Published in 1917 by "Pochon-Jent Buhler", Berne
Learned travelers in their books, statesmen in their speeches, and the Great Powers in the Constantinople Conference and in the Berlin Congress speak of Bulgarians, Greeks, Kutzo-Wallachs, Turks, Albanians, and Jews in Macedonia, but not once do they ever mention Serbians. In their books and map travelers dwell on the fact that the Bulgarians compose the majority of the population in Macedonia and surpass numerically all the other ethical elements taken together. But along with these authoritative and overwhelming witnesses in favor of the ethical feature of Macedonia, there is another concrete and lively witness — that of the Slavic population itself inhabiting Macedonia. The Slavic people themselves show what they are.
They know they are and call themselves Bulgarians, as so many learned travelers testify, and that before the Bulgarian exarchate was constituted, and before the formation of the Bulgarian Principality and even before the opening of any Bulgarian school during the last century.
The so called Slavs of Macedonia have always called themselves Bulgarians.
So also the Sublime Porte in its official documents always calls the Slavs of Macedonia Bulgarians. Their own neighbors — Turks, Albanians, Wallachs and Jews-remember them, know them to be and call them Bulgarians. Of the 46 districts of Macedonia, the Bulgarians inhabit 36, out of 53 towns they inhabit 36 and 2239 villages out of 2704).
Had Wendel known the history of the regeneration of the Balkan peoples, had he compared the conditions in which the awakening of each people began, had he known the hard fight it cost the Bulgarians and the martyrs they gave for the right to have their own schools and receive
Bulgarian education in Macedonia, he would have spoken with respect and reverence of the national revival of the Bulgarians in Macedonia, and of all they have accomplished for their education under constant persecutions, imprisonments, banishment, and even the gallows.
It is a fact that the first man who raised his voice in favor of the national Bulgarian sentiment and the popular awakening was Paissee, a monk of the monastery of Hilendar, of Mount Athos. This monastery is claimed by the Serbians. In 1762, this pious monk in his famous history describing with great enthusiasm the ancient Bulgarian Kingdom, the Bulgarian Tzars, and the glorious past of Bulgaria, appeals to his countrymen to rouse from their deep slumber and show other people that they too love their country and their mother tongue. He hurls fiery philippics against the Greeks who had enslaved the Bulgarians spiritually, robbing them on the pretext of ministering to their religious wants. He does not spare the Russians and Serbians who taunted the Bulgarians for their rudeness and illiteracy. His example was followed in the beginning of the last century in Thrace and North Bulgaria by the Bulgarian priest Stoyco Radoslavoff, subsequently Bishop Sophrony of Vratza, and in Macedonia by Joachim Kirchovsky of Kitchevo, and by Kyril Peychinovitch of Teartsi, district of Tetovo. These were the first Apostles of Bulgarian enlightement and education, the first who taught children to read Bulgarian and Church Slavic books.
It has often been asserted that Macedonia assumed its Bulgarian features in 1870. No greater untruth has ever been uttered. Against this assertion and this untruth rise up a host of Bulgarian public men in Macedonia, a great number of Bulgarian teachers, who many years before the creation of the Bulgarian Exarchate took the trouble to go from Macedonia in Thrace and North Bulgaria in order to rouse the national sentiment and promote the cause of education. Such were the first teachers of Bulgaria; the Bulgarians from Macedonia, the monk Paissee, Neophitus of Rila from the Razlog region of Macedonia, the first teacher in the Gabrovo school, and the first to introduce in North Bulgaria the Ben-Lancaster method; the Macedonian Bulgarians Christaky
Pavlovitch and Vaskidovitch, teachers in Svishtov, Pleven, and in other towns. Such Macedonian Bulgarians were the most active public men and teachers in Macedonia itself. Some of them were physicians, university men, authors, folklorists, clergymen.
How is it, all these educated men did not call themselves Greeke or Serbians, but cast their lot with their people and called themselves Bulgarians? Had they really been Greeks or Serbians, they certainly would have borne the name of their respective peoples, for it was highly creditable to bear the name of a cultured and free people, such as the Greeks were then, or of a free people, such as the Serbians were, than to pass as a son of a mass of a downtrodden, debased, despised, and enslaved people, such as the Bulgarians were then. What made these men call themselves Bulgarians and bear the cross of persecution and suffering to which the Bulgarians were exposed
and to which the Miladinoff brothers succumbed? What made Purlitcheff of Ochrida, the Miladinoff brothers and scores of their colleagues call themselves Bulgarians and expose themselves to a life of hardship and suffering?
About the Bulgarian Exarchate
The Bulgarian Exarchate was the official name of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church before its autocephaly was recognized by the Ecumenical See in 1945 and the Bulgarian Patriarchate was restored in 1953.
The foundation of the Exarchate was the direct result of the struggle of the Bulgarian Orthodox against the domination of the Greek Patriarchate of Constantinople in the 1850s and 1860s; the secession from the Patriarchate was officially condemned by the Council in Constantinople in September 1872 as schismatic.
The immediate effect of the partition of Ottoman empire during the Balkan Wars was the anti-Bulgarian campaign in areas under Serbian and Greek rule. The Serbians expelled Exarchist churchmen and teachers and closed Bulgarian schools and churches (affecting the standing of as many as 641 schools and 761 churches). Thousands of Bulgarian refugees left for Bulgaria, joining a still larger stream from devastated Aegean Macedonia, where the Greeks burned Kukush, the center of Bulgarian politics and culture. Bulgarian language (including the Macedonian dialects) was prohibited, and its surreptitious use, whenever detected, was ridiculed or punished. The Ottomans managed to keep the Adrianople region, where the whole Thracian Bulgarian population was put to total ethnic cleansing by the Young Turks' army.
