Slavic Speakers of Greek Macedonia - History - Recent History

Recent History

Since the late 1980s there has been a Macedonian ethnic revival in much of Northern Greece, especially where Macedonian speakers have not been minoritised. In 1984 the "Movement for Human and National Rights for the Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia" was founded, and was followed by the creation of the "Central Committee for Macedonian Human Rights" in Salonika in 1989. In 1990 a manifesto by this group was presented to the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe on behalf of the ethnic Macedonians. Following this the "Macedonian Movement for Balkan Prosperity" (MAKIVE) was formed, and in 1993 this group held the first "All Macedonian Congress" in Greece. The bilingual Macedonian and Greek languages, "Ta Moglena" newspaper was first put into print in 1989, and although restricted to the Moglena region had a readership of 3,000. In 1989 the first attempts at establishing a "House of Macedonian Culture" in Florina first began. MAKIVE participated in the 1993 local elections and received 14 percent of the vote in the Florina Prefecture. According to a study by anthropologist Ricki van Boeschoten, 64% of the inhabitants of 43 villages in the Florina area were Macedonian-language speakers.

In January 1994, Rainbow (Macedonian: Виножито, Vinožito, Greek: Ουράνιο Τόξο, Ouránio Tóxo) was founded as the political party to represent the ethnic Macedonian minority. At the 1994 European Parliament election the party received 7,263 votes and polled 5.7% in the Florina district. The party opened its offices in Florina on September 6, 1995. The opening of the office faced strong hostility and that night the offices had been ransacked. In 1997 the "Zora" (Macedonian: Зора, lit. Dawn) first began to published and the following year, the Second All-Macedonian congress was held in Florina. Soon after the "Makedoniko" magazine also began to be published.

In 2001 the first Macedonian Orthodox Church in Greece was founded in the Aridaia region, which was followed in 2002 with the election of Rainbow Candidate, Petros Dimtsis, to office in the Florina prefecture. The year also saw the "Loza" (Macedonian: Лоза, lit. Vine) magazine go into print. In the following years several Macedonian-language radio stations were established, however many including "Makedonski Glas" (Macedonian: Македонски Глас, lit. Macedonian Voice), were shut down by Greek authorities. During this period ethnic Macedonians such as Kostas Novakis, began to record and distribute music in the native Macedonian dialects. Ethnic Macedonian activists reprinted the language primer Abecedar (Macedonian: Абецедар), in attempt to encourage further use of the Macedonian language. However, the lack of Macedonian-language literature has left many young ethnic Macedonian students dependent on textbooks from the Republic of Macedonia. In 2008 hundreds of ethnic Macedonians from the villages of Lofoi, Meliti, Kella and Vevi protested against the presence of the Greek military in the Florina region.

Another ethnic Macedonian organisation, the Educational and Cultural Movement of Edessa (Macedonian: Образовното и културно движење на Воден, Obrazovnoto i kulturnoto dviženje na Voden), was formed in 2009. Based in Edessa, the group focuses on promoting ethnic Macedonian culture, through the publication of books and CD's, whilst also running Macedonian-language courses and teaching the Macedonian Cyrillic alphabet. Since then Macedonian-language courses have been extended to include Florina and Salonika. Later that year Rainbow officially opened its second office in the town of Edessa.

In early 2010 several Macedonian-language newspapers were put into print for the first time. In early 2010 the Zadruga (Macedonian: Задруга, Greek: Koinothta) newspapers was first published, This was shortly followed by the publication of the "Nova Zora" newspaper in May 2010. The estimated readership of Nova Zora is 20,000, whilst that of Zadrgua is considerably smaller. The "Krste Petkov Misirkov Foundation" was established in 2009, which aims to establish a museum dedicated to ethnic Macedonians of Greece, whilst also cooperating with other Macedonian minorities in neighbouring countries. The foundations aims at cataloguing ethnic Macedonian culture in Greece along with promoting the Macedonian language.

In 2010 another group of ethnic Macedonians were elected to office, including the outspoken mayor of Meliti, Pando Ašlakov. Ethnic Macedonians have also been elected as mayors in the towns of Vevi, Pappagiannis, Neochoraki and Achlada. Later that year the first Macedonian-Greek dictionary was launched by ethnic Macedonian activists in both Brussels and Athens.