UDC 338.244.025.88 (497.

7)”1988/96”
330.567.2 (497.7) “1988/96”

Thiessen Ilka (Victoria, Canada)

IDENTITY WITH A PRICE:

CONSUMPTION AND THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF MACEDONIA

Abstract: As the disintegration of socialist Yugoslavia took place, the

overarching 'Yugoslavian' identity ceased to exist for most people within the
Macedonian Republic. Identity soon was based on the access to consumer goods.
From this a powerful transformation took place, transforming daily life and webs
of meaning. 'Identity' redefined internal and external boundaries. This article
illuminates the local dynamics and global forces of the disintegration of
Yugoslavia on a group of young female engineers in Macedonia in the context of
historical, political and economic processes. The research on which this article is
based ranges from 1988 to 1996.

Key words: identity, political economy, consumption, Macedonia

In the wake of the disintegration of Yugoslavia the small Republic of

Macedonia declared its independence in 1991. Its fundamental existence
contested by neighboring Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia, with an Albanian
minority within its borders seeking a reunion with neighboring Albanian and no
own military defense Macedonia is striving. Especially Skopje, the capital city
of the Republic of Macedonia, is a modern city today with international
agencies, international military and NGO personnel coloring the scene. Within
this world a young generation experiences new perceptions and interactions, a
generation that has been brought up in Socialist Yugoslavia and that have
become adolescent during the vital changes of a new country. My research that
spans from 1988 in Yugoslavia to 1996 in independent Macedonia looks in
particular at a group of young female engineers that entered university in
Yugoslavia and live today in a world that presents them with many new
unanticipated rules. I infer that this specific group is a key indicator of the
changes that have occurred. They represent the young urban socialist elite that
will or will not have great influence in the making of their new country. As
Macedonia is forming the interesting question arises what this new Macedonia is
going to look like. Far from trying to be a seer I would like to point out some
determinants that have become predominant during my research. As such, I am
going to argue in this article that the whole process of transformation in
Macedonia is, for the younger generation, largely defined by the introduction of
consumer culture. To a great extent their understanding of themselves is enacted
through their relationship to Western objects.
Consuming 'Western' goods

Consumer culture in Skopje, Macedonia, present itself as a silent

relationship, in that it is a relationship that is defined as 'normal,' as normal as it
is in any other Western country. Rausing notes for Estonia: "The dissolution of
the Soviet Union means that the national discourse of future goals has shifted
from a Utopian state, to a Western-identified 'normality.' The confines of being
defined as Western within the Soviet context, however, means that the changes
in material culture are greeted with less of the surprise, enthusiasm, or
confusion, than might be expected: the 'normal' or optimal reaction to the new
things is a silent appropriation, redefining the objects as already taken for
granted" (Rausing, 1998: 190). My friends, in identifying Western goods as
normal and not exotic, appropriate those objects1 in the same manner as the
Estonians appropriate Western goods, as something that has 'naturally' belonged
to them. However, this natural relationship for them derives, not from a
historical connection with Western Europe as for example Slovenia or Croatia
could claim, but through claims derived from their Yugoslav past, as a 'Western'
socialist country. In some ways this causes a perplexing contrast of thought in
which Macedonia cannot be readily compared to other post-socialist countries,
certainly not in the eyes of the people I came to know. For my friends,
Yugoslavia would have lead 'naturally' into the integration of Macedonia into the
Western world. With the disintegration of Yugoslavia this 'right' is seen as being
questioned by the European community, which today demands visas for
Macedonian citizens even though they once granted them free access. Access to
'western' goods and their appropriation as 'normal' then gains a high political
importance. It is not the access to 'Western' consumer goods, but the
recontextualisation of these objects, which allows my young friends to develop a
very specific meaning, one that has evolved from their particular memories and
aspirations. Just as a person's movement around the city determines that person's
place in society2, a person is also determined by the consumer objects s/he
purchases and uses.

'Western demands' as identity

What value do Western objects have for my friends? Simmel insists that
value is never an inherent property of objects, but is instead a judgement about
objects by subjects, and that these objects are valuable because they resist our
desire to possess them (Simmel, 1978: 67-73). As such I would like to follow
Appadurai's suggestion that looking at consumption should focus not only on the

1
Most of these consumer 'objects' had previously been brought in by guest workers or by
people traveling. However, in the new Macedonia these items gain a 'new' meaning since
the access to the countries that produce these objects has become very difficult.
2
For example, teenagers are in some ways defined by the fact that they frequent
different areas than their parents do.
aspect of sending social messages but also on receiving them and that demand
thus conceals two different relationships between consumption and production.
Demand is determined by social and economic forces just as it is manipulating,
within limits, these social and economic forces (Appadurai, 1986: 31). As my
friends are receiving the social messages of the new consumer goods imported to
Macedonia, the demand for these objects creates a new aspect of their identities
for them, that has social and economic implications. Consumer objects bring
with them images, stories and ways of living from 'outside.' Sometimes these
images become more real than 'real life' in Macedonia; these images are creating
a reality.
Often my friends referred to the world outside Macedonia as what
'should be' and the world in Macedonia as a circus mirror that obscures. These
consumer objects and their associated images become directly linked to people's
lives. The criteria of what matters have become extremely volatile and as a result
people are left with an uncomfortable ambivalence in directing their own
actions. Humphrey (1995), in discussing the consumer culture in Moscow, has
pointed out the uncertainties that may arise which make it virtually impossible
for her informants to know what one should or should not care about. In the
same manner, Rausings' Estonians struggle to construct themselves as 'naturally'
Western in order to guard themselves from the ambivalence between their Soviet
identity and their wish to be recognized as 'Western.' In Skopje, people's
relationship to their surroundings and to the people around them changes slowly
as the direction they take is towards the images of Western television. Friction
arises if these images do not coincide with life as it is experienced in the 'real'
world. The lives of my friend's parents do not correspond to these images which
cause friction, between the real and an imagined world, which, in turn, causes
turbulence in Macedonian society and the fluctuation, which results in
transformation. However, to say that a society is undergoing a transformation,
only hints at the enormity of the changes this process brings to the individual
lives of the people in that society. The transformation will alter personal
relationships with one's family, employer and even with strangers. It is a
transformation which occurs through the openings of independence of
Macedonia, Macedonia's break from socialist Yugoslavia and the embracing of
what people understand as new, modern and Western. It is the visibility, the
images on television and their enactment in the world of Skopje through the
purchase of consumer goods, and the emphasis on a body culture which causes
the changes. The rearrangement of such visibility consequently causes a
heightened sense of how appearance and self must be created and cultivated. To
create a 'self,' my friends are forced to create social relationships which conform
to their ideals and dreams. It is in the realm of the family that the first conflict
arises.
Many of my friends found that their family expected them to fulfill roles
which they felt to be incompatible with their 'new' self. However, at the same
time it is the family which, more than ever, gives them support and a sense of
security. Many of my friends have found it far more difficult to find a job than
their parents ever did. Those who find jobs do so through vrski, family
connections. It could be said that Macedonia's economy in Yugoslavia as today,
was largely based on this concept of vrski. In times when certain goods were not
available one had to rely solely on vrski. In an economical sense, vrski could be
described as barter and bribe. In times when the economy of Yugoslavia was
stagnating, especially in the 1980's, people needed to rely on family members
abroad and in the countryside to supply the world of urban Skopje with both
foreign and agricultural goods. Today this system persists, but I argue that the
meaning of the goods has changed.
There are goods that can be received through kinship from the
countryside, there are household goods that are received through kinship and
friendship with people in Germany, Italy or France and there are goods that can
be purchased through monetary means. I suggest that the last category creates
something beyond vrski, it creates an independent 'Western' ideal that stands in
direct opposition to vrski. This 'Western' world is a world of achievement.
However, it is a world that is very difficult to imitate given the economic and
political situation of Macedonia in which my young friends must depend more
than ever on the family and vrski. An additional difficulty for my friends is the
impossibility of finding independent housing. It is not possible to get mortgages
from banks as they do not offer any of the usual services such as loans or even
bank accounts. Bank accounts were closed in 1991, all savings were frozen, and
only exist as numbers on pieces of paper. Most people store their money,
bundles of Deutsch Marks, in their homes, hidden in an obscure cupboard. When
the German bank changed its banknotes and I brought the new money back to
Skopje, the mother of a friend fell crying on a chair, shattered, because she
believed that all the money she had saved, every Dinar of which she had
changed into Marks, was now worthless. It took some time to reassure her that
her money was not lost again. In this situation, the modern way of delaying
marriage until one is financially secure, is obsolete and meaningless. The desire
for independence and individual preferences cannot be considered. It is very
difficult for young Macedonians, despite the intensity of their desire, to emulate
the lifestyles they see in American television programs which show young
people leaving their parents to start an independent life. Only if their parents are
wealthy, have some family property, or belong to the new elite of “bisnes
coveks”, business men, is it possible for a son or daughter to move out. If they
are most fortunate, they may move to one of the nice apartments in the newly
built houses that are appearing everywhere on the Skopje skyline.

The political economy of 'lifestyle'

It has become necessary to stay at home, submit to your role as a son or

daughter and hope that you will find yourself a wife or husband who has their
own flat. If not, as a woman you might find yourself moving straight into your
husband's parents' house as their daughter-in-law. All of my friends found this
situation in direct opposition to the image they aspired to: the image they saw as
modern and West European3. This situation, close family links and obedience to
one's parents, is common in many societies, but my friends rejected this way of
living. They had thought that this way of life, which they associated with their
grandparents, was passé, at least in the urban environment of Skopje unless you
were Albanian.
My friends believed that this way of life was not meant for them and
their desire to recreate themselves as modern citizens of an independent
Macedonia, created pressure at home which they sought to escape and possibly
negotiate through their love of foreign consumer goods.
There is a distinction between 'liking nice things' and the meaning that is
applied to those 'things.' To like and want to have a jumper is one thing; to want
it so much that you are prepared to spend a month's salary on it, is another. Not
all my friends spent money in this way all the time, but they certainly all felt it
was more than acceptable behavior. When I asked about specific purchases, I
would often be told that, unlike their situation in Macedonia, it would be easy
for me to buy the item in Germany. The explanation given for this inequity
would be that there is greater freedom in Germany; it would not be said that
Germany is simply a far richer country. Their idea of 'freedom' was contrasted to
the lack of freedom they experienced at home where they were not able to do
what they wanted to do4. What they wanted to do was be like 'everybody else,'
that is, like people their own age in England, Germany or America. I was told
many times by numerous people: 'All I want is a decent life.' They feel their
difference from the young people they see on Western European television. On
television young people of their age live by themselves or with friends, manage
their own household, have jobs they chose and applied for, have hobbies and a
'lifestyle'. They have their own money with which the can buy whatever they
want. They travel and know many interesting people and places. My friends,
however, are constantly scared to lose what they have: peace, money through the
devaluation of currency, ideals and dreams. Buying expensive consumer goods
today gives them a feeling of security about tomorrow. After all, by tomorrow
those goods might be out of reach forever. So their shopping gains a certain
sense of urgency. This not only affects my young friends, but also their parents.
Like their children, their parents want to see their children have 'a decent life.'
Their parents see this as being achieved through consumption. The parents
themselves, however, rarely buy consumer goods for their children, nor are they
necessarily willing or able to deplete household resources in order to buy
anything that is beyond necessity. They would for example buy a winter coat for
their daughter, but would not be willing to buy a 'Western' designer coat. The

3
Many of the images to which they aspire are from American television. However, the
'ideal' world for them is Western Europe. America is often accused of social Darwinism
and seen as only interested in themselves.
4
This relates to the different generational meanings of 'freedom'.
daughter however might add her salary to the money her parents put aside to buy
the coat she wants.
The images from Western Europe and North America which my friends
see on television support them in their quest to control their lives: they want to
become those images in order to escape to a different world. This world should
not be understood as simply an illusion as it indeed exists. It creates a particular
reality, a reality that presents my friends with a mixture of old Yugoslavian
values with a new meaning inspired through Western consumer goods and
images from which my friends create their personhood.
In the years following the fracturing of Yugoslavia, the appearance and
practices of people in the street and, accordingly, the appearance and practices of
my friends have changed, while social categories have not. This situation was
described by a friend as:
"...it is hard to express these thoughts, it seems things changed, but
words have not. I do not know what is right or what seems wrong. My parents
know things, I know them too, but they do not fit with what is today, but then
there is nothing else either, it is not like we have different ideas on things. My
words do not express what I think anymore."
In this time of uncertainty, where words are not adequate to convey
thoughts, objects and their consumption provide the sought after guidance. In
this world, it is not ideology or ideas, but material objects which represent my
friend's dreams and fears. It is the valued perfume, sweater or brassiere with an
English, French or American label which provides guidance in the search for
defining oneself beyond the limited definition of the daughter, beyond the
identification bestowed from your village, beyond being an engineer and beyond
being Macedonian. Consequently, cargo cults, seen as social movements that
intensely centre their symbolism on European goods which are difficult or
impossible to attain under current social and economic circumstances5, come to
mind. The cargo cults function in a symbolic replication of European
consumption thereby promising the arrival of 'Europeaness.' The goods that
symbolize this 'Europeaness' can be seen as symbols of specific aspects of
European life, that is prosperity, power and 'happiness.' As a social practise,
consumption is more extensive than what is described in the cargo cults in the
South Pacific. The idea of 'cargo cult' is an image in itself and lends itself to us
to describe different aspects of global exchange (see Lindstrom, 1993).
Consumption in Skopje creates consumption objects that are not defined through
their utility within this global exchange but through the role they play in the
symbolic system of identity formation.

Food and belonging

Consideration of the issue of food, its consumption and the ambivalence

of the younger generation's social practices provides insights. This generation is

5
See Peter Worsley, 1968.
altering the social order within the city. On a visit to Berovo where I stayed with
grandmother Baba Mare, I began to understand the meaning of the food which I
was repeatedly offered on my visits to Macedonian homes. At breakfast, when I
ate a combination of eggs, eggplants, garlic, peppers and tomatoes, Baba Mare
pinched my cheeks and said, not so much to me but to the other members of the
family, 'She is Macedonian. She eats peppers and tomatoes with us, she is one of
us.' 'One of us' was a much used and highly significant expression for
Macedonians in relation to 'outsiders.' One of the first questions asked of the
person introducing me was always, 'Is she one of us?' to which my host replied,
'No, she is not one of us.' On my first visits to people's homes I would, with
formality, be offered slatko, a sweet, usually young figs, apricots, strawberries or
other fruit which had been cooked many times in sugar. Only morsels of slatko
were eaten at any one time and were followed by a big gulp of water, as slatko is
extremely sweet. Offering slatko is a traditional Macedonian custom6 and a sign
of great hospitality. It is also a source of immense pride for every domacinka,
female head of the household, who prepares her own slatko. Nevertheless, I was
told that offering slatko is a Turkish custom and as a Turkish custom, the source
of many 'Macedonian' customs, it is a constant reminder of 500 years of
'Ottoman oppression.7' As such, these old traditions have two meanings: they
define 'who you are,' but they also identify past oppression. It is felt by my
young friends, who are still very proud of their mothers' slatko, that an
independent Macedonia needs different traditions, so now it is often the case that
a formal visitor receives sweets bought in the Duty Free Shop.
When I began to eat regularly in a household, and thus, to regularly eat
the staple dish of peppers and tomatoes, I became more like a 'real' Macedonian.
The classic pepper and tomato dish is ajvar, which is made at harvest time, and
is seen as making a true Macedonian. Ajvar has come to represent the extended
family to the people of urban Skopje who gather once a year to cook it. In jokes
referring to the possibility of a Serbian invasion, people loved the idea of every
single Macedonian standing up for their country and, due to a lack of any
weapons, throwing tomatoes at the Serbian army. Tomatoes and peppers are the
staple ingredients in Macedonia today and are, in fact, the country's lifeline.
Besides watermelons, grapes, poppies, tobacco and some fruit, agricultural
production in Macedonia is based on peppers and tomatoes. The dismantling of
Yugoslavia left Macedonia with a very one-sided economy, a situation that, if it
is to be changed, will require revolutionary measures.
Rakia, or schnapps, is another strongly codified medium of Macedonian
social exchange, the consumption of which turns out to be a statement about
gender. Just as the domacinka is proud of her home-made slatko and the whole
family takes pride in its ajvar, the domacin, male host takes pride in his home-

6
Offering of slatko is indeed found in most Mediterranean countries, such as Greece,
Bulgaria or Turkey.
7
No one in Skopje failed to make mention of the Turkish occupation and oppression of
Macedonia that resulted.
made rakia, made from grapes, plums or potatoes. Rakia, 'cleanser of the soul,' is
a very strong alcohol and seen as a man's drink - it is never offered to visiting
women while wine can be consumed by both sexes, the sweeter ones suitable for
women. Today however, the idea of sweetness is associated with excess,
indulgence and ottoman rule: very sweet treats such as Turkish delight or slatko
are associated with the Turkish rule. Instead it is fashionable for the young
women today to use 'sweetener' in coffee8. Beer is rarely drunk by women.
These gender divides are more rigid in the countryside, where it
sometimes is deemed unacceptable for a woman to drink any alcohol except
wine. The traditional food and drink create and recreate traditional social
relationships in a way that is largely implicit for the participants. The
introductions of imported consumer goods, because they arrive unencumbered
by tradition, therefore represent a contrast to the social relationships produced by
the consumption of traditional food.
Social norms for the consumption of food, are consciously altered by my
friends in Skopje who seek a 'more European style of living. 'Even though they
understand tomatoes and peppers, slatko, rakia and coffee as being important,
my friends insist on the past tense when referring to them and consider these
traditional foods and drinks representative of their childhood, their parents' and
their grandparents' generations and Yugoslavia. When Gell notes: "What
distinguishes consumption from exchange is not that consumption has a
physiological dimension that exchange lacks, but that consumption involves the
incorporation of the consumed item into the personal and social identity of the
consumer" (Gell, 1986: 112), he stresses the same intense relationship between
items consumed and the social identity of the consumer that I wish to stress for
my informants. Slatko, rakia and other traditional foods and drinks are still
consumed in Macedonia, but 'Western' consumer goods, food, material objects
and images transcend the merely utilitarian aspect of consumption goods, so that
they become something more like works of art, charged with personal
expression (Gell, 1986: 114). In 1988 I spent many long evenings with a group
of female friends in Skopje's cafés, drinking jupi or cokta instead of sprite or
coca cola which, imported from Greece, was only available in a few places. We
drank Turkish coffee or Nescafé. Today we order cappuccino, espresso and
banana milkshakes. In 1988 we spent many hours at each others homes, eating
kashakaval, a hard cheese and chickpeas, and had the coffee grains in our cups
'read' by male friends who would look deeply into our eyes when they told us
our future. Or we would simply indulge in straightforward muhabeti, the Turkish
word for socialising and talking sociably9. In 1996 we would stand outside Van
Gogh listening to loud music, drinking cocktails and 'meeting' people.
In Macedonia, food, what type you eat, how and when, defines your
gender, the level of formality in your relationship, youth and old age: it
8
The sweetener is used instead of real sugar and is a sign of western life style,
neglecting the 'opulence' of sugar.
9
See J. Cowan, 1990, p. 68ff, discussing the sociability of drinking coffee.
communicates one's origin and identity. In this context, the change of diet
undertaken by many of my friends becomes highly significant as my friends
consciously attempt to change their image of themselves through changes in
their eating habits. Macedonia has established an interesting compromise, in
terms of its identity, between its past as a part of Yugoslavia and its present as an
independent country. In the midst of the massive political upheavals my friends
are trying to make sense of the constantly changing and conflicting images of
what has been, what should come and what is coming.

Europe and America as Ideals

Western television and its associated images have become dominant in

Macedonia since the fall of Yugoslavia and are now central to family life. The
increase in openness which has occurred in Macedonia since the fall of
communism, has lead to a huge increase in the availability of pornography
which, in turn, has clearly lead to changes in people's perception of themselves10.
Pornography is easily accessible to anyone including children who can
watch pornographic films at three o'clock in the afternoon. Even though
pornography is seen as Western: images of naked women were already found on
crossword magazines in Yugoslavia despite party ideology. Today, however, as
pornographic films pirated from American satellite programs, can be seen at
local cinemas and on television, I suggest that the meaning of those images is
deeper than the one immediately assumed. Catherine Portuges refers to
pornography in Hungary: "In these and other works in which youthful bodies are
exhibitionistically fetishised, the ardently sought free-market economy is both
symptom and cause" (Portuges, 1992: 287). I, however, believe that for many of
my male and female informants, those images of naked bodies present not so
much women as objects, a point that is not easily understood either by male or
female informants, but represent a meaning that stands in connection with the act
of obtaining those films: pirating.
The act of pirating films from a satellite dish, is gaining access to an
objectified area of the world that is 'out there' and unreachable other than
through 'pirating:' the 'havenots' stealing from the 'haves.' The women in the
films are stereotypical American women by Macedonian standards; these
women represent America. To connect to this world is to consume their images
in a manner assumed to be 'Western:' detached consumption that objectifies
everything, only taking. Watching pornography is more than a symptom and
cause of a market economy, more than entertainment; watching pornographic
movies is an act of gaining access not to the object of the film itself but to the
act of watching it. While I lived in Skopje, male friends came to visit me, not for
a coffee and chat as I thought, but in order to tune in to the different

10
Something similar is reported by Sheena Crawford in her thesis Person and Place in
Kalavasos: Perspectives on Social Change in a Greek-Cypriot Village, 1985.
pornographic movies that were playing. My loud protestations were heeded but
not understood. They did not understand why I was upset as their understanding
was that I was from Germany and porn was a normal thing for me to watch.
Secondly, I was their friend and was not ready to share the freedom of living on
my own and my television, when they surely could not watch such films with
their parents and little sister at home. I had two things they saw as 'Western:'
choice and freedom.
By recreating themselves as modern consumers, my friends are
attempting to eradicate the differences between themselves and the West,
differences which have become increasingly skewed. Having been raised to be
proud of their Yugoslavian identity, the non-aligned nation, Macedonians,
citizens of a country which is no longer a 'model', the Switzerland of Eastern
Europe, find themselves disenfranchised.

Reaction to Macedonian Independence and the Fall of Yugoslavia

In the four years between 1992 and 1996, consumption became the key
feature of the 'new society' of Macedonia. This culture of consumption is
centered on the capital city of Skopje and developed at a time when many people
in Macedonia had to struggle to survive. Through the process of privatization
many people had lost their jobs as companies closed down; they had lost the
small amount of foreign currency because of the closure of bank accounts and
many people were barely surviving. Most people simply could not afford to buy
foreign consumer products. If my friends are working; they are employed in a
private company and their work is always related to, or directed towards,
Western Europe, the UN or an American aid organization. If they work for the
state, they complain about not having enough work, not having enough pay and
about widespread inefficiency. All of them, however, embrace the 'New
Macedonia' and its revised interpretations of past times and capitalism.
The lives of my friends in 1996 are bound up with the discussion of the
'new people,' those who are envied because they can afford the consumer culture
but are judged as stealing from the people. None of my informants would count
themselves in this category although they certainly aspired to the same
consumption patterns. The idea that earning money is a form of theft is, as Liseta
pointed out, an old concept from communist times, when making money for
oneself by securing a deal for one's company was seen as 'stealing from the
people.' Today, she commented, it is called good business. In fact, the old ideas
live alongside the new. The result of these conflicting ideologies, the
Yugoslavian ideology versus capitalism which is the true essence of independent
Macedonia, is evident in the constant talk of corruption. To steal is 'to be
corrupt,' but in today's Macedonia, stealing could just mean good business.
Rausing reports a similar concept in Estonia, where, despite the governments
commitment to the free market, the people who have been successful in it are
often seen as less 'Estonian' in people's imagination; very smart and with
dangerous connections. She says: "They seem already to belong to another
imaginary entity that is only partially contained by the entity of Estonia."
(Rausing 1998: 195). Similarly, the original Estonia symbolises for Rausing's
Estonians what Western Europe signifies for Macedonians: a specific type of
person, who has success through achievement and not through intelligent
manipulation. The latter is seen as an original Balkan trait.
The nouveau riche represent the typical Balkan personality and, in
addition, they do not conform with the existing socialist ideology in which this
class is seen as stealing from the common people. These two aspects come
together and create unfavorable conditions for the nouveau riche, thus
explaining, the lack of a drastic emergence of the nouveau riche as a class in
itself as Humphrey (1995) reports for Moscow.
These conflicting ideas about success and business have produced an
understanding of a means to success. Whilst previously people pooled their
cleverness, nowadays the kind of understanding required to run a business is
shared by only a few. For many of my friends, their parents and relatives, the
knowledge and experience they have acquired has become meaningless. In this
world, a polarization takes place that stands against socialist and 'European'
valued ideology, as both are seen as valuing equality in some way. The middle
class as 'Western' ideal has disappeared in Skopje before it had been formed.
Possibilities and the standard of living rises for a few people while for most
people, it declines. For my friends, it is in this world that the struggle of who
they want to be and who they can be, takes place. Shopping is the locus in which
this particular struggle becomes visible. Western television conveys an image of
the world where supermarkets predominate, where one just goes and get the
things one needs in five minutes.

Conclusion

Though life in Skopje looks very different to what is seen to represent

the 'Western World', my friends disregard this disjunction and interact with the
outside world as if it were actually available to them. It follows that economic
activity has intrinsic political and ideological value. If my friends browse
through shops in which they will never be able to afford to buy something, they
are, nevertheless, making a political statement. This intrinsic political statement
is determined by history, in this case the history of socialist Yugoslavia, as well
as by Western television and global consumerism. In socialist Yugoslavia it was
production that was glorified, whereas on Western television, glamour is
produced by speculative gains. Each value condemns the other, but promises the
same thing. In Skopje, the world of consumerism arrived because of risky
speculation and the contact this produced with the outside world embodies a
particular political/moral attitude. Shopping in Skopje is a political statement.
References:

Appadurai, A. 1986. Introduction: Commodities And The Politics Of Value. In

The Social Life Of Things: Commodities In Cultural Perspective (Ed.) A.
Appadurai. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gell, A. 1986. Newcomers To The World Of Goods: Consumption Among The

Muria Gonds. In The Social Life Of Things: Commodities In Cultural
Perspective (Ed.) A. Appadurai. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Humphrey, C. 1995. Creating A Culture Of Disillusionment: Consumption In

Moscow, A Chronicle Of Changing Times. In Worlds Apart: Modernity
Through The Prism Of The Local (Ed.) D. Miller. London: Routledge.

Lindstrom, L. 1993. Cargo Cult : Strange Stories Of Desire From Melanesia

And Beyond (South Sea Books. Honolulu: Center For Pacific Islands Studies
School Of Hawaii In Asian And Pacific Studies University Of Hawaii:
University Of Hawaii Press Center For Pacific Islands Studies School Of
Hawaiian Asian And Pacific Studies University Of Hawaii: University Of
Hawaii Press.

Portuges, C. 1992. Lovers And Workers: Screening The Body In Post-

Communist Hungarian Cinema. In Nationalisms And Sexualities (Eds.) A.
Parker, M. Russo, D. Sommer & P. Yaeger. London: Routledge.

Rausing, S. 1998. Signs Of The New Nation: Gift Exchange, Consumption And
Aid On A Former Collective Farm In North-West Estonia. In Material Cultures:
Why Some Things Matter (Ed.) D. Miller. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press.

Simmel, G. 1978. The Philosophy Of Money. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
 UDC 314.7:297(560:=163.3) „19“

Svetieva Aneta (Skopje, Macedonia)

ON THE MIGRATION OF THE BALKAN MUSLIMS AND OF THE

'NASHINCI' - THE TORBESH, POMAKS AND OTHER (TURKS) IN
TURKEY

Abstract: A large population of "Nashinci", Macedonians with Islamic faith that

live abroad are located in Turkey. This diaspora was created out of economic
and political reasons, especially in certain crisis periods, wars and expulsion
from the territory of ethnic Macedonia in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th
century. It is disturbing that in the '50ties and '60ties of the 20th century, during
the Socialistic Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, there was a huge migration of
Macedonians with Islamic faith towards Turkey. Whole colonies of "Nashinci"
can be found in cities such as Istanbul, Izmir, Bursa etc. as well as the smaller
ones as Akisar, Manisa etc. They are still speaking their mother tongue and
cherish their culture in a relatively close circle.

Key words: Macedonia, Turkey, Reka, Pijanec, builders, crafts, Nashinci,

Torbeshi, Pomaci, Turks, Islamization, cultural identity

ON THE WAY TO TURKEY VIA MACEDONIA

I remember vividly when there were strange events in the center of

Skopje in 1953-1955. I saw the kilometers long lines of man wearing old dark
clothes, many of them with black sawn hats, that were standing, kneeling or
sitting on the ground in front of the Turkish consulate that was located between
the old building where my family lived1 and the so called "Arab house"
(currently hotel Jadran). Some of them even slept here. I knew that they were
only 'some Turks' that were waiting for a permission to leave to Turkey. Skopje
people did not know who these Turks are, i.e. their ethnic name was taken for
granted. I watched these people every day, on the street, from the window and
from my terrace with a childish curiosity. This image raised a non-defined
feeling of 'meeting with the unknown', danger and fear, that are kept deep in my
memory. It is clear that what I describe were in fact the mass migrations of
Muslims from Yugoslavia. Local Muslims were the most numerous, they spoke
Albanian, Turkish and Macedonian, and originated from Macedonia.
Although the problem of migration of Muslims at the Balkans has been
examined by a number of authors from different aspects, and there are a number
of sources, still it has not been covered completely, and there are some new data

1
The street was called VIII Brigade, n. 12. The building was ruined by the earthquake in
1963. There is a parking at this site today.
that emerge. One is sure: the migrations of Muslims are a part of mass
movements in the 'dark parts' of Balkan history. The image is completed slowly
due to the published investigations of certain researchers that, starting from the
common moments of migration, focused upon following certain groups of
Balkan population with Islamic faith that moved in the space in a synchronized
way after the shrinking of the political map of the Turkish Empire, especially
after 1878.2
On their way Muslims stayed in Macedonia for a shorter or longer
period, and it had a function of a collective center of all Balkan Muslims. Part of
them have never reached their goal to leave to Turkey and have stayed in
Macedonia forever.
Migration of Balkan Muslims to Turkey and other countries of the
Islamic world is a complex process that took place in times of war, torture and
revenge of the 'winners' over the 'conquered" ones from the second half of the
19th to the middle of the 20th century. The author Safet Bandzovic described this
situation quoting two sentences from the military report of L. Trocki: "The
Christian allies in this war3 appear as barbarians in comparison to the Turks. The
proclaimed ideals that led them to war have soon turned into simple robbery,
massacre of 'the people of the Crescent" in the interest of the 'culture' of the
Cross".4
The whole process of incidental or periodical migration is
approximately one and a half century. The "Nashinci"5 were a part of the mass
migrations after 1878 and 1912, that aimed towards Turkey6 and other countries
of the Islamic world. The following mass migrations are again related to wars
(1918), as well as with the so called inter-state agreements for exchange of
Muslim and Orthodox Christian population signed between Bulgaria, Greece

2
Марија Пандевска, Присилни миграции во Македонија 1875–1881, Мисла – ИНИ,
Скопје 1993.
3
It is referred to the First Balkan War from 1912.
4
Safet Bandžović, Muslimani u Makedoniji i Prvi balkanski rat, Znakovi vremena, „Ibn
Sina“, Naučno-istraživački institut, Sarajevo, 10 november 2006, 15, 16 (footnote 41 -
Ratni izveštaj Lava Trockog – balkanski ratovi 1912–13, str. 174)
5
Besides the local names, this population uses a general ethnic name as a non-verbal
symbol of an ethnic and cultural proximity, which has most probably emerged as a
feeling of cultural closeness between Macedonians of both confession, way before the
creation of the Macedonian state. This ethnic name, "Nashinci" literally means 'our own'.
6
Мил. С. Филиповиħ, Етничке прилике у Јужној Србији, Споменица 25-
годишњице ослобођења Јужне Србије 1912–1937, Скопље 1937, стр. 409;
Александар Апостолов, Колонизација на мухаџирите во Македонија и
растројството на чифчиските односи од крајот на XIX век до 1912 година, Гласник
на ИНИ, IV, 1–2, Скопје 1960, стр. 113–138; Ејуп Мушовиħ, Југословенско
исељеништво у Турској, Зборник радова Етнографског института САНУ, књ. 12,
Београд 1981, стр. 65–76; Нина Сеферовиħ, Колонија херцеговачких муслимана у
Кајзерију у Палестини. Зборник радова Етнографског института САНУ, књ. 12,
Београд 1981, стр. 47–64.
and Turkey (Ney, 1919 and Lausanne, 1923). Based upon these agreements a
number of Balkan Muslims were taken from their birth places and transferred as
objects in other cultural areals, forced to start their life from scratch, if they
survived at all. In this sense the result of the agreements presented a break of the
continuity of the native Macedonian population with Orthodox Christian and
Muslim faith at the territory of whole Macedonia, especially the Aegean and the
Pirin part. The destiny of the Muslims from the Vardar region of Macedonia was
no better. In the frames of the above mentioned inter-state agreements is the
Agreement between the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Turkey concerning "issues
of mutual interest", signed in Ankara on the 28th of November 1933, as well as
the similar agreement signed by the Governments of the two countries that
referred to the migration of ethnic Turks and other so called Turks - i.e. Muslims
from the territory of South Serbia or Vardar Macedonia.7
During the wars a number of Muslims from the Balkan have lost their
property and their life, many of the moved towards the south of the Balkans, and
not all of them succeeded in reaching Turkey as their promised land. In those
wars all of ethnic Macedonia was a battle field, exposed to destruction by the
armies of the nationalistic neighbors and their European mentors. Having in
mind that the wars were in fact conquests, but were dishonestly presented as
'liberation', the Macedonian population from two major confessions suffered. At
the same time, as a result of wars, the demographic image of the country was
disrupted. According to a quoted newspaper article from 19138: "...In Skopje the
whole Albanian population which was pushed by the Serbian army, coming
from the north, seeking its salvation in fact found its death". However, it is a fact
that at the same time a major part of that population found salvation in
Macedonia. In the following military years after the First WW, Macedonian
Muslims - ethnic Turks and others that were identified with this ethnic name,
especially the local Torbesh, were forced to new migrations and were forcefully
taken out of their birth places, according to the nationalistic ideas of Greece,
Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia for creation of "big and pure nation-
states". This "nation-states" were created in a Balkan way, under the strong
influence of the ex-millet system where confession in the case of the national
Orthodox churches, have set the final tone to the national identity. During this
period, according to the official numbers of the Serbian administration, 300.000-
400.000 Muslims from Macedonia migrated from Macedonia that belonged to
Serbia.9

