian Question (St. Antony’s)

35. Emily Greene Balch - Our Slavic Fellow Citizens

36. A. and C. Black - Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, 1838

37. Francis Galton - Vacation Tourists and Notes of Travel in 1860

38. Albert Sonnichen - Our Slavic Citizens, 1910

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40. M. MacDermott - For Freedom and Perfection. The Life of Yane Sandansky, 1988

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43. Brace, Charles Loring. The races of the old world :a manual of ethnology, 1863.

44. William Zebina Ripley - The races of Europe :a sociological study - 1910

45. Isaac Aaronovich Hourwich - Immigration and labor. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1912

46. Sir George Campbell, 1824-1892, The races, religions, and institutions of Turkey and the neighboring countries

47. Turkey in transition (1909) Abbott, G. F.

48. Turkey and the Eastern question ([1913]) Macdonald, John, M. A

49. Henry Bernard - shade of the Balkans: being a collection of Bulgarian folksongs and proverbs, 1904

50. Peter Roberts - Immigrant races in North America - 1910

51. Hugh Pulton, Who are the Macedonians

52. McWhorter, John, The Power of Babel

53. Mark Mazower, Salonica City of Ghosts

54. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2007 edition

55. “The Burden of the Balkans” By M. Edith Durham 1863-1944

56. “The Balkan Peninsula”, by E. de Laveleye, 1887

57. Anastasia Karakasidou - Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood

58. Barbara Jelavich - History of the Balkans

59. Villari, Luigi - The Balkan question; the present condition of the Balkans and of European responsibilities (1905)

60. William Milligan Sloane - The Balkans : a laboratory of history - 1914

61. Verkovitch - Bulgarian popular songs in Macedonia

62. Francis Galton - Vacation Tourists and Notes of Travel in 1860

63. The Bulgarians and Anglo-Saxondom 1919

64. Reports of the US Immigration Commission 1911

65. Foreign newspapers of 19th/20th c. about Macedonia

66. Sojourners and Settlers: The ’Macedonian’ Community in Toronto to 1940” by Lillian Petroff

 67. The South Slav Conflict: History, Religion, Ethnicity, and Nationalism’ by Raju G. C. Thomas, H. Richard Friman - 1996

68. “Handbook for travellers in Greece:describing the Ionian islands,the kingdom of Greece,the islands of the Aegean Sea with Albania,Thessaly and Macedonia” - 1854

69. Tito and the rise and fall of Yugoslavia by Richard West

70. Encyclopaedia of Chicago by James R. Grossman

71. Foreign newspapers of 19th/20th c. about Macedonia

72. The Sultan and His Subjects - Richard Davey, 1897

73. The Museum of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art - 1834

74. Twisting the words of Finlay

75. Ilinden Pension Plan - Buying the Memories

76. A Frenchman in Macedonia of 1854

77. Makedonien,landshafts und kulturbilder - 1927

78. “National Histories, Natural States” by Robert Shannan Peckam

79. Forty Years in Constantinople by Edwin Pears 1916

80. The Edinburgh Review 1901

81. American Foreign Relations 1913

82. The American Review of Reviews Causes of the Balkan Wars 1912

83. Protestant Mission Among the Bulgarians - William Paine Clarke 1909

84. Researches in the highlands of Turkey - 1869

85. The Death Knell of Empire by H.G.Wells

86. Thessaloniki and it’s Geography 1839

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88. Cosmopolis 1897, An International Monthly Review

89. By-Paths in the Balkans 1906

 

Tags: 1831, 1860, 1863, 1877, 1887, 1897, 1910, 1911, 1919, 2007, abbott, american, Arthur Douglas Howden Smith, babel, balkan question, Balkanologist, balkans, britannica, bulgarians, consul, consuls, durham, edith, Edward J. Erickson, Elisabeth Barker, foreign, francis, francis seymour, french, fyrom, galton, George h. Blakeslee, georgiev, history, isaac asimov, Ivan Kochev, jelavich, john foster fraser, John G. Leishman, karakasidou, keith brown, kemal h. karpat, laboratory, laveleye, linguist, loring danforth, luigi, macedonia, macedonian blog, mazower, mcwhoter, N.S. Derzhavin, peninsula, pulton. roberts, question, races, ravenstein, richard davey, salonica, scholz, shmead bartlett ellis, slavic macedonians, slavische, sofia, songs, southern slavs, sultan, taylor, tourists, turks, vaillant, verkovitch, villari, Vladimir Sis, william miller, William Milligan Sloane

From “Voyage dans la Macedoine” by Cousinery Consul-General of Thessalonike, 1831

Tags: bulgarians, consul, cousinery, greeks, macedoine, salonica, Thessalonike