![Letter from Kiril Dramaliev according the cultural authonomy in Pirin Macedonia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Letter_from_Kiril_Dramaliev_according_the_cultural_authonomy_in_Pirin_Macedonia.JPG)
Ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria ( mk, Македонци во Бугарија, Makedonci vo Bugarija) are a group in
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
concentrated within
Blagoevgrad Province
Blagoevgrad Province ( bg, област Благоевград, ''oblast Blagoevgrad'' or Благоевградска област, ''Blagoevgradska oblast''), also known as Pirin Macedonia or Bulgarian Macedonia ( bg, Пиринска Маке ...
and the capital
Sofia
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...
. According to the
Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee is an independent non-governmental organization for human rights founded on July 14, 1992 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Its main objectives are protection and promotion of human rights in Bulgaria. With more than 30 associat ...
in 1998, their number ranged from 15,000 to 25,000.
In 2006, per the personal evaluation of a leading local ethnic Macedonian activist Stojko Stojkov, they counted already between 5,000 and 10,000 people. The 1992 census indicated 10,830 Macedonians, but in the 2001 census this figure had decreased to 5,071. However in the 2011 Bulgarian census 1,654 people declared themselves to be ethnic
Macedonians, while in 2021 only 1,143. They are not recognised as an ethnic minority but were recognised as such between 1946 and 1958.
During this period there was a surge of
Macedonistic policies, the government went as far as to declare the newly codified
Macedonian
Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia.
Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to:
People Modern
* Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North M ...
an official language of the Pirin region. The
Bulgarian Communist Party
The Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP; bg, Българска Комунистическа Партия (БКП), Balgarska komunisticheska partiya (BKP)) was the founding and ruling party of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1946 until 198 ...
was compelled by
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
to accept the formation of a distinct Macedonian nation, in order to create with the Yugoslav and Greek communists a
United Macedonia
United Macedonia ( mk, Обединета Македонија, ''Obedineta Makedonija''), or Greater Macedonia (, ''Golema Makedonija''), is an irredentist concept among ethnic Macedonian nationalists that aims to unify the transnational region ...
n state, as part of a scheduled
Balkan Communist Federation
The Balkan Federation project was a left-wing political movement to create a country in the Balkans by combining Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey.
The concept of a Balkan federation emerged in the late 19th century from ...
.
Although at the
1934 census, no Macedonians were recorded in Bulgaria, at the 1946 and 1956 censuses, the results indicated their number of almost 190,000. There are clear indications that the majority of the population from Blagoevgrad Province then was listed as ethnic Macedonians ex officio by order of the authorities.
[Ulrich Büchsenschütz - "Minority Policy in Bulgaria. BKP policy to Jews, Gypsies, Turks and Pomaks (1944-1989), p. 5 (in Bulgarian: Улрих Бюксеншютц - „Малцинствената политика в България. Политиката на БКП към евреи, роми, помаци и турци (1944-1989)“, стр. 5)](_blank)
Even today, it is not clear whether Bulgaria has a significant number of people who feel themselves "Macedonians", although the results of Census 1956 indicate the number of almost 200,000 (see Table. 5). These results, however, are grossly falsified - at that time on the population of Pirin Mountain exercised massive pressure to identify itself as "Macedonian". (in Bulgarian:''До днес не e ясно, дали в България има значим брой хора, които се чувстват като "македонци", макар резултатите от преброяването през 1956 г. да посочват техния брой на почти 200000 (виж табл. 5). Тези резултати обаче са грубо фалшифицирани - в онова време върху населението на Пирин планина се упражнява масивен натиск да се признаят за "македонци".'')
However, differences soon emerged with regard to the
Macedonian question
The region of Macedonia is known to have been inhabited since Paleolithic times.
Еarliest historical inhabitants
The earliest historical inhabitants of the region were the Pelasgians, the Bryges and the Thracians. The Pelasgians occupied E ...
. Whereas Bulgarians envisaged a state where Yugoslavia and Bulgaria would be placed on an equal footing,
the Yugoslavs saw Bulgaria as a seventh republic in an enlarged Yugoslavia.
