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»№*ы{|}lЏ3©®™ (Тортурач) |
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Публикувано | 01.04.04 21:56 |
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Henry Bogdan: "From Warsaw To Sofia" 1989
The Macedonian Problem
The Congress of Berlin had left Macedonia to the Turks, to the great disappointment of the Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians, each of whom claimed legitimate rights to the territory. Before the Turkish conquest, the area belonged to the Byzantine Empire and was frequently under Bulgarian and Serbian attack. By the early 20th century, Macedonians numbered about three million, living in the Vardar Valley and the surrounding mountainous regions. They were divided into three main nationalities: a Greek majority lived on the Aegean coast with the port city Salonika, with islands of Turks and Bulgarians; Serbs were present throughout the interior of the country, with a high concentration around Skopje, but were usually a minority in the interior compared to the Bulgarian population; Bulgarian influence was great, and strengthened noticeably with the creation of an independent Bulgarian exarchate in 1870, with jurisdiction over all of Macedonia. Besides these three major nationalities making up roughly four-fifths of the population, there were a multitude of other ethnic groups: Albanians and Vlachs in the mountainous regions, and Turks, Armenians and Jews in the cities.
The liberation of Bulgaria in l885 raised great hopes in Macedonia at a time when local intellectual circles were becoming more and more conscious of a "Macedonian" entity. Bulgarian influence grew even stronger with the formation in 1893 at Salonika of IMRO, the Interior Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. IMRO organized sporadic terrorist attacks and assaulted Turkish authorities. As the century opened, the entire interior was ripe for insurrection. On August 2, 1903, IMRO launched a massive uprising known as the Saint Elias' Day (Ilinden) rebellion. It involved all of
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Macedonia and extended into Thrace. The Turks reacted with brutality, and thousands of Macedonians fled into Bulgaria. The Great Powers were divided on the Macedonian question: Great Britain wanted to see major reforms in Macedonia; Austria-Hungary and Russia, who were attempting to mend their relationship, agreed at Murzteg not to intervene but to ask the sultan for a few token reforms. Bulgarian neutrality on this matter led to dissent within the IMRO and a splintering along ethnic lines. Some of the Macedonian revolutionaries turned toward Belgrade, and in 1910 at Skopje founded a Macedonian socialist group advocating a Balkan federation with room for an independent Macedonian republic. Others remained faithful to Bulgaria, making the Macedonian question yet another subject of contention between Serbia and Bulgaria.
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