7
Hikmet Öksüz – Ülkü Köksal, Emigration from Yugoslavia to Turkey (1923–1960),
Turkish Review of Balkan Studies, Annual 2004–9, pages 158, 159.
8
Safet Bandžović, Muslimani u Makedoniji i Prvi balkanski rat, Znakovi vremena, „Ibn
Sina“, Naučno-istraživački institut, Sarajevo, 10 november 2006, 15, 16. The text is
contained under footnote 28: „Radničke novine“, br. 223, Beograd, 22 oktobar 1913.
9
Hikmet Öksüz – Ülkü Köksal, Emigration from Yugoslavia to Turkey (1923–1960),
Turkish Revew of Balkan Studies, Annual 2004–9, р. 159.
 Deplorably, in the 50-ties and 60-ties of the 20th century, when a state
has emerged (Democratic Federative Macedonia/People's Republic of
Macedonia) we can see a huge migration of Islamized Macedonian population
towards Turkey. Contrary to some authors that write positively about the relation
of the Macedonian authorities at that time towards those Muslims that migrated
to Turkey, the ethnographic material, as well as other data that refer to this issue
say the contrary. If the true lies on the side of folk telling, it would be difficult to
forgive Macedonian authorities from that time that had the role of executor of
the renewed 'old' agreements of the kingdom of Yugoslavia regarding the
dislocation of Yugoslav Muslims - so called Turks, among which most
numerous in Macedonia were the local Torbesh and Pomaks. This time the
"tradition of expulsion of Muslims" was continued by the Federative People's
Republic of Yugoslavia. The concrete Agreement on free emigration was signed
between Yugoslavia and Turkey in 1952.10 When it comes to Muslims from the
other Yugoslav republics and regions, this migration was known as
"muhadzirlak through a stay", while the 'station' was the People's Republic of
Macedonia that had the role of a temporary place to stay. The very name of the
Agreement ('free emigration') did not match the realistic situation that was not
free at all, but instead contained a number of mechanisms for forceful expulsion.
It is not difficult to answer the question why it was exactly Macedonia which
became a transit center of the Muslim migration to Turkey, if one knows that the
strings were pulled from Belgrade - the traditional location of the governance of
this part of Macedonian land, secretly implemented through the party's chiefs
that had high positions. A condition for receiving Turkish citizenship was to give
up the Yugoslavian one. Macedonian administration has implemented the orders
rigidly and in a servile way, which could be concluded from the interventions for
stopping the migrations, that were undertaken by the party's functionaries that
were Yugoslav Muslims. The answer that they received from the highest
Macedonian party leaders was that they take away the Yugoslav citizenship only
from the "real Turks", and nobody else!11 From today's perspective, it is clear
that this is a complete lie, well politically packed. In this sense it is difficult to
believe that some of those Macedonian leaders were worried about the migration
of the native Muslim population that spoke Macedonian, as some of the authors
of articles dedicated to this topic tried to convince us.12 This migration was
intensified after 1958 as well, when the migration from other Republics and
regions was complicated due to the pressure of the party's functionaries that

10
Idem, p. 172-173.
11
Safet Bandžović, Bošnjački muhadžiri u Makedoniji krajem XIX i tokom XX stoljeća,
Almanah, 21–22, Podgorica 2003, str. 193, 194.
12
Борче Илиевски, Политички, економски и просветни аспекти на иселувањето на
турско население од Македонија во педесеттите години на XX век, Историја, бр.
1–2, Скопје 2007, стр. 49–62; Глигор Тодоровски, Демографските процеси во
Македонија предизвикани од иселувањето на Турци во педесеттите години,
Гласник на ИНИ, год. 41, бр. 1–2, Скопје 1997, стр. 64.
were Yugoslav Muslims, as well as due to the complicated administrative
procedures. Still, the "Macedonian door" remained open. The primary, stricter
administrative procedures between the Macedonian authorities and the Turkish
consulate were quickly replaced by other - more liberal. It was sufficient to
arrive to Macedonia and to present a statement that they are "real Turks" as a
condition for their Yugoslav citizenship to be erased and to leave for Turkey.
This migration, with lower intensity, continued in the following years. One of
the consequences of the migration of ethnic Turks, the Torbesh and other
Muslims from Macedonia, in total of 127,000 persons13, was the important
number, of 20,440 persons - migrants from Kosovo, Sandzak, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Monte Negro and Southern Serbia, of which many have given up
their going to Turkey and stayed in the Macedonian villages and cities. From the
total of 20,440 Muslims from other Republics and regions of the Federative
People's Republic of Yugoslavia the majority were ethnic Albanians (10,643)
and Bosnians from Sandzak (5,276). Besides this number of migrants, in Skopje
and the Skopje region there were other 8,347 Muslims, according to data from
the registry of the State Bureau for Internal Affairs of the People's Republic of
Macedonia.14 Together with them the total number of Muslims settled from
Yugoslavia to Macedonia was 28,787. A smaller part of these persons however
moved to Turkey, but this did not make the flow of Muslim migrants to
Macedonia lower, since in the '50ties of the 20th century it only rose.15 The
migrants stayed in the half-empty or empty Turkish and Torbesh villages, as
well as in the cities through out Republic of Macedonia.
No matter how the Nashinci and the ethnic Turks left Macedonia,
whether it was voluntarily or forcefully, the ratio of ethnic communities has
changed, for the worse of the Macedonian population that spoke Macedonian,
from both confessions. In the censuses regarding this critical period, 1953-1971,
these changes are visible when it comes to the members of the
groups/communities that have Islamic faith. At the level of the whole country
one could see how the number of Turks 'melted', although before that the
number of Turks was enormous due to the fact that 'to be a real Turk' was a
condition for migration. The statistical analysis according to municipalities,
cities and inhabited places supports this phenomenon. As an example one could
take the municipality of Bitola where in 1953 there were 13,938 Turks while in
1971 only 3,904.16 Maybe the image given by the census is not realistic from an
ethnological point of view, since during the same period there is a tendency for
declaring a part of the ethnic Albanians, that previously declared themselves

13
Idem, стр. 68.
14
Idem, стр. 76.
15
Idem.
16
Census of the population and habitats, 1971. The population according to ethnicity in
the Socialistic Republic of Macedonia - according to municipalities, cities and
settlements. Статистички преглед 42, Републички завод за статистика, Скопје 1973,
стр. 10.
Turks. The example of the municipality of Bitola could not present this fact in a
satisfactory way, since at the same time (1953) the number of Albanians, 2,476,
hasn't increased much until 1971, and at that time was 3,221. The municipality
of Kumanovo is more interesting, where the number of Albanians from 5,416 in
1953 rose to 24,418 in 1971, while the number of Turks dropped from 19,487 in
1953 to 5,072 in 1971. Surely, in this particular case it is not only a matter of the
change of the ethnic name, but also a matter of a mass immigration of Albanians
from Kosovo in the period 1952-1970. This situation shows that one of the goals
of Belgrade was that Serbia, especially its southern part, together with Kosovo,
Metohija and Sandzak, as very important territories of the Serbian statehood, to
be cleaned from Albanians and other Muslims in a way that they would be
slowly directed towards Macedonia as a well known 'Balkan collective center'.
However, the lesson regarding ethnic cleansing was promptly learned by the
Albanians, so that others now can learn from them how an ethnic pure territory
is created, using a palette of new and old, cruel or sophisticated techniques of
extermination of the unwanted.

IMIGRATION TO TURKEY AND LIFE WITH MEMORIES OF

MEMLEKET17

The Balkan Muslims that went to Turkey tried really hard to find their
place 'under the sun' in the new motherland. All migrations, especially the last
one, has created huge colonies of Islamized Macedonians, that still speak
Macedonian and cherish their culture, even in closed circles. Such homogenous
settlements from immigrants from Macedonia can be found in major cities such
as Istanbul, Izmir, Bursa etc., as well as the smaller ones such as Akisar, Manisa
etc.18 When we talk about the cultural identity of the Nashinci19 (Torbesh,
Pomaks, and other Turks20 that speak Macedonian as their mother tongue and

17
Abdulah Škaljić, Turcizmi u srpskohrvatskom jeziku, Sarajevo 1985, s.v. memlèće,
memlèke, memlèket m (ar.) – (country, birth place).
18
Own field research in Turkey, in the '80ties of the 20th century.
19
Macedonians from all over ethnic Macedonia and in the diaspora use the ethnic name
NASHINCI to refer to themselves, no matter their confession. The term denotes a
belonging to a certain group, people from a certain village, settlement, city, ethnic area,
region or country, but always speak the same, Macedonian language, have the same or
similar customs, view of life and similar folk culture.
20
The domestic population that turned into Islam was identified with a number of
synonyms and egsonyms most of them with pejorative connotation, aiming to emphasize
the ethnic, religious and cultural borders between the neighboring endogamous and
religious groups. The most acceptable ethnic name for the Islamized from Macedonia
during the Turkish period and afterwards were Turk/Turks as a possibility for
identification with the Turkish Muslim state or according to the folk stance that "Turk
equals Muslim and vice versa". The same ethnic name was accepted by a number of
Albanian Muslims from Macedonia, as well as Roma Muslims. It was at the same time a
name given by their neighbors, the Orthodox Macedonians.
have Islamic faith), we have to mention those communities in the diaspora, their
relation towards the new motherland Turkey and their ties with the virtual and
real birth place in Macedonia.21
From the view-point of ethnology and socio-cultural anthropology, the
individual vivid ethnographic statements of the participants, as well as the oral
family and collective history of the migrants are crucial, the various forms of
contemporary urban and rural folklore, with a special place dedicated to oral
narration on events, crucial happenings or autobiographical memories. This
ethnographic narration on the migrations in certain elements matches the data
from literature and the sources, but at the same time a number of data seem
autonomous and often speak contrary to some official archive data, and in this
sense contrary to some scientific interpretation of events that are based upon
those sources. One could conclude for sure that the migrations are still a priority
topic in the stories of the Nashinci in Turkey although it is a matter of events
that happened more than half a century ago.
One of the first questions that we posed to the Nashinci was the
question of their reasons for migration. We got different answers. Most often:
"...I don't know, everybody went do did we", then: "We were right for Lazo
during the fight but were not right afterwards, he took away our live stock"22, or:
"...women were forbidden to put golden coins on the folk costume", or:
"...women were forced to take off their scarves"23, etc. The short and not so clear
answers show that the question is quite unpleasant for them. Still, the short
answers touched the key issue on the reasons for migration. According to direct
and indirect data from literature and according to the telling of the informants
from Macedonia and Turkey, one could conclude that there were few reasons,
one of them being the relation of the people's governance at that time. By the
behavior of the authorities one can conclude that the attitude of the recently
constituted federative state of the People's Republic of Macedonia towards this
expulsions of the population that were done without any reason, was quite
vague, so that many of the migrants even today accuse the authorities of
negligence and even forceful expulsion.
Contrary to the state archive documents that speak about free migration,
the guaranteed rights of the ones that are different according to faith and
nationality, the ethnographic materials show the situation in a different light.
Thus, from both sides, the Macedonian and the Torbesh/Turkish side, it is
confirmed that after the "liberation" of 1944/45, a mistrust slowly took place,
although a number of Turks did fight as partisans, and some villages, like Gorno
Vranovci, were important locations during the fight and for the administration
after the liberation. The fact that the 'people's government' did not have a clear

21
They were subjects of my research in 1984 and 1987, and I am grateful for their warm
welcome.
22
"Lazar" referrs to Lazar Kolishevski, General Secretary of the Communist Party of
Macedonia at that time.
23
Related to the ban of face and body covers for Muslim women.
attitude on the Nashinci/Turks is confirmed by elements from the speech of
Lazar Kolishevski in relation to the migrations, in 1954, where he says: "...lastly
the feeling that a part of the Turkish minority has understood our community as
their own, since this minority is still Turkish, they are members of certain
nation...". This is how the initial small stone started to roll and the future
migration commenced, that increased year by year. The mistrust was a reason
due to which Macedonian Muslims with Macedonian mother tongue have
accepted the motto "All Turks in Turkey". Simultaneously with the manifest and
hidden pressures that were made in relation to the expulsion of Muslims, there
were also personal motifs, so that the reasons were obviously complex and a
result of a number of factors. The ethnographic statements show that the key
factors for the migrations changed depending on the angle of individual
interpretation of the events. In this sense, it seems that the economic factors for
migration are not well analyzed. For example, one older informant that
remembers the migrations well24, says that in the background of the ethnic
conflict that was created during the 1950-ties were material interests of
individuals, that secretly made fortune from buying and selling the property of
the Muslims and the ethnic Turks. Namely, an important number of ethnic Turks
and 'Nashinci" sold their property hastily and cheaply. Others were forced to
leave their houses without any money for it. The sales was done to private
persons so that the participation of the 'zadrugas' and the state up to 1956 was
none or minimal.25 In such conditions individuals could attain valuable movable
and mobile and immobile property through buying or exchange of gold for
foreign currency. At the same time there were strict customs controls for the
migrants and they could not transfer foreign currency, gold or jewelry across the
border above the legally prescribed limit. Informants recall how they found ways
to transfer to Turkey at least a part of the non-declared goods, like golden coins,
through sawing them in domestically made objects. For example women would
incorporate the dollars into the rag-carpets, while the golden coins were hidden
in domestic soaps and the wooden shoes' hills. They tell about a Turk from
Pijanec near Delchevo, who filled the cow's stomach with golden coins and
transferred it over the border. Since the politics of the communism (i.e. pseudo-
communism) was generally against the 'rich', the buyers freed themselves from
the 'excess' property by re-selling it, and then they turned/washed the money into
"invisible richness", or legal investments. The informant says that the main
source of the Turks' misery were exactly these traders that ignited ethnic and
religious intolerance among the population. It started spreading without any
control that resulted with individual incidents. It seems that no one thought about
the source of evil, how, why and when it all started. The participants in the

24
Mudzaid Asimov, professor of Turkish language at the Institute of Ethnology and
Anthropology, ethnic Turk from Bitola, now retired.
25
Борче Илиевски, Политички, економски и просветни аспекти на иселувањето на
турско население од Македонија во педесеттите години на XX век, Историја, бр.
1–2, Скопје 2007, стр. 57.
incidents forgot their good relation with their neighbors, the mutual cooperation
in the bazaar, in the village, the cities' ethnically mixed mahalas, the baklava and
the red Easter eggs, the common children plays etc. The violent beatings among
children and youth in Macedonian cities and Turkish mahalas in almost all
Macedonian cities started. Special ways of dealing with Turkish kids were
invented. For example, when the Turks came at the "City circus" in Skopje to
buy tickets, the children from Debar maalo boosted that they don't buy tickets,
but they enter through secret holes. After persuading them they would lead them
to secret places and would beat them. A witness of such an extreme situation
was a child from Skopje26 who together with the children from the Debar maalo
in Skopje went to gather newspapers at the City stadium.27 There was a fight
with the young Turks from the settlements over the river Vardar that arrived
before them and already gathered the newspapers. There was running and
chasing, and all young Turks have escaped except for one. He was severely
beaten and molested.28 At that moment an older man passed by and asked them
why the child was beaten. When he heard that he was a Turk he said - "If that's
so, then kill him!". Surely this did not happen, but severe beating was more than
enough. Still, based upon this example we cannot generalize that the incidents of
this type were every-day events in Macedonia, since there were also contrary
examples. Thus, in Pijanec (Delchevo area)29, the Pomaks/Turks left on their
own free will. They sold their property cheaply to immigrants, Macedonian
Christians from the mountain villages, some even gave them away to neighbors
or friends - Macedonians or just left.30 The new Christian owners of the ex-
Pomak/Turkish property in return, besides their family name, added the name or
the nick-name of the Turk from whom they bought/received/taken the property.
There are numerous examples of the above mentioned, such as Karasmanec
Boris31, a number of persons from the village of Virche32 (Blazzo Karagjozo,
Odzogliite, Kosta Odzata, Koste Jasharo33) etc. Until today friendships are
maintained both at the birth places of these people and among their decedents in
Turkey. They visit and respect each other.
Besides the more recent migrations of the '50ties and the '60ties of the
20th century, a part which is intrinsically linked to this 'migration saga' are the
previous migrations, starting from the volunteer individual and family ones from
the 19th century, until the forced ones after 1878, the Balkan wars and the First

26
Blagoja Levajkovic, born in the village of Marino 1941, lives in Skopje, retired.
27
Newspapers were sold cheaply to the shopkeepers for packing products, since after the
war there was no special paper for this purpose.
28
The witness of this event was the youngest in the group and stood scared observing the
event from aside.
29
Own field research in Pijanec, 1996.
30
Idem, 1996.
31
Village nick-name of Milchevski Boris from the village of Stamer.
32
According to Dimitar Uzunski, teacher from the village of Trabotivishte (1996).
33
Kiro Ilievski from the village of Virche.
world war. During our visit of the 'Nashinci' in Turkey, in 1984 and 1987, there
were still living old people from both genders that survived the migrations from
1924-1936 and told their stories about those times. Only the oldest migrations
from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century remain a mystery.
However, soon it was clear that those events were orally transmitted and
remained vivid in the memory of the migrants, in a number of family, group,
individual, rural and urban biographical and ethnographic narrations. One of the
most important parts of the old migrants were their pioneering mission in the
Torbesh immigration to Turkey, as well as their preparedness to accept the new
immigrants and to alleviate the crisis transfer from the old homeland to the new
one. They were the basis for the new immigrants.
The information of "Nashinci" (the Torbesh, Pomaks and other Turks)
proves that they migrated mainly due to economic and political reasons. The
oldest individual and family migrations resulted from poverty and insecurity in
the homeland. In this sense, a part of the old migrations from the 19th century are
a result of the seasonal stay in Turkey due to economic migration, which in time
turned into a lasting stay. There is a vivid story that the ancestors of today's
Turks in Macedonia arrived on foot in Turkey to work during winter from St.
Dimitar to St. George, since the climate was mild. The trip included two phases:
first they went to work in Drama and Kavala and from there they went to
Istanbul. From Istanbul they continued to Izmir, Manisa, Akisar, Bursa etc., as
far as Anatolia. The economic migrants from Western Macedonia and the Veles
area worked mainly as construction workers. It was common that they remain in
Turkey five, ten and more than ten years.34 There are family stories that it was
common before leaving for work in Turkey to borrow a golden Turkish lira from
the richest person in the village, giving a word that the year after he would be
returned two golden liras. But this was not so simple and many did not keep the
promise. The economic migrants returned to their birth places after long stays in
Turkey until the Balkan wars (1912-1913). Afterwards the reasons for their
migration were more of political than of economic nature. After the Balkan wars
the borders of the new Balkan states were marked and the free movement was
complicated. During this period a certain number of economic migrants invited
their families to Turkey and they settled there.
The 'Nashinci' that migrated to Turkey worked mainly in the
construction business, since they traditionally knew this craft and have worked
in construction as seasonal economic migrants.35 Ali Osman Kuprulu36 from

34
Own field research in Izmir, Manisa and Akisar, Republic of Turkey, 1984, and 1987,
in the frames of the International project "Folklore of the Juruks in Macedonia and of the
migrants from the Socialistic Republic of Macedonia in Turkey". Partners: Institute of
Folklore "Marko Cepenkov", Skopje and Milli Folklor Araştirma Dairesi, Ankara.
35
Анета Светиева, Реканско-дебарската и велешката градежна традиција на иселе-
ниците од СР Македонија во Турција, manuscripts, 19 pgs., a part of the complete
manuscript of the a/m project, prepared for print in 1998 but never published.
Vodovrati, Veles area, speaks on the good sides of this craft: "One of the three
madzirs that came in 1928 from the village of Vodovrati asked: 'What did you
do in Vodovrati?', I told him: 'I was a construction worker, I made houses, but
nobody knows me here..' - 'If you are a construction worker you have a golden
bracelet on your arm', he said". The migrants were helped mostly by their
relatives in friends that were already known in Turkey as good construction
workers. The ones that did not know the language and did not have their own
people in Turkey started as assistants. From the autobiographical narration of
Islam Aksu37 we understand that although he had mastered the craft started as an
assistant in Turkey that carried the plaster, since he did not know the Turkish
language. In one moment, when the main mason and the others around noon
went to the usual prayer, Aksu finished the wall alone, using stones and bricks.
The main mason was surprised by his work and said "take the hammer and
build"! The knowledge of the construction craft helped them to provide housing.
The migrants helped each other through collective work. When someone would
gather money, 5-6 masons from the same village gathered and built the house in
one day. The second and the third day the roof and the plastering took place etc.
Together with the migrant Muslims from Bulgaria, they constructed illegal
houses for their families. They started building the house at midnight and by the
morning they would finish the phase where people could move in and started
living in it. This construction method, known as 'gedze kondu'38, was specific
since the whole work was done at night, so that the masons could only rely on
their feeling of touch and space. They also used a thread and a measuring device
and kept track of the measurements. Even in such conditions they succeeded in
building straight walls. During the first years after the settlement they did not let
women out of their houses, but in time this rule faded and women started
working in the near-by manufactures and factories.
In the past but also today the 'Nashinci' cherish their ties to the
homeland. This reffers to old migrants and their ancestors born in Turkey, while
the word memleket is pronounced with high emotions. Memleket is reflected in
the landscapes and names of places from the stories that they tell and the songs
that they sing. In spite of the fact that they arrived in Turkey aiming to become
'real' Turks some inner forces tied them to their birth places. If one takes into
account that in the new environment they were pressed by Turkish culture, it can
be concluded that they instinctively developed cultural resistance or on the
contrary there was preparedness for accepting elements of Turkish culture. In
this gap between two cultures a lot of cultural values of the Nashinci

36
Ali Osman Kuprulu (old family name Aliov Amitov), born 1919 in the village of
Vodovrati, Veles area, migrated in 1956. Lives in Manisa. Profession: mason. Data from
Manisa, 1987.
37
Islam Aksu (old family name Seljami), born 1919 in the village of Zirovnica, moved
1957. Lives in Manisa. Profession: mason and construction bussinessman. Data from
Manisa, 1987.
38
It means 'overnight' - explanation given by Mudzaid Asimov.
disappeared, but in a wonderful way a lot of the folk culture, beliefs, customs,
music folklore and oral folklore from the old homeland remained. If we also take
into account that no one from the state of Macedonia was interested in them, a
question is posed if they stayed tied to their culture and their identity, or their
identity stayed tied to them. Fatma Dalgch from Melnica39 speaks about this
situation on positioning of two cultures. Speaking about the wedding ritual of
putting on the folk costume of the old homeland she says: "The population here
laughs at us. You will put on everything, and the coat above..". It was surely not
easy to be laughed at, but they still did it their own way. The fact that there was
an awareness regarding the uniqueness of the people and folk culture of Reka is
proven by the statement of another informant, originating from the village of
Boletin40, who said: "People here thought that we would be their servants, but it
turned the other way round!... Today our people, from our motherland Reka -
Zirovnica, Rostushe, Boletin, Vidushe, Trebishte, Janche, Velebrdo, Skudrinja -
are specialists stone masons..".
In a strange way their homeland lives in their names or family names. It
is told that when they arrived they had to change their old family names with
new ones, and thus choose abstract, geographical or other similar terms that
would sound 'Turkish'. If they could not choose themselves, the officials would
do that for them. But many have chosen family names related to their old homes.
Such are: Balkan, Kuprulu (from Veles), Uskupli (from Skopje), Aksu (location
Bela Voda in the village of Zirovnica41), Shar42 (family names of Torbesh-
Gorans), Debreli (for the ones that came from Debar or Debar area), Vardar
(along the river Vardar)43, and many, many others.
The vitality of Macedonian language is also fascinating, in homes and
on the street, in the settlements of the migrants from Macedonia. The
Nashinci/Turks tell that when they arrived in Turkey they faced the problem of
complete ignorance of Turkish language, which resulted with misunderstandings
and comic situations. They make jokes on their own account and tell anecdotes
in the sense of "He is Turkish, but he cannot speak Turkish". The above
mentioned informant from the village of Boletin tells: "A Turk says to me: 'You
should speak Turkish'. 'Why - I say - why is that bothering you?' 'I am not
bothered - he says - but the children are'. 'OK I say, I understand, but would you
answer me how is it possible that children from a house where no Turkish
language was used are now studying at the University?"

39
Old family name Maloska. Recorded in Akisar, 05.04.1987.
40
Haki Balkan (old family name Mahmudi), born 1915 in the village of Boletin, Western
Macedonia. Recorded in Manisa, Turkey, March 1987.
41
Zernonica is the original name of the village. Today's name Zirovnica dates from the
time of Serbian administration in Macedonia (1912-1940).
42
From the name of Shara mountain.
43
Dzevad Dzulioski, from Debar, has noted a number of such family names of 'Nashinci'
in Turkey in 1986.
 On the other hand not everybody is as self-assured and proud as the
'people from Reka'. Some are still doubting and still wondering who they are,
although they live in Turkey where no one officially questions their Turkish
identity. There is a wide-spread story that their ancestors were "real Turks" when
they arrived ("as conquers") in Macedonia, but there they forgot the Turkish
language and could not transfer it to their children. This story could be also
heard in Macedonia, with the Islamized that declare themselves Turkish, for
example in the village of Debreshte (Prilep area), Plasnica (Lower Kichevo)44, in
Skopska Torbeshija and other places. This folk legend is also present in an
article on the relation religion-national identity, where the accent is put on the
will of those who prefer to be Turks, but at the same times there are no data on
the ones that declare themselves Torbesh or Macedonians with Islamic faith and
Macedonian language.45
Still, a question remains opened, who are the 'Nashinci' in Turkey, and
if they have an awareness of themselves as a separate cultural and ethnic
identity. At the moment when you think that the answer has been grasped,
something appears that brings you back to the beginning. This is the doubt that
lingers, "who we are, what we are?". Isn't that doubt a historical fact,
deliberately produced when Macedonians are in question? The answer is yes, but
the consequences that arise contain all possibilities for manipulation. In this
sense, the conversations with the Nashinci in Turkey are even more confusing.
We thought that they left since as Muslims they could not be anything else but
Turks. At first glance it seems that they didn't have any dilemmas regarding this
issue. The legislation of Turkey that did not recognize any minorities also
'cemented' this feeling. Almost all of our colleagues, ethnic Turks - academic
citizens from Ankara, that cooperated with us during field research, openly
mocked the policy of our state for recognition of minorities. The official state
attitude towards minorities in Turkey is strict even today, which is confirmed by
the fact that 80% of the population is Turks.46 The difference between the
attitude of Turkey and some other Balkan states (Greece, Bulgaria) that lead
aggressive politicks and intolerance towards anyone that is different, is that the
Turkish immigration policy supports good attitude towards the one that have
migrated into Turkey, since after their arrival in time they might become 'real
Turks', and if this does not happen in one generation then it will happen in the
next one. In Turkey no one forbade the Nashinci to speak their own language
and practice their cultural traditions, but here the story ends since each attempt

44
Newspaper article by Panta Dzambazovski - We are Turks but we don't speak Turkish.
Plasnica and Preglovo on the crossroad (II), Nova Makedonija, 9th of July 1994,
Saturday, pg. 4.
45
Baskin Oran, Religious and National Identity Among the Balkan Muslims: A Compa-
rative Study on Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Kosovo.
http://www.ceri- sciencespo.com/publica/cemot/text18/oran18.pdf (4.12.2008).
http://www.ceri- sciencespo.com/publica/cemot/text18/oran18.pdf
46
http://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tu/html (2. 10. 2008).
for ethnic differentiation would be crashed by Turkish legislation. Up till now
we haven't heard of such an attempt, since the Torbesh, Pomaks and others left
Macedonia on their own will to become Turks and think that they have achieved
that goal. But we have just red that at least a part of them still says: "our people,
from our homeland, Reka!". What is the conclusion? In history and in the
present many Macedonians have lived through the same thing and were torn
between what has been ascribed to them as identity by other states, and their
personal feeling which sent them other signals. This makes us so vulnerable,
prone to manipulations and politization when it comes to ethnic identity. In this
sense the Nashinci with Islamic faith are also prone to temptations, in their
country47 but also in the neighboring countries48 and in the diaspora.
For us, as researchers from Macedonia, it was fascinating that in certain
locants49 in the suburbs of certain Turkish cities we could meet middle-aged and
young man drinking tea, coffee and play shesh-besh speaking in pure
Macedonian language. Macedonian can be heard in cities' settlements, since
when they arrived they collectively settled, according to their birth place. Our
colleagues from Ankara have also faced another, different Turkish culture,
where group life and contacts with the homeland have weakened the process of
assimilation.50 During the first decades after the immigration they were still
endogamous. Maybe there was no other way since on the other side the Turks
showed resistance towards the language and culture of the migrants. Slowly the
process of 'Turkeyzation' began and introducing Turkish language as a parallel
one in the family and in the group. New generations, descendants of the

47
Анета Светиева, Политизација на етничкиот идентитет на Торбешите („нашин-
ците“). In: Огледало за „потчинетите“ и „понижените“ на Балканот, ЕтноАнтро-
поЗум, 4, ИЕА, Скопје 2004, стр. 50–74.
48
An ethnic group of Nashinci/Torbesh, so called Gorans from the Shara mountain area
of Gora, separated with a state border between Albania and Serbia (now Kosovo), in
Albania they are Albanians, while in Serbia they were (or part of them still are) Serbs.
Another (bigger) part of this ethnic group of Nashinci/Golobrdci from the area of Golo
brdo, in Albania, are Albanians. Both mentioned groups (Gorans and Golobrdci) use
Macedonian language and have Islamic faith, and use the alternative ethnic name
'Nashinci'.
49
Restaurants of the traditional, oriental type.
50
This is maybe the reason why the joint Turkish-Macedonian project was not published
although it was ready to be published. As if there was insecurity from the Turkish side in
relation to the political effects of its content. On the side of the Institute of Folklore, as a
representative from the Macedonian side, this situation was accepted silently, which
could be interpreted in the sense that due to some reasons (most probably political ones)
it suited them. Only few articles stemmed from this project, as well as participations at
scientific conferences which cannot reflect the richness of the field material collected
during the research from both sides and from few scientific areas such as ethnology,
ethnomusicology, folk literature and conversations on a number of topics, as well as a
rich photo and audio material, now in the Archive of the Institute of Folklore Marko
Cepenkov, Skopje.
migrants, have trouble speaking Macedonian, although many of them understand
it. These facts show that the process of assimilation is active. Galaba Palikruseva
has arrived to similar conclusions when researching ethnic processes of the
Pomaks and other "Nashinci" in Turkey. She says: "...based upon the results of
our research we can conclude hat the processes of ethnic integration of the
Torbesh with the Turkish ethnos has started, but it is far from being a process of
assimilation".51 Lately there is even an action for attaining a double citizenship -
a Macedonian one besides the Turkish citizenship. This initiative is at the
moment 'quietly stopped' by both sides, but it is not clear how it will continue.52
The analysis of the ethnic culture and the status of the "Nashinci",
named or self-named as Turks in the Turkish society shows that the ethnic
processes should never be taken for granted, since they do not always follow the
prescribed programs and policies.

51
Галаба Паликрушева, Процесите на етничките преструктурирања на Торбешите,
помаците и другите во Република Турција како модел на преструктурирање на
некои етнички заедници на Балканот, Zbornik referata međunarodnog simpozijuma
„Bosna i Hercegovina u tokovima istorijskih i kulturnih kretanja u jugoistočnoj Evropi“,
Zemaljski muzej Bosne i Hercegovine, Sarajevo, 7 oktobar 1988, стр. 131–135. The
author was the leader and member of the research team from Macedonian side during the
a/m research in 1984 and 1987.
52
Dnevnik daily newspaper, http://star.dnevnik.com.mk/default.aspx?pbroj=2811&
stID=59004, 27.11.2008.
 UDC 323.14 (497.7)

Ines Prica (Zagreb, Croatia)

POLITICAL ITEMS ON THE GROUND OF THE TRIVIAL

Singing politics of Croatian transition

Abstract: The trivialization of the political discourse makes the contemporary

Croatia an awkward sample for revisiting the state of nationalism and
antagonism as the symptom of its post-Yugoslav condition. In their frozen and
perplexed shape, many of the items "formerly known" as crucial for the national-
oriented politics, are now nonchalantly left to the pop-cultural elaboration. With
the two intriguing examples of Croatian pop-ideology we are showing the
paradoxes of the cultural critique coping with the mimicrycal nature of its
traditional object. The question of "over" or "under-interpretation" of its quasi-
political content, thus spreads into the entirety of social understanding of
transitional cultures, which are swapping the ideological for the procedural
reason of their political normality.

Key words: political discourse, Croatia, trivialization, nationalism, pop-culture

The lighter the contemporary Croatian identity becomes - gradually

loosening its historically-rooted affiliations - the harder it gets for the
investigation of the ex-Yugoslavia via the concept of nationalism(s). Partly, the
fading of national-centred discourses from the public scene indicates as if those
are simply not required, not to say opportune, any more. The main aims seem to
be achieved, and the international processes of political normalization have
started, despite all the controversies of the war happenings, as well as the judged
"anachronous" claim for the national state. Now we are, gladly or reluctantly,
turning to the implementation of democratic procedures and minority-talks, at
the "one-and-only path towards the Euro-Atlantic integrations" (as the phrase
goes).
Thus, from all the regulative programmes of the sober international
politics, for the majority of population the valid conclusion runs that the
independence is "earned" exactly on the basis of the historical continuity of
Croatian national identity, with all the pronounced "irrational"1 support of the
notion. Possibly, such a consensus of the inside and outside partakers, allowed
understanding differently the meanings - but recommended to apply similarly
the means - of the current process of political justification, is the crucial point of
further debating the confined status of nationalism and antagonism. The mutual

1
For the rationality vs irrationality in the case of Yugoslavian disintegration see Bates
&De Figueiredo, 1998.
agreement on the basically procedural nature of the execution of democracy
opened a space of arbitrariness between pragmatic deeds and ideological minds.
Metaphorically, what was once the national-oriented politics, "with a democracy
in one's heart", now is a democracy-oriented politics, "with the nation in one's
heart". Thus a possibly superficial move towards the tolerance of politics
functioned as a sufficient move towards the politics of tolerance.
The aim here is to disclose the ambiguous object of the conversion of
national into transitional narration, the process which makes the core of the
identity politics of the post-90's Croatia. It was pushed by the ambition to
spectacularly envision the new, capitalist and democratic nature of the state
politics, but also to diminish the opaque routes of capital that marked the period
of Croatian "first transition"2.
For that purpose, the elastic, radiating and frivolous scene of pop-
cultural values and representations has functioned as the most appropriate
ground, at least the one of the last finding its interest in courting with the
scratchy items of national politics. While the mass media arbitration of the
Croatian state-building discourse from the beginning of the 90’ switched popular
culture to the acute political instrumentalization (the singing patriotism)3, the
victory of oppositional coalition parties in the 2000, and, above all, the public
withdrawal of nationalist discourse after the 2003, and the comeback of the
thoroughly reformed HDZ4, triggered the cocooning of the suppressed political
content in the segment. It composed a quasi-political climate where one could
more credible “vote” for the “politically conscious” entertainers than for a
recognizable party’s program. But it also revealed an acute rupture in the
legitimate matrix of political diversification. The blurring of the principles
"formerly known" as to be representative for the left and right political option,
including those related to the issue of national-identity politics, has opened a
stretchy space of the hypothetical "liberal esteems"- a flamboyant platform able
to provide all the persuasive rationalisations of "whatevers" of the Croatian
transition, while dismissing the findings of common reasoning and the "old-
fashioned" social critique5.

2
Srećko Pulig instructively points out that the notion of "second transition" in Croatia is
a craftiness liberal invention. As they understand the war only as an obstacle for political
transition, they needed the alibi for joining the political life, despite the consequences of
the criminal war-transition" (Pulig, 2007: n.p.). About the devastating economic
consequences of the "first transition" see Vojnić 1999.
3
See Ramet 2001, but also Crnković, for the "underground Anti-Nationalism in the
Nationalist Era" (2001), and Velikonja (2002), Port (1998) and Gordy (1999) for the
Balkan pop-culture.
4
Croatian Democratic Union, the nationalist party formerly led by president Franjo
Tuđman. By the insistence on the reforms and procedures of joining EU after the 2003,
they changed painstakingly their political language and attitude, putting its extreme right
wing to be their resentful opposition.
5
According to Daskalovski: "Intellectuals in the Balkans, an infamous region that has
 Beyond the critical pertinence of numerous insights into the mentality
of South-East European transition, led by the anticipation of social "normality"
to which they need to be striving, the aim here is to show something of the
opposite routine. How the anomalous facets of the global, neo-liberal capitalism
find their ways to settle down in the "laissez-faire" transitional environments,
disclosing the upsetting flaw of common analytical tools and critical practices.
A pair of Croatian "pop-political personas", worldly known for their
internet's exhibitions6, has made an extreme trouble for their critics, both figures
ephemeral in their creative share, but the absolute for their faithful consumers
and supporters.

«I just sing»
«Thin red line? No! Long red carpet» (Cvijetić, 2000)7.