[H.R. Wilkinson ''Maps and Politics. A Review of the Ethnographic Cartography of Macedonia'', Liverpool, 1951. pp. 311–312.] Their differences also extended to the national character of the
Macedonians – whereas Bulgaria considered them to be a national offshoot of the
Bulgarians
Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe.
Etymology
Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely understo ...
,
[Yugoslavia: A History of Its Demise, Viktor Meier, Routledge, 2013, , p. 183.] the Yugoslavs regarded them as people who had nothing to do with the Bulgarians.
[Hugh Poulton ''Who are the Macedonians?'', C. Hurst & Co, 2000, . pp. 107–108.] Thus the initial tolerance for the Macedonization of Bulgarian Macedonia gradually grew into open shift of that policy, hence since such a nation and language did not exist before 1945, they do not exist at all.
Today the Bulgarian authorities deny any existence of ''Macedonian minority'' in the country, claiming there is no ethnic difference between both communities, while Skopje insists on the presence of such separate community, with some circles stating on 750,000 ''oppressed Macedonians'' there.
Background
Until 1913 the majority of the
Slavic-speaking population of all three parts of the
region of Macedonia
Macedonia () is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time; however, it came to be defined as the modern geographical region by the mid 19th century. T ...
identified as
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
.
[Center for Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe](_blank)
- Southeast Europe (CEDIME-SE) - Macedonians of Bulgaria; Greekhelsinki.gr In
October
October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and the sixth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. The eighth month in the old calendar of Romulus , October retained its name (from Latin and Greek ''ôct ...
1925
Events January
* January 1
** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria.
* January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Italia ...
the Slavic population in the Bulgarian part of Macedonia repulsed
a brief invasion by Greece, fighting alongside the Bulgarian army. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, most parts of Yugoslav and Greek Macedonia were annexed by Bulgaria, and the local Slavic-speakers were regarded and self-identified as
Macedonian Bulgarians
Macedonians or Macedonian Bulgarians ( bg, македонци or македонски българи), sometimes also referred to as Macedono-Bulgarians, Macedo-Bulgarians, or Bulgaro-Macedonians are a regional, ethnographic group of eth ...
. Not until much later did the process of Macedonian national identity formation gain momentum.
After 1944, the
People's Republic of Bulgaria
The People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB; bg, Народна Република България (НРБ), ''Narodna Republika Balgariya, NRB'') was the official name of Bulgaria, when it was a socialist republic from 1946 to 1990, ruled by the ...
and the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...
began a policy of making Macedonia a connecting link for the establishment of new
Balkan Federative Republic
The Balkan Federation project was a left-wing political movement to create a country in the Balkans by combining Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey.
The concept of a Balkan federation emerged in the late 19th century from ...
and stimulating there a development of distinct
Slav Macedonian consciousness. The
Communist Party of Greece
The Communist Party of Greece ( el, Κομμουνιστικό Κόμμα Ελλάδας, ''Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas'', KKE) is a political party in Greece.
Founded in 1918 as the Socialist Labour Party of Greece and adopted its curren ...
as well as its fraternal parties in Bulgaria and
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
, had already been influenced by the
Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
and it was the only political party in Greece to recognize Macedonian national identity. The region of Vardar Macedonia received the status of a
constituent republic
Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...
within Yugoslavia, the
Socialist Republic of Macedonia
The Socialist Republic of Macedonia ( mk, Социјалистичка Република Македонија, Socijalistička Republika Makedonija), or SR Macedonia, commonly referred to as Socialist Macedonia or Yugoslav Macedonia, was ...
, and in 1945 a separate
Macedonian language
Macedonian (; , , ) is an Eastern South Slavic language. It is part of the Indo-European language family, and is one of the Slavic languages, which are part of a larger Balto-Slavic branch. Spoken as a first language by around two million ...
was codified. The local Slavic population was proclaimed to be ethnically Macedonian - a new nationality meant to be different from the Bulgarians or
Serbs
The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language.
The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
.
