Post by Bozur on Jun 8, 2017 10:53:36 GMT -5
25 May 17
Putin's Homage to Cyrillic Makes Bulgarians See Red
Vladimir Putin’s claim, made at a meeting with the Macedonian President, that the Slavic alphabet came to Russia from Macedonia, has not gone down well in Bulgaria.
Mariya Cheresheva
BIRN
Sofia
Ivanov meets Putin in Kremlin on May 24. Photo: kremlin.ru
А number of Bulgarian ministers and diplomats have condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for telling his Macedonian colleague George Ivanov on May 24 – the Day of Slavic Literacy – that the Cyrillic script came from Macedonia.
“The Slavic alphabet and literature came to us from Macedonian soil”, Putin told Ivanov during the Macedonian President’s visit to Moscow.
In response, Ivanov paid a tribute to the Slavic educators and saints, the brothers Cyril and Methodius, founders of the Glagolitic alphabet, which served as a basis for Cyrillic, who are “our spiritual teachers”.
Bulgaria, which also celebrated the Day of Bulgarian Education, Culture and the Slavonic Alphabet on Tuesday, disagreed with this reading of history.
“The creation of literacy happened due to the will, and participation, of the Bulgarian state and it is hardly a coincidence that the Bulgarian ruler Boris I is present in all ancient Bulgarian books as Boris-Mihail – the Baptizer, who introduced the faith and literacy,” Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterinaa Zahaieva wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.
“This is not only our holiday, and the Cyrillic script is shared. But it has to be known that we remember our history and we are proud of it,” Zaharieva added.
Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, Krasimir Karakachanov – a nationalist and the author of several books on Macedonia, a land which Bulgarians nationalists have long laid claim to, also accused Putin of misinterpeting history.
“I am surprised that the President of the largest Slavic country is not familiar with the history of the Slavic nations. Russia, which talks about Slavonity, and about Orthodoxy, does not know history,” Karakachanov told NOVA TV on Thursday.
Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov was milder in his reaction, merely telling reporters on Wednesday that arguing about the distant past to establish “who came from where to bring the alphabet” was is not a “European approach”.
“The European way is to say that thanks to Holy brothers Cyril and Methodius … that nearly 300 million [people] read and write [Cyrillic] and enrich European culture,” Borissov said.
Ilian Vassilev, a former Bulgarian ambassador to Moscow, accused Putin of “playing with Serbia and Macedonia” in order to increase pressure on Sofia.
“When Putin talks about history in this way, this means current politics which lays on the Russian imperial traditions,” he wrote for Bulgaria Analytica.
Bulgaria’s ex-ambassador to Macedonia also expressed anger on Facebook, calling Putin’s statement “a provocation against Bulgaria”.
The Cyrillic script, which dates from the 9th century AD, is used across parts of Eastern Europe and North and Central Asia. It is generally, or very widely, used in Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, the Serb entity in Bosnia, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus - as well as by the large Russian diaspora in other former Soviet republics.
Bulgaria developed early Cyrillic on the basis of Cyril and Methodius’s Glagolitic alphabet during the first Bulgarian state in the 9th century AD, shortly after the population was baptized under Boris I.
www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/kremlin-s-stance-on-cyrillic-origin-angers-sofia-05-25-2017
Comments:
Anton Girginov • 11 days ago
At the time of Cyril and Methodius who created
the Glagolitic alphabet and their disciples (Clement, Naum who created the
Cyrillic alphabet in Bulgaria on the order of its Tsar, Boris I), the word
Macedonia did not designate anything in South-West Bulgaria (as a region around
the town of Ohrid, in particular). At that time, there was a piece of land (a
Byzantium thema/district) under the name Macedonia but it was around (mainly to
the south of) the town of Adrianopolis. This is modern-day Odrin (Edrine in
Turkish). Today, it is in Turkey. Hence, if a Russian, e.g. Putin, says that
the Cyrillic alphabet has come to Russia from Macedonian soil, envisaging the
countries which exist now, this may as well mean that the Turks gave this alphabet
to the Russians.
hankz • 12 days ago
They are both wrong.. The Greek brothers "Cyril and Methodius" traveled from The Greek Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire to the slavic nations in the north, not only
did they teach them Christianity but also invented the Cyrillic alphabet to make it easier for the slavs to understand and convert to Greek Orthodoxy!