The transformation of Severina Vučković from the «innocent» and

approachable village girl (as the title of her popular song suggests) in the end of
the 1980s, to today's untouchable icon of the Croatian glamour-culture,
represents one of the most highly extolled, but also most strongly disputed
example of a non-criminal success story of the Croatian transition.
Through the scenario of her own biography, encapsulated within the
words of her famous song "I just sing, and have no reason to get upset", she has
achieved the prototypical transitional dream. The winning-path has led her from
professional incompetence (amateurism) and working-class milieu, with the aid
of a strong desire for change and abandonment of old communal values, to a
figure of huge public influence and private possessions. However, while the
process of legalisation of the "original sins" of Croatian tycoons has worked out
fine, with the objections too wretched to "get them upset", Severina, as a

produced such great thinkers as Mircea Eliade, Julia Kristeva, and Slavoj Žižek, have
had difficult times coping with the democratization process. Ten years after the changes
of the political regime five categories of intellectuals are now discernible in the Balkans:
émigrés, businessman, politicians, technocrats, and influentials" (Daskalovski, 2000:
n.p.). As for Boris Buden's mind, it is "the understanding or misunderstanding of the
West still to be a key element of recognition of the 'authenticity' or 'non-authenticity' of
things occurring within" (Buden, 1996: n.p.).
6
Official pages, for Marko Perković: www.thompson.hr, and for Severina:
www.severina.hr.
7
"Although nearly four months have passed since their landslide victory in the
parliamentary elections, the new Croatian ruling elite (the coalition leading by SDP, a.r.)
still seem to be in a state of shock. Accustomed, over the last ten years, to the state of
mind in which the execution of power is something that is, to paraphrase Milan Kundera,
'somewhere else', or, in other words, a matter of a nice but distant dream, it had been
fairly unprepared for a sudden and harsh awakening. And in this dizzy state, it tends to
engage in activities that would make for an excellent fable filled with subtle irony, were
they not politically disruptive and potentially very dangerous" (Cvijetić, 2000: n.p.).
metaphoric personage of an inappropriate female transition, seems to be obliged
constantly to explain her «primary accumulation of capital».
Nevertheless, shortly perplexed with the recent sexual scandal, the
world-wide-web broadcasting of her stolen home-video, she was soon back
again, with a changed image referring to a "new person" she can always be, in
the wholeness of her arbitrary pop-culture personality. The porno-scandal (with
the identifiable married man involved) exposed the pop-star to both mocking,
due to conservative values she otherwise promotes (holly marriage, Holly
Mother and the football team Hajduk from her home-town Split) and pitying her
as a victim of privacy abuse, here included the Croatian Helsinki Watch
Committee rejoinder. But it was only an unplanned reference to another
controversial Severina’s emergence.
The wholehearted commitment to the political iconography and
participation in the political campaigns of the HDZ (with Franjo Tuđman's name
proudly displayed on the protruding parts of her T-shirts), proved the total
political indifference by her sudden and scandalous «crossing-over to the Left».
The «nationally-aware» pop-figure, to the astonishment of the narrow circle of
intellectuals with a tired-out feeling for political engagement, appeared at the
dawn of the 2003 election campaign as the trump card of the HDZ's harsh
opponent, the Social Democratic Party (led by recently deceased Ivica Račan).
The pop-heroine, until then naively linked to the politics of her former
employers, was now raising the rating of the new ones, performing a concert on
Zagreb's central square (newspaper gossip that was never refuted buzzed about a
fee of some Euro 200 000). As is known, SDP, together with the coalition, lost
the 2003 elections. Obviously, Severina was «just singing», and the potential
voters very well knew it. So, how come the intellectual critics and cultural
analysts, writers of enlightened newspaper columns, found the «reasons to get
upset», trying to decipher whether Račan has finally announced his pragmatic
pandering to the Right, or his incurable inclination for the "communist-luxury",
or was he simply the victim of "just-singing" American marketing?
The head of the SDP announced such a possibility long before the
campaign began: he explained in an interview that it would be quite convenient
if he lost the election. He would rest, catch up on his sleep, and live the
comfortable life he had been used to. For some time now, he has been behaving
in public like a loser, going around with a sullen look, without a smile, as though
he wanted to intimidate and drive away potential supporters. Someone has
already observed that his main electoral acquisitions – Cro Cop [Mirko
Filipović, a popular figure in the Ultimate Fight sports, a member of parliament
during the coalition government, a.c.] and Severina – are an expression of his
subconscious desire to lose the elections. This selection is fully in the spirit of
his recent behaviour. He has been kow-towing to the Right throughout his
mandate, even though this has never produced any benefit, nor attracted anyone
from that side –while it has repelled his own people. That’s the way it will be
this time, too. The American advisers who have proposed such road-show
treatment of the election campaign have made a bad mistake. In that respect,
Croatia is not yet America, thanks God, nor is Račan Schwarzenegger (Lovrić
2003: n. p.).
Or is it so that, announcing that he could bring to his political court the
most beautiful belly-dancer, he only confirmed the social insensitivity of
Croatian Social Democracy (!), that draws its historical link from «communist
Czarism», as is suggested by a socially dramatically intoned variant of the
commentary on the event.
Are the parties facing up to the Croatian reality, since the reality under
the elite circumstances of life is so very different, how much do they know about
the deprived, the invalids, those who are trying to find their dead, and how much
do they respect the fresh graves upon which some of them have built up wealthy
empires? For, the unfortunate fate of this country must never again be repeated.
As in the wartime, Croatia needs strong people and strong programmes, lots of
work and the return of hope, of which Pope John Paul II spoke so eloquently
during his visits, and as Cardinal Bozanić repeatedly and reasonably points out.
Can Hope include a pre-election entertainment event, which, if the newspapers
are to be believed, will cost to the SDP Euro 200 000 (from our budget) for
Severina Vučković's pre-election concert? With her status as a free-lance artist,
thanks to the Ministry of Culture, she could, "generous" as she is, share the
money with all the other free-lance artists, from writers to musicians, who often
go hungry. Is Croatia transforming into the worst possible Cabaret or into some
kind of the ancient Rome that falls under the burden of its own humiliation.
Severina is last to blame for that; why shouldn't she take what is so generously
given to her? It is money snatched from those without homes, from workers who
do not receive their wages, from those missing arms and legs - so that the circus
can continue, so that the party can last, even though the lights have been
dimmed. Where on Earth are the intellectuals, unless impoverishment has made
them humble slaves at some of the ministries; it is as though the intellectuals
have ceased to exist. The communist mentality is entrenched at the universities
and in schools (apart from some honourable exceptions) and the tentacles of this
mentality also encompass the thirst for Severina and Brioni [Tito's Islands, a.c.].
The Dictator loved them and why shouldn't the little dictators enjoy them as
much as he did. Their intellectual work includes running the relay-races [for
Tito's birthdays, celebrated on the Youth Day, a.c.] and attending the Kumrovec
School [the Party’s ideological school, a.c.], with the psychological component
of brain-formation, with its ideology creating slavish souls (Ivanišević, 2003: n.
p.).
Anyhow, the most stinging slap in the face to a serious "over-analysis"
of that quasi-political event can be found in the interpretation of Severna in the
role of «Cosmo Girl intervention», an appearance still insufficiently
understandable within the unadventurous Croatian social scene. From that
indifferent and light-hearted premise, we are invited for penetration into "the
deeper" layers of affair, and that would be the way she was dressed, her sex
appeal, and the eternal envy which is spun around this successful "manager of
her own body", in the atrophied environment of the average Croatian voters - the
cursed "who will never have a chance to meet Severina".
«There have always been controversies about her songs, and particularly
about her star status. So far, Severina is still on the credit side. A considerable
majority continues to have a positive opinion about her, or at least only adds that
mythic 'but', which maintains her position at the top of today's show business.
Anyone who has had an opportunity to meet Severina will agree with Miljenko
Jergović's conclusion that she is much cleverer than the songs she sings, while
she herself is not inclined to excessive mystification of her own job. Because of
all, it will be interesting to see the consequences of Severina's political adventure
in which she has placed her star status, her charisma, and – let's be frank – her
sex appeal in the service of the SDP's election campaign. It would have been
most interesting to compare the reactions if Severina had agreed to perform for
some ultra-Right option, and for a symbolical fee. In that case, "the female
Thompson" would not appear to be acting so strangely. Severina herself claims
that she only agreed to sing for those who offered the best conditions. And while
the public is shocked at her hefty fee under the circumstances, politicians too,
even those from the party for which she is 'doing battle', are objecting, along
with the rockers who carried the entertainment load on their backs in the last
SDP election campaign, and for much less money. The cynics could comment
that Račan once appeared at the rock stage arm-in-arm with Budiša8, but that this
time he has chosen a well-thought-out media option for himself and the party
that he leads. And if elections were won on the basis of such criteria, there is not
a man who would not vote for a comrade who replaced Budiša with Severina.
However, a return to the more serious part of this story brings us back to
Severina who is, once again, doing her job in a professional manner. She doesn't
talk about politics, but obviously knows her way around politics. Anyone who
doubts should take a look at the clothes she wears at her pre-election concerts.
None of the tight bodices and hot pants of the type she usually wore at her
concerts, but instead there was a more restrained choice of a woman who knows
that any contribution on her part to a possible win of SDP would never be
acknowledged, but that she could easily be singled out and blamed for crushing
defeat» (Radović, 2003: n. p.).
So, it seems that only intellectually and politically «uptight»
commentators are in need of being mistakably focusing on "the Singer and the
Politician" as symbolically crucial figures of the political status of culture.
Rather than misrepresented actors in a flow of transient transitional incidents.
People listened to the free concert by the well-loved singer under the "social
democratic organisation» and then went off tranquilly to vote for the opponents.
There is nothing scandalous in that. Quite to the contrary, what could better

8
The former leader of Croatian liberals which owes his charisma to his leading role in
the Croatian national movement from 1971. (Croatian spring).
represent the average voters reasoning than the absurdity of this political event,
"irrationality" of which does not lie within the sharp differentiation of trivial and
purely political values, but in what that imbroglio has been condensed to: the
accumulated experience of political concessions which turns the democratic
elections into a farce of just voting.

Over-analyse this!
"They proclaim patriotism to be fascism, that's how they shield their
communism".
Thompson, Once upon the time in Croatia

Does, Marko Perković Thompson, however, "just sing"? The

contentious entertainer claims that he indeed does not, when it goes for the clean
patriotic and Christian values he promotes in his lyrics. But he obdurately
refuses to stay behind the obnoxious connotations he evokes in his concerts and
otherwise.
The village boy who has never abandoned his devotion towards the
"stone genes" that have made him proud and tough as he is, stepped clumsily
into the war popular-culture, with a rural voice hoarsely running from the teeth-
less mouth. Nowadays he is an interna(e)tionally renowned, although
controversial character9, but also a heavily re-fashioned musician, with a huge
stage support behind. He owes his publicity, contrary to Severina, to a deadly
serious, though charismatic performance, designed around outlandish "gothic"
emblems, with a sword as a central character of his "medieval" narration about
the lost roots and other dissoluteness of modern civilization. The verses of
captivating music of the Croatian shepherd’s-rocker has been mostly devoted to
the historical lament over the Croatian people and national heroes, being the
victims of the previous, but also nowadays “communists”. Croatian war for the
independence criminalized, its heroes squatting in Haag while the fruits are
enjoyed by hypocritical politicians ingratiating themselves to the new world
masters– this is, in short, the manifesto of Marko Perković, called Thompson in
favour of his beloved gun from the days of the defence. The manifest, in some
points not very far from the suppressed Euro-sceptical and legitimate anti-
globalists’ claiming, but far too close to the murky legacy of Croatian historical
stigma. The problems for him, but simultaneously also the incredible home and
Diaspora’s publicity, gained by the thousands of the visits to his concerts and
web-sites, started at the moment when the public attention began to turn more to
the “ephemeral”, contextual signs of his performances.
The place where the phenomenon of Thompson, by then a shabby
stumbling-block of various pro et contra arguments, almost hit its "limits of
interpretations", was quite indicative. The obscure performance of criminalized
songs extolling concentration camps of the fascist NDH, has in the end emerged

9
About the internet aspect of Thompson's popularity see Senjković & Dukić.
at the exactly same independent site where Severina’s joyful video was
discovered to the public eyes. Indicative for the gender essence that the two
most politicised pop-scandals of Croatian transition have being abridged to, it
was also a moment for Thompson to face a painful question addressed to his
heroic maleness.
"When her porno was released on the Internet, she stayed for it,
admitting that 'it was indeed her', and asking them to give her tape back. When
the scandal concerning your performing of 'Jasenovac i Gradiška Stara' had
burst, why didn't you show up publicly to say what you have to say?"
(Vodopivec, 2004: n.p.).
As Thompson kept defending in a just singing manner10, the scandal is
pushed to the cul-de-sac of its procedural arbitration. In the despaired search for
the grain of political credence within the miraculous travesties of Croatian pop-
ideology11, it turns to a general question of who, at what point, and with which
outcomes, stay for the haphazard consequences of such an "elaboration" of its
most painful items.
The singer made it obvious that "it is not him", but the officials not
being able, or willing, to react properly. Not only that some of them enjoy
Thompson's music, so they are just listening and having no reason to get upset
with its waste connotations. It is neither only a matter of the blurred
constitutional law on national-racial hate speech, formulated primarily in the
way to avoid resemblance with the notorious, over-policed and totalitarian one
of the previous regime. It is, as well, because the Thompson's music, by means
of the harshly achieved un-ideological criteria, ought to be recognized
separately, from its evident content and not for its hidden intention. As we have
seen in the previous case, everybody can choose from the random marginalia of
the context, mix up the fallacy with the substance or vice versa. Aren't many of
Thompson's massages only a matter of the carnevalesque epic genre, like a
maxim “Lady Mary, could you maybe do that, to take Stipe and get Franjo
back”12? So, up till where are we, exaggeratedly and dimly in the end, to go with
our literally construes of pseudo-historical signs and plots which are actually
symptoms of "something else"?
Thanks to such a "hermeneutic" hesitation, Thompson's case is turned
into the hard-boiled dispute on national identity with uncertain rationales.

"He has been turned to a kind of Croatian God Ianus? For the admirers
he is a symbol of 'the days of proud and glory', and for those that despise him, a

10
"I do not know who those people with Ustashi signs are. I don't bother with that"
(Vodopivec, 2004: n.p.).
11
On misuse of ideology in pop-culture, see Đurković, 2003.
12
Saying inspired by the results of last Croatian presidential elections, which Thompson
also uses in his concerts. It alludes on the contemporary and liberal Stipe Mesić, and the
late ex-president of Croatia, desiring to change their places in earth-heaven terms, and by
help of Holly Mother.
primitive nationalist, who 'does not sing but bray'. Grown from the traditional
patriarchal and epic culture, from the folklore of heroic songs and 'stoned genes',
by his songs he obviously woke up long hushed-up and forbidden national ethos.
While many, also among his listeners, can not understand and forgive him the
scandalous blasphemy known as Jasenovac i Gradiška Stara, to his criticizers it
comes as a crucial evidence of his Ustashi-inclination. For the mentioned part of
Thompson's public, it is unacceptable that someone who claims to live Christian
values can be connected with something so monstrous. But, essentially,
Thompson is a singer of a disappointed and frustrated Croatianship, those who
did not expect that the creation of Croatia could be a bare legislative and
political act, but a national revival. Thompson is the singer of their warrior's
pride and post-war disappointments" (Jajčinović, 2007: n.p.).

For now, his only prohibited concert was one which should have taken
place in Sarajevo in April 200713. More recently, Thompson's concert in Canada
has almost been forbidden due to the Simon Wiesenthal Center's veto. Instead,
"the Croatian neo-Nazi star on November 2nd 2007, performed in the town of
Velvet Underground, Ramones and Patty Smith”14, thanks to permission of the
New York's Archdiocese, and after having presented the English translation of
the lyrics. They were clean15.

"Un-concluding remarks"

The awkward mixture of Croatian pop-ideology has led to the fall of an

engaged critical thought, defeated at the same point where anchored. Whereas
the disclosure of transitional «monstrosity» undesirably works in favour of
launching, the primarily denounced, cultural «authenticity», they are gradually

13
Thanks to the join veto of Jewish and Islamic Community, as well as Union of Anti-
fascists BIH.
14
"Marko Perković Thompson on the world tour". Halter, electronic news letter of
Croatian alternative. 25.10.2007. http://www.h-alter.org/tekst/simon-wiesenthal-centar-
protiv-thompsonova-koncerta-u-new-yorku/6945#hot
15
"Mr. Weitzman urged Cardinal Edward M. Egan, the Roman Catholic archbishop of
New York, to cancel the concerts at a cultural center operated by the Croatian Church of
St. Cyril & Methodius, at the 10th Avenue and 41st Street. Joseph Zwilling, a
spokesman for the archdiocese, said church officials had been investigating but had
found nothing to substantiate the accusations. Mr. Perkovic’s tour is to take him to
Toronto; Cleveland; Chicago; Los Angeles; Vancouver, British Columbia; and San Jose,
Calif.” Croatian Rocker Draws Anti-Nazi Protests, By The New York Times. Published:
November 1, 2007.
giving up «the country in which mountain clans collide with global-consumerist
hype and the post-modern with feudalism» (Pavičić, 2004:18).
Possibly, the cultural analysis generally misses when it obsessively picks
up the political meanings from the pop-cultural phenomena16. But couldn't it be
also the contrary, in the "cunning" circumstances of transitional reason, where
the cultural trivialization generally works as mimicry, excluding the suppressed
political content both from the reach of social critique and legislative
procedures17.
Transitional cultures seem no longer to be graspable in terms of some
credible relation between social knowledge and social phenomena. Copying with
signs that may not mean anything, but a kind of phenomenological «flirting»
constantly seeking for deeper layers of analysis, put the social understanding to
the borders of suspicious over-interpretation: an "excess of wonder" which leads
to "overestimating the importance of coincidences which are explainable in other
ways» (Eco, 1990: 167)18.
Still, how are we supposed to know what is at work here: professional
deformation of inventing subversion within banality, or a bigger cognitive deceit
which pushes the “leftist imagination” to be lulled into the curing its analytical
paranoia and social decline19?
Croatia has surely entered its post-political era, as putting the former
practices of nation-centred identification aside, and turning to the processes of
democratic political "normalization" ahead. In relation to the one from 1993, one
may speak about some radical cultural change that has occurred here. But, from
too many instances, there are also changes pushing it to the edge of social and
cultural normality, or, at least, the common reasoning about it. As Zoran Roško,
a Croatian representative of the new, post-theoretical thought would put:
«something simultaneously frightening, exciting and boring is happening here.
Things are changing so rapidly that they become imperceptible, so that they no
longer evoke shock but rather indifference: horror-porno-ennui» (2002: 120).

16
As Meaghan Morris suggests (1990).
17
"All the classical political ideologies in the era of mass-media and pop-culture get
transformed meanings, which can lead their immanent dialectics towards utterly
dangerous political consequences" (Đurković, 2003: 1).
18
Eco's distinction between interpretation and over-interpretation, as a usage of text"
entirely for our own purposes. For wider debate see Fetveit, 2001: 180.
19
According to Serbian Philosopher Mile Savić, in the renovation of the idea of
"engaged intellectual", "the paradoxical mixture of political decisionism and social
escapism" we are witnessing a general nostalgia for "the heroic role of Marxist's
intellectual avant-garde" (Savić, 2002: 1).
.
References:

Bates, H. Robert; De Figueiredo, Rui J. 1998. "The Politics of Interpretation:

Rationality, Culture, and Transition". Politics Society n. 26: 221-249.

Bhabha, Homi. 1994. “Of Mimicry and Man”. Location of Culture. London:
Routledge.

Bey, Hakim. 2003. TAZ. Privremene autonomne zone, i drugi tekstovi (Katarina
Peović Vuković, ed.). Zagreb: Jesenski i Turk.

Buden, Boris. 1996. "Neću novi ni bolji svijet". Interview with Nina Ožegović.
Vijanac br. 75. 21.11. 1996.
www.arkzin.com/bb/intervws/vijenac.htm

Crnković, Gordana. 2001. “Underground Anti-Nationalism in the Nationalist

Era”. In Nationalism, Culture, and Religion in Croatia since 1990. (Pavlaković,
Vjeran, ed.). The Donald W. Treadgold Papers in Russian, East European and
Central Asian Studies, No. 32.

Cvijetić, Saša. 2000. “Red Carpet District”, Central Europe Review, vol 2, No.
15. www.ce-riew.org. 15.04. 2000.

Eco, Umberto. 1990. The Limits of Interpretation. Bloomington: Indiana

University Press.

Daskalovski, Židas. 2000. "Five flavours of brain". Central Europe Review,

vol2, no 5, 7.2.2000. www.ce-riew.org

Dukić, Davor; Senjković, Reana. 2005. "Virtual Homeland? Reading the Music
of a Particular web page". International Journal of Cultural Studies. vol 8(1): 45-
63.

Đurković, Miša. 2003. "Pop-politika i pop-ideologija. O (zlo)upotrebi masovne

kulture i umetnosti u ideološke svrhe". Republika, br. 266-267. 1-31.

Fetveit, Arild. 2001. "Anti-essentialism and reception studies. In defence of the

text". International Journal of Cultural Studie. vo. 4(2): 173-199.

Gordy, Eric. 1999. The Culture of Power in Serbia: Nationalism and the
Destruction of Alternatives. University Park: Penn State University Press.

Ivanišević, Đurđica. 2003. “Vodite stranke, ne zaboravite narod”. Fokus.

Hrvatski tjednik. 7.11.2003.
Jajčinović, Milan. 2007. "Hrvatski bog Janus", Večernji list 5.11. 2007.

Lovrić, Jelena. 2003. “Je li Račan predao izbore?”. Novi list, 14.11.2003.

Morris, Meaghan. 1990. "Banality in Cultural Studies". in Logics of Television,

Patricia Mellencamp (ed.): Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Pavičić, Jurica. 2004. „I Božić posta Nova godina“. Jutarnji list, 3.1.2004.

Port, Mattijs van de. 1998. Gypsies, Wars and Other Instances of the Wild.
Civilization and its Discontents in a Serbian Town. Amsterdam University Press.
 UDC 726.825 (497.775)
725.945 (497.775)
Trpeski Davorin (Skopje, Macedonia)

MONUMENTS IN THE POST-SOCIALISTIC PERIOD: EXAMPLES

FROM THE CITY-HERO IN MACEDONIA

Abstract: Monuments contain a story or a message, i.e. they carry certain

symbolism that reminds people to a certain glorified historical time, to an
important event that people should remember. In short, they hide a certain
ideology that interprets symbols, offers codes for their interpretation and
establishes a tie with the already created myths. In authoritarian or totalitarian
social systems monuments are the center of the public and political life. This
article presents a part of the monuments characteristic for the town of Prilep
during socialism, but also the newly created monuments after the fall of
socialism and in the period of establishing the new social order in the Republic
of Macedonia.

Key words: monuments, ideology, socialistic period, social order, post-

socialistic period, transition, city-hero, Prilep, Macedonia

"Even if anthropology wants to avoid the world of politics, it cannot. Political

life influences upon cultural life"
(Rihtman-Auguštin, 2000: 9)

During the last hundred years of troubled past at the Balkans and in
Macedonia a few social systems were changed: the Osman Turkish with its rigid
feudal relations; the Serbian-monarchist and the Bulgarian-monarchist, in which
the existence of Macedonian people was not recognized; the socialistic, that
repressed everyone that did not agree with the idea of a Yugoslav Federation,
and finally, what we call today Macedonian democracy, a social system that still
develops and wanders towards a certain model that would enable its survival and
connection to the Euro-Atlantic systems.
One of the important elements that are a feature of the post-socialistic
states is its historic past. Namely, during the period of post-socialism historical
past is emphasized as a result of nationalism that was not accented in the
previous system. Thus, the past (and here we include above all the cultures of
others), no matter if it comes to individuals or groups, is called by researchers
domestication (Simandiraki, 2006: 43), situation when something that happened
in the remote past is appropriated and interpreted as if it has happened in the
recent past. Besides time distance, as a result of individual or institutionalized
processes, there are conditions that it becomes recent past that surely helps the
cohesion of the community.
 According to Glenn Jordan and Chris Weedon (Џордан и Ведон, 1999–
2000: 12), traces of history are everywhere - in the monuments that decorate the
cities, names of the streets, museums, education etc. Each monument hides a
story or a message, i.e. carries a certain symbolic that reminds people to a certain
glorified historical time, an important event that, according to certain political
power centers, is worth remembering. In short, they hide a certain ideology that
interprets symbols and offers codes for their interpretation and establishes a tie
with the already created myths. In authoritarian or totalitarian social systems
monuments are the center of the public and political life. Everything that does
not correspond to ideology supported by political power is considered evil and
could cause certain turbulences in the 'idyllic' society, so due to this reasons it is
often forbidden by the government institutions. However, in pluralistic societies,
such as Macedonian on today, a consensus should be made, independently of the
ideological position of the political authority and the ideology of political
opposition, i.e. in this case both sides should be flexible and accept the resulted
values as a common good for the whole society. Winfried Speitkamp finds that,
contrary to the protection of monuments whose aim is to establish history,
vandalism and destruction of monuments means abandoning and forgetting
history (Rihtman-Auguštin, 2000: 61–62). This field has not been research in
Macedonia by now, while in Europe a number of anthropologists have covered
this issue, above all at the territory of Eastern Europe (De Soto and Dudwick,
2000: 3–8), i.e. in the states that have changed their political set-up. Namely, the
dramatic events in the period 1989-1991 created new possibilities for the new
generations of researchers (Hann, 2002: 2–5).
Even though this article covers monuments, still its goal is not to
describe the process of protection of the socialistic and cultural heritage that has
been created and that is still created in the post-socialistic period, but to present
the priorities in the part of culture that was set by certain political parties and
coalitions while they functioned from a position of power in Macedonia. It is
exactly through the construction of monuments that their ideological set-up can
be traced. Thus, often when one speaks about political options in Macedonia it is
said that our parties do not follow general European and global ideological and
political polarizations and convictions, such as right, left or center parties. In this
context one could say that there is some truth in these opinions, in the part that
refers to the set-up of the state and its functioning, but in general I find that this
is not true since the positions in relation to ideology are clearly differentiated,
surely with specific features that refer only to Macedonia, and are a result of the
historic past. In addition there is the fact that during the construction and
protection of monuments the leftist parties accent the period of the Liberation
fight (against the Germans), since they as a political option stemmed from the
ex-governing political system that was based upon only one party, while the
newly formed political parties, that base their continuity upon the organizations
that existed in Macedonia before socialism emphasize the national elements that
were forbidden in times of socialism, and the persons who supported nationalism
were repressed.
In this sense one should take into account what was built in Macedonia
when there was no Yugoslav Federation. Namely, after WWII there was a phase
of building monuments and memorial plaque that reminded of that war of
remembered the victory over fascism and all of this in correlation to the general
history of Yugoslav people in the People's liberation fight. Contrary to this, the
building of monuments that reminded of national fight for liberation fro the
Turkish governance in Macedonia was marginalized. When promoting
monuments that were related to the People's Liberation fight there were even
illogical attempts to unite the fight of Yugoslav people against the fascists under
the leadership of a common center, i.e. center that has successfully managed the
partisans' action in whole of Yugoslavia, and that is the Communist Party of
Yugoslavia. Also, in the frames of the history of that time a number of historians
specialized in the partisans movement, PLF and Tito, that had a special and
important part in Yugoslav history, while today a big number of these historians
work in the Macedonian scientific institutes (Brown, 2006: 36). In fact it was a
special privilege and honor to work upon this part of history of Yugoslav people.
After this period, i.e. after the dissolution of Yugoslavia, such a
dynamics of events that matched the socialistic system slowly seized. There was
a slow process of emphasizing national characteristics. In this context, the
moments of nationalistic euphoria that emerged in the ex-Yugoslav republics,
and also in Macedonia, when everything that reminded of the socialistic period
and the socialistic tradition was attacked, the monuments from PLF were even
destroyed, with an explanation that they remind of a 'bad' period that has
permanently taken away people's spirit and their true ethnic identity, and that the
moment came when finally they should go back to their roots and the road that
they abandoned 45 years ago. This is only another proof that the social changes
are often not so simple, in fact in the majority of cases they are destructive. In
facet something similar happened immediately after 1944 when the new people's
government melted the bronze monuments (the cavalry of king Peter and king
Alexandar), that were located on both sides of the Stone bridge on Vardar river,
at Skopje square, and has created a new monument that symbolized the victory
over fascism of the Yugoslav people in the period of PLF. The new monument
was put in front of the building of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of Macedonia (today the Government of the Republic of Macedonia) in
Skopje, where it is located today. The same happened earlier with some other
monuments when the Serbian authorities in Macedonia destroyed the Burmali
mosque that was located at Skopje square, and has build on its place the famous
Officer's house in Skopje.
Still, in recent history of Macedonia a city that has a special place is
Prilep. It had a special status and treatment during Yugoslav socialistic
federation. Namely, after WWII Prilep was proclaimed a city-hero in
Macedonia, and it is especially interesting that even today this city, together with
its local authorities (no matter their ideological orientation) tries to justify the
'heroic' nature. In fact we can identify this city as a mythical space that
successfully proves that also has mythical time, i.e. time of heroes, that has still
not ended. Heroes can be followed around the city, mainly through monuments
that witness certain heroic acts.
Even though this city got the epithet 'hero' relatively late, as a result of
the uprising from the 11th of October 1941 against the fascists, in Prilep there are
monuments from different heroic periods and heroic territories, no matter if the
events or personages originate from the city or not. Simply the city hero should
have a monument for each hero concerning which the local authorities or certain
members of local organizations find that is deserving, and manage to gather
finances for constructing the monuments. Thus, as new monuments that appear
in the post-socialistic period is the monument of the first President of the
Presidium of the Anti-fascistic Assembly of Macedonia, Metodija Andonov -
Chento, who has fallen out of grace with the Communist party and finished his
life as a prisoner in Idrizovo. There was no consensus where this monument
should be located, in fact there was a conflict of the two polarized political
options (SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE). In fact the first ones were silently against
locating the monument having in mind that this political party stemmed from the
Union of Communists of Macedonia.
In the center of the city there is a monument of Krali Marko. It is in fact
located at the previous location of the Metodija Andonov-Chento monument.
In the period after the conflict in Macedonia from 2001, above the
premises of the Agency for securing property and individuals "TA Lavovi", that
is located in the Business center in Prilep, three big portraits were put. One of
them is of Ernesto Che Guevara (however instead of the red five-beam star there
is the six-beam star from Vergina), the other portrait is of Alexander of
Macedonia and the third one is of Todor Alexandrov (member and leader of the
terrorist wing of VMRO at the beginning of the 20th century).

Photograph n. 1 Portraits at the agency for protection of property and individuals "TA
Lavovi"
 Also, few years ago, at one of the Prilep's picks a cross was built, that is
illuminated during night and could be seen from each point in the city. The cross
was built during the euphoria that has swept Macedonia after 2000, when in
places where Christian population was a dominant one crosses were built, some
bigger some smaller. Surely Prilep as a city-hero could not stayed without this
symbol of Christianity. In fact at this hill until 1992 the name of TITO was
written. Today the letters are wage and could hardly be noticed.
The "Mogila of nepobedeni" (Tomb of the invincible) is a monument
built after WWII and is dedicated to everyone that died during the People's
liberation fight. The monument takes a relatively big space and consists of three
parts. The first part consists of bust sculptures of the most famous heroes from
PLF, and then one arrives at the central plateau that consists of eight similar but
individual elements that symbolize the six republics and the two autonomous
regions in SFRY. Then there is the last closed part in which the names of all
Prilep inhabitants that died in the PLF are written. According to informants the
monument was protected until 1991 by a keeper and was maintained. After this
year it has not been invested in it. Everything that could have been taken away,
was taken, above all the busts of the heroes, but also the benches and the lights.
Only the communal hygiene sometimes stops by to clean the area. Today it is a
space where people from the near-by houses graze their domestic animals, while
in the evenings this is a dark spot where love couples meet. During a certain
period of time it was also destroyed, when the busts of the heroes were torn
down or were covered with graffiti (anonymous informant).
The monument of Alexander of Macedonia at the street with the same
name in Prilep was built in 1995, financed by the Assembly of the municipality
of Prilep. Namely, it is a plaque with the profile of Alexander of Macedonia,
together with the year of birth and the year of death of Alexander of Macedonia,
while at the bottom there is the year when the monument was built, as well as
the name of the investor. The near-by marble is covered with smoke, showing
that candles are often burnt in front of the monument.
The marble monument - fountain that is located in the old bazaar in
Prilep is a new one, built around six years ago. Basically the monument is a six-
beam star (from the tomb of antic Macedonian kings in Vergina) with a lion
seated in its center. The lion is often related to the coat of arms of Macedonia,
that can be found in the stematographies together with the symbols of other
Balkan countries during the Iliric movement at this territory.
 Photography n. 2 The monument - fountain in the old bazaar in Prilep

The monument of Alexander of Macedonia with a bow in his arms, that

is located in the center of Prilep, at the Komercijalna bank square, has been
inaugurated in 2006. The monument is real-sized and is located at a high
platform on which the territory conquered by Alexander is drawn. It has been
financed by the Macedonian emigrant to the USA originating from Prilep,
Gjorgija George Atanasovski.

Photograph n. 3 Monument of Alexander of Macedonia. Behind is the Clock Tower.

 Still, the dynamics of the care shown by the local authorities concerning
the monuments in Prilep in the period of post-socialism is a reflection of the
total situation in Macedonia in the last 15 and more years. Prilep is characteristic
of the post-socialistic monuments, besides its role of city-hero during socialism.
However, at the same time in this city, during the conflict of 2001, as a result of
the tragically lost inhabitants of Prilep, a monument of the Islamic culture from
the 15th century was burned - the mosque in the old bazaar. The act was
supported by the police that in fact allowed it (anonymous informant). Even
though the Clock tower is just next to the mosque, and it also belongs to Islamic
culture, it was not touched. Maybe the reason was the cross located at its top,
where until 1992 a red five-beamed star existed.
The ideological war is taking place in other Macedonian cities as well.
There are initiatives for building monuments from the period of PLF and Tito.
For example, there was an initiative that did not succeeded for building a
monument of Tito in the center of Skopje. Such an initiative of a group of
citizens from Bitola was realized, and now in the center of Bitola, at Shirok
sokak, on a private property, there is a bust of Tito. Such a situation of placing
monuments from the time of PLF could be interpreted as a revolt and balance
with the monuments that are of national character. In any case, it should be
related to the political centers of power, that are generators of the two most
influential ideologies in Macedonia. Their presence and influence is in fact
based on dichotomies: communists and anti-communists. Still, the issue is
posed: if the post-socialistic transition is special or just especially problematic.
In relation to this issue there is the note of the famous sociology from
Cambridge, Ralph Dahrendorf, who describes the transition of the ex-socialistic
countries with one sentence that is often quoted (Biro, 2006: 14): "The Eastern
European countries have changed the governance in six days, the laws in six
months, the institutions in six years, but to change the way of thinking and
behavior of their citizens they would need sixty years".

References:

Biro, Mikloš (2006). Homo postcommunisticus, Beograd: Biblioteka XX vek.

Brown, S. K. (2006). Would the real nationalists please step forward:

Destructive narration in Macedonia, во: De Soto, Hermine (ed.) and Dudwick,
Nora (ed.), Fieldwork dilemmas: Anthropologists in postsocialist states,
Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press.

De Soto, Hermine (ed.) and Dudwick, Nora (ed.) (2000). Fieldwork dilemmas:
Anthropologists in postsocialist states, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin
Press.
Hann, M. Chris, Humphrey, Caroline, Verdery, Katherine, (2002). Introduction:
Postsocialism as a topic of anthropological investigation, во: Hann, M. Chris
(ed.), Postsocialism: ideals, ideologies and practices in Eurasia, London:
Routledge.

Žirarde, Raul (2000). Politički mitovi i mitologije, Beograd: Biblioteka XX vek.

Rihtman-Auguštin, Dunja (2000). Ulice moga grada: Antropologija domaćeg

terena, Beograd: Biblioteka XX vek.

Simandiraki, Anna (2006). International education and cultural heritage:

alliance or antagonism?, Journal of research in international education, vol. 5
(1), UK: International baccalaureate organization and SAGE publications.

Čolović, Ivan (2000). Politika simbola. Ogledi o političkoj antropologiji,

Beograd: Biblioteka XX vek.