History
Recognition of the minority
For a period of some years after the war, the Yugoslav and Bulgarian leaders
Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
and
Georgi Dimitrov
Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov (; bg, Гео̀рги Димитро̀в Миха̀йлов), also known as Georgiy Mihaylovich Dimitrov (russian: Гео́ргий Миха́йлович Дими́тров; 18 June 1882 – 2 July 1949), was a Bulgarian ...
worked on a project to merge their two countries into a Balkan Federative Republic according to the projects of
Balkan Communist Federation
The Balkan Federation project was a left-wing political movement to create a country in the Balkans by combining Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey.
The concept of a Balkan federation emerged in the late 19th century from ...
. As a concession to the Yugoslavian side, Bulgarian authorities agreed to the recognition of a distinct Macedonian ethnicity and language as part of their own population in the Bulgarian part of geographical Macedonia. This was one of the conditions of the
Bled agreement, signed between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria on 1 August 1947. In November 1947, pressured by the Yugoslavs, Bulgaria also signed a treaty of friendship with Yugoslavia, and teachers were sent from the Socialist Republic of Macedonia to Blagoevgrad Province to teach the newly codified Macedonian language.
The Bulgarian president
Georgi Dimitrov
Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov (; bg, Гео̀рги Димитро̀в Миха̀йлов), also known as Georgiy Mihaylovich Dimitrov (russian: Гео́ргий Миха́йлович Дими́тров; 18 June 1882 – 2 July 1949), was a Bulgarian ...
was sympathetic to the
Macedonian Question
The region of Macedonia is known to have been inhabited since Paleolithic times.
Еarliest historical inhabitants
The earliest historical inhabitants of the region were the Pelasgians, the Bryges and the Thracians. The Pelasgians occupied E ...
.
The Bulgarian communist government was compelled once again to adapt its stand to Soviet interests in the Balkans.
At the same time, the organisation of the old nationalist movement the
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization
The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO; bg, Вътрешна Македонска Революционна Организация (ВМРО), translit=Vatrešna Makedonska Revoljucionna Organizacija (VMRO); mk, Внатр ...
(IMRO) in Bulgaria was suppressed by the Bulgarian communist authorities.
Reversal of recognition
However, differences soon emerged with regard to the
Macedonian question
The region of Macedonia is known to have been inhabited since Paleolithic times.
Еarliest historical inhabitants
The earliest historical inhabitants of the region were the Pelasgians, the Bryges and the Thracians. The Pelasgians occupied E ...
. Whereas Dimitrov envisaged a state where Yugoslavia and Bulgaria would be placed on an equal footing and Macedonia would be more or less attached to Bulgaria, Tito saw Bulgaria as a seventh republic in an enlarged Yugoslavia tightly ruled from Belgrade.
Their differences also extended to the national character of the
Macedonians – whereas Dimitrov considered them to be an national offshoot of the
Bulgarians
Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe.
Etymology
Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely understo ...
,
Tito regarded them as an independent nation which had nothing to do with the Bulgarians.
Thus the initial tolerance for the
Macedonization
Macedonian nationalism (, ) is a general grouping of nationalist ideas and concepts among ethnic Macedonians that were first formed in the late 19th century among separatists seeking the autonomy of the region of Macedonia from the Ottoman Emp ...
of
Bulgarian Macedonia
Pirin Macedonia or Bulgarian Macedonia ( bg, Пиринска Македония; Българска Македония) (''Pirinska Makedoniya or Bulgarska Makedoniya'') is the third-biggest part of the geographical region Macedonia (region), Mac ...
gradually grew into outright alarm. As result gradual change of that policy came in Bulgaria after the
Tito–Stalin split
The Tito–Stalin split or the Yugoslav–Soviet split was the culmination of a conflict between the political leaderships of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, under Josip Broz Tito and Joseph Stalin, respectively, in the years following World W ...
in 1948.