They know they are and call themselves Bulgarians, as so many learned travelers testify, and that before the Bulgarian exarchate was constituted, and before the formation of the Bulgarian Principality and even before the opening of any Bulgarian school during the last century.
The so called Slavs of Macedonia have always called themselves Bulgarians.
So also the Sublime Porte in its official documents always calls the Slavs of Macedonia Bulgarians. Their own neighbors — Turks, Albanians, Wallachs and Jews-remember them, know them to be and call them Bulgarians. Of the 46 districts of Macedonia, the Bulgarians inhabit 36, out of 53 towns they inhabit 36 and 2239 villages out of 2704).
Had Wendel known the history of the regeneration of the Balkan peoples, had he compared the conditions in which the awakening of each people began, had he known the hard fight it cost the Bulgarians and the martyrs they gave for the right to have their own schools and receive
Bulgarian education in Macedonia, he would have spoken with respect and reverence of the national revival of the Bulgarians in Macedonia, and of all they have accomplished for their education under constant persecutions, imprisonments, banishment, and even the gallows.
It is a fact that the first man who raised his voice in favor of the national Bulgarian sentiment and the popular awakening was Paissee, a monk of the monastery of Hilendar, of Mount Athos. This monastery is claimed by the Serbians. In 1762, this pious monk in his famous history describing with great enthusiasm the ancient Bulgarian Kingdom, the Bulgarian Tzars, and the glorious past of Bulgaria, appeals to his countrymen to rouse from their deep slumber and show other people that they too love their country and their mother tongue. He hurls fiery philippics against the Greeks who had enslaved the Bulgarians spiritually, robbing them on the pretext of ministering to their religious wants. He does not spare the Russians and Serbians who taunted the Bulgarians for their rudeness and illiteracy. His example was followed in the beginning of the last century in Thrace and North Bulgaria by the Bulgarian priest Stoyco Radoslavoff, subsequently Bishop Sophrony of Vratza, and in Macedonia by Joachim Kirchovsky of Kitchevo, and by Kyril Peychinovitch of Teartsi, district of Tetovo. These were the first Apostles of Bulgarian enlightement and education, the first who taught children to read Bulgarian and Church Slavic books.
It has often been asserted that Macedonia assumed its Bulgarian features in 1870. No greater untruth has ever been uttered. Against this assertion and this untruth rise up a host of Bulgarian public men in Macedonia, a great number of Bulgarian teachers, who many years before the creation of the Bulgarian Exarchate took the trouble to go from Macedonia in Thrace and North Bulgaria in order to rouse the national sentiment and promote the cause of education. Such were the first teachers of Bulgaria; the Bulgarians from Macedonia, the monk Paissee, Neophitus of Rila from the Razlog region of Macedonia, the first teacher in the Gabrovo school, and the first to introduce in North Bulgaria the Ben-Lancaster method; the Macedonian Bulgarians Christaky
Pavlovitch and Vaskidovitch, teachers in Svishtov, Pleven, and in other towns. Such Macedonian Bulgarians were the most active public men and teachers in Macedonia itself. Some of them were physicians, university men, authors, folklorists, clergymen.
How is it, all these educated men did not call themselves Greeke or Serbians, but cast their lot with their people and called themselves Bulgarians? Had they really been Greeks or Serbians, they certainly would have borne the name of their respective peoples, for it was highly creditable to bear the name of a cultured and free people, such as the Greeks were then, or of a free people, such as the Serbians were, than to pass as a son of a mass of a downtrodden, debased, despised, and enslaved people, such as the Bulgarians were then. What made these men call themselves Bulgarians and bear the cross of persecution and suffering to which the Bulgarians were exposed
and to which the Miladinoff brothers succumbed? What made Purlitcheff of Ochrida, the Miladinoff brothers and scores of their colleagues call themselves Bulgarians and expose themselves to a life of hardship and suffering?
About the Bulgarian Exarchate
The Bulgarian Exarchate was the official name of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church before its autocephaly was recognized by the Ecumenical See in 1945 and the Bulgarian Patriarchate was restored in 1953.
The foundation of the Exarchate was the direct result of the struggle of the Bulgarian Orthodox against the domination of the Greek Patriarchate of Constantinople in the 1850s and 1860s; the secession from the Patriarchate was officially condemned by the Council in Constantinople in September 1872 as schismatic.
Bulgarian School in Krushevo, Macedonia (1910)
The immediate effect of the partition of Ottoman empire during the Balkan Wars was the anti-Bulgarian campaign in areas under Serbian and Greek rule. The Serbians expelled Exarchist churchmen and teachers and closed Bulgarian schools and churches (affecting the standing of as many as 641 schools and 761 churches). Thousands of Bulgarian refugees left for Bulgaria, joining a still larger stream from devastated Aegean Macedonia, where the Greeks burned Kukush, the center of Bulgarian politics and culture. Bulgarian language (including the Macedonian dialects) was prohibited, and its surreptitious use, whenever detected, was ridiculed or punished. The Ottomans managed to keep the Adrianople region, where the whole Thracian Bulgarian population was put to total ethnic cleansing by the Young Turks' army.
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