Џордан, Глен и Ведон, Крис (1999–2000). Културна политика: класа, род,

раса и постмодерниот свет, Скопје: Темплум.
 UDC 911.375 (497.712)

Jovanovic Vladan (Belgrade, Serbia)

PSEUDO-EUROPEAN VIEW AMONG THE RUINS OF ORIENT: CITY

OF SKOPJE IN YUGOSLAV NATIONAL POLICY 1918-1941

Abstract: This socio-historical sketching of Skopje is an attempt to contemplate

on modernization circumstances and conditions that had to produce there "a
veritable social revolution". Through the authentic officials' reports and plans, it
was possible to deal with Yugoslav government's acting and intentions, its
efficiency, but also to perceive social background of urbanization as well as to
measure the obstructing influence of prevailed feudal tradition.

Key words: urban history, Skopje, Macedonia, Interwar Yugoslavia, Orient,

modernization, urbanization

As we have just mentioned above, the subject of this work is adapted

to perceive the integration processes of the former Turkish areas into the system
of newly founded country (the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes), which
were hindered by ethnical and religious diversity, feudal habits and mentality, as
well as by cultural neglecting. We also had to explore some determining
elements that formed social dynamics of the city, designating local
characteristics and development of different social groups. Both historical and
sociological observation of tradition, politics, economy, culture and fragments
from everyday's life were useful to comprehend collision and burning through
traditional and modern, as well as to recognize the urban development and new
functions of town arisen from new political, economical and cultural reality. The
main sources used in this text include unpublished material from Belgrade
archives (Archives of Yugoslavia, Archives of Serbian Academy of Science and
Arts), published statistics, parliamentary debates in shorthand, relevant
periodicals and literature.
*
Skopje has been lying on vital trans-Balkan communications for over
two thousand years, but its development has been followed by rapid
demographic oscillations. These were caused by pillage and demolition of many
conquerors or by natural disasters (earthquake, fire, plague, malaria). At the end
of the seventeenth century Skopje had almost 60.000 inhabitants, and at the
beginning of nineteenth it decreased to 6.000 people! Persistent demographic
expanding started to rise from the middle of that century, when Skopje became a
political center of the Kosovo Vilayet and significant transit-point on the new
railroad track between Belgrade and Thessalonica (Kostić, 1925: 26-32;
Radovanović, 1927: 5-8).
 After the fall of the Ottoman Empire and forming of Yugoslavia
(1918), Skopje became the center of new Serbian/Yugoslav province called
"South Serbia". Serbian politicians and geographers had agreed that Skopje was
an essential part and natural middle point of the Balkan Peninsula (Cvijić, 1927:
118-125; Radovanović, 1937, 12-13; Hadži Vasiljević, 1930: 50-62). On the eve
of the First Balkans War this town on the Vardar River had over 47.000
inhabitants. According to official Yugoslav censuses Skopje expanded from
41.066 in 1921 to 69.269 in 1926, but also started to stagnate in the next few
years. Although the countryside was impoverished and devastated by banditry,
warfare and ethnic migrations (1912-18), Skopje faced the unexpected
proportional growth of all religions (Christian, Islamic and Jewish inhabitants)!
Even the Catholics grew in number (according to parish-register almost 18.000
Macedonian Catholics took the sacrament in Skopje from the beginning of
1930s). This multicultural phenomenon was based on specific political and
economical role that Yugoslav state had assigned to Skopje: this town had to
symbolize a strong national unity, political stability and complete safety for all
inhabitants in "dangerous" province. Hence in 1926 there were living together
38.000 Macedonian Slavs (Macedonians, Serbs, and Bulgarians), 13.000 Turks,
2.000 Albanians and 2.500 Jews (Jovanović, 2004: 100-102).
The town was placed on the north-west edge of the plain, with gradual
run over the slopes of mountains, and on the South it was rimmed by swamp
area. Remarkably fast the flow of greenish Vardar was dividing its center into a
hilly old settlement on the left bank, and pebbly colony on the plain, right
riverside (Novaković, 1927: 387). Summers in Skopje with broiling heat, soft
winters, intolerable March air, marsh-fever and strong wind - those are the main
weather marks that citizens themselves used to describe as unhealthy. Extremely
low temperatures were noticed in February (-19°C), until the hottest season has
been shown in August (+41°C). Aside from Radovište, Skopje was the hottest
town in the South (SGKJ, 1932: 25-45).
*
Skopje resembled a boom town, where marble edifice rears over jerry-
built structure; a rambling bazaar quarter, its dilapidated mosques, street types -
all the characteristics of some 'ramshackle town in Asia Minor'. Oft-repeated
impressions of some foreign passengers were unanimous that Skopje was a kind
of pseudo-European city, a weird amalgamation of Asiatic and late-byzantine
influences (Chater, 1930: 281). This symbolic picturesque inheritance from
Turkish times contributed to strengthen conspicuous visual contrasts - that on
one bank of the Vardar Skopje struggled to be European, while the other
remained to be so Asiatic. Even domestic travelers bore out with their bad
sensations related to stereotypes about the appearance of Skopje ('backwardness'
and 'disgust' of Orient, 'the darkest side of Balkans', 'heterogeneity' of Skopje,
'City of fatalists', 'Gypsy town', carelessness, laziness, vehemence, etc.). A
French traveler was comparing the old quarters of Skopje with several Syrian
towns, and finally, he concluded that Damascus or Aleppo were only 'the dark
Turkish monstrosities' towards the bazaars of Skopje! Striking scenes of
barefooted boys in oriental costumes snatching the baggage on the railroad
station, dusty streets and invasion of mosquitoes and flies - that was a usual
feeling of any passenger who had just arrived in Skopje (Jugoslavija, 1927: 389-
396). A Polish actress said after she had arrived in Skopje, that she found herself
in a whirl of frescoes, mosques, minarets and oriental bazaars, hesitating what
was warmer in that charming milieu: was it wine, air, life, or sky? An
atmosphere of irritation and disturbance in suburbs was even more impressive:
“...There are no police and no taxes here... Strange, motley and wanton jumble,
squealing sounds of zurle and thin violins... And when the restless night starts to
fall it seem that life is dying out...” (Vardar, 94/1933: 6).

Political surroundings

Nevertheless, according to its geographical and national

'predestination' Skopje became a serious political and military center of the
province. There were situated all state departments, including eight diplomatic
missions and numerous government administration. Greece, England, Italy,
Turkey, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Sweden and France owned their regular and
titular consulates in Skopje (JZ, 1929: 748). Furthermore, Skopje was a seat of
the gendarmeries and army's headquarters, as a result of elongated state of war,
armed incidents on the Bulgarian and Albanian borders, vital guerilla's
movements, unsuccessful disarmament, etc. Unceasing riots and mobilization
contributed to spreading the opinion that the Third army was some command for
punished officers. Headquarters of infantry, artillery, and the air forces were also
situated in Skopje (Bjelajac, 1988: 73-74, 302-303; Apostolov, 1962: 59).
With a very few exceptions, political climate in Skopje was not
fulfilled with tension as well as it was at the rest of the province. Immense
presence of government's armed forces in town made it free from any physical
danger (terrorist attacks in other parts of the province were common), but, at the
same time, it created a solid basis for embarrassments (freedom of the press,
speech and assembly, personal liberty and fear of new regime, incidents and
threats during elections, etc.). With politically transformed guerillas,
overcrowded courts and prisons, 'flying squads' on its streets, Skopje appeared to
be a town of strange contrasts and confusion.1
Free political meetings at the most famous city hotels and restaurants
could show more liberal and loose atmosphere than it was at the other southern
cities, although through the official reports one could find a systematic
eavesdropping of Muslims, communists and 'bulgarists', especially on the eve of
parliamentary elections. Existence of Muslim political organization "Cemivet"
(Southern Moslems Society) and its journal "Hak" (Justice) also could effect that

1
AY, 14, file 8, unit 28, doc. 609, 618, 619, 620, 622; 14-76-257, doc. 9, 26, 32, 34, 55.
there was a solid spirit of toleration in town, but after the party was banned
(1925), things looked quite the opposite.2
In that way, armed quasi-government groups on the streets, threatening
to disobedient electorate (with removal into Turkey, dishonest tobacco purchase)
as well as the estimations of authorities that in 1923 there was 7/8 of voters in
Skopje who were 'against the government and national interests', had to render
the strengthening of regime's Radical party more objective.3 Social setting of
Skopje was an attractive place for communists which gained a great majority at
the town hall in 1920, thanks to their obstinate speeches in favour of
Macedonian autonomy (Katardžiev, 1961: 59-76; Dimitrijević, 2001: 369-373).
In Skopje were situated High Court of Appeal and the state prison, too.
It is interesting to notice that the jail was regularly double exceeding its own
capacity (650 prisoners). At the same time, prison personnel were permanently
growing, while finances reduced twice (JZ, 1929: 379; SGKJ, 1932: 470-473).
There were 35 lawyers in the whole town (all of them were Serbs, except one
Turkish lawyer), and several shysters. The most prominent citizens were
members of Rotary-club (Azbučni imenik: s. p).

Building of New Skopje: economical milieu

Besides prevalent feudal habits and mentality on the left riverbank,

Skopje attained great importance as the commercial and distributing center of
the province. It was the key junction at the region (railways and highway to the
Aegean Sea and Asia Minor), with obvious strategic, financial and trade
significance. Leading state banks (National bank, Mortgage bank, Postal savings
bank) took part in financing the army, restoration and building of Skopje, opium
trade, etc. There were also several private banks led by well-known local
politicians (Gavrilović, 1931: 18-19, 35-37). After the foundation of the
Chamber of Commerce in 1921 economical problems of the city were not
solved. Traffic inferiority of mines and centers of opium and tobacco production,
abuse of high communal taxes and political background of financial currents -
did not stop.4
An oriental type of patriarchal trading was dominant on the ancient city
bazaars. Asiatic look of the market-place with huge presence of Gypsies (there
was 7.500 Gypsies in 1931) could intensify the impression of 'backwardness' and
'laziness' that foreign travellers used to mention (Trifunoski, 1991: 286-289).
Social workers registered 260 beggars on the crowded streets of downtown
(Vardar, 46-47/1933: 21). The central market place was the Bit-bazaar on the
left riverbank. This name has remained the same for Old Skopje till today which
might evidence how important this market was. In the middle of 1920s at this
expensive town had been working 1.335 artisans and 2.785 merchants (420
2
AY, 14-76-257, doc. 32, 34.
3
ASANU, coll. 13315/73, pp. 1-9; AY, 14-8-28, doc. 620.
4
AY, 65-159-504.
Turkish shops).5 Industrial base of town included three stock companies (milling
industry, beer, woodworks) and dozen of small private factories manufacturing
food, alcoholic drinks, soap, chemistry, leather, and furniture (Petrović, 1940,
42-62; Sidovski, 1958: 91-104; Topalović, 1927: 42-47).
Social structure of working-people shows some interesting details:
only 11% of inhabitants in Skopje did work (in handicraft, industry and trade
predominantly); almost half of them were uneducated and without any
qualifications; 27% of employed persons were female (73% of them were
unmarried women) and they mostly worked in industry (38%); 83% of workers
were younger than fourty years; while the most of male workers had been
employed in monopoly industry (tobacco, opium), women predominated in
textile industry and domestics; male artisans were mostly hired among tailors
and shoemakers; striking absence of women was particularly obvious between
innkeepers, in trade companies, city administration and transportation (Purić,
1939: 139-144).
*
Starting the plant power-station for 70.000 consumers in 1924 was the
first real social transformation in the city. In truth, there were several small
power-stations which produced current for their needs (cinemas, hotels, military
hospital, brewery, etc.). After the electrification by German company "A. E. G.",
almost 80% of citizens started to use bulbs instead petroleum lamps (Vardar, 46-
47/1933: 16).
During the first decade of its existence, Yugoslav state had constructed
1.242 buildings in Skopje, mostly from 1923 up to 1927. In 1930 authorities
reckoned about 20.000 existing objects, but they also noticed that there was no
city planning and water-supply system yet, in spite the fact that the mayor Mr.
Josif Mihailovic was an architect (SLVB, 133/1932: 3).
Building a showy and expensive edifice was concentrated on the
central city square near the Vardar River. Elisabeth Barker wrote about 'several
showy buildings' as a sole Yugoslav acquisition in Macedonia (Barker, 1950:
23). The famous Officer's Dome was the most elegant building on the Balkans
that was grown up into a meeting center of military and political elite. 'The
European gate of Skopje' was constructed in 1928 with luxury restaurant on its
roof. On the occasion of that building authorities pulled down monumental
Burmaly mosque (Kadijević, 2001: 246-249). Demolition of well-located
mosques for the sake of government's buildings claimed to be a sin towards the
past, but often covered by sarcastic official remarks that 'there is always
something painful at progress' (Jugoslavija, 1927: 405-415). Just until 1922
municipal authorities in Skopje appropriated seven Muslim graveyards, and four
mosques of total 83 vakuf properties in Skopje (Stojadinović, 1931: 28-30).6
Even the King Alexander proclaimed that, since Skopje belonged to the West, it

5
AY, 74-5-71, Report of V. Djurdjević: Industrija Južne Srbije, 4-8.
6
SBNS, CVI session, 25 July 1922: 791-792.
had to accommodate itself to European culture by 'throwing away with outdated'
(Kara Radovanović, 1937: 589). Military center status of the city contributed to
enlarging investments in such objects: army barracks, flats for officers, the Third
army's headquarters, airport, military hospital, powder magazines, etc.
More than a half of total municipal investments were spent in
improving the streets from 1919 to 1931, even supposing there was a low traffic
intensity, since the most of vehicles belonged to the military and postal services.
Over 15 million dinars were invested in repairing the streets, 5,5 for new school
buildings, 3,2 in parks and squares' arrangement, 1,6 in government buildings,
0,44 for the city lighting, 0,42 millions on sewerage, etc (Pregled, 1934: IV). At
the same time, authorities did not even touch the ground 'with pick or spade' on
the left riverbank, except old Turkish quarters that were renamed (Kara
Radovanović, 1937: 588; IMN 4: 170). On the contrary, on the flat-ground was
developing a new city with its two parallel streets, connecting the railroad station
with central square near 'Stone Bridge'. Carriages and automobiles raced on
these streets as if it was some real metropolis. A crowded footpath at the
Islahana Park near Vardar was the most popular promenade, where one could
see the people walking in various national costumes: Turkish fezzes, Muslim
woman's veils, Serbian traditional caps, Albanian white caps, but also Parisian
dresses, European hats, etc (Jugoslavija, 1927: 400-405).
The road traffic appeared poor intensity, even related to Yugoslav
average. In 1929 there were about a thousand vehicles, predominantly American
cars, buses and trucks, and motorcycles made in Europe (SGKJ, 1932: 190-191;
Jubilarna knjiga: 278). In Skopje were placed several Sphinx gas-stations
(Standard Oil, Shell), six auto garages and one auto mechanic (Godišnjak: 157-
160, 269-274). Political initiative was decisive for opening the civil air line
Belgrade-Skopje in 1929, and the international airport in Skopje. It was the
second Yugoslav air line (the first was Belgrade-Zagreb). In spite of cheap
tickets, passenger planes flew almost empty and such unprofitable flies were
thinned out on three times a week (Jubilarna knjiga: 286-289).
Revolutionary development of post-office system even exceeded needs
of the poor region. Great activity of that system (telegraphs and telephones)
could make an illusion of social progress, but it was used, however, mostly by
government and military institutions. Some German companies (Telefunken,
Telephonfabrik Berliner) had drawn out miles of phone-cables and telegraph
constructions in Skopje on the basis of the World War reparations. Hence, the
town was connected to significant political centers at Yugoslav neighborhood
(Thessalonica, Tirana, Sofia). The fact, that postal regional central of Skopje did
not evidence any international phone call in 1929 could indirectly show how
political tensions were as well as the effects of military phone-censoring (SPTT:
5, 10, 21-23, 27-28; SGKJ, 1932: 497).
Several hotels (Bristol, Splendid, Serbian Queen, Moscow, Serbian
King), two old bridges ('stone' and 'iron'), modern buildings on the central
square, 48 mosques, Turkish baths, Roman aqueduct and nine Orthodox
churches - that was an exotic tourist attraction, in the same manner as bars, beer
saloons, cinemas and taverns by the river were. In spite of high provincial taxes,
hotels in Skopje disposed with 475 rooms which were visited by 31.086 guests
in 1929 (94% were Yugoslavs). At the same year hotels near the Vardar quay
booked 74.042 quarters for the night. In 1928 two university professors founded
organization 'South', which aimed to promote tourist superiority of Skopje
(Hadži Vasiljević, 1930: 69-78; SGKJ, 1932: 322-323).7
Citizens of Skopje (both Muslims and Christians) began to spend their
time at the restaurants, bars, beer saloons, cinemas and hotels instead of
traditionally day trippers. A jazz-band playing at the Paris restaurant, obviously
did not affect passersby as much as the river strand did, which citizens had
wittily called 'the Island of love' (Vardar, 111/1933: 3). At early 1920s the
people of Skopje were considered for extremely moral population, but it was
also known that it used to drink too much and passionately smoke. A decade
later, it seemed that erosion of high morality irretrievable began. Those mixed
emotions of postwar trauma, desperately expected freedom and oriental
hedonism, combined with new living conditions in town overfilled by soldiers
(Yugoslav and French allies), resulted in spread of venereal diseases,
homosexual phenomenon in Turkish baths as well as unbridle behavior of
wealthy Jewish youth, who were the most fashionable at the same time (Hadži
Vasiljević, 1930: 176-179).
During this decade bars and taverns in Skopje were employed as
proper places for political meetings and auction sales. A dozen of night-bars
were unhidden breeding places of prostitution, tolerated by authorities 'in the
interest of public safety', as the city police' chief said!8 The other restaurants had
to harmonize their activities with the law and political acquaintance: fancy
French Club, national Crown-prince Alexander, gambling house Bayli Han,
bordello Golden Prague, etc (Jugoslavija, 1927: 454-455).

Cultural and social view

Yugoslav state had been supporting eight elementary schools in town

(three of them were Muslim's, one was Jewish), but low grade of enlightenment
(there was 83% illiterate people in the province), small salaries, conservatism of
teachers from pre-war period and political motives of their displacing were only
some of the problems which caused troubles in teaching process. Unsuccessful
education was obvious in number of incomplete pupils (only 451 have finished
school from 2.810 pupils).9 There were 52 elementary schools in the district of
Skopje where the Turkish was a teaching language (JZ, 1929: 740).
Just as the World War One had finished, the Gymnasium in Skopje
began to consolidate (during the war its building was turned into military
7
AY, 74-51-71, 65-159-504, 65-1026-1944.
8
ASANU, 13315/91, 1-3.
9
AY, 66-1856-1871, 66-1859-1874, 66-1491-1628; 335-26.
hospital). From 1918 to 1925 over 160 teachers were employed for the school,
and many of them were hired from Russian refugees. In 1924 a female
gymnasium set apart from existing grammar school, but irregular scholarships
and poor aliment caused very low educational level. Declared government's care
was refuted by long periods during the school was without boarding-school,
mess room, medical supervise and heating (Spomenica, 1934: 74, 122).10
After the foundation of 'Sokoli' society at the Gymnasium (1923)
Skopje got its own soko' district named Prince Mark. There were more than
5.000 members who got their Dome in 1927, promoting hale condition and
strong national unity as well (SDSM, 1940: 16-18). The first football club was
founded in Skopje in 1919 and it became famous as the "S. S. C" (Skopje Sport
Club). From 1933 it began to compete at the Southern Cup, till their city rival
(F.C. Slavia) became a member of Yugoslav championship, though only in 1935
(Pedeset godini: 39).
In 1924 the Great state medresa King Alexander was established in
Skopje where fifty young Muslims were acquiring their religious knowledge in
official (Serbian) language. Further education on faculties was possible only if
they graduated at the state medresa. At the same time, there were 73 private
medresas in the province whose scholars had not been able to advance.11
Pedagogical school in Skopje started to work in 1919, but more than half of
scholars abandoned it because of bad conditions. Even if it had its own building
in 1922 Pedagogical school was neglected as a center of communism
(Apostolov, 1978: 396-397).
Development of high-school system in the province began in 1920
when the Faculty of Philosophy was founded in Skopje. Social and ethnic
structure of students (80% were female) can refer us to possible purpose of its
establishing: was it an educational center for the government employees'
children!? Anyway, individual engagement of some enthusiastic professors
contributed to arising of Faculty into a center of scientific and cultural
assembling. Certainly, national policy colored many directions of such 'cultural
action'. On the other side, the fact that only 5,7% of students had graduated,
caused reduction of the State's scholarships. Frequent rumours about closing the
faculty because of financial impossibility were in fact provoked by political
incidents, such were communists and Macedonian independence promoters
(Treu, 1930: 7-9; Memorandum: 17-20).
Several university professors established in Skopje a scientific society,
museum and the state archives, although those institutions had strong national
marks. In 1923 the National University started to give public lectures, as an adult
educational center (Ilievski, 1979: 158-159). The Scientific Society of Skopje,
established in 1921 was aiming to publish historical and ethnographic literature,
especially after its inclusion into the national budget (SND, 1928: 5-9). Two

10
AY, 66-871-1290.
11
AY, 63-157-694; 66-1101-1429.
years later the very same scientists have founded The Museum of South Serbia
which was exploring antique and mediaeval monuments (photo, preservation,
protection of monuments). However, in 1926 the zoological section within the
Museum begun to work (Radovanović, 1928: 386-406). At the same year in
Skopje was founded the department of State archives which was permanently
hindered by communal authorities, mostly in housing problems.12 City libraries
were covered up with national literature, gifts of government and national
associations, as well as the singers' societies (Mokranjac, Vardar) were trying to
promote Serbian national songs as a proper tradition (Georgievski, 1982: 160-
167).13
The National Theater (1913) was reconstructed as a result of searching
for an appropriate model of 'national cultivating the South'. The administration
of B. Nušić worked under very complex conditions, managing to reconcile the
contrasts between ethnically mixed audience (without a theatrical tradition) and
contemporary theater which, owing to its actors and effective advertising
posters, tended to reach the highest world standards. Construction of its new
building in 1927 was one of the most expensive undertakings in the State in that
time.14 During the 1920s in Skopje worked several cinemas (Apollo, Balkan,
Vardar) although they were treated as industrial enterprises.15
*
Feudal mentality and different religious beliefs were present in health
culture, too: avoiding vaccination, belief that malaria was transmittable by plums
and melons, fear of 'new things', disbelief in quinine provided by the State free
of charge, estimations that 80% people did not use soap, despite the fact that
Skopje was one of the biggest manufacturers of this article - these are the facts
explaining very modest effects of the health policy of that time (Jovanović,
2002: 385).
There was a district and military hospital in Skopje, and, owing to
unsettled climate and wide-spread malaria there was fully equipped Institute for
tropical diseases. The enlargement of district hospital capacities was presented
as a necessity of humane and national needs, so in March 1930 it removed into a
new building with 250 beds. Just from 1928 to 1931 there were accomplished
850.000 medical supervises free of charge and granted 3.300 kg of quinine
(Vardar, 62/1933: 1).16 During 1929 the ambulance for the insured citizens
carried out 437 complex operations, 924 accouchements at its maternity section,
and so on (SLVB, 12/1930: 7).
Frequent epidemics of influenza, scarlet fever, typhoid and malaria
were the most intensive at the first half of twenties. From 1926 to 1930 at the

12
AY, 66-336-571.
13
More documents on spreading the Serbian epic literature among the schools of Skopje:
AY, 66-871-1290, doc. 13600/25; 74-54-75; 66-871-1290.
14
AY, 66-354-593.
15
AY, 65-159-504.
16
AY, 39-2-2.
Gypsy's suburb of Skopje there were 265 typhoid people, and just in 1930 over
130 got ill (Vardar, 78/1933: 2). The army had similar problems, so the garrison
in Skopje was crowded with sick Yugoslav soldiers. Their annual reports
indicated inhuman housing, unsettled climate, deficiency of quinine and
mosquito nets, spoilt vaccines and bad control of officers who were transmitting
venereal diseases from the town.17
After the Belgrade biological laboratory had paid really scaring
attention to malaria, government started to build the Institute for tropical
diseases in Skopje (1922). Its modern equipment and professional staff inspired
a French scientist Jacques Ancel to write about Serbian doctors who 'invaded'
Macedonia. Even the League of Nations started to send young doctors in order
to spend their training period in Skopje (Rankov, 1937: 137-139). Just in 1931
Institute laboratory accomplished 25.000 medical examinations (SLVB,
81/1931: 4). After the most enterprising merchants in Skopje have noticed the
importance and worth of remedies, ten private pharmacies began operating there
already in 1924 (Državni kalendar: 24-25).
***
As we could see, political, national and military significance of Skopje
has determined its social structure specifying the level and rhythm of
urbanization. It seemed that the best area for advocacy and explanation of the
government's optimism was the space burdened with regressive feudal heritage,
where even a small step forward was easy to be noticed. For that reason
Yugoslavia's 'metamorphoses' were nowhere more expressed than in Skopje with
its two riverbanks, symbolizing two epochs till today.

ARCHIVAL MATERIAL:

AY
Archives of Yugoslavia, Belgrade,
• collection 14 (Ministry of Interior)
• collection 63 (Ministry of Justice)
• collection 65 (Ministry of Trading and Industry)
• collection 66 (Ministry of Education)
• collection 74 (The Court of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia)

ASANU
Archive of Serbian Academy of Science and Arts, Belgrade

17
AY, 66-1859-1874; 66-1856-1871; 69-160-245.
References:

Апостолов А., Вардарска Македонија од Првата светска војна до

изборите за конституанта - 28. ноември 1920, Годишен зборник на
Филозофски факултет, 13, Скопје 1962.

Апостолов, А., Страјкови на учениците од Скопската учителска школа во

1919 и 1922 година, Југословенски историјски часопис, 1-4, Београд 1978.

Азбучни именик адвоката и адвокатских приправника, Скопље 1933.

Barker, E., Macedonia. Its Place in Balkan Power Politics, London-New York
1950.

Бјелајац, М., Војска Краљевине СХС 1918-1921, Београд1988.

Chater, M., Jugoslavia - Ten Years Afte', The National Geographic Magazine,
LVIII/3, Washington DC: 1930.

Цвијић, Ј., Централна балканска област и балканско територијално

језгро, Цвијићева књига, Београд 1927.

Димитријевић, С., КПЈ у легалном периоду њеног постојања 1919-1921,

Београд 2001.

Државни календар Краљевине СХС за годину 1924, Београд 1924.

Гавриловић, М., Развитак банкарства и привреде у Јужној Србији,

Скопље 1931.

Георгиевски, М., Културно-просветната и политичката улога на

библиотекарството во Вардарска Македонија меѓу двете светски војни,
Гласник ИНИ, 1, Скопје 1982.

Годишњак, Годишњак Аутомобилског клуба Краљевине СХС, Београд

1927.

Хаџи Васиљевић, Ј., Скопље и његова околина. Историска, етнографска и

културно-политичка излагања, Београд 1930.

Илиевски, А., Основањето и дејноста на Народниот универзитет во

Скопје меѓу двете светски војни, Гласник ИНИ, 2-3 , Скопје 1979.

Историја на македонскиот народ, 4, Скопје 2000.

Јовановић, В., Југословенска држава и Јужна Србија 1918-1929.
Македонија, Санџак, Косово и Метохија у Краљевини СХС, Београд 2002.

Јовановић, В., Друштвени оквир урбанизације Скопља 1918-1930,

Годишњак за друштвену историју, вол. 1-3/2002, Београд 2004.

Јубиларни зборник живота и рада СХС, II, Београд 1929.

Јубиларна књига државних железница Краљевине СХС, Београд 1929.

Југославија у слици и речи, вол. I, Београд 1927.

Јужна Србија и Скопље-Охрид-Битољ, Скопље 1936.

Кадијевић, А., О раду руских архитеката у Јужној Србији између два

светска рата, Лесковачки зборник, 41, Лесковац 2001.

Кара-Радовановић, П., Крупни проблеми града Скопља, Београдске

општинске новине, 9, 1937.

Катарџиев, И., КПЈ во Македонија до Обзнаната, Скопје 1961.

Костић, М., Град Скопље и његов историски значај током векова, во:
Наша земља: Скопље и Јужна Србија, Београд 1925.

Меморандум о Философском факултету у Скопљу, Скопље 1933.

Новаковић С., Из Куманова у Скопље во: Југославија у слици и речи, вол. I,

Београд: 1927.

Педесет години фудбал во Македонија 1919-1969, Скопје 1969.

Петровић, З., Индустрија и рударство Јужне Србије, Београд 1940.

Преглед извршених техничких радова код градских општина у току од

1919-1931. године, Београд 1934.

Пурић, Р. С., Анализа састава радниства и радног тржишта Јужне

Србије, Социјални архив, 5-6, 1939.

Радовановић, В. С., Скопље, Београд 1927.

Радовановић, В. С., Народно опхођење према старинама у Јужној Србији,
Јужни преглед, 9, Скопље 1928.

Радовановић, В. С., Географске основе Јужне Србије, Скопље 1937.

Ранков, М., Рад хигијенских установа на здравственом подизању народа у

Јужној Србији, Јужна Србија, Београд 1937.

Rothmueller, C., Јеврејска омладина Јужне Србије, Загреб 1932.

Стенографске белешке Народне скупштине Краљевине СХС.

Сидовски, К., Преглед на прехранбената индустрија во НР Македонија

1912-1940, Гласник ИНИ, 2, Скопје 1958.

Службени лист Вардарске бановине, Скопље.

Скопско научно друштво, Скопље 1928.

Соколско друштво Скопље-Матица. Споменица о прослави 30-год. и

извештај о раду у 1939. години, Скопље 1940.

Споменица 40-годишњице Државне мушке гимназије у Скопљу 1894-1934,

Скопље 1934.

Статистички годишњак Краљевине Југославије за 1929. годину, I, Београд

1932.

Статистика пошта, телеграфа и телефона за годину 1929, 4, Београд

1930.

Стојадиновић, М., Размишљања о Јужној Србији, Савремена општина, 31,

Београд 1931.

Топаловић, З., Привредни проблеми Југа, Скопље 1927.

Треу, Р., Скопски Философски факултет и његови студенти, Смена, 1,

1930.

Трифуноски, Ј. Ф., Роми у Скопљу, Гласник Етнографског музеја, 54-55,

Београд 1991.
 UDC 271.22 (497.7)

Risteski S. Ljupco (Skopje, Macedonia)

RECOGNITION OF THE INDEPENDANCE OF THE MACEDONIAN

ORTHODOX CHURCH (MOC) AS AN ISSUE CONCERNING
MACEDONIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY*

Abstract: The article analyses the relations between Macedonian Orthodox

Church (MOC) and the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) concerning the
recognition of the independence of MOC, as an issue of the Macedonian national
identity. The issue of the church in Macedonia is still not solved and it is still
current, but not only as a church problem but much more since it renews a
number of open issues in relation to the Macedonian ethnic and national identity,
dispute over ethnicity, language, nation and territory of Macedonians in the
Republic of Macedonia.