Macedonians in Bulgaria wishing to join Yugoslavia reportedly conducted guerilla warfare in 1951. About 400 Macedonian prisoners were being held in the
Belene labour camp
The Belene labour camp, also referred to as Belene concentration camp, was part of the network of forced labour camps in Communist Bulgaria. It was located on the Belene Island, between two branches of the Danube river. At the height of Valko Cher ...
in 1951. Modern sources maintain that resistors to the anti-Macedonian policy formed organizations and were sent to Belene. However, another modern sources clarify, such people were in fact not ''ethnic Macedonians'' who wish to join Yugoslavia, but
IMRO
The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO; bg, Вътрешна Македонска Революционна Организация (ВМРО), translit=Vatrešna Makedonska Revoljucionna Organizacija (VMRO); mk, Внатр ...
right-wing activists, supporters of the idea about an
Independent Macedonia. Some of them formed
anti-communist detachments, while others were arrested by the communist authorities and
interned in labour camps. At that time in the Pirin region didn't crystallize such significant collective identity, which may be qualified as a Macedonian minority.
A change of policy came in 1958.
At the plenum of the
Bulgarian Communist Party
The Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP; bg, Българска Комунистическа Партия (БКП), Balgarska komunisticheska partiya (BKP)) was the founding and ruling party of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1946 until 198 ...
held the same year, the decision was made that the Macedonian nation and language did not exist. Afterwards, the teaching of the Macedonian language was discontinued and the Macedonian teachers from Yugoslavia were expelled.
Since 1958, Bulgaria has not recognized a Macedonian minority in the Pirin region and in the following ten years, the 178,862 strong Macedonian population fell to just 1,600.
The March Plenum of the Central Committee of the BCP openly denounces any notion of "a separate Macedonian nation" in Bulgaria. However, in 1964 four people were tried for writing: "We are Macedonians" and "Long live the Macedonian nation" on a restaurant wall.
After fall of communism
Since the fall of
communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
in the early 1990s various associations have been set up to represent the minority, these include the association United Macedonian Organisation (UMO-Ilinden), the political party
United Macedonian Organisation: Ilinden–Pirin (UMO Ilinden-Pirin) and the
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation - Independent (IMRO-I) .
These organizations have called for the restoration of rights granted to Macedonians during the 1940s and 1950s.
However, such organizations in Pirin were restrained by Bulgarian authorities in the 1990s. Police also prevented ethnic Macedonians from commemorating
Jane Sandanski at his gravesite. The Republic of Bulgaria has not recognized the Macedonian language. However, in 1999 the linguistic controversy between the two countries was solved with the help of the phrase: "the official language of the country in accordance with its constitution". Since the early 1990s there has been much speculation as to the size of the minority. The
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
World Factbook
''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available ...
for the years 1992 - 1998 gave estimates between c. 221,800 – 206,000 or roughly 2.5% of the total population. No information is provided however as to how the data was acquired. Later editions, for example, the 2011 edition have not given a percentage for the Macedonians but have instead included them in the "Others" group, which comprises 0.7% of the population and includes, among others, Russians, Armenians and Vlachs.
Meanwhile, in 1999,
Ivan Kostov
Ivan Yordanov Kostov ( bg, Иван Йорданов Костов ) (born 23 December 1949, in Sofia) was the 47th Prime Minister of Bulgaria in office from May 1997 to July 2001 and leader of the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) between Dec ...
and
Lyubcho Georgievski, the prime ministers of Bulgaria and Macedonia respectively, signed a common declaration, which has proclaimed no Macedonian minority exists within Bulgaria.
In 2006, according to personal evaluation of a leading local ethnic Macedonian political activist Stoyko Stoykov, the present number of Bulgarian citizens with ethnic Macedonian self-consciousness is between 5,000 and 10,000. He has claimed that the result of the 2011 census, which counted only 1,654 Macedonians is a consequence of manipulation. Stoykov has explained that from this figure, even about 1,000 people were registered as Macedonia citizens. According to the
Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee is an independent non-governmental organization for human rights founded on July 14, 1992 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Its main objectives are protection and promotion of human rights in Bulgaria. With more than 30 associat ...
