A few facts about Yugoslavia and its Macedonians

Yesterday's burlesque statement by Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, about how Yugoslavia "separated and held far Bulgarians and Macedonians", should be seen as a collage of several bizarre and intertwined political trends typical of post-Yugoslav politicians, which are most often characterized by the loss of statesmanship and diplomatic self-respect, but also by the inappropriate promotion of historical revisionism.

"Yugoslavia is dead!" is the cry that echoes in chorus from the mouths of all our ethno-nationalists and state-makers in the last few decades. On the other hand, the Slovenian ethnologist Božidar Jezernik vividly reminds us of the Latin saying: De mortuis nil nisi bonum (All the best about the dead...), and asks the question: "If Yugoslavia is really dead, why does it bother many people so much today?" Um.

The Macedonian Prime Minister, however, does not dispute the annexation of Vardar Macedonia, carried out by the then Kingdom of Bulgaria (and under the patronage of Nazi Germany), which was not just "some administration (...) at the beginning", but a classic usurpation and occupation of the territory of a neighboring country , which lasted until September 1944.

Zaev, of course, is the disputed Yugoslavia (!) whose Anti-Fascist National Liberation Council in November 1943 concluded that the Macedonians independent and sovereign people, and Macedonia equal republic within the new Yugoslavia.

The same Yugoslavia, after the end of the Second World War, conditions normalization of relations with Bulgaria: 1) recognition of Macedonian national distinctiveness by the Republic of Bulgaria; 2) by transferring the remains of Goca Delčeva from Sofia to Skopje, whose ceremonial transfer took place in October 1946. [Fun Fact: Delčev is one of the most important figures in the history of North Macedonia, who is (even) mentioned in the text of the Macedonian national anthem.] Bulgaria eventually recognized the existence of the Macedonian nation and made it possible to learn the Macedonian language in Pirin Macedonia (southwest Bulgaria), so in the same year, in the population census there, over 150 thousand people declared themselves as national Macedonians.

In the summer of 1947, several bilateral agreements (known in historiography as Bled agreements), within which the formation of a customs union between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria is foreseen. On that occasion, Yugoslavia officially declared that it waived the 25 million dollars, which Bulgaria was obliged to pay to it on account of war reparations. Yugoslavia, however, demanded that Macedonians in Bulgaria be provided with the right to national, economic and cultural autonomy, with the ultimate goal of Pirin Macedonia joining the new Macedonian republic in the future.

However, after the escalation of the diplomatic conflict between Yugoslavia and the USSR and the publication of the Informburo Resolution (1948), official Bulgaria rejected the concept of Macedonian cultural autonomy and banned the use of the Macedonian language in schools in Pirin Macedonia. From that time, the process of denying and underestimating the Macedonian national distinctiveness began, so that already in 1958, the Bulgarian Communist Party took the official position that the Macedonian people and the Macedonian language - do not exist.

Meanwhile, within Yugoslavia, the Socialist Republic of Macedonia established the organs of modern state power for the first time in history. The Macedonian National Theater was founded (1945), then the universities in Skopje (1949) and Bitola (1979), the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts was formed (1967), and the Macedonian people received the constitutional right to self-determination in the 1974 Constitution of the SFRY, which will ultimately be used in September 1991, after which (Northern) Macedonia will become an independent state.

Turns out they are Macedonians they could only be Macedonians... and that Macedonia (without any adjectives and prerogatives) could truly be Macedonia...only in the lap of the dead one (?) and poor queen. That is why it is necessary, in the end, to paraphrase the title of this column: these were actually just a few facts about the Macedonians and their Yugoslavia.