Key words: Macedonian Orthodox Church, MOC, Serbian Orthodox Church,

SOC, authocephality, Macedonian national identity, ethnicity, language, nation,
Macedonians, Republic of Macedonia

While waiting for a visa at the American Embassy in Skopje, that would
enable me to participate at the scientific conference on Macedonia, where I was
to present my views on the Church issue, I was greeted at the front desk by a
young employee, who at the beginning, when he understood that I am traveling
to the University of Chicago, proudly stated that he graduated exactly there.
When he asked me about the reasons why I attempt to travel to the USA, a
question followed on the topic of the scientific conference, as well on my topic
of presentation.
The situation in which, standing at the front desk (the 'window', as they
called it), I was supposed to talk about the topic that I intended to elaborate at
the Conference, was strange, to say the least. Primarily because the conversation
was in English, whereas I had not spoken a word in English in weeks or months,
and also because I was supposed to talk about a subject that I was working upon
for quite some time. Few questions came to my mind: What should I tell the
employee? Where should I start? What does he know about the Church in
Macedonia? And finally, how correct would it be from my side to start an
elaboration on the topic while being in the Embassy?
However, I started making a short resume on what I would like to share
with my colleagues at the conference, saying that I would like to speak about the
non-recognition of the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC) by other Orthodox
*
The core ideas in this paper were presented at the Conference "Rethinking Crossroads:
Macedonia in Global Context", organized by the University of Chicago Center for East
European and Russian/Eurasioan Studies on 31st of March, 2007.
churches, especially in relation to the consequences that it has upon the national
feeling and national identity of Macedonians in the Republic of Macedonia.
- Is Jovan still in prison? - he suddenly interrupted my speech.
- I think he is, but the media reported that one of these days he will be
released - I answered, slightly confused.
- And what are the reasons that Jovan is still in jail? - the employee
asked
- This time I don't know, I said insecurely, once he was convicted for
initiating religious and national animosity, another time for financial issues in
his former eparchy. But, you know, I said to him quite cynically, court decisions
are not to be commented.
He smiled, in an equally cynical way, I think. He agreed, thanked me
and told me when to pick up the visa (end of February 2007).
Working upon the finalization of the text during this period a number of
activities in relation to the church in Macedonia have happened. These events
are made public mostly by the media, and it is their reporting that creates the
public opinion concerning few specific issues related to the relations in the
Church in Macedonia.
On the 5th of June 2007, contact show Zebra life was dedicated to the
following issue: "Does MOC have its own strategy for the future?". Hosted by
Eli Pesheva on TV Sitel (a national broadcaster) it included metropolitan of the
MOC Petar and Mr. Zoran Bojarovski, editor in-chief of the Forum magazine,
who discussed the current issues related to the Church in Macedonia. During the
show the viewers had a chance to express their opinion on the following
question: "Does MOC have a strategy for the future?"*.
The 18h news at TV Sitel on the 6th of June reported that MOC thinks
about creating church municipalities for the Macedonian ethnic minority in
Greece. As a possible episcope of these municipalities the name of the
archimandrite Nikodim Carknjas was mentioned, who is otherwise known to the
public by his patriotic mission among the Macedonians in the Republic of
Greece, due to which he was imprisoned by the Greek authorities a number of
times. It is interesting to mention that this information was published only few
days after the Greek, but also the Macedonian media reported that the Greek
orthodox church will donate finances for the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric of
the metropolitan Jovan (Vranishkovski) (TV Sitel, News, 06.06.2007, 18h).
At the 10th of June 2007 a celebration was organized in Ohrid, marking
the presentation of the highest state award of the Republic of Macedonia, the
Medal of the Republic of Macedonia, that the president of RM Mr. Branko
Crvenkovski presented to the MOC. The celebration was held in the St. Sophia

*
During the show the viewers had a chance to express their opinion on the following
question: "Does MOC have a strategy in relation to its authocephaly or not?. After the
second minute 56% said that MOC has a strategy, while 44% that it has not. The number
of the ones that voted pro MOC having its own strategy during the show varied, but at
the end it rose to 80%.
church in Ohrid, where 40 years ago its autonomy was proclaimed
(www.president.gov.mk/info.asp, 11.06.2007).
"Our church would not be Macedonian in the true sense of the word if it
would not have the same destiny as everything else that carries the adjective
'Macedonian' - national, language, identity, culture, and this means to be
negated, conditioned, humiliated, things that not only belong to the past, but
unfortunately are present even today. No one can 'invent' a nation, or a church.
He can only invent what does not exist, and the existence of our Macedonian
nation, state and church cannot be seen only those states that hold their eyes
closed", said Branko Crvenkovski, President of RM. (www.sitel.com.mk/vesti
_det.asp?ID=18575&kategorija=Македонија, http://www.a1.com.mk/vesti/defa
ult.asp?VestID=80385, 11.06.2007)
Expressing his gratitude for the highest state recognition, the archbishop
of Ohrid and Macedonia Stefan emphasized that if a certain nation has a reason
to be grateful to its church for its development and survival, the Macedonian
nation would have a number of reasons for doing that.
"Our national history is our church history and our church history is also
our national history. Through the church we got to know ourselves and we grew
as nation. As a true mother it led us through dangerous times and uncertainties
and watched over its nation. In the times when we didn't have our own state, our
church was our state, it was everything that we had. The churches and
monasteries were our centers of literacy, of enlightenment and culture, they were
our schools and hospitals, they were and they still are our home and shelter for
our people", said archbishop Stefan. He added that the glorious St. Sophia
church is a living witness of many unhappy and tragic, but also to many happy
moments (http://www.sitel.com.mk/vesti_det.asp?ID=18575&kategorija=
Македонија, 11.06.2007)
This celebration of the highest state award presented by the President of
the state was not attended by any Government representative.
Even a superficial look at the Macedonian media reports shows that this
event passed unnoticed - usually these types of events receive much more
attention. The vent of the presentation of this highest state reward was
overshadowed by information related to the visit of Mr. George Bush, President
of the USA, to Tirana, Albania, that took place the same day and almost at the
same time. However, the first channel of MTV (national TV) at its first channel
directly covered the solemn ceremony, while at its second channel, reserved
mainly for the ethnic communities in Macedonia, directly covered the visit of
Bush to Tirana.
The next day (since it was a Sunday, the printed media in RM are not
published during the week-end), almost all media published a relatively short
information including a resume of the speeches made by the President of RM
and the head of MOC. One thing that was symptomatic for the citizens, but also
for us as researchers of the issues related to the Church in RM, was the fact that,
first of all, there was no Government representative present at the ceremony, and
secondly, that the Macedonian media did not create a media scandal out of it, as
they usually do in relation to other things. In most of the media there was one
sentence repeating itself: "...attended by representatives of the diplomatic court
in Macedonia, the public and political circles in the country and the local
authorities from Struga and Ohrid". (http://www.mia.com.mk/portal/page?_
pageid=113,160569&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&VestID=20987719&pri
kaz=3, 11.06.2007)
The on-line news on one of the most popular TV stations in Macedonia,
A1 do not even mention who attended the ceremony. The on-line news of TV
Sitel only copies the information, most probably from the Macedonian
Information Agency (MIA), in an identical form: "...attended by representatives
of the diplomatic court in Macedonia, the public and political circles in the
country and the local authorities from Struga and Ohrid". The same sentence
appears in the daily newspaper "Dnevnik", in the electronic version of the paper.
(http://www.dnevnik.com.mk/?ItemID=6B6693CEE4A38941A4D39D0B98D5
A50A, 11.06.222007); (http://www.sitel.com.mk/vesti_det.asp?ID=18575&kate
gorija=Македонија, 11.06.2007).
Only in the electronic version of the "Utrinski vesnik" newspaper it is
mentioned that "no Government Minister came to MOC's celebartion, although
the Minister of Interior was at that time in Struga" (http://www.
utrinskivesnik.com.mk/?ItemID=EDEF253DDDE5FE478498453D9BDDB967,
11.06.2007).
The previous days Macedonia media announced the possible absence of
official representatives of the Macedonian Government at the occasion "due to
work overload", of most of the members of the Government, but to the citizens
of RM it was obvious that such a decision has a certain background, especially
due to the fact that the same day the electronic media, through video coverage,
reported that two of the Ministers (Minister of Interior and the Minister of
Transport) had meetings with the local authorities in Struga, only 20 km from
Ohrid. (http://www.mia.com.mk/portal/page?_pageid=113,160569&_dad=portal
&_schema=PORTAL&prikaz=24&VestID=20975243&cat=6, 11.06.2007; http:
//www.mia.com.mk/portal/page?_pageid=113,160569&_dad=portal&_schema=
PORTAL&prikaz=24&VestID=20975192&cat=6)
According to Macedonian media, at the 17th of June 2007, in Nizopole,
where the private property of Vranishkovski and the monastery Sv. Jovan
Zlatoust is located, the first proclamation of a metropolitan of POA in
Macedonia took place. In the presence of priests from Greece and Serbia, as well
as around hundred of followers, at a solemn mass held in three languages,
Macedonian, Serbian and Greek, monk David Ninov was proclaimed episcope
of Stobi. The media in Macedonia also covered the news, that is, the reaction of
bishop Petar that this proclamation was illegal, since the monk was disconnected
by MOC in 2004 which should have been respected by other churches, and most
importantly, he had not finished his high theological education, while as bishop
Petar suggests "the church laws, even those of the Serbian Orthodox Church, do
not allow anyone to be promoted to a higher position if he does not have
graduated at a Theological Faculty." (http://www.dnevnik.com.mk/?ItemID=F
6E120399D2FDE4786007ED6692E942B, 18.06.2007)
Through speaking about the information published in the Macedonian
media in a period of 15 days at the beginning of June 2007, we would like only
to illustrate that the issue of the Church in Macedonia is quite 'hot', but also,
having in mind the character of the content of the materials, that it is an
extremely important and even more, an exclusively political question. Through
the analysis that will follow we would like to show that this 'church issue' is in
fact totally outside the domain of the theological doctrine and church regulation,
and that it presents an important problem that directly refers to the Macedonian
national identity.

***

Since the declaration of its independence in 1991, the Macedonian state,

as well as the Macedonian nation, face continuous negation of their existence,
both from inside and from the neighboring states and nations, as well as from the
wider international public. The pressures in relation to different problematic
issues and the non-recognition of the Macedonian ethnic, national, state,
linguistic, religious and other types of identity is not new - it has its continuity in
the frames of the recent and not so recent history of the relations between the
Balkan states and the powers that used to have, or that still have their own
influences in the region of South-East Europe. In 1991, when after the
dissolution of the Yugoslav state most of the ex-Yugoslav republics announced
their independence, Macedonia, that is, the citizens of Macedonia decided,
through a referendum, to create an independent, sovereign Republic of
Macedonia. Since then the pressures regarding the non-recognition of the
Macedonian national identity have gained momentum, in different ways and on
different basis.
One of the important questions concerning the identity of the
Macedonian state and nation is the solution of the problem with the recognition
of the independence of the Macedonian Orthodox church (MOC). As it is well
known, the MOC and the Macedonian state have been facing this problem for a
number of years, that is, since the MOC started the process of becoming
independent, separating itself from the Serbian Orthodox Church. The roots of
these processes are deeper and date from the period of the fall of the Turkish
Empire and the creation of independent national states at the Balkans. Up to that
moment the Ecumenical Patriarchy based in Istanbul, which was at least
formally 'unprecedented', had unique, centralized power over the Orthodox
world. Contrary to the Catholic Christian Church where the Pope has exclusive
authority to manage the Church in the whole world, in the frames of the
Orthodoxy, after the creation of the more powerful national states, where ethnic
background had a crucial role in the building of national and religious identity,
other centers of political and religious power were built, that separated
themselves from the influence of the Ecumenical Patriarchy, got independent,
and even started to act as its opponents (Moscow, as a center of the Russian
Orthodox Church started to become one of the most powerful centers of political
and religious power in the region, whose influences could be easily recognized
through political or anthropological analysis of certain issues concerning the
relation of Russia towards the Balkans and the Balkan states). During the 19th
century, after the creation of the new Balkan national states - Serbia, Greece,
Bulgaria, Albania and Romania, local churches were set, with their name
containing state and national attributes: Serbian Orthodox Church, Greek
Orthodox Church, Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Albanian Orthodox Church,
Romanian Orthodox Church (Denfort, 1996: 96). It is important to note that each
of these newly created local and national churches, took as their basis for
maintaining the church tradition and continuity of existence some of the local
patriarchies or archbishoprics (the Pec Patriarchy - SOC, Trnovo Patriarchy -
BOC etc.) (Dimevski, 1965: 34).
In Macedonia, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire there was an
established governance of the newly created state of the Serbians, Croatians and
Slovenians, later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, but as well a
governance of the Serbian Orthodox Church. After the creation of the People's
Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, later the Socialistic Federative Republic of
Yugoslavia, as a result of the state policy of equality between the federative
units, contrary to the nationalistic aspirations of some of them, in 1959 the
people of Macedonia and the church establishment succeeds in gaining a relative
church independence. The Holly Archbishop Synod of the Serbian Orthodox
Church issued a decision that the Orthodox Church in Macedonia should
separate itself as independent, governed according to its own Church
constitution. After a short period of time the Serbian Orthodox Church changed
its attitude regarding the church independence of MOC concluding that
previously it made a big mistake. Such an attitude resulted with a church conflict
between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Macedonian Orthodox Church.
The announcement of the independence of MOC happened at the
gathering held 18th of July 1967. MOC was pronounced an inheritor of the Ohrid
Archbishopric, following the example of other local churches in the region. That
is the start of the "fight for recognition" of MOC by the SOC and the
Ecumenical Patriarchy, as well as other sister-churches, that lasts for about 40
years (Dimevski, 1989: 21).
This process was especially emphasized after the declaration of
Macedonia's independence in 1991, when the ethnic, national, linguistic and
religious identity of Macedonia and the Macedonians was not recognized, that is
the right of self-determination and choice was not given by the neighboring
states, nations and local churches. This is an indicator that the issues related to
the MOC are of crucial importance for the identity of Macedonians and the
Republic of Macedonia. In this context we could analyze the current events
related to the attitudes and behaviors of SOC, when during a period of 40-year of
existence of MOC Serbian priests were nominated as governors of
administrative units in Macedonia, then the creation of the Ohrid Archbishopric
by an ex-episcope of MOC, Jovan Vranishkovski, as well as the coordinated
activities of the Greek Orthodox Church in relation to the non-recognition of the
national name of the Orthodox Church in Macedonia. Surely, a key and decisive
factor in these processes is the behavior of MOC and the Macedonian state.

Rhetoric of temptations, exile and conflicts among the Churches at the Balkans

It is generally known that the historians writing on Macedonia, as well

as the ones writing on the Church in Macedonia, have different, even totally
diverse interpretation of the historical events. The histories of the Church in
Macedonia, no matter the authors or the sides, are clearly written under the
influence of the social and political events.
They are mainly characterized with a specific rhetoric of mutual
accusation between the sides, no matter if they are located in Macedonia or
outside of it, always calling the others 'the discordant', ' the schismatic', while the
proponents or members of the other Church are the 'so called', 'false', 'imitators',
'self-named' etc.
When it refers to itself, the high clergy of the MOC or of the Ohrid
Archbishopric speaks in terms of exile, temptation, excommunication and
sacrifice.
Following the contemporary history of the relations inside the Church in
Macedonia many of its affiliates and members say that it is a matter of an illness
and paralysis of Orthodoxy. However, in the frames of the theoretical discussion
the high priests of the Churches in the region speak about the "uniqueness" of
the Church ("the Church is one"), about its "unity", which is the "pillar and
fortress of truth" (Epistyle of the metropolitan Jovan "Church is one"), as well as
about its "supra-nationality" - if one has in mind the practical activities that are
undertaken among the representatives of the Orthodox Churches in the region, it
is surely a matter of 'political Churches'. "The Church of God is supranational. It
does not mean that it is a non-national one. It is composed of different nations,
but this is not its identity. Its identity lies in the liturgy unity with God, primarily
of each individual with Him, and then of each individual with another
individual, that is in God" (Epistyle of the metropolitan Jovan "Church is one")
(http://www.poa-info.org/mk/arhiepiskop/poslanija/23_Crkvata_e_edna.pdf).
Few arguments why the Church issue in Macedonia is related to the
national identity of Macedonians:
"Religion is a historic force in Balkan societies. It has defined social
identities and has been used as a basis for national myths" (Ivekovic, 2002: 523).
In the case of Balkan nations religion becomes a part of the process of
construction of new political identities (Ivekovic, 2002: 524).
 In regards to the issue of the relation between the local Orthodox
churches and national identity, one can clearly note that each one of them
identifies itself with nation. Even more, Orthodox churches do not only allude to
the national, but also to the ethnic similarity to the dominant ethnic community,
which in the cases of Balkan communities this similarity often passes state
borders and includes parts or units of the 'ethnic tissue' of the communities
which are in frames of other neighboring states. The process of identification of
the local churches with the ethnic communities is widened and it includes the
diaspora as well. Such situation of the Churches surely results with a collision in
their activities in the frames of their own states, but also outside them, creating
situations where they try to influence the interior affairs of the neighboring
countries.
As a result of the national movements in the region of South-Eastern
Europe during the 19th century the first national states were formed - one of the
important elements in the creation of national, local Churches. The infamous
status of the Churches during the time of the Ottoman administration, when they
were under the jurisdiction of the Constantinople Patriarchy, which implied a
dependence, as well as the fact that the Church as an institution had a key role in
the process of raising national awareness of the Balkan nations, resulted with
more intensive efforts for establishing new, local Churches based upon
nationality.
In the frames of the revival processes in Macedonia, in the second half
of the 19th century, a more defined fight and activities have started pointed
towards the creation of a Macedonian national church or church that would 'fit'
the needs of the religious folk in Macedonia and the national ideology. Krste P.
Misirkov at the en of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, elaborating
his own program on the specificities of the Macedonian nation, with complete
awareness points towards the church propaganda that happened at the territory of
Macedonia (Crvenkovska-Risteska Ines, 2005: 106-107), that strongly
influenced the ethnic identity and national self-recognition. "Orthodoxy, the
oldest, most common and basic religion of all Macedonian nationalities,
unfortunately has lost from its sight its main goal, to spread fraternity among
nations (...) Instead of these noble tasks, orthodoxy spreads only conflict and lies
(...) The Orthodoxy in Macedonia is now so distorted that one can not say that it
is a matter of one Orthodox Church only - now there are 3 churches, not
orthodox ones but Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian" (Krste P. Misirkov, 2003: 62).
Thus, Misirkov proposes a creation of a unique Orthodox church in
Macedonia: "While religious propaganda try to destroy the unification of
Macedonian intelligence and of Macedonian people, then the first thing to do is
to create, in Macedonia, a 'unique Apostolic church', i.e., to establish the Ohrid
Archbishopric, that will be an 'Archbishopric of all Macedonians'" (Krste P.
Misirkov, 2003: 64).
Still, even during the Second World War, which in Macedonia has a
character of a national and social movement, led mainly by the Communists, an
Initiative Board was formed for organizing the Macedonian Orthodox Church in
1994 in the village of Vranovci. This type of 'self-organization' of the
population, that should be understood as a social and national movement, was
the only possible form of organization, having in mind that the high priesthood
in Macedonia served the Serbian Orthodox Church and was loyal to its church,
national and state program goals. One should note that one of the documents
sent to the Presidium of ASNOM dated 1945 is signed by three priests from
Macedonia, in the name of the Initiative Board.
From today's perspective it is clear that when looking at the
"spontaneous" social events one has to search for an appropriate center of
political power that generates these events, and in this case those were the
activists of the Macedonian national movement that worked upon the creation of
a Macedonian state in which the proletariat, led by the Communists, would
fulfill the goal concerning the creation of one's own national state. The Episcope
of the Ohrid Archbishopric Jovan in his discussions on the "ecclesiological
heresy present in the schism of the religious organization in Macedonia" focuses
upon the two most important criteria which according to him are relevant for the
unity of the Church. The first argument is that after the establishment of the
people's governance in Macedonia in the frames of the federative people's
community of Yugoslavia, when Macedonia was an equal Republic, Joseph
(representative of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church), who was then the
metropolitan, was not allowed to continue with the administration of the church
in Macedonia, and the second argument are the requests of the Church Councils
related to the creation of a national Macedonian Orthodox Church. These events
are interpreted by the metropolitan as "disruption of the relevance of the local
Church, since it is clear the without an episcope there is no Church; and second,
the requests of the above mentioned Church Council, which were confirmed at
the all following Councils, for the creation of a national (Macedonian) Church.
This is an easily recognizable ethno-phyletistic heresy" (Metropolitan Jovan,
The Ecclesiological Heresy, 8).
Concerning the connection of the national programs and the Churches at
the Balkans, it is interesting to mention that during the first years of socialistic
set-up of Yugoslavia the issue of how to organize the Church in the state was
discussed. Primarily, the Church was separated from the state and the state was
highly secularized. However, through establishing a secular state the church
problem was not closed, and this was not related only to the initiatives for
organizing the MOC but also to the Church in Yugoslavia in general. On the 4th
and 5t of March 1945 in Skopje the first Church Council, issuing a Resolution
on "renewing the Ohrid Archbishopric as a Macedonian independent church,
which would not be subordinated to another local national Orthodox Church...
When a Yugoslav Orthodox Church - Patriarchy would be created, our
Macedonian Orthodox Church will enter into its frames as well as the other
Orthodox Churches in Federative Yugoslavia..." (Priest Council, Interview with
Done Ilievski, part II, 1-2, http://www.svpetaripavle.org/new/history/
XXc/voa2.html)
In the period of early socialism the society had a reserved attitude
towards the Church - as an institution it still had the most conservative and
nationalistic elements. This was especially felt in the frames of SOC. This is
why the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Macedonia thought that
the title "Serbian Orthodox Church" should be changed into Yugoslav Orthodox
Church or simply Orthodox Church. (Lazarov, 1988: 139-140). Such tendencies,
analyzed from today's position, could be understood as attempts of the Yugoslav
wing in the Federation to establish a unique church for the whole Yugoslav
nation and in this way to become a sister-church with other Orthodox Churches
in the region. On the other hand, this could be understood as a silent elimination
of the Serbian Orthodox Church from the church, but also and most importantly
from the political and national scene in Yugoslavia and in the wider region.
Two stand-points existed in relation to the organization of the
Macedonian Orthodox Church. The first promoted the idea of an independent
Macedonian orthodox church and the second the idea of an autonomous
Macedonian orthodox church that would have a canonic relation with the
Orthodox Church of Yugoslavia. The Central Committee of the Communist
party of Macedonia in this period recommended the party organizations in
Macedonia to solve the church issue on the basis of autonomy and canonic unity
with the Orthodox Church in Yugoslavia. The head of this church would be a
Macedonian, that would be selected by the priests, and would thus become a
member of the Archbishop Assembly of Yugoslavia (Lazarov, 1988: 140).
Certain French diplomatic sources, analyzing the disputes between the
SOC and MOC point towards the interference of the Serbian state and party
leadership in church issues. This is especially valid in relation to the decision of
the Serbian Orthodox Church, announced by the Serbian Patriarch Vicente
through Yugopress Agency, that they accept: a) the utilization of Macedonian
language in sermons and administrative correspondence, b) utilization of a stamp
with "Republic of Macedonia" written on it, c) the three episcopes for Skopje,
Ohrid and Strumica-Zletovo would be chosen by the Macedonian priesthood
(French Embassy in Belgrade, 30th of April 1957, vol.3, According to Lazarov,
1988: 140). This, according to French estimations "implies formal recognition of
the Macedonian church in 1945, so even thought the SOC counted these
decisions as its success, de fact it could not stop the Macedonian path to
independence. The religious issue of the church independence is extremely
important question for the history of Macedonia (Lazarov, 1988: 140).
An important step forward in the development of Macedonian-Serbian
church relations, and especially in terms of realization of the aspirations of the
Macedonian people for independence, that is, renewal of MOC, was taken
immediately after the replacement of Alexandar Rankovic, in 1966, in spring
1967. Lazar Lazarov, in his study on MOC mentions Krste Crvenkovski's
statement that: "the very replacement of Rankovic created good opportunities
and climate for organizing a meeting of high state officials from Macedonia and
Serbia, and some from Yugoslavia, in spring 1967. Present at this meeting were:
Petar Stambolic, Dragi Stamenkovic, Veljko Vlahovic, Edvard Kardelj and
Mijalko Todorovic, and from the Macedonian side me (i.e. Krste Crvenkovski)
and Nikola Minchev. Although some people, especially Dragi Stamenkovic and
Petar Stambolic, were reserved, still there was an unanimous decision to support
the creation i.e. the renewal of the Macedonian autocephalous church as an
independent one (Lazarov, 1994: 2; Peric, 1998: 253, 254).
In the case of Macedonia, if we analyze the activities of SOC in the past
40 years, and due to the non-recognition of MOC, this could be exemplified
through cases where SOC formally established church jurisdiction upon church
administrative units in Macedonia, appointing a responsible metropolitan from
SOC for the Macedonian eparchies. Such behavior of SOC, according to the
analogy of identification of the Church and the ethnic community, could be
interpreted as marking the political and ethnic space of "Big Serbia" or "Serbian
lands" (Ivekovic, 2002: 524). As a proof of the 'historical facts' on the 'Serbian
Orthodox character' of the Macedonian territory, data that refer to the sacral
objects (monasteries, churches) built in different periods and rules of the Serbian
state on the territory of Macedonia are being presented. (Iveković, 2002: 524)

Hypocrisy of the Church 'kinship terminology'

The terminology, and most probably the hierarchy of the Church as an

institution, are based upon the concept of kinship relations, that had, as a social
network, an extreme importance for the societies and cultures of many
communities. The Church, as an icon of a traditionalistic concept, is still
strongly respecting and using this 'kinship terminology'. Having in mind that the
utilization of this terminology in the frames of the Church is so obvious, we
would here note just few examples. It is widely accepted to speak about the
Church as a 'mother'. In this context its maternal character alludes to the folk, the
believers. The head of the Catholic Church is the 'father', and similar expressions
are often used for the heads of the Orthodox churches. The local Orthodox
churches, when speaking about the relations between each other and also as
etiquette call each other 'sister-churches'. According to this analogy the members
of the folk, the believers, are named, by the higher clergy, as 'one's own children'
(disciples), while the priests call them brothers and sisters'. The newly
established local churches are called "daughter-churches' or just 'daughters'.
It may sound strange, but it is a fact that this type of relation in the
Church and among the churches throughout history creates tension even today.
Usually 'mother-churches', consider themselves 'responsible' for the behavior of
the newly created 'daughter-churches', that according to their own will proclaim
autonomy and/or independence and in this way 'separate' from the mother-
church. As a result of the utilization of this type of kinship network and
terminology in the frames of the Church, for a period of over 100 years there are
disputes between the Churches in the Orthodox world aiming to prove who is the
'mother' church, and thus prove the domination upon other churches. From the
perspective of anthropology, today it is extremely difficult to establish which is a
mother-church, which are the daughter-churches, and which are the sister ones.
This issue is mentioned here due to the fact that the dispute between MOC and
SOC is based on the act of self-proclamation of MOC without the permission of
the mother-church. In this case SOC finds that it holds the right of being the
mother-church, while MOC does not only oppose this claim, but finds itself a
mother-church of SOC. The literature concerning this issue notes a huge number
of arguments that supports the first or the second claim. What is without any
doubt at this moment is that this 'kinship terminology' is a basis of the inter-
church conflict.

State-Church-Nation-Diaspora

Even the most superficial review of the historiographies covering the

creation of the contemporary Balkan nation-states from the end of the 19th
century reveals their connection to the creation of local autocephaly churches. In
fact, a number of researches (Batalden, 1997: 185, 186) of the political and
national history of Balkan states relate the processes of creating of contemporary
nation-states at the Balkans and their autocephalous Churches that have a
national character, supporting the so called theory of autocephaly as a function
of national identity (Sanderson, 1995: 12).
“The equation of religious unity with political unity and later with
national identity became the raison d’etre for autocephaly in the Orthodox
world. Especially with the growth of nationalism in the nineteenth century, to be
a nation meant to have a church of one’s own, and to be entitled to one’s own
state. By contrast, subject peoples, such as Macedonians, Byelorussians, and
Ukrainians, were described as “lacking a true history”; they were said to speak
the “dialects” of other “historical” nations and were denied the right to have
their own autocephalous churches” (Ramet, 1988: 4-5)
Sanders, in his dissertation dedicated to the autocephaly of Orthodox
Churches tries to argument it as an organizational change that happened due to
institutional pressures, as an alternative theory versus the 'nationalistic theory of
autocephaly' (Sanders, 2005). His theory, in spite the detailed elaboration of
many of the supporters of the 'nationalistic theory', seems superficial.
We would focus upon the analisis of few authors who find that there are
strong connections between the Church and State-Nation in the Orthodox world
(Batalden, 1997: 222-223). P. Ramet, for example, identifies three basic models
of Church-State relations: nationalism, copptation and rejection, and opposition,
variables that could be combined in different ways (Ramet, 1988 : 18). V.
Roudometof, speaking about the situation in South-East Europe at the end of the
19th century sais: „The institutions of the distinct national churches (Greece
1832, Serbia 1832, the Bulgarian Exarchate 1870) provide the means through
which the traditional ties of Orthodox Balkan peoples could be severed, and new
national ties constructed. (Roudometof, 1999: 240). Loring M. Denfort, speaking
on the creation of national identities at the Balkans, writes: "one of the most
important steps in building nation at the Balkans is establishing an authocephal
national church..." (Denfort, 1996: 95).
One of the most important functions of local churches in South-Eastern
Europe is the establishing of church ties with the diaspora. It is especially
important to speak about the ties of the Church with the overseas diaspora, the
diaspora in Europe and in the neighboring countries. Thus, the issue of the
relation of the Church with the diaspora should be examined as an important
national question due to the fact that all states, immediately after their
consolidation, tried to establish church jurisdiction over their own diaspora. In
fact in most of the cases the diaspora reflected the unsolved issues at the
Balkans, from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The
influences and propaganda of the local churches are reflected in the frames of
the diaspora. The best example of these processes are the analysis of V.
Roudometof on the diaspora in Macedonia and Australia (Roudometof, 2003).
In his theological-political discussions, metropolitan Jovan, speaking
about the authocephaly of the Church in Macedonia has stated, many times up
till now, that it has been done by "the Communist authority, so that a pseudo-
history of Macedonian nation would be built, that has not been revised up till
now, and it (meaning, the authocephaly - Lj. R.) was not an interior need that
resulted from the maturity of the Church" (Metropolitan Jovan, Ecclesiological
heresy, 9)
"Authorities in ex-Yugoslavia had two goals in relation to the Church.
One that was directly implemented by the Executive Council of Macedonia was
that the Church was to serve political goals. Through the Church to control the
diaspora..." (Metropolitan Jovan, Theological and Historical Aspects...40).
On the other hand in the same text metropolitan Jovan, speaking on the
activities of MOC during the first years of the proclamation of authocephaly in
the diaspora, notes the reactions of the rest of the local Churches in relation to
the opening of the first Macedonian church in Windsor, Canada and Columbos,
Ohio in 1960 and the church in Melbourne, Australia by metropolitan Dositej
and episcope Naum. This act resulted with a prompt reaction of the
Constantinople Patriarchy and Patriarch Atinagora, who sent a letter to the
Serbian Patriarch asking "who is that episcope who consecrated a church to the
Christians, almost all of them from Greece, thus due to one more reason a part o
the canonic jurisdiction of the Greek archbishopric for Australia and New
Zealand" (Act. Sin. N. 515 from 22.02.1960) (Metropolitan Jovan, Theological
and Historical Aspect...39). Reading these arguments it is normal to pose the
question if in this case, when the State origin (almost all are from Greece) and
Church are defined as similar, the canonic rule invoked by all priests in the
Orthodox world is not broken. Also, here we should not forget the fact that this
is a population mainly from the northern parts of Greece, Aegean Macedonia,
which identified itself differently than the diaspora did, and a part of the
population had a feeling of belonging to the Macedonian ethnic community and
wanted to go to Macedonian churches.

The Church and the utilization of a liturgical language

"Faith and language, those are the soul of a nation" (Misirkov, 1903: 36)
If faith was the basic element of social and ethnic differentiation during
the time of the Ottoman rule with the major part of the Balkans (Jezernik, 2004 :
180), then with the withdrawal of the Turks from this territory and the creation
of the first national states a more complex system of differentiation starts where
besides the Church the language and the theories of the local ethnographic
characteristics played much bigger role in the processes of creation of public
opinion (Panev, 2000: 5). Concerning the formation of the public sphere and
opinion in Macedonia, A. Panev emphasizes that "in spite other European
experiences, the public sphere of the Slavs in Macedonia starts in the church
circles, through a transformation of the existing and legally recognized church
bodies" (Panev, 2000: 9). Thus, this author points towards the meaning and
strong influence of the Church at the territory of Macedonia. Surely, these
processes have been generated and assisted by a number of Western-European
imperial forces as well as USA (the Catholic Church, the Bulgarian national
movement, the Bulgarian Exarchate, Greek Patriarchy, Serbian Patriarchy
(Panev, 2000: 9). In such a context the population of Macedonia, depending on
the proximity in terms of space and power of the Church influences, continues to
join some of the above mentioned Churches. The influences of the Greek
Patriarchy were stronger in the South and South-west parts of Macedonia,
holding sermons in Greek, and not only during church events but also in the first
church schools (Trajanovski, 2001: 57). These influences were especially
effective upon "the Helenized Macedonian conservative wealthy men " that
started to increasingly adopt Greek language, while 'expressing contempt for
their own mother tongue calling it primitive" (Trajanovski, 2001: 58). Up to the
formation of the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1870-1872, the main fight of the Slavic
population in Macedonia and in the wider region was pointed towards the 'Greek
fanariots'1, that is, the Greek Constantinople Patriarchy (Freedman, 2003: 250).
"Thus, Greeks and Greek Patriarchy presented the main threat for the
Macedonian language and identity in the middle of the 19th century, that is, after
the Slavic national awareness was well developed" (Freedman, 2003: 251). In
other parts of Macedonian the population 'had a chance to choose' between the
churches of the Bulgarian Exarchate or the churches of the Serbian Patriarchy.
Surely, the most important element of the implementation of the different
national programs was the language of the sermons, and at the same time the
1
During the 18th century there were two opposed wings in the frames of the high clergy
of the Ohrid Archbishopric - fanariot and autochthonous. Their activities were
remarkable during the period that followed (Trajanovski, 2001: 42).
language used in church schools organized by both of the above mentioned
churches. "In the second half of the 19th century, all neighboring nation-states
had ambitions to rule this region, and used the educational system and the local
Orthodox churches as instruments of assimilation of the population, each in its
own imagined community" (Roudometof, 2003: 12). In his study "Culture,
identity and the Macedonian question" V. Roudometof, following the research
done by A. Karakasidu, concludes that "the utilization of the Orthodoxy for
expressing national identity helps the nations in their transfer to contemporary
statehood" (Roudometof, 2003: 13) (Denfort, 2003: 19).
From today's perspective, I tend to understand better the disputes of
some of my older relatives concerning the church that they belong to. In Prilep
there are a number of churches. One of them, the church "Sv. Blagoveshtenie"
was built in 1838 and is also called "The Old Church". Near it there is another
church, "Sv. Perobrazenie", also called "Greek Church". I remember well that at
major holidays one could not come close, not even think of entering the Old
Church, while the Greek one was attended by few. On the web-site of the
municipality of Prilep, in the chapter dedicated to the cultural and historical
monuments of the city, this church is mentioned as follows: "It is known as the
'Greek Church' since the Greek speaking and the Vlach population of Prilep
succeeded to obtain a document for its construction from Constantinople"
(http://www.prilep.gov.mk/?jazik=1&id=02040203, 15.06.2007). Most probably
the Greek speaking or the Helenophilic population, together with the Vlachs, not
only succeeded in its construction, but also belonged to it. The rest of the
population in Prilep went to the Old Church, whose name does not imply an
ethnic background. Although the Old Church, in the years after the
establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate, became one of its churches, still in the
collective memory of the population of Prilep it remained known as 'the Old
Church', since the period when it was built and the sermons that were held in
church-Slavic and folk language strongly influenced the 'fight against the
fanariotic Greek Church", and the return of such sermons which are held in a
language that is understandable for the population (Denfort, 1996: 98).
In Macedonian historiorgaphy there are many concrete examples in
which the local population, expressing their revolt against the priests that hold
sermons in a foreign and non-understandable language (mostly Greek),
threatened the Constantinople partiarchy that their church municipalities will
conclude a union with the Roman Catholic church (Trajanovski, 2001: 123).
Seen through the prism of the history of church relations in Macedonia, at micro
level, one could note more than a dozen examples when local church and school
municipalities, led by local leaders, and wanting to implement some of their
church rights, mainly related to the language of the sermons, threatened the
Patriarchy in Fanar that they will conclude a union with Rome (Written reaction
of the Veles church and school municipality dated 1862; Letter of the population
of Kukus from 1859 to Pope Pius IX, in relation to negotiations for accepting a
union with the Roman Catholic church, where one of the conditions, i.e. in the
5th point, they request the Pope that 'the main language and basis for the
education of youth should always be folk language, with Cyrillic alphabet"
(Ristovski, 1975: 84-85).
In relation to the importance of the utilization of a certain language
during sermons and in the frames of the Church administration, and in
correlation with the construction of national self-awareness of Macedonians, we
note the information connected to the conclusion that was issued at the Priests'
Council held in the village of Izdeglavje, Western Macedonia, in 1943. Besides
other points, one of them says that "during sermons the church-Slavic language
will be utilized, while the administration should use Macedonian language".
Also, all priests, participants at this Council, made themselves available as
teachers of Macedonian at the liberated territories (Priests' Council, Interview
with Done Ilieski, p. 3).
Today, in contemporary Macedonian society, the Church is still seen as
traditionalistic oriented institution, due to its support of the values of the past,
and due to its influence upon creation of public opinion in relation to some
important social and political issues. The utilization of language still can be
considered as instrument of mythologization and mystification of contemporary
social context since besides the every-day literature Macedonian language the
ancient Slavic is used. For many today in Macedonian the church-Slavic
language is not understandable, but the priests are still using them during
sermons. Most probably the Church, on one side, wants to show that it respects
old values and does not let them be changed so easily, but on the other hand it
creates for them a pleasant exotic atmosphere, due to the usage of language that
the listeners cannot understand. Parts of the sermon that is dedicated to the folk
are always in Macedonian, so that they would be understood by the faithful.
However, the discourses of the utilization of language (languages) in sermons in
Macedonian orthodox churches gives us the right to note that they are used for
successful manipulation aiming, i.e. in order to create a special image of the
church, but also of contemporary Macedonian reality. "Today's Eastern
Churches (...) have a homogenous bilingualism: during sermons they use, and
they loyally keep, a language or language form of the past: for example Church-
Slavic instead of Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian, Russian or other Slavic
languages, Classical Greek instead of modern Greek... This means that the
nations over which Orthodox churches have big influence (...) practically live
bilingually" - concludes Liliefeld Fon Feri in her study "Orthodox Churches at
the East and the Differences in Their Culture in comparison to Western
Christianity" (Batalden, 1997: 218-219).
Following the above mentioned program goals for the activities of the
Church organizations in Macedonia, one could appropriately interpret the
sermon at the solemn liturgy of the metropolitan Jovan during the appointment
of the new episcope of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric in three languages:
Macedonian, Serbian and Greek.
Name-State-Church-National identity

The main element in disputing Macedonian national identity, culture and

language is the negation of the neighboring countries and nations of the name
"Macedonians", and the terms "Macedonia", "Macedonian". Thus, one of the
main critics pointed towards MOC in RM is the utilization of the name
"Macedonian Orthodox Church". Surely, in many occasions and through
different aspects we already pointed towards the implications that such critics
have. They mainly refer to the negation of Macedonian national identity. In
reference to the church dispute this problem culminated with the proposals for
recognition or acceptance of the autonomy or autocephaly of MOC by SOC and
by the other local Orthodox churches if it denounces the attribute "Macedonian".
There were different suggestions, that it should be called "Ohrid Archbishopric",
"Orthodox church in Macedonia" etc., but in all of them the signifier of the
national background of the Church, that is, of its followers, is missing.
After the creation of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric of the
metropolitan Jovan this issue became even more emphasized. In his theological
discussions, metropolitan Jovan says that he does not deal with the daily political
problems, and expresses his opinion on few extremely important issues as for
example the ethnic and national characteristics and feelings of Macedonians.
Namely, in his text "The Theological and Historical Aspects of the Church
Conflict in Macedonia and its Solution" he says that his people "have not solved
an important dilemma which is 'what is the relation of Macedonians with the
Slavs'? In other words, could you be indigenous Macedonian and a Slav who
settled-in later on, or there is something which is contradictory in this
combination? (Metropolitan Jovan, Theological and Historical Aspects...31).
Without going into details, metropolitan Jovan tries to express his attitudes on
the relations between indigenous Macedonians and the Slavic population which
settled at this territory later on, saying that "that one wants only the name of the
ancient Macedonians without participating into their culture, which from the
time of Alexander the Great, and most probably even before him, was
exclusively Greek, seems unreasonable and without any realistic basis. Not to
take into account that the Gospel at the territory of current RM that arrived in the
time of Apostle Paul was in Greek, to be ignorant on the fact that at the time of
birth of the tsar Justinian in Skopje the Greek language was used, not to speak
about Bitola (Iraklion) or Stobi, not to be aware that the archeological
monuments found at the territory of RM from the beginning of Christianity to
the arrival of the Slavs testify on the utilization of Greek language by the
population that lived there, is called ignorance in science, and bias in politics. It
is fact though that the culture that was created on the above mentioned territories
from the beginning of Christianity, and even before that, was Greek. Surely not
Greek from the aspect of the rigid current understanding of nation and its
culture, but Greek from the aspect of the wideness of the church experience of
God and the world, that is from the aspect of theology, which was closely linked
to Greek language in the frames of the Eastern Roman Empire from the
beginning of the Christian era. The territory of today's RM has been for centuries
in the frames of this Empire. During that time high culture was built. However, a
minimal doses of honesty is needed to admit that this culture, which expressed
itself in different forms until the arrival of the Slavs at the territory of today's
RM, was of Greek origin, again mentioning that the Greek nation, creation in the
19th century is a totally different thing from the Greek culture which is a product
of the spirit of different ethnic groups that even though were different were
united by the same language, the Greek, since the time of Alexander the Great.
The arrival of the Slavs results with certain mixture of the ethnic groups at the
above mentioned territory. The Slavs accepted the faith and culture of the
indigenous Macedonians, but it seems they had difficult time to learn the
language. However, they accepted the mentality and the way of life and started
to adjust the terminology and their thinking to the new values that they have
accepted as faith, cult and culture. We find the presumption that there were no
mixed marriages between the indigenous and the newly arrived, but that the
Slavs accepted only the faith and culture biased, as well as that the 'Slavs have
completely diverted the Greek character of the Macedonian population that they
have found at this territories'**" (Metropolitan Jovan, Theological and Historical
Aspects...33).
Concluding his discussion on the ethnic and national self-definition and
feeling of Macedonians, metropolitan Jovan says: "Most probably no one has the
right to ban the inhabitants of today's Macedonia to feel as Macedonians, but
they themselves should solve the problem if they are Macedonians or Slavs,
since to think of oneself as Slav and use the name Macedonian seems
unreasonable and immature" (Metropolitan Jovan, Theological and Historical
Aspects...33).
Most probably this type of statements of metropolitan Jovan are related
to the dilemmas about the "historical and ethnic past" of Macedonians and
deepen the tensions in the Republic of Macedonia. Also, if one checks the
statistics of the utilization of the name Macedonians in his texts, he/she would
notice its absence, which is a result of his above mentioned attitudes.
Based upon the above mentioned data, it can be concluded, first, that the
issue of the Church in Macedonia is still not solved and is quite 'hot', not only as
a church problem, but much more due to the fact that it raises many open issues

**
Latest research known to us on what the names Macedonia and Macedonians or
Macedonian meant in the Middle Ages is done by Prof. Tarnanidis in the book ΟΙ
“ΚΑΤΑ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑΝ ΣΚΛΑΒΗΝΟΙ”
IΣΤΟΡΙΚΗ ΠΟΡΕΙΑ ΚΑΙ ΣΥΓΧΡΟΝΑ ΠΡΟΒΛΗΜΑΤΑ ΠΡΟΣΑΡΜΟΓΗΣ, εκδ. Αδε
λφ. Κυριακιδη, Θεσσαλονικη 2000, pgs. 25-47. analysing the places where in the
whole course of Minj's Patrology where these two terms are mentioned he shows that not
only in pre-Christian times but also in the time of the Eastern Roman Empire, Slavs were
not called by others, nor called themselves Macedonians. Macedonians were called only
those inhabitants of Byzant that spoke Greek.
in relation to the Macedonian ethnic and national identity, where ethnicity,
language, nation and the territory of Macedonians in the Republic of Macedonia
are disputed. Due to these issues, the proclaimed Church unsolved issue (that
according to our opinion was strongly politically generated even in the past)
today presents an open national issue. This is why a number of 'interested
parties' are still active in this process, but the most interested are the
Macedonians, who hold the key to solving this issue in the future.