, the vast majority of the population in Pirin Macedonia has a Bulgarian national self-consciousness and a regional Macedonian identity similar to the Macedonian regional identity in
Greek Macedonia
Macedonia (; el, Μακεδονία, Makedonía ) is a geographic and former administrative region of Greece, in the southern Balkans. Macedonia is the largest and Greek geographic region, with a population of 2.36 million in 2020. It is ...
.
Moreover, the majority of Bulgarians believe that most of the population of North Macedonia is Bulgarian.
Census results
Government intervention
From 20 to 31 December 1946, the
People's Republic of Bulgaria
The People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB; bg, Народна Република България (НРБ), ''Narodna Republika Balgariya, NRB'') was the official name of Bulgaria, when it was a socialist republic from 1946 to 1990, ruled by the ...
conducted a
census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...
during which, on December 27 the governor of Blagoevgrad districts sent a telegram with an order all Bulgarians (excluding the ones migrated from other regions of Bulgaria) in the region to be counted as
ethnic Macedonians
Macedonians ( mk, Македонци, Makedonci) are a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group native to the region of Macedonia in Southeast Europe. They speak Macedonian, a South Slavic language. The large majority of Macedonians identif ...
, including the
Bulgarian Muslims
The Bulgarian Muslims or Muslim Bulgarians ( bg, Българи-мохамедани, ''Bǎlgari-mohamedani'', as of recently also Българи-мюсюлмани, ''Bǎlgari-mjusjulmani'', locally called ''Pomak'', ''ahryan'', ''poganets'', '' ...
. According to the census results 169,544 people of Bulgaria declared themselves to be ethnic Macedonians. Of the total 252,908 inhabitants of
Blagoevgrad Province
Blagoevgrad Province ( bg, област Благоевград, ''oblast Blagoevgrad'' or Благоевградска област, ''Blagoevgradska oblast''), also known as Pirin Macedonia or Bulgarian Macedonia ( bg, Пиринска Маке ...
160,541 or roughly 64% of the population declared themselves to be ethnic Macedonians. Other areas of Macedonian declaration was in
Sofia
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...
, in
Plovdiv
Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the c ...
, in
Burgas
Burgas ( bg, Бургас, ), sometimes transliterated as ''Bourgas'', is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the fourth-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, and Varna, with a popu ...
and a further were scattered throughout Bulgaria.
The forcible change of the ethnicity of the population was confirmed by the leader of the opposition party
"
Nikola Petkov
Nikola Dimitrov Petkov ( bg, Никола Димитров Петков; July 8, 1893 – September 23, 1947) was a Bulgarian politician, one of the leaders of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (usually abbreviated as BZNS). He entered polit ...
" who on 30 December 1946 stated that "the population is disgusted by this outrageous violation of conscience." This issue was confirmed by the
ex-president of the
Republic of Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
Petar Stoyanov
Petar Stefanov Stojanov ( bg, Петър Стефанов Стоянов ; born 25 May 1952) is a Bulgarian politician who was President of Bulgaria from 1997 to 2002. He was elected as a candidate of the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF). He di ...
and (аssoc scientist, Ph.D. in history), from the Regional Historical Museum of Blagoevgrad - where the document with the order is kept.
There are strong indications that the majority of the population from
Blagoevgrad Province
Blagoevgrad Province ( bg, област Благоевград, ''oblast Blagoevgrad'' or Благоевградска област, ''Blagoevgradska oblast''), also known as Pirin Macedonia or Bulgarian Macedonia ( bg, Пиринска Маке ...
was listed as ethnic Macedonians against their will in the 1946 and 1956 census.
In 1956, 187,789 people of Bulgaria declared themselves to be ethnic Macedonians. Of the 281,015 inhabitants of
Blagoevgrad Province
Blagoevgrad Province ( bg, област Благоевград, ''oblast Blagoevgrad'' or Благоевградска област, ''Blagoevgradska oblast''), also known as Pirin Macedonia or Bulgarian Macedonia ( bg, Пиринска Маке ...
, 178,862 people declared themselves to be Macedonians; a rate which stayed the same at roughly 64% of the population. Other areas of Macedonian declaration consisted of: 4046 from
Sofia
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...
, 1955 from
Plovdiv
Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the c ...
and the remaining 2926 were scattered throughout Bulgaria.