Damon • 13 days ago
And before someone starts to talk about Ohrid (which was Bulgarian at that point anyway), the Cyrillic script was invented in Preslav. The west part of Bulgaria ( Vardar region and Ohrid specifically) kept using the Glagolitic for some time, being slow to go over to the Cyrillic.
And before someone starts to talk about Ohrid (which was Bulgarian at that point anyway), the Cyrillic script was invented in Preslav. The west part of Bulgaria ( Vardar region and Ohrid specifically) kept using the Glagolitic for some time, being slow to go over to the Cyrillic.
perdika2 Damon • 13 days ago
I don't normally engage in debates of this type, but I could not resist to this one. So you are actually proud that Macedonia was occupied by Bulgaria at that period? Then you must also accept the Ottoman occupation of Bulgaria and the region and accept that they can claim that anything that Bulgarians have done and accomplished during that time it is actually not Bulgarian but Turkish? Do you really think that way? The history of the region (and the world) is shared between the nations and that should not be an obstacle but a ground for people in the region to come together, not a reason for division.
I don't normally engage in debates of this type, but I could not resist to this one. So you are actually proud that Macedonia was occupied by Bulgaria at that period? Then you must also accept the Ottoman occupation of Bulgaria and the region and accept that they can claim that anything that Bulgarians have done and accomplished during that time it is actually not Bulgarian but Turkish? Do you really think that way? The history of the region (and the world) is shared between the nations and that should not be an obstacle but a ground for people in the region to come together, not a reason for division.
Damon perdika2 • 12 days ago
That is nowhere near what I said, but sure. Find me one source of the Slavic inhabitants of the Bulgarian empire calling themselves "Macedonian" in any ethnic sense.
The point stands that Cyrillic is a script produced in the east of the Bulgarian empire, under commission of the Bulgarian tsar, by Bulgarian scholars for the use of mainly the Bulgarian people (to keep from being influenced by Greek monks and Greek language in church).
That is nowhere near what I said, but sure. Find me one source of the Slavic inhabitants of the Bulgarian empire calling themselves "Macedonian" in any ethnic sense.
The point stands that Cyrillic is a script produced in the east of the Bulgarian empire, under commission of the Bulgarian tsar, by Bulgarian scholars for the use of mainly the Bulgarian people (to keep from being influenced by Greek monks and Greek language in church).
kostas • 14 days ago
There is only one macedonia and its greek.cyrilos and methodios were Greeks from north Greece ( macedonia) tranks them is russia Christian and they have them the greek alphabet.... Hellas is everywhere and for ever.
Tedi kostas • 12 days ago
Oh here we go Kostas. Tell me, if Macedonia is Greek then why didn't King Otto tell you that you were Macedonian? Find me just one movie where you claim that you are Macedonian prior to 1988? Also, let me remind you for the umpteenth time that New York Times archives have newspapers dating back as far as 1903 differentiating the Macedonians from the Greeks. I have shown you and to this day you still deny it. Grow up
Oh here we go Kostas. Tell me, if Macedonia is Greek then why didn't King Otto tell you that you were Macedonian? Find me just one movie where you claim that you are Macedonian prior to 1988? Also, let me remind you for the umpteenth time that New York Times archives have newspapers dating back as far as 1903 differentiating the Macedonians from the Greeks. I have shown you and to this day you still deny it. Grow up
Damon Tedi • 10 days ago
So you guys still go on about that "prior to 1988" scam? I mean it is not hard to find books or newspapers from Greece either called Macedonia-something or that are mentioning Macedonia, from liberation to today.. It is not hard neither to look up that Macedonia was the official name in use in Greece. From wiki:
"The traditional geographic regions of Greece (Greek: γεωγραφικά διαμερίσματα, literally "geographic departments") are the country's main historical-geographic regions, and were also the official administrative subdivisions (or regions) of Greece until the 1987 administrative reform."