References:

Баталден Стивен К., Преиспитување на традицијата. Есеи за историјата

на православието, Култура, Скопје 1997.

Денфорт Лоринг М., Македонскиот конфликт. Етничкиот национализам

во транснационалниот свет, Македонска книга, Скопје 1996.

Денфорт Лоринг, Црковниот национализам и македонското прашање во

австралиската дијаспора, во: Македонското прашање: култура,
историографија, политика, уредил Виктор Рудометоф, Евро Балкан Пресс,
Скопје 2003, с. 37–78.

Димевски Славко, Црковна историја на македонскиот народ, Скопје 1965.

Димевски Славко, Историја на Македонската православна црква,

Македонска книга, Скопје 1989.

Илиевски Доне, Свештеничкиот собир, интервју со г. Доне Илиевски, дел

II, 1–2, http://www.svpetaripavle.org/new/history/XXc/voa2.html

Јован, архиепископ охридски и митрополит скопски, Еклисиолошката ерес

во расколот на религиозната организација во Р. Македонија,
http://www.poa-info.org

Јован, архиепископ охридски и митрополит скопски, Богословско-

историски аспект на расколот на Црквата во Р. Македонија и неговото
надминување, http://www.poa-info.org

Каракасиду Анастасија, Трансформирање на идентитетот, создавање на

свеста: принуда и хомогеност во северозападна Грција, во: Македонското
прашање: култура, историографија, политика, уредил Виктор Рудометоф,
Евро Балкан Пресс, Скопје 2003, с. 79–135.

Лазаров Лазар, Општествено-економскиот развој на Македонија, ИНИ,

Скопје 1988, с. 139–140.
Лазаров Лазар, Макотрпниот пат на црковното осамостојување – погледи и
мислења. Односите меѓу МПЦ и СПЦ во минатото и денес, в. Нова
Македонија, Скопје, 29 јуни 1994 година, с. 2.

Мисирков Крсте П., За македонцките работи, фототипно издание по

повод 100-годишнината од излегувањето на книгата, МАНУ, Скопје 2003.

Наум, митрополит струмички, Болеста на православните, интервју,

Македонско сонце, неделен весник, 16. 9. 2005.

Периќ Миодраг, Историско-правните аспекти на односите помеѓу

Српската православна црква и Македонската православна црква, Мисла,
Скопје 1998.

Ристовски Блаже, Народната култура во изградбата и афирмацијата на

македонската национална мисла, Гласник на ИНИ, XIX/3, Скопје 1975.

Рудометоф Виктор (уредник), Македонското прашање: култура,

историографија, политика, Евро Балкан Пресс, Скопје 2003.

Трајановски Александар, Бугарската егзархија и македонското

националноослободително движење (1893–1908), Култура, Скопје 1982.

Трајановски Александар, Црковната организација во Македонија и

движењето за возобновување на Охридската архиепископија од крајот на
XVIII и во текот на XIX век – до основањето на ВМРО, Институт за
национална историја, Скопје 2001.

Фридман Виктор А., Модерниот македонски стандарден јазик и неговата

врска со модерниот македонски идентитет, во: Македонското прашање:
култура, историографија, политика, уредил Виктор Рудометоф, Евро
Балкан Пресс, Скопје 2003, с. 241–288.

Црвенковска-Ристеска И., Антрополошки поглед врз процесот на

создавање на македонскиот национален идентитет во периодот на
преродбата, ЕтноАнтропоЗум, бр. 5, Скопје 2005, 72-114.

Iveković Ivan, Nationalism and the Political Use and Abuse of Religion: The
Politization of Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Islam in Yugoslav Successor States,
Social Compas 49(4), 2002, с. 523–536.

Jezernik Božidar, Wild Europe: The Balkans in the Gaze of Western Travellers,
London 2004.
Mylonas Christos, Serbian Orthodox Fundamentals. The Quest for an Eternal
Identity, EU Press, 2003.

Panev, Aleksandar. Orthodoxy, Modernity and Nationality in Macedonia, 1800-

1878. A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirement for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Dept. of History, University of Toronto. 316pp
4to, Toronto 2000. VG (Book ref. HALL439661)

Ramet Pedro, Autocephaly and National Identity in Church-State Relations in

Eastern Christianity: An Introduction, во: Eastern Christianity and Politics in
the Twentieth Century (Durham: Duke University Press), 1988.

Roudometof Victor, Nationalism, Globalisation, Eastern Orthodoxy.

‘Unthinking’ the ‘Clash of Civilizations’ in Southeastern Europe, во: European
Journal of Social Theory 2:2, 1999.

Sanderson Charles Wegener, Autocephaly as a Function of Institutional Stability

and Organizational Change in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Ph.D.
Dissertation, Department of Government and Politics, 2005.
 UDC 39 (497.761)

Mirchevska P. Mirjana (Skopje, Macedonia)

HOLIDAY CELEBRATION OF THE POPULATION OF GORNA REKA

RELATED TO FOLK RELIGION

Abstract: The author analysis religion as an important non-verbal ethnic symbol,

as well as folk celebrations in the ethnographic area of Gorna Reka. The formal
affiliation to a concrete faith (Orthodox Christianity versus Islam) in Gorna Reka
is a potential non-verbal symbol of ethnic separation, through which in
contemporary conditions the ethnic affiliation is defined. In this case only the
formal religious belonging has a status of a defining ethnic symbol, in the
concrete case for the definition of the ethnic identity of the Macedonians, i.e.
Albanians in the area. In the context of folk religion of all Gorna Reka
inhabitants, there are mutual holidays, beliefs and ritual praxis, which in most
part are related to the economy, and refer to the sheep herding cults, the
beginning of spring/summer and people's health, rituals for gaining rain, belief
in the protective power of certain objects - apotropeons, etc.

Key words: population of Gorna Reka, folk religion, village feast, house feast
(slava), St. John Bigorski, Letnik, Prochka, St. George's day.

The ethnographic area of Gorna Reka, as a border area, contains many

specific phenomena and processes characteristic for the area and the population
of Gorna Reka. In a spatial and geographic sense the area covers the extreme
North-west part of Republic of Macedonia. It borders with Dolna Reka,
Mavrovsko Pole, Gorni Polog (Macedonia), Gora (Kosovo) and the area behind
Korab - Pishkopeja (Albania). Such liminal position of this area led to extreme
isolation of the population of Gorna Reka, but on the other hand to migrations of
different types. The Gorna Reka population, having their own specific ethnic
features of a local type, borders with population that also has its local ethnic
characteristics. Those are the Mavrovci, the Goranci, the Gornopolozani, the
Myaks and their Torbesh sub-group, as well as the Pishkopejci. All of this
resulted with a development and existence of a population that, at least at the
territory of the Republic of Macedonia, is very specific. The geographical factor
of isolation, which is extreme when it comes to Gorna Reka, has influenced
ethnic processes as a determining factor concerning ethnic culture. Figuratively
speaking, Gorna Reka in terms of the natural ambience is an "ethnic thromb"
isolated from the neighboring areas with natural obstacles: mountains and rivers.
It seems that the general argument stating that "in Europe there is almost no
other area which is so ethnographically turbulent, with new movements of the
population and big ethnographic processes of assimilation and disturbances, as
the Balkan Peninsular", could be used, almost as a textbook example, to describe
the ethnic area of Gorna Reka, that through different historical periods suffered
influences and changes in numerous segments of cultural life.

***

Religion is often considered as one of the ethnic symbols that are

considered more or less as ideal or real ethnic features, according to which the
ethnic affiliation of the individual or the group is estimated. It often dominates
the definition of national feelings of the individual, especially if some of the
element of material and spiritual culture cannot differentiate between the
neighboring or historically close members of the different/same ethnic groups. In
this context Robertson Smith says that: "in relation to each religion, being it old
or modern, we on one side find beliefs, but on the other institutions, ritual praxis
and rules of behavior. A modern habit is to consider religion more from the
aspect of beliefs than from the aspect of actions". The same author then says that
"the analysis of religion mainly meant analysis of Christian beliefs, and
instruction in religion usually started with faith" and thus "when analyzing a
certain ancient religion we naturally assume that our first task here is to examine
faith" (Ретклиф Браун, 2001: 74).
This is why the "highly perfected ritual and ceremonial praxis, together
with religious liturgy, serves as a continuous reaffirmation of identity, since they
strengthen the feeling of community and in a visible way separate the believers
from other religious groups" (Павловић, 1990: 99).
After the penetration of the Turks, among the Balkan, but in a major
part among the Christian people, another religion enters - Islam - which was not
known up to that moment, with a totally different ideology and culture. The
religious relations were a field of big conflicts between the Christian population
on one side and the Turkish-Muslim population on the other. Since Islam was at
the same time a state religion of the ruling class, non-Muslims saw it more as a
state and feudal governance, than a theological idea and thought. Even the first
religious clashes had a class character, but also vice versa. The whole Debarsko-
Rekanska ethnographic area, before the arrival of the Turkish army, was an area
of Orthodox Christian religion mixed with relicts of all beliefs that were present
in the pre-Christian era. As a result of those processes a so called folk religion in
a sense of religious system was formed. The monastery St. John Bigorski was
considered a religious object of great importance for the keeping of Orthodoxy,
but also keeping of beliefs and customs from the time before Islamization, of a
part of the Islamized and partly Albanized population of Reka. In these areas,
that belonged to the Debar eparchy, Greek propaganda has never entered, on the
contrary "in certain churches and monasteries the church Slavic language was
used, while Greek has never had any influence" (Трајановски, 1992: 59–61).
For the population of Gorna Reka Bigorski was the biggest center where one
went for each bigger holiday. For 22 years an igumen (head) of the monastery
was Joakim from the village of Bibaj (Bibanje) (Дракул, 1992: 84). In the oldest
registry of the Bigorski monastery, written in the last third of the 18th century
(Historical Archive of Ohrid, number 367), 12 populated places of Gorna Reka
are mentioned (Целакоски, 1992: 87). The number of Reka people that have
been registered as affiliates of the monastery in relation to the rest of the
population of Reka is really big. Most of them are in Vrben - 62, Grekaj - 53,
Belichica - 42, Nistrovo - 33, Ribnica - 32, Zuznje - 19, Strezimir - 10
(Целакоски, 1992: 89–90). If one takes into account the relative small number
of population that inhabited those villages, then it is a matter of a really high
number of people who donated to the monastery. At the holiday called Severing
of the head of St. John the Baptist (11.09), when the monastery also has its feast,
the villagers from Gorna Reka had their own rooms (room for Vrbeni, Nistrovo
or Belica) where the villagers came one day earlier, before the holiday, have put
fern and carpets on the floor and spent the night there.1 Another information
shows how important the religious element was for the population of Gorna
Reka. Besides the Bigorski monastery which was without any doubt respected
by the population, there is another important object, the church St. Mary, Mother
of God in the village of Sence (Велев, 1990: 45). The whole construction of the
church is done without "kushaci", and the interior part together with the
iconostas is similar to the one in St. John Bigorski.2 In all remaining churches in
the Gorna Reka villages the icons are a gift from the richer sheep-herding
families and economic migrants. It was a custom that each Gorna Reka
inhabitant, when migrating from the village, should leave the family icon in the
village church.3 The fact that religion was very important for this population in
this isolated ethnic area is proved by the data that each house had a "paraklis' -
small area where the icon of the saint, protector of the family was kept, together
with an icon lamp, a baptized water, Eastern egg and the icon of St. Mary and
Jesus Christ. The bigger and richer houses had a small room with many icons,
that played the role of a paraklis, where the members of the family, mostly
women, prayed to God for health and prosperity.4 Important ritual activities also
took place in or in front of those spaces, especially if one takes into account the
robbery of the Gorna Reka villages by the Albanian "katchaks" that made the
free going to church of the women of the village difficult.

1
Informant Jovanovski Jovan, village of Nistrovo, lives in Vrben (personal field info).
2
Almost all village churches in Gorna Reka have beautiful iconostases made in deep
carving where the motif of an oak is dominant, as well as the marigold flower (personal
field research).
3
In the village church St. Nikola in Kichinica thre were many icons that were left by the
inhabitants when they left the village; informant Lichkoski Alekso, village of Kichinica,
lives in Mavrovi Anovi (personal field info).
4
"My grandmother went every day to that room and lit a candle praying God saved the
economic migrants: "God save my children", and then she started all domestic chores".
Informant: Rafajlovska Verica, village of Sence, married in Belichica (personal field
info).
 Each of these Gorna Reka villages had a village "slava" (Филиповић,
1937: 463). The bigger villages even had two slavas - one village and another
church slava, but in few of them the village and the church slava was done in
honor of the same saint. Thus, in Vrben and Zuznje winter St. Nikola was
celebrated (19.12 new calendar) as a village and as a church slava, while in
Voklovija a village and a church slava was St. Dimitrij, i.e. Mitrovden (8.11 new
calendar)5, in Kichinica a village and a church slava was summer St. NIkola
(22.05 new calendar), in Sence St. Mary - small (21.09 new calendar) and Big
St. Mary (28.08 new calendar). Still, in a part of the villages the village slava
was done for a saint that was not the same as the church saint, which is not rare
in other ethnic areas in Macedonia (Филиповић, 1937: 467). This is the case of
the villages: Krakornica, where the village slava is summer St. Nikola (22.05),
and church slava is St. Archangel (26.07); in Nichpur village slava is St.
Archangel Mihail (21.11), and church slava is St. Atanasij in winter (31.1); in
Bodevo village slava is Mala (21.09) and Golema (28.08) St. Mary, but church
slava is Mitrovden (8.11); in Nistrovo village slava is St. Paraskeva (27.10); and
church slava is St. Spas - Spasovden (on Thursday, 40 days after Easter); in
Bibja, as a settlement of Nistrovo, St. Paraskeva is also a village slava (27.10).6
On the day before the village and church slava, the church was cleaned. All
those icons, the iconostas and other church elements were carefully cleaned.
This was the obligations of the epitrop, but if he was an older man then younger
brides and women helped him.7 The next day in front of the church a "panihire"
was set, a table on which candles were sold. At the village and church slavas
each village had a "gostija" - guests from other villages. People went to celebrate
name days after the liturgy, only man went before noon to visit everyone that
had the name of the saint. no matter if they were relatives with this person or
not, and in the evening they went with their families. Since in the villages of
Gorna Reka the local migration is also present, i.e. migration from one village to
another in the same ethnographic area, the families that have immigrated
celebrated their own village slava.8 Thus, two families that immigrated from
Nichpur in Vrben celebrate St. Archangel Mihail - village slava that is celebrated
in Nichpur.

5
In Volkovija Mitrovden is celebrated as a village slava with guests, but on the 7th of
November at the "zaslog" people go to church with "denie" (five breads). Informant
Jakimovska Milica, young girl from Nistrovo, married in Voklovija (personal field info).
6
Informants: Jovanovski Jovan, village of Nistrovo, lives in Vrben; Jovanovska Filka,
village of Volkovija, married in Nistrovo, lives in Vrben; Josifovski Metodija, village of
Krakorcnica; Serafimovska Cveta, village of Volkovija, married in Sence; Lishkoski
Alekso, village Kichinica, lives in Mavrovi Anovi; Ignjatovski Slavko, village of
Ribnica, lives in Nichpur (personal field info). The dates are noted according to the so
called new, Gregorian calendar.
7
Informant Rafajlovski Kjirko, village of Belichica (personal field info)
8
Informant Jovanovski Jovan, village of Nistrovo, migrated to Vrben (personal field
info)
 Each Orthodox family from Gorna Reka also had their "house slava".
According to the Gorna Reka people, slava was celebrated in the honor of the
saint that at the same time has a function that protects the house and the family
from all miseries, illness, famine, poorness, but at the same time to help the
family to be healthy, fertile.9 Besides this interpretation that is present in Gorna
Reka, and science accepts this as a possible explanation (Влаховић, 1985: 138–
139), in literature there are few different opinions when it comes to the function
and identity of family slavas (Христов, 2004: 169–174). Most often it is a
matter of celebrating the same holly protectors, but there were also others such
as: St. Varvara !17.12), St. George (16.11), St. Alimpij (people know it as St.
George fasting, 9.12), St. Peter (12.7) and St. Petko (13.07). In Gorna Reka, as
in most of Macedonia, dominant are slavas from the autumn and winter
calendar, so that in this context most dominant house slavas are St. Nikola,
Mitrovden, St. Archangel Mihail (Филиповић, 1937: 464). Each slava has two
parts. The first, a family one, has religious features, while the other has a social
character (Бандић, 1986: 12–15). The women of the house prepared a sweet
slava bread ("kukjni lep") that was baptized and broken by the priest at the
"zaslog", day before the holiday, before dinner. Although "pure flour" was not
easy to find in this area, still each house bought 4-5 kg wheat flour for this
occasion.
While the priest performed the holiday Christian ritual, besides the
round bread there was also wine at the table, as well as the slava candle. After
this ritual the religious part of the holiday ended, the one that took place in the
house with only the members of the family community attending. The day after,
at the holiday, the guests arrived at "ritual feast" (Филиповић, 1985: 159–167),
which were a part of the social character of the slava. Then a candle was not
burned.10
The number of church objects, the number of people attending the
celebrations related to the church calendar, prove that Christianity has left an
important mark upon folk religion of the population of Gorna Reka. Compared
to this situation, Islamic religious objects were very rare or non-existent. Still,
this does not mean that Muslims did not respect the main holly periods and days
in Islam (Ramadan, Bayram etc.)
The numerous rituals and customs that are practiced by the population
of Gorna Reka are full of magical beliefs, aiming to tame the forces that have a
crucial role in human life and his existence. Part of them is related to the
calendar cycle, part to the Christian holidays, and some of them refer to family
life and customs. But all of them are related trough a simple link, that people
through a certain ritual could tame "some unknown" evil forces, could obtain

9
Informant: Nestorovski Jelenko, village of Belichica, Rafajlovski Verica and Kjirko,
village of Belichica, Serafimovska Cveta, village of Sence, Ignjatovski Trenda and
Slavko, village of Nichpur (personal field info).
10
Informants: Jakimovska Milica from Nistrovo, married in Volkovija and Tripunoska
Darinka from Volkovija (personal field info)
health, fertility, well-being for themselves and the wider community. According
to a semilogical interpretation, "the function of the ritual is less to inform and
more to provide unity" (Giro, 1975: 101). At the same time, through it the
solidarity of the individual with the religious, national, social obligations that the
community has taken upon itself is manifested (Giro, 1975: 101).
The church has incorporated many old pre-Christian beliefs as part of its
Christian doctrine, while accepting some that are not part of its teachings, but are
practiced nevertheless by the people, who relate them with Christian
celebrations. In fact, Macedonians, as well as other Balkan people, have lived in
an extremely patriarchal environment in which, on one side, created difficulties
for the entrance of new elements (Bandić, 1997: 230). In this context
Christianity as a religion was not promptly and easily accepted, especially in the
villages. According to Dushan Bandic "often the Christian form was accepted,
but it hid a non-Christian content and meaning" (Bandić, 1997: 230), while
Miodrag Popovic says that the very process of full Christianization is not
complete yet (Поповић, 1976: 129–130). It is exactly those conserved Balkan
and Macedonian rituals and customs that were/are present among the population
of Gorna Reka.
Part of the folk celebrations that were practiced by the population of
Gorna Reka are the customs practiced on Letnik11 (1.3 new calendar), at Prochka
and St. George's day (6.5 new calendar). Letnik is a folk holiday12 that everyone
from Gorna Reka, no matter today's confessional affiliation, consider as a
beginning of spring/summer, i.e. the summer half of the year. The celebration
starts with picking up plants. Both girls and boys attend, but girls are up to 11
years old, while boys up to 15. They pick up branches of cornel tree and hazel,
as a symbol of health and longevity (Софрић, 1990: 86–87). Both plants as
symbols are located in the category "bordering between 'social' (cultivated) and
'wild' (not conquered) space" (Раденковић, 1996: 198), due to which different
ritual roles are ascribed to them. On the very day girls got up early so that they
would not be "dembelki", i.e. so that they would be laborious and hardworking
all year long.13 Most common is the belief that "the way this day turns out, this is
how the whole year would be".14 A good omen was if in the morning one sees a
bird, a young child, and not an old or sick person. They kneaded "sweet" that
was given to "everyone that would enter the home". On Letnik no one used a
rolling pin, no one did any embroidery, did not use any needle, since "it was not

11
The rituals that take place on this holiday are practiced more by Albanians than
Macedonians from Gorna Reka.
12
Up to ten years ago the holiday Letnik was registered in the Orthodox Christian annual
calendars published by the Macedonian Orthodox Church, but during the last ten years it
has been deleted.
13
Informant Jakimovska Milica, village of Nistrovo, married in Volklovija (personal
field info)
14
Informant Tripunoska Darinka, village of Volkovija (personal field info)
good for the cattle".15 "If your head hurts, you would not say that, since then it
would hurt the whole year round" (Целакоски, 1973: 213).16 How important
Letnik is as a sign of a new beginning, new life, is shown by the following
custom. Girls and younger brides went to the young brides in Gorna Reka that
still had no babies and brought with them a "baby", a doll made of rugs, and
were offered Turkish delight (lokum). The bride behaved as if she did not want
the baby, "prait dzilvinja", as if she is not interested. In this way girls wanted,
according to the model "what happens on this day will be the same the whole
year round", to initiate the bride to really have a baby that year. The principle of
imitative or homeopathic magic, according to which the similar initiates a
similar act (Фрезер, 1992: 31–32), in this case is fully reflected in the rituals of
the Gorna Reka population. The described beliefs and ritual activities were
common for all Gorna Reka inhabitants no matter the religious affiliation.
Prochka is a holiday that is celebrated seven weeks before Easter and
has a mobile date. It happens that it celebration is done even before Letnik. The
rituals that are performed on this day are related to spring, in spite the Christian
elements that are added to it. This is the last day before Easter when oily food is
eaten. The next day the big Easter fast begins. These celebrations include many
elements from the pre-Christian period, and the rituals are not related to
Christian teachings. The night before Prochka each maalo makes a "koliba"17
using willow branches and straw (Попоски, 1973: 206), around one meter high.
The hut is burned, people dance around it and when the fire calms down
everyone jumps over it. Children and young people put ashes and blacken their
faces. The celebrations including fire are known to all European people, and
their origin is date long before Christianity (Фрезер, 1992: 727–728). The
dancing around the ritual fire is called by some author "magical cyclical
movement" (Зечевић, 1970: 32–33) that aims to establish magical connection
between the object and the participants of the ritual, so that they gain a part of
the power that the object has, in this case the fire. The jumping over the fire is
done for health, i.e. for protection against diseases, since fire has healing and
purgative power (Арнаудовъ, 1934: 491–492). This is why everyone wanted to
jump over the fire. These rituals are part of the common rituals of the whole
village, but besides them there are rituals for health performed at home, at the
level of family rituality. At Prochka the family performs the ritual "amkanje" of
an egg, known to all Macedonians. The Gorna Reka population calls it "da
hamkate mi", and it was done in this way: in the evening, when everyone
gathered for dinner, a long wool thread was tied to the ceiling and an egg at its
end. All members of the family tried to catch it only using their mouth, not their
hands. The one that succeeded in doing this would be healthy the whole year

15
Informants Jakimovska Milica, Tripunoska Darinka, village of Volkovija (personal
field info)
16
Informant Jakimovska Milica (personal field info)
17
Such a hut is made in other ethnic areas in Macedonia. In Strushki Drimkol it is also
called "koliba" (personal fied research)
round. At last everyone had a piece of the egg. The thread that tied the egg to the
ceiling was used for predicament through magical tying. A part of the thread
would be tied in knots. Then each of the knots had its protective function, and its
function was pronounced aloud so that everyone could hear it: to tie the mouths
of the snakes, and then the thread was burned; to tie the mouths of the enemies,
and then the thread was burned; to tie the mouths of the wolfs, the bears and the
foxes18, and again a knot. The procedure was repeated until the last knot would
burn, and then it was kept for putting spells.19 This role of protection, i.e.
prevention that is inscribed to the knots is known to other people too (Фрезер,
1992: 305–310). Everyone drank some water from the eggs crust, and in the
morning threw it in water, at the well, while they got water in "bukarinja". this
water had a healing, regeneration power (Антонијевић, 1982: 64; Елијаде,
1986: 123–125). On the other hand, water is an element that chases bad, dirty
forces (Раденковић, 1996: 51).
In Gorna Reka especially important are celebrations related to St.
George's day (6.5 new calendar). Since the basic economy relates to sheep
herding, a number of rituals that were practiced on this day concerned health,
prosperity and fertility of the sheep. This holiday is celebrated by a number of
Balkan people, especially the ones that engage in sheep herding (Симитчиев,
1973: 97), so often one could hear that the most important shepherds' holiday is
exactly St. George's day. On this day the village 'sobor' gathered where all male
villagers attended, when the village cattle-keeper, the field-keeper, their helpers
and the shepherds were agreed upon. The ritual activities took pace before the
holiday and on the very day. On the 5th of May (new calendar) at noon girls and
young brides would gather, they went to the mountain above the village and
gathered "healing plant", that should be eaten on an empty stomach, for health.20
After their return, while it was still day light, people would go "for plants",
outside the village, "na gumnata po planinata". Then the first spring flowers
would be picked up, "petoprst", "gorocvet", "mlechajka" and branches of cornel
tree. These branches would be put on the entrance of the house, but also above
the door of the "klet" where the animals were kept. Among the folk cornel tree is
considered as a very strong apotropheon, with a clearly accented protective
function. The "butin" (the milk vessel) is decorated with flowers, and the cattle
would eat from it for health. The next morning, at the very holiday around noon,
people would go on a meadow where there was a water spring, separately
women from men. They took food with them, they ate and washed on the spring.
Christians carried boiled, red eggs, that they tossed in the air, competing who
would toss it higher and then catch it. All these rituals were done for health,

18
"Wolfs, bears, foxes, all of them have done great harm, so this is why we tied knots
for them", Informant Karajanovska Kalina, village of Duf, married in Brodec, now lives
in Kisela Jabuka, Skopje area (personal field research, 2003).
19
Informants from the village of Vrben (personal field research).
20
Informants: Avramovska Bosilka, village of Mavrovo, married in Vrben, Jovanovska
Filka village of Volkovija, married in Nistrovo, lives in Vrben (personal field info).
fertility, prosperity, protection from diseases and purification from all negative
influences that gathered during the winter. At the same time the presence of the
idea of renewal is present. After returning from the meadow everyone weighted
themselves on a big scale (kantar) to see how much they weight in comparison
to the previous St. George holiday. It was very important that body weight is
higher than the previous year. In certain ethnic areas in Macedonia the symbolic
weight was provoked, so that people put stones under their arms (Беќарова,
1973: 239). From the previously presented rituals it is clear that they present
elements of the folk religious system in which there is an indirect (partly)
presence of Christian religious elements. A certain relation exists with the
Christian saint St. George, since some authors find that he is only a Christian
variant of the underground deity, i.e. inheritor of a former pre-Christian pagan
deity that was a protector of the cattle (Чајкановић, 1973: 366–367).
For the population of Gorna Reka from both confessions folk religion
has a value of a unique non-verbal ethnic symbol. Living in the same natural
habitat, the active participation and following of the same historical events that
led to certain influences and changes in the life of the Gornorekans, also led to
the conservation of the elements of folk pre-Christian and pre-Islamic religion
(some present only as relicts) in many segments of life and customs. Especially
vivid are the elements of folk religion related to beliefs in sheep herding cults, as
well as the ones related to health, prosperity, fertility, of people as well as of the
cattle. Believing in the power of the apotropeons (plant and animal, water), and
in predicament, is especially powerful and present among today's Gornorekans
in the area. Common are the beliefs in the healing power of water springs
("ajazma"), the protective power of the "house snake", beliefs in the healing and
homeopathic features of the cornel tree, hazel and willow etc. Family and church
slavas are the only exceptions of this non-verbal symbolic values, since they are
non-verbal ethnic symbol for the Christians. The have the role of a
differentiating element, at the same time being symbols of the Macedonians
from Gorna Reka. On the other hand, elements from the Muslim religious
calendar, in the sense of important holidays as Ramadan, Ramadan feasts, then
Bayram (big and small) are elements of separation in function of non-verbal
ethnic symbols of Gornorekans, at the same time manifesting the symbolic of the
identity of the Albanians from Gorna Reka. Although faith is almost the only
differentiating factor on the line Macedonian-Albanian from Gorna Reka, it was
never an obstacle in their mutual communication. Due to a different religious
affiliation people from different confessions did not marry with each other, but
all other segments were similar. Today the situation has not been changed. In the
villages where they still live together (Vrben, Sence, Volkovija, Nichpur) the
need of mutual communication when religious holidays are in question is
evident. Mutual customs, although today partly put in the context of Christian
religion (St. George's day), are still mutual. According to informants Christians,
"Muslims today celebrate more than us these same holidays. They are more
joyful, they expect them more than us. They have young people, we are
older"..."And for Bayram they always invite us. They invite us for Bayram, we
invite them for Easter"..."For slava and for name day guests come to visit, but
after the slava, after the day, when there are no other guests"21..."...and when
someone dies from the house, they also visits. Only man at funeral, while
women come later on, another day, to have a coffee. You would tell them: "You
should be alive, healthy" and they would say: "Long live friends"..."Earlier we
did more common things, but now...now we still do it but not so much".22
As an important non-verbal ethnic symbol - the Gornorekans with
Muslim religion today identify themselves as Albanians, although from the
censuses one could see that in certain periods some of the declared themselves
Turks, while Orthodox Christians declared themselves ethnic Macedonians. All
other verbal and non-verbal symbols are similar or almost similar with small
variants. Christianity in this area has deep roots, which could be concluded upon
the written, visual and narrative sources on the church-related persons that
originate from Gorna Reka, as well as the donations by the believers. Each
Christian house had a "paraklis" - a small area where the icon of the saint -
protector of the family was kept, baptized water, Easter egg and an icon of St.
Mary the Virgin and Jesus Christ. The rich Gornorekans had whole rooms that
had a function of a small church - paraklis. Although in some near-by areas
Muslims made in their houses similar holly spaces related to the function of the
mosque, the Gornorekan Muslims did not have such custom. However, this does
not mean that they did not respect the main principles of their faith, especially
the Muslim religious calendar, in the sense of important periods and celebrations
such as: Ramadan fasting, Bayram (big and small) and other important holidays
that are elements of separation in function of a non-verbal ethnic symbol of the
Muslims from Gorna Reka. The same behavior is present with the Orthodox
Christians of Gorna Reka that respect the holidays and fasting periods of the
Orthodox calendar, as well as the family and church slavas, that are non-verbal
ethnic symbol of Christians.
Besides the fact that the formal religious affiliation is a defining non-
verbal ethnic symbol of the relation Macedonians-Albanians, there are certain
relating elements in the domain of faith that are based upon folk religion as basic
religious system of the population of Gorna Reka. This fact explains the
existence of many common beliefs, rituals, holly places and relicts. It is well
know in the folk culture in Macedonia that a certain holly object, place, building
etc. could be equally holly and important for the spiritual life of members of
different confessions. In this sense, St. John Bigorski is the most important holly
center (object, place) for the population of the wider ethnic areas, Debarsko and
Reka, no matter their confession. This is proved by the fact that in the circle of

21
Informants: Serafimovska Cveta, village of Volkovija, married in Sence, Josifovska
Milica, village of Nistrovo, married in Volkovija, Ignjatovska Trenda, village of Nichpur
(personal field research, 1999/2000).
22
Informant Serafimovska Cveta, village of Volkovija, married in Sence (personal field
research)
this holly area the regional gatherings of the village heads was held. Many of
them brought presents to the monastery, believing in its healing power.