The change in the population came in 1965 census, when the people in the province declared free as Bulgarians, within ten years the 187,789 strong Macedonian minority fell to just 9,632 individuals.
The 1965 census counted only 9,632 people declaring themselves to be Macedonians.
While the number of Macedonians from other parts of Bulgaria did not change compared to previous censuses (c. 8-9,000), the number of Macedonians in the district of Blagoevgrad fell to 1,432 in the 1965 census. The Communist Party of Bulgaria insisted at the time that the process had been completed in a completely "free" manner, but 20 years later Zhivkov mentioned a "manoeuvre" he had employed, known only to four persons, to turn the all the population of the region of Pirin into Bulgarians "within a few days".
Government intervention withdrawn
In the 1992 census, 10,803 people declared themselves to be Macedonian. Of them, 3,500 registered Macedonian as their mother tongue. According to the President of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
Krasimir Kanev, the real number of Macedonians in Bulgaria varies from 15,000 to 25,000.
Results of the 2001 census in the Blagoevgrad region of Bulgaria.
As regards self-identification, a total of 1,654 people officially declared themselves to be ethnic Macedonians in the latest Bulgarian census in 2011 (0,02%) and 561 of them are in
Blagoevgrad Province
Blagoevgrad Province ( bg, област Благоевград, ''oblast Blagoevgrad'' or Благоевградска област, ''Blagoevgradska oblast''), also known as Pirin Macedonia or Bulgarian Macedonia ( bg, Пиринска Маке ...
(0,2%). There are 1,091 citizens of North Macedonia who are
permanent resident
Permanent residency is a person's legal resident status in a country or territory of which such person is not a citizen but where they have the right to reside on a permanent basis. This is usually for a permanent period; a person with such ...
s in Bulgaria.
Political representation
The
UMO Ilinden-Pirin UMO can refer to:
* Unknown Mortal Orchestra, a psychedelic rock band from New Zealand
* United Macedonian Organisation: Ilinden–Pirin, a Macedonian organization in Bulgaria
* University of Maine at Orono (unofficial abbreviation)
* Mozilla Add- ...
party claims to represent the ethnic Macedonian minority in Bulgaria. In 2007 it was accepted as member of the
European Free Alliance
The European Free Alliance (EFA) is a European political party that consists of various regionalist, separatist and ethnic minority political parties in Europe. Member parties advocate either for full political independence and sovereignty, ...
. On 29 February 2000, by decision of the
Bulgarian Constitutional Court, UMO Ilinden–Pirin was banned, as a
separatist
Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seeking greate ...
party, which is banned by the Bulgarian constitution, which also forbids parties on ethnic and religious grounds. On 25 November, the
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...
in
Strasbourg
Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
condemned Bulgaria because of violations of the UMO Ilinden–Pirin's freedom of organizing meetings. The court stated that Bulgaria had violated Act 11 from the
European Convention of Human Rights
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by t ...
. UMO-Ilinden has been accused of being funded by the Skopie government, which was confirmed by members of the party itself.
Many other Macedonian organizations have been set up since the fall of communism they include;
Independent Macedonian Association – Ilinden,
Traditional Macedonian Organization — TMO,
Union for the Prosperity of Pirin Macedonia,
Committee on the Repression of Macedonians in the Pirin part of Macedonia,
Solidarity and Struggle Committee of Pirin Macedonia, the
Macedonian Democratic Party and the
People's Academy of Pirin Macedonia.
Macedonian-language media
In 1947 the newspaper 'Pirinski Vestnik' (Pirin Newspaper)
was established and a "Macedonian Book" publishing company were set up.
These were part of the measures to promote the Macedonian language and consciousness and were subsequently shut down in 1958. In the early 1990s a new newspaper was established for the ethnic Macedonian minority in Blagoevgrad Province, it is called ''Narodna Volja'' and its main office is in
Blagoevgrad
Blagoevgrad ( bg, Благоевград ) is а town in Southwestern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of Blagoevgrad Municipality and of Blagoevgrad Province. With a population of almost inhabitants, it is the economic and cultural centre ...