It is quite embarassing that you keep going on about it...
So you guys still go on about that "prior to 1988" scam? I mean it is not hard to find books or newspapers from Greece either called Macedonia-something or that are mentioning Macedonia, from liberation to today.. It is not hard neither to look up that Macedonia was the official name in use in Greece. From wiki:
"The traditional geographic regions of Greece (Greek: γεωγραφικά διαμερίσματα, literally "geographic departments") are the country's main historical-geographic regions, and were also the official administrative subdivisions (or regions) of Greece until the 1987 administrative reform."
It is quite embarassing that you keep going on about it...
30 May 17
Far Right in Bulgaria is no Laughing Matter
Tom Junes
The Bulgarian far right’s kitschy stunts often draw mocking laughter – but their ascent into government is not a joke.
Photo: Stephen Mackenzie/Flickr
Last week Russian president Vladimir Putin provoked a rare display of unity among Bulgaria's political class and beyond. All it took was for Putin to mention that the Cyrillic alphabet had come to Russia “from the Macedonian lands” in the presence of Macedonia’s President, Gjorge Ivanov.
From Bulgaria's opposition socialists, often accused of fawning on Russia, who expressed surprise at Putin's remarks to the ruling nationalists and far-right leaders, resorting to offering the Russian leader some one-line history lessons.
The consternation clearly demanded an official reaction, prompting Prime Minister Boyko Borisov to respond that it was “un-European” to argue about history.
For years, I had been moving back and forth from Central Europe to the Balkans. Ultimately, I took up residence in Bulgaria.
As a professional historian, I had become well acquainted with the strands of nationalist-inspired populism and memory politics that have appeared in countries like Poland. In this sense, the over-emotional reaction to Putin's “alphabet gaffe” resonated with some familiarity.
Arguably, Putin had made a nuanced statement. He did not refer to the current Macedonian state but used the term “Macedonian lands” in order not to offend Bulgarians, Macedonians or Greeks. His assertion could be seen as in line with the historical narrative of Bulgarian Tsar Boris I commissioning St. Clement of Ohrid to popularise the Slavonic language.
This, of course, was lost on Bulgaria's politicians who were keen to score some cheap points by creating a little media spectacle.
Yet, while such kitschy displays of patriotism based on a shallow understanding of history by Bulgaria’s political elite could provoke laughter, other issues relating to history do not.
Nationalist myths, like ones about which modern “nation” can claim copyright to the Cyrillic alphabet, not only distort history but often serve to bolster worrisome political developments such as the ascendancy of the far right.
Since Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States, fears of right-wing populists and of the far right breaking through in Europe rose to alarm levels.
However, only in one country did the far right actually manage to enter government. Yes, in Bulgaria. The United Patriots, a coalition of Valeri Simeonov’s National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria, NFSB, Krasimir Karakachanov's Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation, VMRO, and Volen Siderov's ATAKA now hold significant ministerial posts - responsible for defence, the economy, and the environment.
The alphabet soup of far-right parties that make up the United Patriots likes to indulge in nationalist kitsch. A few years ago, TV Alfa, which is linked to ATAKA, ran weather reports for “Bulgaria on three seas” based on a map of the First Bulgarian Empire.
When the NFSB and VMRO threw their lots in together, it was announced at a press conference with the party leaders flanked by a number of men wearing tacky costumes of “heroes of Bulgaria's past”.
Before the elections in March, the now United Patriots initiated a border blockade to prevent voters coming in from Turkey. In order to stop such “foreign interference”, they employed bagpipers in traditional dress and “kukeri” to chase away evil spirits.
Such antics can be ridiculed as a fringe freak show, but Bulgaria's far right is no laughing matter. Their leaders are notorious for their abusive racist comments and hate speech. Simeonov, who holds the vice-premiership in government, stated in parliament that Roma were “ferocious humanoids” whose children “play with pigs in the street” and whose women “have the instincts of street dogs”.
