Posts
Nikola Petrov
July 5, 2011
Novinite
What do Alexander the Great, Byzantine Emperor Justinian the Great and medieval Bulgarian ruler Samuil have in common?
They are all historical figures who happened to be active at a certain point in the Balkan region of Macedonia, which includes parts of what nowadays are Bulgaria and Greece, as well as the whole eponymous country.
So, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, whose independent history as a nation started no earlier than 1944, decided to celebrate these and other great rulers raising massive monuments in their honor, a gesture that aims at "proving" they are all, in fact, Macedonian.
"The Very Ancient (Former Yugoslav) Republic of Macedonia" may look like a possible solution to the name dispute with Greece now. It does sound ridiculous, but spending tens of millions of a nation's meager state budget on building kitsch statues of foreign heroes and a triumphal arch (?) in the capital trying to substantiate your made-up history is no less ridiculous.
Of course, Macedonia is an independent country and may spend its money in any bizarre ways it feels like. But the problem is that its neighbors feel like their historical legacy is being mocked with.
Even though no independent historian would take the Macedonian provocations seriously, it is quite annoying – the way trolls in Internet forums are annoying, and even more so.
Needless to say, I do not mean to generalize about the whole Macedonian nation – there a lot of normally thinking individuals, too – and they even had oppositional media until recently.
But if the Macedonian government in particular does not change it childish attitude, the country may very well lose its EU candidate status, as Commissioner Stefan Fuele already warned. Unlike most Balkan politicians, he is not likely to be joking around.
Read also:
Macedonia Erects Alexander The Great Statue
Macedonia Erects Monument of Great Bulgarian Tsar Samuil
Sofia to Let Macedonia Enjoy Monument of Great Bulgarian Tsar Samuil
Macedonia Encouraged to Build Monuments of 6 More Medieval Bulgarian Tsars
The reality is that Bulgarian, Serbian, Greek and Macedonian interpretations of history differ, and that is something that everyone in Balkans needs to accept. You can shower it with ridicule, but it only makes you the troll. Macedonians are sick and tired of foreigners telling them who they are, and what to do. The region can move forward or it can stagnate, but that will be the decision of EU member states like Bulgaria, depending on how childish they want to be, in ordering others to follow their contrived and conflicting dogmas about history.
ReplyDeleteOf course Alexander the Great wasn't "Macedonian" as we understand that term today, but he was Macedonian nonetheless - what's wrong with his statue being erected in Skopje? Likewise statues of Bulgarian or East Roman emperors who lived in or were from the region of Macedonia?
ReplyDeleteThe insecurities of all parties to this issue are both quite apparent and rather sad. That Macedonia has to fabricate an understanding of historical figures like Alexander the Great as Macedonian Slavs is ridiculous, but the hysteria in Greece over the very ethnically and politically mixed history of their portion of historic Macedonia is also sad. God grant the Balkans some calm and sanity for a change...