. The ideology of the newspaper is similar to official state policies and
historiography in North Macedonia
Historiography in North Macedonia is the methodology of historical studies used by the historians of that country. It has been developed since 1945 when SR Macedonia became part of Yugoslavia. According to the Germans, German historian it has ...
. Among its main topics are the history and culture of Macedonia and the Macedonians in Bulgaria.
European Court of Human Rights Decisions and European Parliament
Macedonians have been refused the right to register political parties (see United Macedonian Organization Ilinden and OMO Ilinden - PIRIN) on the grounds that the party was an "ethnic separatist organization funded by a foreign government", something that is against the Bulgarian constitution. The constitutional court has not however banned the
Evroroma
Euroroma ( bg, Евророма) is the biggest political party representing the interests of the Romani people in Bulgaria.
Established on 12 December 1998, Euroroma is not strictly an ethnic party, as it is open to everybody who shares its id ...
(Евророма) and
MRF(ДПС) parties, who are widely considered as ethnic parties. The
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...
held "unanimously, that there had been a violation of Article 11 (freedom of assembly and association) of the European Convention on Human Rights."
In November 2006, the members of the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
Milan Horáček
Milan Horáček (born 30 October 1946 in Velké Losiny, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech-born German politician, a founding member of the German Green Party, a former member of the Bundestag (1983–1985) and a former Member of the European Parliament ...
,
Joost Lagendijk
Joost Lagendijk (; born 8 June 1957 in Roosendaal, Netherlands) is a Dutch politician who was a columnist with the Turkish dailies Zaman and Today's Zaman until these newspapers were closed by the Turkish government. From 2009 till 2012 he was ...
,
Angelika Beer
Angelika Beer (born 24 May 1957 in Kiel) is a German politician.
2004 to 2009 she was a Member of the European Parliament for Alliance 90/The Greens, part of the European Greens. She was chair of the delegation for relations with Iran and a membe ...
and
Elly de Groen-Kouwenhoven introduced an amendment to the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union protocol calling "on the Bulgarian authorities to prevent any further obstruction to the registration of the political party of the ethnic Macedonians (OMO-Ilinden PIRIN) and to put an end to all forms of discrimination and harassment vis-à-vis that minority."
On May 28, 2018, the
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...
made two decisive rulings against Bulgaria in violation of Article 11 (freedom of assembly and association) of the
. In the two rulings: Case of Vasilev and Society of the Repressed Macedonians in Bulgaria Victims of the Communist Terror v. Bulgaria (Application no. 23702/15); and Case of Macedonian Club for Ethnic Tolerance in Bulgaria and Radonov v. Bulgaria (Application no. 67197/13), the European Court of Human Rights unanimously ruled that Bulgaria violated Article 11 (freedom of assembly and association) of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and that Bulgaria must pay a collective total of 16,000 euros to the applicants.
Notable individuals
*
Dimitar Blagoev
Dimitar Blagoev Nikolov (, mk, Димитар Благоев Николов; 14 June 1856 – 7 May 1924) was a Bulgarian political leader and philosopher. He was the founder of the Bulgarian left-wing political movement and of the first social- ...
(1856–1924), political leader and philosopher
[Also considered/self-identified as Bulgarian.]
*
Krsto Enčev Krsto (Cyrillic script: Крсто), also Krste or Krǎstyo is a South Slavs, South Slavic masculine given name.
*Krsto Papić
*Krsto Ungnad
*Krsto Zrnov Popović
*Fran Krsto Frankopan
*Vuk Krsto Frankopan
*Krsto Hegedušić
*Krste Crvenkovski
*Krs ...
, co-founder of ''Narodna Volja'' ("People's Will") newspaper
*
Georgi Hristov, poet
*
Vasil Ivanovski
Vasil Atanasov Ivanovski (Bulgarian: Васил Атанасов Ивановски; 18 October 1906, Golovrade – 1991, Sofia) also known by his pseudonym Bistrishki, was a Bulgarian communist activist, publicist, "theoretician of the Macedonian ...
