The Macedonian Question 1893 1908 From Western Sources

This text provides a analysis of the events which took place in Macedonia between 1893 and 1908 as reported by diplomatic and military representatives of the Great Powers. It focuses on the activities of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, illustrating its roles as an independent organization with its own ideas, goals and methods. The author conducts a review of the aims and policies of the Great Powers towards Macedonia, with France, Russia, Austria, Britain and Italy each establishing their own spheres of influence. She also provides an interpretation of the reasons for the failure of diplomacy and foreign intervention to solve the complex and still pertinent Macedonian question.

In this study of Macedonian Slavs in the Greek Civil War, the author examines how their participation in the conflict, and the attempts by other groups to manipulate them, gave rise to modern issues that continue to affect politics in the region today. The Macedonian Question has confounded academics, politicians and the people of the Balkans since the nineteenth century. While the countries have resolved the territorial component of the Macedonian Question, the critical and confusing question surrounding the ethnic and linguistic identity of the people of the region continues to be the source of international debate. Part of the reason for this confusion is because the history of the Macedonian Question is shrouded in nationalist polemics. The role of the Macedonian Slavs involvement in the Greek Civil War is particularly contentious and embedded in nationalist polemics, which has impacted academic inquiry. This book argues that the preponderance of Macedonian Slavs within the communist forces during the Greek Civil War influenced the actions of all the major actors involved, and is a significant factor in shaping the modern Macedonian national identity.

This book is a comprehensive and dispassionate analysis of the intriguing Macedonian Question from 1878 until 1949 and of the Macedonians (and of their neighbours) from the 1890s until today, with the two themes intertwining. The Macedonian Question was an offshoot of the wider Eastern Question – i.e., the fate of the European remnants of the Ottoman Empire once it dissolved. The initial protagonists of the Macedonian Question were Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia, and a Slav-speaking population inhabiting geographical Macedonia in search of its destiny, the largest segment of which ended up creating a new nation, comprising the Macedonians, something unacceptable to its three neighbours. Alexis Heraclides analyses the shifting sands of the Macedonian Question and of the gradual rise of Macedonian nationhood, with special emphasis on the Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian claims to Macedonia (1870s–1919); the birth and vicissitudes of the most famous Macedonian revolutionary organization, the VM(O)RO, and of other organizations (1893–1940); the appearance and gradual establishment of the Macedonian nation from the 1890s until 1945; Titos’s crucial role in Macedonian nationhood-cum-federal status; the Greek-Macedonian name dispute (1991–2018), including the ‘skeletons in the cupboard’ – the deep-seated reasons rendering the clash intractable for decades; the final Greek-Macedonian settlement (the 2018 Prespa Agreement); the Bulgarian-Macedonian dispute (1950–today) and its ephemeral settlement in 2017; the issue of the Macedonian language; and the Macedonian national historical narrative. The author also addresses questions around who the ancient Macedonians were and the fascination with Alexander the Great. This monograph will be an essential resource for scholars working on Macedonian history, Balkan politics and conflict resolution.

The Macedonian Question-the struggle over a territory with historically ill-defined borders and conflicting national identities-is one of the most intractable issues in Balkan history. Dimitris Livanios explores the British dimension to the problem, from the outbreak of the Second World War to the aftermath of the Tito-Stalin split.

During the tumultuous age of empire, Ottoman Macedonia became a blank canvas onto which Great Powers and neighboring states projected their aspirations, grievances, ambitions, and state-building endeavors. This manuscript aims to elucidate these constructs and imaginaries, employing a theoretical framework encompassing entangled history, post-colonial theory, and subaltern studies. It will examine both (inter)state and local examples to shed light on the multifaceted nature of this complex issue.

Paramilitarism in the Balkans analyses the origins and manifestations of paramilitary violence in three neighbouring Balkan countries - Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Albania - after the First World War. It shows the role of paramilitarism in internal and external policies in all three states, focusing on the main actors and perpetrators of paramilitary violence, their social backgrounds, motivations, and future career trajectories. Dmitar Tasić places the region into the broader European context of booming paramilitarism that came as the result of the first global conflict, dissolution of old empires, the creation of nation-states, and simultaneous revolutions. While paramilitarism in most post-Great War European states was the product of violence of the First World War and brutalization which societies of both victorious and defeated countries went through, paramilitarism in the Balkans was closely connected with the already existing traditions originating from the period of armed struggle against Ottoman rule, and state and nation building projects of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Paramilitary traditions were so strong that in all subsequent crises and military conflicts in the Balkans the legacy of paramilitarism remained alive and present.

Examines the origins of political violence in the Balkans since the 19th century, while treating the region as an integral part of modern European history, reminding us that political violence and ethnic cleansing are hardly unique to this region.

The dilemma of how best to protect human rights is one of the most persistent problems facing the international community today. This unique and wide-ranging history of humanitarian intervention examines responses to oppression, persecution and mass atrocities from the emergence of the international state system and international law in the late sixteenth century, to the end of the twentieth century. Leading scholars show how opposition to tyranny and to religious persecution evolved from notions of the common interests of 'Christendom' to ultimately incorporate all people under the concept of 'human rights'. As well as examining specific episodes of intervention, the authors consider how these have been perceived and justified over time, and offer important new insights into ideas of national sovereignty, international relations and law, as well as political thought and the development of current theories of 'international community'.