In relation to the function of the village as a ritual community, the

Gornorekans respected the individual but also the collective rules of behavior.
This especially refers to the deeply rooted beliefs and customs with pre-
Christian, Christian and Islamic elements. The changes in the customs related to
the village as a ritual-religious community were minimal. Customs, by default,
included strictly defined norms of behavior that were implemented in certain
time and space, with a concrete reason. The basic function of collective village
rituals was protective, thus they were practiced when the whole village had a
need of protection ("dodole") but also at times when according to the belief one
should perform the ritual as prevention ("pokristi"), no matter the current
situation. The realization of the ritual is done at a number of levels. The first
level was realized upon a principle of collective participation, when the whole
village participates (village slava, Letnik, Gjurgjovden), the second upon the
principle of delegation when a certain group of people is chosen that takes upon
itself the role of the representative of the interests of the whole community
("vasilichar" and "dodole") and the third upon a principle of individual
representative (village kum of St. John, known magicians etc.), when one
man/woman from the community takes upon the role of protector of collective
interests of the village or of the maalo. The biggest number of the mentioned
rituals was common for all Gornorekans no matter the religion (Orthodox
Christianity/Islam) and in this sense they were common non-verbal ethnic
symbol.
According to a semiological interpretation, "the function of the ritual is
less to inform and more to provide unity" (Giro, 1975: 101). At the same time,
through it the solidarity of the individual with the religious, national, social
obligations that the community has taken upon itself is manifested (Giro, 1975:
101).

References:

Антонијевиħ Драгослав, Обреди и обичаји балканских сточара, САНУ, БИ,

посебна издања, књ. 16, Београд 1982.

Арнаудовъ Михаил, Праздниченъ огънь, Очерки по българския фолклоръ,

София 1934.

Бандиħ Душан, Функционални приступ проучавању породичне славе, ГЕИ,

САНУ, бр. 35, Београд 1986.

Беќарова Олга, Ѓурѓовденски обичаи во Реканските села (Леринско), МФ,

год. VI, бр. 12, Скопје 1973.
Велев Илија, Преглед на средновековни цркви и манастири во Македонија,
Скопје 1990.

Влаховиħ Петар, Прилог проучавању крсне славе, зборник: О крсном

имену, библиотека Баштина, бр. 13, Београд 1985.

Дракул Симон, Достоинствено изнесена климентовска традиција, БНКС,

IX научен собир, Кичево 1992.

Елијаде Мирча, Свето и профано, Књижевна заједница Новога Сада, Нови

Сад 1986.

Зечевиħ Слободан, Мотиви наших народних веровања о летњој

солстицији, ГЕМ, бр. 33, Београд 1970.

Историски архив на Охрид, инвентарен број на ракопис 367.

Павловиħ Мирјана, Срби у Чикагу, проблеми етничког идентитета,

Београд 1990.

Поповиħ Миодраг, Видовдан и часни крст, Београд 1976.

Попоски Аритон, Пролетните обичаи и песни кај Македонците муслимани

во Река (Дебарско), МФ, год. VI, бр. 12, Скопје 1973.

Раденковиħ Љубинко, Симболика света у народној магији Јужних Словена,

САНУ, БИ, Београд, посебна издања, књ. 67, Ниш 1996.

Редклиф Браун, А. Р., Структура и функција во примитивното

општество, Скопје 2001.

Симитчиев Коле, Ѓурѓовденски народни песни и обичаи кај Македонците,

Србите и Бугарите, МФ, год. VI, бр. 12, Скопје 1973.

Софриħ Павле Нишевљанин, Главније биље у народном веровању и певању

код нас Срба, БИГЗ, Београд 1990.

Трајановски Александар, Црковно-просветните борби за еманципација од

Цариградската патријаршија во Дебарската епархија и во Полог во 60-
тите и почетокот на 70-тите години на XX век, БНКС, IX научен собир,
Кичево 1992.
Филиповиħ Миленко, Етничке прилике у Јужној Србији, Споменица
двадесетпетогодишњице ослобођења Јужне Србије 1912–1937, Скопље
1937.

Филиповиħ Миленко, Слава служба или крсно име у писаним изворима до

краја XVIII века, зборник: О крсном имену, библиотека Баштина, бр. 13,
Београд 1985.

Фрезер Џорџ Џемс, Златна грана, проучавање магије и религије,

библиотека Посебна издања, књига шеста, Београд 1992.

Христов Петко, Общности и празници, БАН, ЕИМ, София 2004.

Целакоски Наум, Пролетни обичаи и песни во Охрид, МФ, год. VI, бр. 12,
Скопје 1973.

Целакоски Наум, Населбите и антропонимите од најстариот поменик во

Бигорскиот манастир, БНКС, IX научен собир, Кичево 1992.

Чајкановиħ Веселин, Мит и религија у Срба, Београд 1973.

Bandić Dušan, Carstvo zemaljsko i carstvo nebesko. Ogledi o narodnoj religiji,

XX vek, Beograd 1997.

Giro Pjer, Semiologija, Beograd 1975.

 UDC 39 (497.=135.1)

Nedelkov J. Ljupco (Skopje, Macedonia)

THE ETHNIC CODE OF THE VLACHS AT THE BALKANS

Abstract: The ethnic code is a basis for ethnic identification of each community,
that separates it from other ethnic groups. Vlachs are one of the communities
that have been analyzed from different aspects, with a tendency to be related to
the identity of another ethnic group, without taking care about the possibility of
their separate ethnic identity. They are, for example, related to the Romanians,
Romans, Greeks, Thracians, Ilirians and others. However, if one takes into
account the fact that all communities emerged in different historical periods and
under different historical conditions, then the most suitable definition of the
ethnic identity of the Vlachs would be: Vlachs are a community that has a
separate ethnic code - a name, a language, anthropological features, folk
costume, typical professions, mentality etc. In this sense we will try to reflect
upon the specificities of the Vlachs, according to which they identify themselves
as a distinctive community in the ethnic context of the Balkans.

Key words: Vlachs, Aromanians, Tzintzars, Karaguns, Fasheriots, Meglen

Vlachs, ethnic origin, language, ship herding, trade, craftsmanship, religious
identity, distribution.

In the historical records Vlachs can be found under the name

Arămăni, Аrmăni. The name Aromani is based upon folk self-naming,
introduced into scientific literature by Goustav Weigand (g. Weigand, 1899),
who by the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century conducted
intensive field research among the Vlach population in Greece, Albania and
South parts of Macedonia. This term is a derivate of the term 'romanus' - that
stems from the name of the town of Rome, and later on appears as a ethnic name
of the Vlach ethnic community: Români, Rumâni, Rumâri, later on adding 'a' in
front of the noun - characteristic form of Aromani language - obtaining the terms
Aromâni, Arumâni etc. According to Niko Popnikola, all these terms are
exonyms, since the most suitable term for naming the Vlach community is the
term Arm'n (plural Arm'nj) (N. Popnikola, 2006: 200).
In literature the exonym Vlach (pl. Vlachs) can be also found for their
collective identification. In this sense the issue rises: what is the etymological
meaning of the term Vlach?
Commonly accepted is the opinion according to which the etymology
of the term Vlach (pl. Vlachs) stems from the Celtic tribe Volcae that lived in
South-Eastern parts of Gallia (today's France) (T. G. E. Powel, 1958: 81, 141).
This tribal community was divided into two branches: Arecomici and
Tektosogesi. The former lived between the rivers of Rhone and Garonne, while
the latter between Rhone and the Pyrenees (Н. Вучичевиħ, 1981: 318). Caesar
speaks about them as Volcae, while Strabon and Ptolemy as Ouólkai (Victor A.
Friedman, 2001: 1). On the other hand, traditional etymology relates the attribute
Volcae to the Welsh word golchi (washes himself), Irish folk (baths), naming
this tribe river people - if one takes into account that the tribe Volcae lived once
near antic river Volcos after which it got its name. A number of researchers,
connoisseurs of Celtic history, agree that the name of the tribe Volcae is a
derivate of the Welsh word gwalch (falcon), comparing it to the Gallic personal
name Catuulcus, Welsh cadwalch (hero), or literally translated military falcon,
although some prefer to translate the Gallic uolko as wolf, and with a semantic
extension fearless warrior - wanderer. But then the question remains
unanswered: how did a term that contained a valley (river, rive people) and an
aggressive-military connotation (wolf, falcon) become an identification code for
a nomadic-wandering community. The answer to this question may be found in
another interpretation of the word Vlach (plural Vlachs). In this sense Von Glick
finds that the term Volcae is a derivate of a word related to the ancient Irish
word that means fast, laborious, clever, energetic - epithets that among other are
characteristic for the sheep herding ethnic communities (Henry H. Howorth,
1908: 417–433). But at the beginning this terms was not related to the ship
herding communities, but it became an identification code for members of
different ethnic communities that lived outside their original territory.
It is well known that by the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 3rd
century B.C. the Celts migrated to the Balkans, in two waves. The first one was
in 280th BC towards Macedonia and Ilyria, while the second one included the
invasion of Celts to Delphi in 279th BC. These two invasions happened at the
territory of Dardany and Macedonia. Tit Livius wrote on the second invasion:
"A big and powerful migration of Gals, initiated by the poverty of their land, as
well as the desire to steel, believing that there is no other ethnic group that
equals then in number and military power, leaded by Bren, arrived in Dardania.
Here there was conflict and separation: twenty thousand people leaded by
Lenorius and Lutarius separated from Bren and went to Thrace" (T. Liv. 16:1).
Other continued to Greece. In spite of the divide and the military defeats, still
part of them remained at this territory, while another part, leaded by Bathanat,
penetrated the Danube area, where they settled under the name of Skordians (F.
Papazoglu, 1969: 209–298).
It is well known that the ancient Germans named the Celtic tribes
Walha, Wlach, Welsch - accenting them as foreign terms (П. Скок, 1918: 294).
With the Romanization of Celts (second century BC), Germans started to use the
term Walha for the Romans but also for the whole Romanized population - in
the sense of foreigners, people that speak another, Romanic language. Even
today the German population in Switzerland uses for their French and Italian co-
patriots a term Welchen. The Romanian population that lies in the region of
today's Eastern Belgium accepted the term Walha as their ethnic name in the
form of Valonians (Walons), while the Italian population in Poland is named
Wlochy (Victor A. Friedman, 2001: 1). At the beginning of the middle ages the
Slavs from Eastern Europe have taken from the Germans the term Walha
(ancient Germanic variant of the term Walah), as a name that denotes the whole
Romanian and Romanized population in the form Vlakhi, i.e. Vlasi in the South-
Slavic languages, Volokhi in the Eastern-Slavic languages and Wlochy in Poland.
Later on, through the Balkan Slavs, this term was domesticated in Greek
language as well. Lately it is considered that the term Vlach entered Greek
language directly through the Germanic i.e. the Scandinavian personal guards of
the Byzantium tsar (Z. Merdita, 2007: 257).
In South-Eastern Europe the Romanized population, searching for
salvation from the invasion of the barbarians, started to escape in the mountains,
where they commenced with nomadic ship herding. Thus, somewhere from the
11th century the term Vlach is related to the ship herding ethnic communities, no
matter the ethnic group to which they belong. Thus, for example, in Greece this
term included all sheep herding nomads, no matter if they were ethnic Vlachs, or
members of another ethnic community, so in this sense the word Vlach means
stock-breeder, shepherd (Д. Антонијевиħ, 1982: 21). In Albania the word Vlach
is a synonym of shepherd (Victor A. Friedman, 2001: 1). A similar opinion is
shared by the Greek researcher Hrispou who says that the name Vlach denotes a
shepherd. However, he thinks that this name is phonetic and created on the
territory of Greece. It was created by people from the mountains that settled
there as military guards, but became shepherd due to an emerged need. Maybe
due to the every-day contact with the sheep that make the distinctive sheep sound
'bee' which in Greek is noted as blēchē, that is blēchōmai, or current terms
belagma, belasō wherefrom the words blēchos or blachos stem from, which
means imitating the sheep voices by the shepherds in order to return the lost ship
from the mountain. This is where the name Vlachos came from - shepherd.
Antonios Karamopoulos finds that this term stems from the word fellachos -
name by which the Felasi were called, members of the pre-anthis Pelasgians,
that lived at the Balkans. This opinion did not gain support with other scientists,
so that the author himself corrected himself in relation to this thesis (taken from:
В. Ј. Трпкоски, 1986: 13). According to Tomashek, the name Vlach was first
registered at the Balkans in the 7th century, in a note found in the monastery of
Konstamonitou on Mount Athos, Halkidiki, where the name Vlach was related
to the Rinhins - blachorynchioi – settled around river Rinhos (taken from В. Ј.
Трпкоски 1986: 24). Later, this terms gained a certain pejorative connotation.
For example, during Turkish rule in Bosnia (1459-1878), Muslims called the
Orthodox Serbs Vlachs. The Croatians - Catholics called the whole Orthodox
population Vlachs, especially when they wanted to humiliate it - in the sense of
shepherds (Ст. Станојевиħ, 1929). Thus we can conclude that the name Vlach is
an exonym, with a changeable philological and ethnological meaning.
However, if we start from the data of travelers (mostly F. C. H. L.
Pouquevilla, 1826: 333–397; A. J. B. Wace, M. S. Thompson, 1972; W. M.
Leake, 1835: 274–311 and others), that traveling through Vlach territories got to
know their life, the social structure, economy, spiritual and material culture, but
also the fact that Vlachs comprise of different tribal communities that differ
between each other, not only according to their character but also their
mentality, then one should not be surprised by the great number of names related
to this ethnic community.
Thus, for example in Greece, i.e. in Acarnania, we note the name
Pistiki, that reffers to a smaller group of Aromanians from Aetolia and
Akarnania. The same name is noted in Asia Minor, where its carriers became
Greeks, as with the example of Aromanians in Boeotia that call themselves
Bomi (Z. Merdita, 2007: 250).
In Athica and Beotia, the name Vlach, no matter if it refers to an
Albanian or an Aromanian, means villager. Another name is used for both
communities, and that is Vlachipimenes (Z. Merdita, 2007: 250). Greeks called
them also Vlachs and Kucovlachs1, and the term Cipani is also used, especially
concerning those Vlachs whose women wear big scarves reaching to the
shoulders. However, a Vlach tribe with such a name does not exist (Z. Merdita,
2007: 251). The name Kopashtars refers to those Vlachs that retained their
customs, the laws and the costume, but instead of speaking Vlach they speak
Greek language. Although these Vlachs without any doubt have Vlach origin,
still they are hated by other Vlachs and in pejorative sense are called "Vlach
bustards" since they have forgotten the Vlach language.
The Vlachs in Albania are known under different names:
ArvanitoVlachs, Kogs, Romers and Dots, since they often use the word dot
meaning 'nothing', while for the same word the Karaguns use the word hič
„nothing“ or dip with the same meaning. The Vlachs shepherds from Thessaly
that as a tribe belong to the Fasheriots call them Katshauns and Boi, while the
ones that deal with agriculture are called Mocens. Fasheriots in South Epirus are
called Kambus, since they spend the winter West from Arta in Kamposi, while
the Gura and Tzuli that lived in Southern Albania also belong to this community
(Z. Merdita, 2007: 250). The Vlachs in Albania are known in Albanian as

1
Spiros Papageorgiou finds that the name KucoVlachs is a mixture of two elements:
first, as a diminutive, comprises of the word 'kuco' meaning 'imperfect, wounded,
broken, something that limps', and the second - Vlachs, that refers to the Vlach ethnic
community (S. Papageorgiu, 1909). According to another theory, exonym KucoVlachs
stems from a group of Vlachs that participated in the Crusades. As crusaders they carried
a cross that is pronounced in Vlach language as 'kruce', and thus gained the name
KrucoVlachs. According to a folk legend, when Vlachs were called upon to serve the
Roman army, they agreed to limp on one leg so that they would not be recruited in the
Roman army corpus, and thus gained the name KucoVlachs (Б. Кочишка, 2004: 23).
Another variant of the name KucoVlachs relates it to a person that spoke bad, incorrect
Greeks, thus being handicapped, limping, ignorant. Bladacci finds that the term
KucoVlachs originates from the times of Turkish conquests. Namely, calling them
KucoVlachs or Small Vlachs, the Turks wanted to make a difference between them and
the inhabitants of Romania - Big Vlachia (A. Baldacci, 1932: 36).
Rëmeri - term stemming from the Latin Romani. In Albania Vlachs are named as
„Llaciface“ - term with a pejorative connotation.
In Serbia the city Vlachs are referred as Tzintzars.2 In Bulgaria they
are named Vlachs, Vlachi, Vlai, while in Turkey they are known as Vlach, Olah
and Chobani, and the Romanians use the terms Aromanians or
Macedoromanians for the Vlach ethnic community.
Vlachs in the middle ages are found under the name Mavrovlachs,
term that is often mentioned in the Dalmatian sources from the 13th century,
together with the terms Vlach and Blah3, while in the North-west part on the
territory from Rieka to Trieste, around mountain Uchka in the region of
Chicherija as Chici or Chiribirci.4
Depending on the geographic origin, Vlachs from the Balkan also
have different names. Vlachs from Albania are known as Muzakiri (Vlachs from
Muzakia), Farsheriots (Vlachs from the area Farsheri) and Moskopols (Vlachs
from Moskopole). In Greece we find the terms: Pindens (concentrated around
mountain Pindos), Gramostyans (Around mountain Gramos), Epiriots (Vlachs
from Epirus), Olympians (around mountain Olympus) and Megleni (Vlachs from
Meglen). In Macedonia they are known as Krushevjani (Vlachs from Krushevo),

2
Instead of the name Tzintzar that has a pejorative meaning and stems from the way
number five is pronounced - tzintzi, i.e. chinch, as it was pronounced by other
Romanians (Д. Ј. Поповиħ, 1937: 8–16). Winnifrith says that the name Tzintzars is
derived from the word quintani - people who served five years as legionnaires or from
the Vlach word tzintzi and the squeaky way it is pronounced (Б. Кочишка, 2004: 24).
3
The Byzants, due to the black costume of the Vlach shepherds in Dalmatia, called them
Black Vlachs or Mavrovlachs (Negri Latini), they are mentioned in the archive
documents as Moroblachs, Morolachs, and from 1420 as Morlaks (К. Јиричек, 1922:
112). These Vlachs wore a rain-coat called morlak, made of black goat's fur, that was
water-resistant (Х. Д’бово, 1992: 295). The name Marvovlachs is a composite of the
Greek word mauros - black and Vlachs, so the term Mavrovlachs, Negri Latini (Н.
Вучичевиħ, 1981: 321), or in a vulgar sense Morlaks, later on following the example of
Turks Karavlachs (Ст. Станојевиħ, 1929, s.v. Karavlasi).
4
In literature they appear as Chichivis, Zisttzen, Tshitshen, Zitzen, Zutzen, Chichi etc.
(Enciklopedija Jugoslavije VI, 1965: 32). The terms Chici and Chiribirci do not have the
same origin. It is supposed that the name Chici was based upon the pronunciation of 'ch',
when the word tzintzi was pronounced, while Chiribirci from tzire-bire, that should
mean hold tight, but these are only legends. Their language has been lost today, but there
are data that at the beginning of the 20th century they were still using it (Hrvatska
enciklopedija IV, 1942, s.v. Ćićarija, Ćići; Enciklopedija Jugoslavije II, 1956, s.v. Ćići).
The Chici or Chiribirci are mentioned for the first time at the end of the 14th century, and
one of their main settlements Zejane, is mentioned in 1395. Still, the major part of the
Vlachs or Chici are mentioned by the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th
century. They moved here first at the island of Krk, while at the beginning of the 16th
century their settlement on Istra begins. They brought along their language that is still
spoken around Chepichko Pole, where the population is still referred to as Vlachs, Chici,
Romuns or Chiribirci.
Gopeshani (Vlachs from Gopesh), Ambeloti (Vlachs from Gorna and Dolna
Belica) etc.
According to Merdita, the area in which the term Vlach is most
present is important for the definition of the ethnic origin of the Vlachs. Namely,
this is an area that is located on the line Thrace, Macedonia and Dardania, i.e.
the ecumenical territory of the tribe Besi. One should add the fact that in Mesia,
Thrace and Macedonia other skyth tribal communities settle, among which
Pevks, Grutungs, Austrogoths, Virtings, Zigipeds, Celts, Goths and Huns. All
these participated in a process of mixing between the ethnic groups and gave
their contribution to the ethno-genetic processes. It is widely known that this was
a long-term process, followed by integration and disintegration of different
ethno-cultural elements, when new ethnic elements are formed, as the concrete
case of Volcae, i.e. the Vlachs. No doubt an important role in this process was
played by colonists from Italy who carried Roman culture and civilization, of
Latin language and mentality. Contrary to urban centers, the village and
mountain areas stayed out of this cultural circle. A proof for this is the absence
or weak presence of Latin outside the urban ecumena. Only in this spirit one
could understand the fact that Vlachs are autochthon Paleo-Balkanic Romanized
population created at this territory (Z. Merdita, 2007: 256). Surely, although
some Byzantine authors (Kekavmen, Halkokondil, Z. Merdita, 2007 : 256) speak
about migrations from north to south, still based upon toponyms and other
linguistic material one cannot conclude that there was a migration of Vlachs
from North to South. Thus, no matter the polemics concerning their origin, it can
be concluded that Vlachs are separate and independent people that has never
lived in a community with Romanians north from Danube (Z. Merdita, 2007:
256).5

5
Surely there are also other theories on the ethnic origin of Vlachs at the Balkans. The
first one says that they stem from native Greeks that settled at mountain crossings and
canyons in the South-Western part of the Balkans. After the occupation by Rome this
population was engaged as keepers of Roman borders in high mountain areas. In time
they learned the folk Latin, so a Latin-Vlach oral idiom was created, ie. Vlach language.
This theory is supported by authors with Greek origin: M. Chrisohou, E. Kurilas, S.
Papageorgiou etc.
Other historians inform us that Vlachs are native Tracho-Ilirians, localized in the central
parts of the South of mountain Pindus, Albania and Greece, where they formed a vast
belt of an old ethnic element. Papahadzi finds that Vlachs are of Thracian and Ilirian
origin. German scientists J. Tunmann agrees with the theory that Vlachs are native
population with Thracian and Iliric elements and separates them from Dakoromanians (J.
Thunmann, 1774: 147). According to Beuermann, Vlachs are descendants of Ilirs that
were Romanized during Roman domination of the Balkans (A. Beuermann, 1964).
Karamopulos says that Vlachs are Latinized Thracians. Thompson and Weis, in the book
Balkan nomads, set the theory that Vlachs are descendants of Romanized Balkan hill
tribes. They set another brave hypothesis according to which Vlachs are maybe an Asian
tribe whose motherland was some Asian highland wherefrom a number of nomadic
tribes arrived in Europe (A. J. B. Wace, M. S. Thompson, 1972). Voislav Stojanovic in
 In historical sources Vlachs appear periodically. From the
pronunciation of the historical 'torna torna frate' Vlachs almost disappear from
the historical scene for almost four hundred years. Although a group of Vlachs
under the name of Lachmienses is mentioned even at the time of Justinian I
(527-565), still until the 10th century the name Vlachs is not mentioned. The
reason should be sought in the fact that Vlachs with the Caracalla edict from 212
AD were known under the Greek term Rhomaioi, that referred to the free
population of the empire that enjoyed Roman civil legislation and spoke Latin.
Short after the Caracalla edict the Greek texts start to make a difference between
Rhomaioi and Hellenes (Z. Merdita, 2007: 256).
When Vlachs separate from the community of Rhomaioi, the name
Vlach appears in the works of the Byzantine authors as a consequence of their
individualization. This marks their definite entrance into history of Europe (Z.
Merdita, 2007: 256).
In Byzantium sources Vlachs as ethnic group are mentioned for the
first time in 976, when David, brother of Samoil, was killed in the region of
Ubavi Dabovi between Castoria and Prespa by nomads Vlachs .(Б. Панов, 1985:
524). It is important to mention that Byzantine chronicles use the name Vlach
with an ethnic meaning, during the whole rule of the Byzantium Empire. Thus,
for example, Ana Komnina, in her work "The Alexiad", speaking about the
recruitment of the Pechenezi in 1091, among other things says that besides
Bulgarians the army also included "those who led nomadic life - in folk
language known as Vlachs" (Т. Капидан, 2004: 38). Kekavmen gives us
detailed description of an uprising of Vlachs from Thessaly in 1066, organized
by Roman leaders Verivoj and Slavota, and led by the great Nikulica, against the
exploratory regime of tsar Constantine X Duka (Т. Капидан, 2004: 38). This
description is the oldest data on the known annual movements of Vlachs from
the mountain areas to the valleys and vice versa (Византиски извори..., 1966:
114; С. Антољак, 1985: 50).
At the beginning of the 10th century Vlachs are mentioned also as
inhabitants of the Ohrid Archbishopric in the frames of its dioceses (Б. Панов,
1985: 189). In the following century the rabbi Benjamin from Tudela, who died
in 1173, gives us the following details about the area where Vlachs lived: "Here

his book Ethnogenesis of the Vlachs, presents the variant according to which Vlachs are
a symbiosis of Roman colonists (legionnaires, veterans, administrators etc.)
Karamopulos rejects the theory that Vlachs are colonists from Italy. He says that it is not
believable that citizens of Italy (with special privileges and Roman status) would be
colonized in mountain areas at the Balkans.
Teodor Kapidan places another theory. He thinks that Vlachs are the South branch of the
Roman people. They kept their habitat South of Danube from the time of Roman
conquests. Still, until 10-11th century their history remains closely tight with the one of
Roman people. However, from that moment on and as a result of historical events, they
remained isolated South of Danube and started living separately from their brothers from
Dakia, among other Balkan people (Т. Капидан, 2004: 29).
is where Vlachia starts, whose inhabitants live in the mountains and themselves
carry the name Vlachs. Running as fast as dears, they go down to the land of
Greeks to steal and devastate. Nobody can win a war against them, no ruler can
beat them." (Т. Капидан, 2004: 38). Vlachs are mentioned also in the movement
of Petar and Asen (1185 during the Second Bulgarian Empire). Nikita Honijat in
his text does not however speak about Bulgarians, but only about Vlachs
(Острогорски, 1992: 484). Vlachs are mentioned at the territory of Monte
Negro in a text dated 1220, where there is a long list of Vlach personal names
(Б. Кочишка, 2004: 44). In the correspondence of Innocent III with Kaloyan,
Bulgarian ruler, in the letters to the Pope, calls himself the ruler of the
Bulgarians and the Vlachs (Б. Кочишка, 2004: 44). Important data on the
Vlachs are given in the codex from the time of knez Marko Geno (October-
August 1278), where Vlach shepherds are mentioned as servants of Serbian
monasteries inside the Balkan Peninsular (Зборник К. Јиричека, 1959: 193).
The Dubrovnik texts mention Vlachs for the first time in 1280, in Croatia they
are mentioned in 1322, in Bosnia in 1344 and in Dalmatia in 1375
In the period 13-14th century the situation with the Vlachs has been
changed. However, the utilization of the name Vlashka, as an alternative name
for Thessaly, and Vlashka in Romania, north from Danube river, is a problem
that concerns the separation of one Vlach community from another. According
to Winnifrith, Vlachs are maybe the key that should pen the door on the
Romanian problem, and when this door is opened the key of the Vlachs would
be also found. Still, even if a solution is found based upon convincing
arguments, this would not completely solve the problem, since there are big
differences between the Vlachs from the middle ages and the contemporary
Vlach ethnic community, not to mention the characteristics of the name Vlach
that as we have already seen has a changeable ethnological and philological
meaning.
During the whole time of the Byzantium and Turkish rule the Vlachs
had special obligations and privileges, i.e. a so called Vlach status. When Turks
penetrated the Balkans, Vlachs were organized in separate stock-herding groups
leaded by their own authorities: knez, promikjur, kjaja or chief of katun. Vlachs
were also military organized and well equipped and thus were often engaged by
different heads of armies. In order to use this organized half-military formation
of Vlachs, Turks engaged them as 'martolozi' or 'dervendzis' and in return they
gave them certain privileges, as for example tax deduction and
acknowledgement of the Vlach status (В. Ј. Трпкоски, 1986: 33).
The first news on the acceptance of Vlachs by the Turkish military
system, as army assistance, dates from the time of the battle of Marica. Balkan
Vlachs from the middle ages in 1375 were accepted in the regular units of the
Turkish cavalierly. In documents from the middle of 15th century it is visible that
there were many high officials with Vlach origin in the frames of Turkish army
(Б. Ђурђев, 1947: 78; 1950: 37; G. Palikruševa, 1983: 131–134). In this way
Vlachs avoided Turkish terror and kept the relative freedom of movement, and
thus easily moved towards the north areas of the Balkans (Hungary, Vlachia).
By the end of the 18th century the central Turkish authority is in decline, and as a
result there was a separation of certain soldiers such as Ali-pasha of Yannina,
that established his own rule and regime that led towards mass migration of
Vlach population towards north. This is why it is considered that the Vlach
population was among the first that migrated in direction North-North-west up to
Croatia and Istria (А. Матковски, 1985: 15). This is a proof that Vlachs that
migrated temporarily or for good towards north have imposed the name Vlachs
to the whole stock-herding population even during the Middle Ages.
During this period the Slavic chronics that cover the late Middle age
and the early period of the new century create even bigger confusion about the
Vlachs, using their name when it comes to the whole stock-breading population,
and the least for the Vlachs themselves (С. Антољак, 1985: 696).
The 19th century is a period of weakening of the Ottoman Empire
when revolutionary and liberation movements appeared at the Balkans. These
movements have culminated with the formation of the Balkan nationalistic
states: Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria and Albania. With their formation the Vlach
ethnic identity gains another connotation. Their historians try to devaluate the
Vlach identity at their territories, in spite the Romanians that try to present the
Vlachs as their own, native population.
Serbian historical sources seem not to have settled the issue of the
ethnic identity of the Vlachs. According to some authors, during the First
Serbian uprising from 1804 there were many Vlach army leaders and fighters
participating in it. Many Serbian historians wrote on the role of Vlachs in the
Second Serbian uprising, as well as concerning their role in the liberation of
Serbia, where they appeared as politicians, diplomats or tradesman with an
important influence on the formation of the Serbian civil class and the bazaar (В.
Ј. Трпкоски, 1986: 35). On the other hand, one can notice that when Vlachs on
Serbian territory are mentioned, then they are often treated as ethnically not
defined, they are presented as a social and professional structure, or are treated
as Serbs, which is contrary to the Serbian middle-age sources (Z. Merdita, 2007:
143–182).
Greek history negates the existence of Vlachs as a separate ethnic
community. The first Greek author that negates the separate identity of Vlachs is
Hrisokos. According to him Vlachs are descendants of Greek border keepers set
along the Macedonian border after the fall of Macedonia under Roman authority.
These are Greeks that have accepted the Latinized Vlach language. However, it
is well know that during the Roman period Greek culture keeps its dominance in
a certain sense. It was more vital and continued its development even during the
Roman Empire. However, as Merdita says, an important role in the negation of
Vlach identity was played by certain historians with Vlach origin. Namely, it
was only in this way that they could integrate into Greek society and create
scientific and political carrier (Z. Merdita, 2007: 83–92). The data that
Winnifrith mentions in his book "Vlachs" is interesting - he says that one of the
first and the best President of the Greek government was Vane Koletis - Vlach
who dressed himself as Turk, and before that was a court doctor for Ali-pasha of
Yannina (Б. Кочишка, 2004: 46).
When it comes to Vlachs in the Albanian historical sources, one
should emphasize that the Albanian authors (Sami Frasheri, Faik Konica, Ismail
Kadare etc.) negate the Vlach-Albanian symbiosis. However, it is a fact that
Vlachs in Albania have to be related with at least three historical moments: they,
together with Albanians and Greeks participated in the uprising against the
Nikea Empire, as participants in the civil war between Paleolog and Katakuzen,
on the side of tsar Dushan. Besides, Vlachs are mentioned as dominant
population the town of Voskopole, that is called by the Vlachs Moskopole, near
Korcha in South-Eastern Albania, and in the historical sources there is often
mention of Vlach ethic names that exist even today in Albania, facts that are
supported by latest ethnographic and linguistic research, that support the thesis
that the Vlach-Albanian symbiosis existed (Z. Merdita, 2007: 59–72).
Bulgarians also negate the existence of Vlach element at their
territory. But facts tell a different story. Let's remind ourselves of the
correspondence of Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) with the Bulgarian tsar and
archbishop of Trnovo where there is a clear mention that in the empire of Asen,
besides Bulgarian Slavs there are also Latins, i.e. Vlachs, that corresponds to
Bulgarian-Vlach symbiosis, i.e. cohabitation (Z. Merdita, 2007: 73-82). Vangel
Trpkoski thinks that Vlachs participated in the komitadji and ajduti outlaw
troops in Bulgaria, even though Bulgarian historians negate that (В. Ј.
Трпкоски, 1986: 38).
On the other hand, Romanian historians (G. Murnu, T. Kapidan and
others) try to prove the native nature of Vlachs at the territories north from
Danube and at the same time negate the thesis on the origin of Vlachs south of
Danube. For the Romanian historians Vlachs are Romanians that between the 6th
and the 10th century separated from the major line of the Romanian ethnic
corpus. For them Vlachs are Romanians but they are careful in equating
Romanians with Vlachs.
Basic profession of Vlachs was sheep herding. This developed around
the mountains of Pindos, Gramos, Olympus, and south Epirus etc., and then
spread to Shara, Bistra, Osogovo to Serbia and Croatia (В. Ј. Трпкоски, 1986:
22).
Sometimes they moved with their herds along the Balkans leading
nomadic life. Later on, when they settled in the areas where they live today, they
exchanged nomadic with semi-nomadic life. In the summer they went to the
mountains, and in winter they returned to the valleys where they could provide
enough food for their herds. Thus, shepherds from Pindos during summer went
with their herds to Thessaly valley: earlier they went to Akarnania, Aetolia,
Attica to Peloponnesus. Vlachs from Gramos moved with their herds even
further: some of them reached east to Thrace, others continued north to
Macedonia and mountains of Bulgaria. Vlachs from Albania moved towards
south in Akarnania and Aetolia, north to Serbia and after few months trip arrived
at the Dalmatian coast (Т. Капидан, 2004: 54–55).
Sheep herding was well developed during the Turkish rule. Turks
stimulated sheep herding since they had needs related to Turkish army. Due to
this reason Vlachs were free from different taxes, and in this sense sheep herding
as economy was quite profitable.
The sheep herding families of Vlachs were organized in bigger groups
that consisted of a number of families called fălcărи, i.e. celnicati, leaded by a
head of the family called flkar whom they called with the Slavic word chelnik,
with an etymological meaning of chief. He executed all important functions of
the community: chose a place where the stock should be grazed, employed the
kjai, made agreements for placing the products, and was a kind of judge in
solving potential conflicts (В. Ј. Трпкоски, 1986: 22).
With the weakening of the Ottoman Empire the Vlachs start to lose
their privileged position. Instead of being free shepherds and soldiers, with a
special social and economic status, Vlachs started to deal with other professions.
Each family, besides owning sheep, had a certain number of horses
and donkeys, that were used for transport of products and people. This
profession emerged when Vlachs started to sell their products themselves:
yellow cheese, oil, wool and wool products, so in fact they became caravan
leaders. In this way they transported even the post of the population, since there
was no other transport except for the caravans. Transport was profitable and
brought them considerable revenue (Т. Капидан, 2004: 61).
As caravan organizers they had a chance to visit cit centers and see
the possibilities that they offer, so a major part of Vlachs started to deal with
trade. At the beginning Vlachs were traveler tradesman. They traded with salt,
oil, fat, cheese and yellow cheese. They traveled all over the Balkans and carried
horse-shoes, nails and other objects for sale (В. Ј. Трпкоски, 1986: 22). Through
trade Vlachs had the possibility to learn different crafts. As craftsman they were
well known for their metal products but were also appreciated as tailors that use
homespun cloth, tinsmiths, inn owners etc. Vlachs were famous as being masters
for wool products as well as producers of the famous Vlach 'yambolii' (thick
woolen blankets), called flucati. They were also good masons, wood-carvers and
wall painters. In time they formed their own oasis where craftsmanship and trade
were flourishing on the highest level. Such was the town of Moskopole.
The 18th century is a golden age of trade. After the peace treaties of
Karlovac (1699) and Belgrade (1739) trade started to develop swiftly. However,
the new trade regulation, imposed by the citizens of Mljet, that referred to
imported goods from the Ottoman Empire, created an economic collapse of
many tradesman from Moskopole, Ohrid and other cities. As a consequence
overseas trade through Drach died out and a new trade road towards Belgrade,
Hungary, Austria, Germany, Poland, Russia, etc. was paved. This is the start of a
new era, of big migrations of the Vlachs at the Balkans.
 In some Balkan countries Vlachs played a major role not only in the
development of interior trade but also in the formation of civil class. D. J.
Popovic says that more than one century ago, Vlachs tradesman from Belgrade
were so numerous that the whole part of the city where the market was located
whole streets were populated by them; in one word, the biggest part of trade was
in their hands (Т. Капидан, 2004: 60–69). Their presence in the Balkan cities
marked city life and has influenced the urbanization and development of many
cities at the Balkans such as Bucharest, Sophia, Belgrade, Bitola etc. (Д. Ј.
Поповиħ, 1937).
Vlach language, as other languages from the Romanian language
family stems from the folk (vulgar) Latin. The process of Romanization of the
Balkans started after the Roman conquest. Roman colonists from the Apennine
Peninsular were mixed with the natives, with the Iliric and Thracian tribes. This
symbiosis resulted with one of the variants of the Roman language, that we meet
at the beginning of the middle ages at the territory of current Italy, France, Spain
and Portugal. This language at the Balkans developed under the heavy influence
of the local Iliric and Thracian basis. What was the phonetic structure of this
language is hard to say due to the lack of written sources upon which the
reconstruction could be made. This Vulgaro-Balkan Latin language in time
started to differentiate itself so it could be said that a Western Balkan-Romanian
language was created (now totally extinct) as well as an Eastern Balkan-
Romanian language. From the latter the current Romanian, Aromanian and the
language of the Meglen and Istria Vlachs were created (Б. Настев, 1980: 9).
The earliest written document on the utilization of the Vlach language
at the Balkans is given by the Greek writers of the 4th century, Prokopius and
Theophanous. In the list of places surrounded by fortresses Prokopius presented
few typical Vlach names such as sceptecases (impressive wood barracks) and
gemellomuntes (mountain twins). Theophanous mentions the first words he
heard in Vlach during his description of a battle from 579, that was fought
between the Avars and the Byzants. Two Byzantine generals Kometeolos and
Martinus had established positions in a forest where the army of the Avars
should pass, leaded by their general Hogan. Avars passed quietly and carefully
when the load mounted on a donkey started to slide. A soldier that spoke his
own dialect exclaimed: torna torna frate! (return, return brother) - aiming to
warn his friend. Since these words were not well understood by the Byzants and
the Avars, the two armies started to flee in different directions. These words, as
noted by Theophylact were spoken in Vlach language (Н. Попникола, 2004:
115).
As a consequence of the social conditions and the historical events,
Vlach language did not develop permanently and in a systematic way, and thus
the strong influence of the Greek, Albanian and the Slavic languages can be felt.
Having in mind that the Vlachs have never created their mother-state, they also
speak the languages of the neighboring people at the Balkans. In this sense one
could say that Vlachs are bi-lingual.
 When it comes to religious affiliation, Vlachs belong to Orthodox
religion. It is well known that Christianity of the nomadic people is mixed with
pagan elements. Pope Grgur IX (1227-1241) in his letter to king Bela IV from
14.11.1234 says that "Vlachs, although consider themselves Christians, have
customs that are not friendly towards Christianity" (Z. Merdita, 2007: 256).
On another occasion, the Byzantine author Kevkamen calls them
infidels, i.e. pagans. Thus, Basil II called Bulgar-slayer, aiming to put them
under his control in 1020 forms a separate episcopy for Vlachs with the center in
Vranje, that was under the jurisdiction of the Ohrid Archbishopric. This Vlach
episcopy was dedicated to all Vlachs at the Balkan. Besides, in the 14th century
other episcopies were formed, such as the ones in Florina and Prilep (Z. Merdita,
2007: 256). However, if one takes into account their closeness to Aryanism and
semi-Aryanism, then their tendency to transfer from one confession to another
becomes understandable, more precisely their convert to Bogomilism and later
on to Islam. Sometimes the introduction in Islamic religion happened through
force, as in the case with Vlachs in the village of Nokje (Meglen) where in order
to save their lives Vlachs had to convert to Islam.
Vlachs are spread all over the Balkans, and especially in Greece
where they are a compact mass.
In Greece they are located in the central area of Pindus mountain up
to 1000 m height. Their south border followed the rivers Arta, Astropam and
Salavria, i.e. the areas of the mountain picks Karkadice (2.488m), Agoa (2.148
m) and Lupate (2.038 m) (Д. Антонијевиħ, 1982: 2–20). One of the biggest
Vlach municipalities, Samarina, is located on mountain Smolika, as well as
Furka, Breaza, Armata, P'zh and Paliseli. Towards south on the mountain
Vasilica, Kulo, Oi and Mavrovuni the following municipalities are located:
Avdela, Perivol, Tura, Smiksi, Labanica, Ameri, Paltin etc. Further south, in the
area that is located between the upper flow of spropotam and Salamvrija is
Metsovo, the biggest Vlach centre. Further there are municipalities located down
the river Arta: Kiare, Vitunosi, Siraku, Kalari and other smaller places (T.
Kapidan, 2004: 10).
Another area inhabited with Vlachs is Zagora, west from river Rasinit,
inflow of Arta. Bigger Vlach areas are: Laishta, Palihori, Dobrinovi, Makrini,
Flamburari, Cernesh, Grebeni, Dragari, Dolijani etc. (T. Kapidan, 2004: 10).
A compact mass of Vlachs exists in Thessaly. There, almost all Vlach
villages are grouped around the city of Trikala. In this area Vlachs on the east
reach Larissa, Trnova and Elasona (T. Kapidan, 2004: 10).
On mountain Olympus biggest Vlach settlements were: Vlaholivada,
Fteri and Kokonopouli. Around Thessaloniki Vlachs are settled on mountain
Negosh and in a number of villages such as: Selija, Doljani, Hirolivada, Volada,
Marusa, Kastanija, Tarkovani etc (T. Kapidan, 2004: 11).
Vlachs also lived near Edessa in the villages: Kandrova,
Gramatikovo, Fetita, Paikana, around Florina, Pisideri, Neveska, Vlacho-
Klisura, Hrupishsta etc. In the South-Eastern part in Greece Vlachs were
populated in: Seres, Kavala, Drama, Ksanti and other smaller places (T.
Kapidan, 2004: 11).
In Meglen area Vlachs are located in: N'te, Luganci, Borislavci,
Huma, Lumnica, Kupa, Oshani, Barovica, Konsko and Sermenin.
In Albania Vlachs were located in almost all bigger places such as:
Korcha, Elbasan, Berat, Tirana etc. Besides the cities they also occupied villages
in the area of Muzakia, and Moskopole.
Vlachs in Bulgaria were not so numerous. They were populated
especially in Western Bulgaria, in the Shopi area. Besides Sophia the could be
found in Plovdiv, Kotel, Pazardzik, Samokov, Pleven, Kustendil, Viden,
Svishtov and Ruse (В. Ј. Трпкоски, 1986: 119–121).
In Macedonia in the past and today Vlachs are located in Nizopole,
Magarevo, Trnovo, Gopesh, Malovishta, Gorna and Dolna Belica, Krushevo,
Shtip, Kochani, Bitola, Kumanovo, Ohrid, Veles, Resen, Skopje and other
places.
Today the number of Vlachs at the Balkans is difficult to estimate.
There are few objective reasons. Besides Macedonia, Vlachs in other countries
are not acknowledged as national minority and thus the state administrations
register Vlachs in the censuses as domicile population. On the other hand Vlachs
declare themselves as members of the dominant population in order not to feel
handicapped in social life, a part of them is assimilated by the domicile
population. An important number of Vlachs, in different historical periods, have
left the Balkans and settled in the West-European and overseas countries, where
they are integrated in the state systems as their citizens. This is why the
assessment on their total number is approximate and in relation to the objective
or subjective attitude of the researcher. For example. Thompson and Wace (A. J.
B. Wace, M. S. Thompson, 1972: 10) find that in Greece (before the political
turbulences) there were around 600.000 Vlachs. Gustav Weygand who dealt
with the Vlachs 25 years before them calculates with a number of 373.520
persons. According to Jovan Cviic (Ј. Цвијиħ, 1906) their number does not
exceed 150.000-160.000 people. T. Kapidan (2004: 17) thinks that their number
in Greece, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Albania is 300.000-350.000 people.
Saramandu provides other data. According to him in Greece there are 250.000-
300.000 Vlachs, in Albania 70.000-100.000, in Bulgaria from 10.000-15.000
and in Romania from 80.000 to 100.000, or in total 400.000-600.000 (N.
Saramandu, 1984: 423). Some Romanian researchers increase the number of
Vlachs on purpose mentioning 5.000.000 persons.
In Macedonia, according to the census from 2002, there were 9.695
persons that declared themselves as Vlachs or 4% of the population. The census
of 1981 registers 6.384 Vlachs or 3.311 Vlachs less. But if one makes a
comparison with the data from 1953, when 10.751 declared themselves as
members of the Vlach community, then the phenomenon of ethnic mimicry
becomes quite clear and thus it is not realistic to give any prognosis on the
correct number of Vlachs at the Balkans.
References:

Антољак С., Средновековна Македонија I, Скопје 1985.

Антонијевиħ Д., Обреди и обичаји балканских сточара, кн. 16, Београд

1982.

Baldacci A., Studi speciali Albanesi, Vol I. Serie storico-politica, Roma 1932.

Beuermann A., Fernweidewirtschaft in Südosteuropa, München 1964.

Ваиганд Г., Аромьне, Варна 1899.

Вучичевиħ Н., Етимологија појма „Влах“ и његова разна значења,

Предмет изучавања пастирских заједница у Југославији, Црногорскa АНУ,
научни скупови, књ. 7, Одељење друштвених наука, књ. 3, Титоград 1981,
с. 318.

Византиски извори из историју народа Југославије, III, Посебна издања

Византолошког института, 10, Београд 1966.

Wace A. J. B., Thompson M. S., The Nomads of the Balkans. An Account of life
and Customs among the Vlachs of Northern Pindus, London 1972.

Glück C. W., Die bei Cäsar vorkommenden Keltischen Namen, н.д. 96, noted by
Henry H.

Howorth, „The Germans of Caesar“, The English Historical Review 23, No. 91,
July 1908, с. 417–433, с. 433 бел. 98.

Д’бово Х., Патопис од 1614 год., Балканот во делата на странските

патописци, Скопје 1992.

Ђурђев Б., О војницима, ГЗМ, II, 1947.

Ђурђев Б., О утицају турске владавине на развитак наших народа,

Годишњак Историског друштва БиХ, год. II, Сарајево 1950.

Enciklopedija Jugoslavije II, Zagreb 1956.

Enciklopedija Jugoslavije VI, Zagreb 1965.

Зборник К. Јиричека, I, САН, посебна издања књ. CCCXXVI, Оделење
друштвених наука књ. 13, Београд 1959.

Јиричек К., Историја Срба, I, Београд 1922.

Кочишка Б., Етничкиот идентитет кај влашката етничка заедница,

(магистерски труд во ракопис), Универзитет „Св. Кирил и Методиј“,
Скопје, Филозофски факултет, Институт по социологија, Скопје 2004.

Капидан Т., Македо-Романците, Историска и описна скица на романските

населенија на Балканскиот Полуостров, Скопје 2004.

Leake W., Travels in northern Greece I, London 1835.

Liv. T., XXXVIII, 16, 1.

Матковски А., Македонскиот полк во Украина, Скопје 1985.

Merdita Z., Vlasi, polinomičan narod, (труд во печат), Hrvatski institut za

povijest, 2007.

Настев Б., Аромунске загонетке, Београд 1980.

Острогорски Г., Историја на Византија, Скопје 1992.

Попникола Н., Првите слушнати зборови и пишувања на влашки, Битола

2004.

Панов Б., Средновековна Македонија, 2, Скопје 1985.

Панов Б., Средновековна Македонија, 3, Скопје 1985.

Поповиħ Д. Ј., О Цинцарима, Београд 1937.

Попникола Н., Денационализација на Арм’ните, Битола 2006.

Powel T. G. E., The Kelts, London 1958.

Pouquevilla F. C. H. L., Voyage de la Gréce, Vol. 2, Paris 1826.

Papageorgiu S., Koutsoblachoi, Atina 1909.

Papazoglu F., Srednjovekovna plemena u predrimsko doba, ANUBiH, Djela, knj.

XXX, Centar za balkanološka ispitivanja, knj. 1, Sarajevo 1969.
Palikruševa G., Status Vlaha u Makedoniji u XV i XVI veku, Odeljenje
društvenih nauka, knj. 22, Sarajevo 1983.

Скок П., Чешка књига о Влашком праву, ГЕМ, Сарајево 1918.

Станојевиħ Ст., Народна енциклопедија Српско-хрватско словенечка I,

Загреб 1929.

Saramandu N., Aromâna, Craiova 1984.

Трпкоски В. Ј., Власите на Балканот, Скопје 1986.

Thunmann J., Untersuchungen über die Geschichte der östlichen europäischen

Völker, Leipzig 1774.

Friedman Victor A., The Vlah Minority in Macedonia, Helsinki 2001.

http://www.farsarotul.org.

Hrvatska enciklopedija IV, Zagreb 1942.

Цвијиħ Ј., Балкански Полуостров, Београд 1906.

 UDC 316.722-027.542 (497.7) (496.5)(063)

Pavkovich Elizabeta (Skopje, Macedonia)

STUDENT ACADEMIC NETWORK "BORDER CROSSING"

6th student conference on ethnological and anthropological topics, cross-

border cooperation and intellectual exchange
"Rethinking Balkan identities: The dynamics of space and time"

22-25.05.2008, Korcha, Albania

The sixth international conference of students of ethnology,

anthropology, folkloristic and related disciplines in the frames of the Border
Crossing network was held in Korcha, Albania, fro 22-25th May 2008. The
central topic of this conference was "Rethinking Balkan identities: The dynamics
of space and time".
More than hundred graduate and post-graduate students from 18th
different universities from Albania, Slovenia, France, Romania, Macedonia,
Turkey, Germany, Armenia and Greece took part. Following the established
practice, the work of the conference was divided into morning and afternoon
sessions when the articles of the participants were presented according to the
following groups:

First day:
- The dynamics of space;
- Ethnographic research of Albania;
- Research of the Balkans;
Second day:
- Time dynamics and identities;
- Bodily experiences;
- Migrations in time and space.
A number of articles had Power Point presentations and clips from the
analyzed feature or documentary movies. Few student documentaries were also
shown. After each session there was a discussion with comments and
constructive critics. Participants from the Institute of Ethnology and
Anthropology from Skopje were Emilija Nikolova with an article titled "Identity
of the Uniat Catholics with Eastern-Orthodox ritual in Macedonia" and Dunavka
Jovanova with the article "The Roma community in the Skopje settlement of
Zlokukjani: housing, education, employment".
The informal part included visit to a once big Vlah center, Moskopole,
as well as evening gatherings with folk music from the Balkans.
The cooperation of IEA and the University of Western Macedonia from
Florina, Greece, that started in 2003 through the Border Crossing network
becomes bigger and bigger each year, including new members. The number of
students increases as well as the number of Universities that take part in the
work and organization of the meetings, the improvement of the quality and
enriching of the content. The exchange of the research results, views and ideas,
creating new friendships and continuing the old ones that were created at
previous conferences speak about the big importance of this network for the
development of social sciences, but also of the cultural cooperation at the
Balkans and in the wider region.
Pavkovich Elizabeta (Skopje, Macedonia)

MAN IN THE PAST AND IN THE PRESENT, CULTURE-SOCIETY-

INDIVIDUAL

Competition for high-school students

In the frames of the campaign for promotion of its studies, the Institute
of Ethnology and Anthropology in February 2008 has opened a competition for
third and fourth grade high-school students from all over Macedonia. The topic
was "Man in the past and the present, culture-society-individual", covering two
categories:

Essay with the following sub-topics:

1. Food in Macedonia, past and present;
2. Folk music;
3. Heroes from Macedonia that I admire;
4. Clothes in the past and/or today.

Photography with the following sub-topics:

1. Holidays and festivities;
2. The talking walls: graffiti in my city;
3. Crafts and craftsmen;
4. Jewelry, decoration, make-up and hair-styles.

The competition was announced at the web-site of the Institute, few

blogs, and letters and posters to all high-schools in Macedonia were sent noting
the rules and the criteria for participation. Until 31st of March 2008 15 essays
and 64 photographs by 20 candidates have arrived. Two commissions were
formed for each category, that decided to award one first, two second and two
third prizes.

The following candidates were awarded:

I. Essay category:
First price - computer - Hermina Gadzova, student from Resen, for the
text titled "Folk music";
Second price - 8 books - Sanja Nikeva from Ohrid for the text "Clothes
in the past and today" and Miki Delev from Strumica for "Heroes from
Macedonia that I admire";
Third price - lunch for two and 3 books - Angela Chureva from Skopje
for the text "Food in Macedonia in the past and today" and Mitko Petkov from
Bogdanci for "Folk music";
 II. Photography category
First price - digital camera - Bogdanka Fiti from Krushevo for the
photography titled "Barrel Maker";
Second price - 8 books - Filip Petkovski from Skopje for "Vodici
holiday in Bitushe" and Elena Gjeroska from Skopje for "Graffiti";
Third price - lunch for two and 3 books - Velko Nikoloski from
Krushevo for "The cavalierly of Pitu Guli" and Viktorija Bachvarova from
Skopje for "Making jewelry".

The prices were announced at a solemn gathering on the 10th of May at

the Institute.
Two first prices, computer and camera, were provided by the Institute of
Ethnology and Anthropology. The books were a donation of the library of the
Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences, publishing house "Matica
Makedonska" and the IEA, while the third prizes were sponsored by the
restaurant Sopotsko in Skopje. We thank them all for their help and support!
This competition, created and realized by the team of assistants and part-
time assistants at the Institute, aimed at promoting ethnology and anthropology
among high-school students, as well as towards better education of future
professionals in these fields that would carry on the development of science in
the Republic of Macedonia. The expressed interest and quality of the entries
speak about the existing interest among young people regarding tradition, but
also about the contemporary social trends. All of this is a sign that such activities
at the IEA should continue in the future.
 GALABA PALIKRUSHEVA, PhD
1928-2009

Ms. Galaba Palikrusheva - Nazim, PhD died on the 26th of December

2009. The ones still living from the post-war generation and their grown-up
children know more or less about Galaba Palikrusheva, depending on their
interest regarding cultural politics and ethnology. However, the younger ones
may not have heard about her, since our old habits of respecting the values that
we have inherited from our elders have been lost, and new habits have still not
been created, or are still not practiced. For a moment we turn the tide of the new
habits in different direction and would like to say a word or two about a person
and a life that is a typical example how society influences the formation of
personality and how persons influence the construction of society.
Galaba Palikrusheva was born in 1928 in Vinica, where she finished her
primary school. She finished high school in Shtip and Kochani. As many other
young people from that time she was influenced by the new communist ideas for
creation of a new society and especially a new and proud Macedonian state.
Seen from today's perspective, after the liberation she held a high position in the
elite society of that time, which carried the Macedonian fight. But she was
obviously not prepared to accept a good social position based solely upon her
participation in the fight. She decided to study. First she enrolled to study
medicine, but left these studies when a separate study group of ethnology was
formed in the frames of the History Department, at the newly formed
Philosophical Faculty in Skopje. Still, she had to dedicate much of her time to
socially useful tasks, which was a regular obligation for everyone of her status.
Thus, she graduated ethnology in 1954. The same year she was appointed as
director of the People's museum in Shtip. But this year (1953/4) was also one of
the worst for Macedonian ethnology. There were strong social forces against
ethnology, which obviously were instructed to cancel this study group at the
Philosophical faculty and unfortunately succeeded in their intent. This negative
move caused a situation where Macedonian society did not become a subject of
investigation of ethnology as science. Only individuals from the first and the last
two generations of graduated ethnologists, among which Ms. Galaba
Palikrusheva, succeeded to give certain contribution regarding Macedonian
ethnic and cultural identity in this sense.
 In 1958 Galaba was appointed as a director of the Archeological
Museum of Macedonia. During that time the Philosophical Faculty was divided
into Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and Philosophical faculty, and
thus few ethnological subjects were transferred to the geography group that was
formed at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
The wish of Galaba Palikrusheva to professionally deal with ethnology
led her to the assistant's position at the ethnological department. She was
appointed as Assistant of general and special ethnology at the Geographical
Department of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Skopje. In
1965 she defended her PhD "Islamization of Torbesh and the formation of a
Torbesh sub-group". Her mentor was Milenko S. Filipovic - a name that is
highly respected in scientific circles that deal with ethnology,
anthropogeography and social and cultural anthropology in general. Besides
some controversial opinions in relation to the ethnic individuality of Bosniacs,
Monte Negrians, Macedonians etc. this scientist has an excellent reputation due
to his professionalism in the domain of ethnic culture where often he works
contrary to his own political opinions on the ethnic and national identity of
certain nations and ethnic groups.
During that period at this Faculty there were no conditions existing for
development of ethnology. Thus, in 1967 Galaba Palikrusheva was elected as an
expert assistant in the Department for the Ottoman period at the Institute of
National History in Skopje. She continued to study following a course on this
period and through a study stay in the archives in Istanbul.
In 1979 she was elected as a director of the Institute of Folklore "Marko
Cepenkov" in Skopje, where she retired later on. During the periods when she
managed such institutions as the Institute of Folklore in Skopje she was
especially focused upon the creation of scientific cadres related to ethnology and
folkloristics.
During the '70ties Galaba Palikrusheva has put much effort in
persuading the state institutions dealing with science and education to solve the
issue with ethnology. The action was led on a number of fronts - officially and
privately. However, the general inertia of institutions and the responsible
individuals have negative results. From today's perspective one can hardly
believe it, but she did succeed to renew he studies of ethnology. The concrete
step was the formation of the Sub-department of ethnology at the Faculty of
Natural Sciences and Mathematics in 1984/5. This act is a great success and a
point when today's Macedonian ethnology and anthropology started to develop
(i.e. the Institute of ethnology and anthropology). Galaba Palikrusheva has
taught ethnology at this department for some time, and when the post-graduate
studies have been formed, from 1999-2002 she taught the subject Theories of
ethnos.
From these short biographical notes one can see that life of Galaba
Palikrusheva is mixed with her social duties and her personal affinities of an
independent ethnologist. From current perspective one can say that her social
contributions as active fighter in war and peace provided her the freedom of a
researcher and scientist, if one takes into account the topics that she researched,
dominated by the ones touching critical issues of religion, folk rituals and
beliefs, ethnic processes in Western Macedonia, ethnic groups, the relation
Christianity - Islam and its reflection upon life of ethnic groups and the
Macedonian state. Highly educated and intelligent, Palikrusheva tried to function
as scientist at the ex-Yugoslav level of scientific elites, that existed in those
(communist) times, in spite of the scientists for daily use. Still, besides all
protective mechanisms, her doctoral dissertation "Islamization of the Turks and
the formation of the Torbesh sub-group" remained unpublished and thus those
who need this research use it in a form of manuscript kept in the University
library. I have not asked her this question while she was alive and now it is too
late. I can only confirm that she was sorry about it since in one of our
conversations she accepted the offered assistance to prepare the manuscript for
publishing. From 2001 till today a couple of reasons postponed this issue.
During her lifetime Galaba Palikrusheva did not receive important state
awards. Once, when a person wanted support by the Institute of Folklore to get
such award, when asked what we should do she said smiling that such persons
who like awards are doing everything needed by themselves. Since it was clear
that Galaba would not fight for her own award, by the initiative of three of our
colleagues ethnologists and folklorists in 1988 a proposal that Galaba
Palikrusheva should receive the state award for science "11th of October" was
submitted. This is at the same time the only important state award received by
Galaba Palikrusheva for her scientific and social work.
Ms. Palikrusheva had a dynamic activity in a period of half a century, so
it is not easy to name everything that was contained in a life full of action. This
was not even the aim of this short note. The aim was to give respect to a person
that was important for social and scientific life, but also for the family life and
lives of other people. In this case my life. Always full of some unreachable folk
wisdom, peace and stability, she offered different ways to solve critical
situations, life obstacles, tragi-comic situations and other life's unexpected
events. She was a loyal friend with all her heart. She was full of compliment for
the valuable work of others. She always gave the needed assistance and advice.
On a personal level, I am sad to see how a part of my imagined group of
persons with whom I communicate personally or through their works is falling
apart. I have no time nor energy to create new life concepts, nor a will to fill in
the empty spots, neither a wish to exchange the memories with other values.
With each day the ones who meant something to me mean more. With each
close person that dies a part of us is leaving too.

May she rest in peace.

Aneta Svetieva (Skopje, Macedonia)

Назим Јасемин (Скопје, Македонија)

ГАЛАБА ПАЛИКРУШЕВА

БИБЛИОГРАФИЈА

Забелешка: Во библиографските единици на турски јазик, името/презимето

на авторката гласи: Palikruşeva, Gаlaba а во единиците на
српски/хрватски/босански јазик - латиница, гласи: Palikruševa, Galaba.

Паликрушева, Г., Дервишкиот ред Халвети во Македонија, Зборник на

Штипскиот народен музеј, св. 1 за 1958-59 год, Штип 1959, 106-119.

Palikruševa, G., Tomovski, K., Les tekkes de Macedoine du XVIII et du XIX

siecle, Estrato dagli atti de II Congresso internazionale di arte Turca, Napoli,
1965, 203-215.

Паликрушева, Г., Један Ђурђевдански обичај кој Јурука у околини

Радовиша, Рад IX Конгреса фолклориста Југославије, Сарајево, 1963, 363-
370.

Паликрушева, Г., Некои елементи од етничката историја на Горни Полог,

Маврово и Горна Река, Собрание на општина Гостивар, Гостивар, 1970,
181-194.

Паликрушева, Г., Стојановски, А., Дебарска област у шездесетим

годинама 15 века на основу једног савременог турског извора, Симпозијум
о Скендербегу, Приштина 1969, 181-194.

Palikruşeva, Gаlaba, Bir Yürük gurupunde en iyi korutulmıs bir adet, Balkan
önemi hakında, Sesler, yıl IV, sayı 24, Mart 1968.

Palikruševa, Galaba, Islamization de la region Reka le nord-est da la

Macedoine, la Macedoine et les Macedonien dans la passe, Institut de la Histoar
National, Skopje, 1970, 135-142.

Паликрушева, Г., Стојановски, А., Етничките прилики во северозападна

Македонија во 15 век, Југословенски историски часопис, 1-2, Београд 1970,
33-40.

Паликрушева, Г., Некои елементи од етничката историја на Македонија,

Иселенички календар, 1970, 177-183, Скопје.
Паликрушева, Г., Стојановски, А., Дебарската област во шеесетите
години на 15 век, Гласник на Институтот за национална историја, год. XIII,
бр. 1-2, 1969, 37-56.

Palikruşeva, Gаlaba, Makedonyanın budunsal tarihinden bazı öğeler, Sesler, yıl

V, sayı 43, Şubat 1970, Üsküp, 23-31.

Palikruşeva, Gаlaba, Onsekizıncı ve ondokuzıncı asırda Makedonyadaki tekeler,

Sesler, Üsküb, 1970.

Palikruşeva, Gаlaba, Üsküp Kaybolan türküler, Birlik, 28 Nisan, 1962, Üsküb.

Palikruševa, Galaba, Revival of the Yugoslav Publication Concerning the Osman

Period, the Foreign and Yugoslav Historiography of Macedonian People,
Skopje, 1970, 173-181.

Паликрушева, Г., Исламизацијата во Македонија, "Нова Македонија" од

23, 24, 25, 26, 27 и 28. 9.1970, Скопје.

Паликрушева, Г., Етносот и религијата, "Комунист", 19.02.1971, Скопје.

Palikruševa, Galaba, Ethnographic Conditions in Macedonia, The Socialist

Republic of Macedonia, Skopje, 1974, 90-103.

Palikruševa, Galaba, Consequences etniques de islamization des Miacs en

Macedoine, Etnologia Slavica, V, 1973, Bratislava 1974, 34-47.

Паликрушева, Г., О поузданости народних предања о насељима и њихово

коришћење у етнолошким монографијама, Научни скупови, Симпозијум о
методологији етнолошких наука, Књ. II, Одељење друштвених наука,
САНУ, Београд 1974, 65-75.

Palikruševa, Galaba, Poreklo makedonskih Torbeša, Bosna i Hercegovina,

Iseljenički almanah, Sarajevo 1974, 139-148.

Паликрушева, Г., Неколку прашања околу времето, интензитетот и

методите на исламизацијата, "Дело", Штип, 1975.

Паликрушева, Г., Кумството и побратимството на св. Јован,

"Македонски фолклор", год. VIII, бр. 15-16, Скопје 1985, 63-68.

Паликрушева, Г., Трансформација курбана и његова улога у одржавању

етничког јединства Малешеваца, Зборник радова XV Саветовања Савеза
етнолошких друштава Југославије, Нови Пазар, 1978, 175-181.
Palikruševa, Galaba, Status Vlaha u Makedoniji u XV i XVI veku, Radovi,
knj.LXXIII, Odeljenje društvenih nauka, knj. 22, Sarajevo 1983, 134-133.

Palikruşeva, Gаlaba, Izmirdeki yaşayan Torbeşlerın uyum sürecleri, Kültur ve

turizım milli folklor araştirma dairesi yayınları 77, Seminar kongre bildirileri
dirisi 20 cilt I, 241-245.

Паликрушева, Г., Етничките прилики во Македонија, Предавање на V

Семинар за македонски јазик, литература и култура, Скопје-Охрид, 1972,
207-215.

Palikruševa, Galaba, Oružane borbe makedonskog naroda od VI do XX veka,

Beograd 1975, 80-93.

Соколевич, З., Паликрушева, Г., Споредувачка студија за полско и

македонско село - избрани методолошки проблеми, "Македонски
фолклор", XIX/27, Скопје 1986, 9-13.

Паликрушева, Г., Современите етнички процеси во Радовишкиот Шоплук,

Зборник на XXXI Конгрес на Сојузот на здруженијата на фолклористите на
Југославија, Радовиш 1984, Скопје 1986, 33-40.

Паликрушева, Г., Беседа одржана при промоцијата на книгата

"Македонски песни од народно-ослободителната борба", Институт за
фолклор "Марко Цепенков", Македонско народно творештво, кн. 3, Скопје,
1981, 27-30.

Паликрушева, Г., Процесите на етничките преструктурирања на некои

етнички заедници на Балканот, Zemaljski muzej Bosne i Hercegovine,
Zbornik referata međunarodnog simpozijuma "Bosna i Hercegovina u tokovima
istorijskih i kulturnih kretanja u Jugoistočnoj Evropi, Sarajevo, 131-136.

Паликрушева, Г., Етноасимилациони процеси код Торбеша у Турској,

Зборник Етнографског института САНУ, Београд, 69-74.

Palikruşeva, Gаlaba, XIX yuzyılın ve sonrada XX yuzyılın başında meydana

gelen bazi halk türküleri bilgiler, IV Milletlerarası Türk halk kültüru bildirileri,
Ankara 1992, 200-206.

Palikruševa, Galaba, Causes et conséquences de l'islamization dans quelque

partie de la Macedoine, Deuxieme Congres International des Etudes du Sud-est
Europeen, 1970, Athenes.
Palikruşeva, Gаlaba, Yürük ve Çitak Makedonyada yüzere, Altıncı Milletler arası
Türkoloji Kongresi, 19-23 Eylül 1988, Istanbul.

Palikruşeva, Gаlaba, Iştip türkulerinden birkaç örnek, Birlik, Nisan, 1962.

Palikruševa, Galaba, Ethnographic conditions in Macedonia, The Socialist

Republic of Macedonia, Macedonian Review editions, Skopje 1974, 90-102.

Паликрушева, Г., Улогата на историските и географските фактори во

консолидацијата и разлагањето на субгрупи, на примерот на една
етничка група во Македонија, II Конгрес, Международнога общества
Европейскои Этнологии и фолклора, СССР, Суздалъ, 1982.

Паликрушева, Г., Некои методолошки пристапи во истражувањето на

народната песна настаната кај Турците во Штип во 19 и 20 век,
Содржински и методолошки прашања во истражувањето на историјата и
културата на Македонија, кн. I, Скопје 1995, 199-209.

Паликрушева, Г., Ампов, С., Донева, Д., Чаршафски, М., Напредното

движење во Виница 1940-1944 год., Кочани и Кочанско во НОВ 1941-1945,
Кочани 1985, 210-216.

Паликрушева, Г., Етнографските особености на македонските Јуруци,

Етногенеза на Јуруците и нивното населување на Балканот, МАНУ, Скопје
1986, 70-74.

Паликрушева, Г., Тенденции на групното единство кај некои етнички

групи во Македонија, Етничките традиции и современоста, Скопје, 1989,
58-62.

Паликрушева, Г., Этнонимы исламизираниых груп Южнославянских

народов, VI Меѓународен конгрес за проучување на Југоисточна Европа,
Софија, 1989, МАНУ, Скопје 1991.

Паликрушева, Г., Развојот на македонската етнологија, Етнологија на

Македонците, МАНУ, Скопје 1996, 5-7.

Паликрушева, Г., Етносите и етничките групи во Македонија, Етнологија

на Македонците МАНУ, Скопје 1996, 11-15.

Паликрушева, Г., Етногенеза на македонскиот народ, Етнологија на

Македонците, МАНУ, Скопје 1996, 20-22.
Паликрушева, Г., Формирање на балканските нации и одразот што го има
на етничките прилики во Дебарско, Етнолошки преглед, Београд.

Паликрушева, Г., Етносите и етничките групи во Македонија, предавање

одржано пред студентите од Ипсала, Шведска, во организација на
Универзитетот "Кирил и Методи", Скопје, објавено во нивниот Билтен.

Паликрушева, Г., Етногенеза на Мијаците, предавање на Семинарот за

македонски јазик, литература и култура во Охрид, 1969.

Паликрушева, Г., Состојбата на етнологијата и етнолошката наука во

Македонија, "Balcanica",меѓународно списание за етнологија, Софија,
1997.

Во подготовка е постхумно издание на докторската дисертација на д-р

Галаба Паликрушева: Исламизацијата на Торбешите и формирање на
торбешката субгрупа - докторска дисертација - Скопје 1965, стр. 254.

Во печат:

Паликрушева, Г., Улогата на дервишките редови во исламизацијата во

Македонија, за Зборникот на МАНУ, Содржински и методолошки
прашања во истражувањето на историјата на културата, кн. II, Скопје.

Паликрушева, Г., Ахиите и еснафските организации во Македонија за

време на Османскиот период и исламизацијата во македонските градови,
од Симпозиумот во организација на Институтот за фолклор во Анкара на
тема Ахиите во турската историја.

Паликрушева, Г., Библиографски приказ на позначајните трудови објавени

во Македонија од областа на етнологијата за периодот од 1946-1996
година за Меѓународната библиографска публикација за фолклор "Демос".

Повеќе прилози што излегуваат во "International Volkskundische

Bibliographien" во Базел.

За популаризација на етнологијата во Македонија во медиумите

Паликрушева, Г. пишувала или пак одржувала прадавања на радио и
телевизија, како на пример предавањата на телевизија: "Етногенезата на
Мијаците", "Торбешите во Македонија", "Етничкото минато и етничката
историја на Македонците" емитувана на ТВ Београд во емисијата
"Дурбин", "Исламизацијата во Македонија", серија од четири предавања
одржани на Радио Скопје.