(1906–1991), journalist
[Добринов, Дечо. ВМРО (обединена), Университетско издателство "Св. Климент Охридски", София, 1993, стр. 226.][Also considered/self-identified as Bulgarian.]
*
Ivan Katardžiev
Ivan Katardžiev ( bg, Иван Катарджиев; mk, Иван Катарџиев) (January 6, 1926 – December 1, 2018) was a Macedonian historian. He was regarded as the country's most important expert on the Internal Macedonian Revolutio ...
(1926–2018), historian and politician
*
Jordan Kostadinov, ethnic Macedonian rights activist, co-founder of OMO Ilinden Party
*
Slave Makedonski, poet and writer
*
Venko Markovski
Venko Markovski (Bulgarian language, Bulgarian and mk, Венко Марковски), born Veniamin Milanov Toshev (March 5, 1915 in Skopje – January 7, 1988 in Sofia) was a Bulgarian and Macedonians (ethnic group), Macedonian writer, poet, Y ...
(1915–1988), writer, poet, and partisan
[Also considered/self-identified as Bulgarian.]
*
Krste Misirkov
Krste Petkov Misirkov ( bg, Кръсте (Кръстьо) Петков Мисирков; mk, Крсте Петков Мисирков, ; 18 November 1874 – 26 July 1926) was a philologist, journalist, historian and ethnographer from the regio ...
(1874–1926), philologist, writer, historian, and ethnographer
[Also considered/self-identified as Bulgarian.]
*
Katerina Nurdzhieva (1922–2018), ethnic Macedonian activist
[Also considered/self-identified as Bulgarian.]
*
Georgi Radulov, professor
*
Boris Sarafov
Boris Petrov Sarafov (Bulgarian and mk, Борис Петров Сарафов) (12 June 1872 in Libyahovo, Salonica Vilayet, Ottoman Empire, present-day Bulgaria – 28 November 1907 in Sofia, Bulgaria) was a Bulgarian Army officer and r ...
(1872–1907), IMRO revolutionary
[Also considered/self-identified as Bulgarian.]
*
Mihail Smatrakalev, poet and activist
*
Georgi Solunski, actor
*
Stojko Stojkov (historian)
Stoyko Ivanov Stoykov ( bg, Стойко Иванов Стойков; 26 October 1912 – 9 December 1969) was a Bulgarian linguistics, linguist, Slavist.
Biography
Graduated Slavic Philology at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", (1935). ...
, historian and journalist
*
Stefan Vlahov Micov, political activist
See also
*
Macedonian Bulgarians
Macedonians or Macedonian Bulgarians ( bg, македонци or македонски българи), sometimes also referred to as Macedono-Bulgarians, Macedo-Bulgarians, or Bulgaro-Macedonians are a regional, ethnographic group of eth ...
*
Bulgarians in North Macedonia
Bulgarians are an ethnic minority in North Macedonia. Bulgarians are mostly found in the Strumica area, but over the years, the absolute majority of southeastern North Macedonia have declared themselves Macedonian. The town of Strumica and its ...
*
Macedonian Question
The region of Macedonia is known to have been inhabited since Paleolithic times.
Еarliest historical inhabitants
The earliest historical inhabitants of the region were the Pelasgians, the Bryges and the Thracians. The Pelasgians occupied E ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
Notes
External links
OMO Ilinden-Pirin- The site of the banned ethnic Macedonian party in Bulgaria.
Center for Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe-Southeast Europe - Comprehensive study done by the Greek Helsinki Monitor on the Macedonians in Bulgaria.
Narodna Volja- Macedonian Newspaper for Theory, History, Culture and the Arts.
Bulgarian Subject Files - Social Issues: Minorities: Macedonians Blinken Open Society Archives
Blinken Open Society Archives (abbreviated as Blinken OSA) is an archival repository and laboratory that aims to explore new ways of assessing, contextualizing, presenting, and making use of archival documents both in a professional and a conscio ...
, Budapest
{{Portal bar, Bulgaria
Macedonians
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
Blagoevgrad Province
Bulgaria–North Macedonia relations