Another “Patriot” leader, Siderov, known for committing violent acts of hooliganism and even assaulting a French cultural attaché, has in the past denied the Holocaust, called for raids on Roma “ghettos”, and has spun anti-Muslim rhetoric to incite religious violence in front of Sofia's only mosque.
This has contributed to a climate in which hate crimes, targetting members of national minorities like Roma and foreigners alike, has become rampant.
Anti-refugee sentiments are whipped up regularly; vigilante groups patrolling the border even made for rare Bulgaria-featured international news. The sad plight of refugees in Bulgaria has been documented by Human Rights groups, but Bulgarian journalists who write positively about the refugee cause have been harassed.
Anti-Turkish or anti-Muslim frenzies arise when convenient for political expediency, as all parties now dabble in populist hyperbole. The authorities have neglected to act decisively against the xenophobic climate, thereby enabling and normalising the far right.
Last autumn, the chairman of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Krasimir Kanev, was beaten up in daylight in front of the parliament, an attack he attributed to rising nationalist political rhetoric.
The far right, in its various incarnations, has faired quite well electorally. As a result, for years every Bulgarian government had to rely on the support of the far right in parliament to govern. But now the far right has become the junior governing partner.
Already, some of the “Patriots” in government have caused controversy when photos emerged of them giving Nazi salutes.
While Borissov tried his teflon hand at crisis management, demanding their resignation, he saw the problem as rather that the photos had been made public than what they represented.
Simeonov allegedly dismissed the affair by joking how he made funny pictures in the former Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald. Shortly after, as if to add to bad taste, Simeonov was appointed to head the country's National Council for Cooperation on Ethnic and Integration Issues.
None of this is a joke or a matter of bad taste.
Bulgaria clings to a myth that it saved its Jews during the Second World War. This myth conveniently ignores its complicity in the near-total extermination of Jews in Bulgarian-occupied Macedonia and Thrace, a result of the country’s alliance with Nazi Germany.
Walking around in my neighbourhood in Sofia, while navigating potholes and broken-up sidewalks, one can see scores of Celtic crosses and swastikas sprayed on the walls of building after building.
The prominence of Nazi and far right symbols adorning the city is ignored. Perhaps one can blame ignorance and a lack of historical knowledge.
But then, again in my neighbourhood, on Lincoln Boulevard, one “patriotic” graffiti boasts: “We remember Neuilly!”, referring to the punishing post-war peace treaty Bulgaria had to sign in 1919. Seriously? Neuilly?
Perhaps there are other things in history that should be remembered. Or will it take Putin one day to remind the Bulgarian political class of them?
www.balkaninsight.com/en/blog/far-right-in-bulgaria-is-no-laughing-matter-05-30-2017
Far Right in Bulgaria is no Laughing Matter
Tom Junes
The Bulgarian far right’s kitschy stunts often draw mocking laughter – but their ascent into government is not a joke.
Photo: Stephen Mackenzie/Flickr
Last week Russian president Vladimir Putin provoked a rare display of unity among Bulgaria's political class and beyond. All it took was for Putin to mention that the Cyrillic alphabet had come to Russia “from the Macedonian lands” in the presence of Macedonia’s President, Gjorge Ivanov.
From Bulgaria's opposition socialists, often accused of fawning on Russia, who expressed surprise at Putin's remarks to the ruling nationalists and far-right leaders, resorting to offering the Russian leader some one-line history lessons.
The consternation clearly demanded an official reaction, prompting Prime Minister Boyko Borisov to respond that it was “un-European” to argue about history.
For years, I had been moving back and forth from Central Europe to the Balkans. Ultimately, I took up residence in Bulgaria.
As a professional historian, I had become well acquainted with the strands of nationalist-inspired populism and memory politics that have appeared in countries like Poland. In this sense, the over-emotional reaction to Putin's “alphabet gaffe” resonated with some familiarity.
Arguably, Putin had made a nuanced statement. He did not refer to the current Macedonian state but used the term “Macedonian lands” in order not to offend Bulgarians, Macedonians or Greeks. His assertion could be seen as in line with the historical narrative of Bulgarian Tsar Boris I commissioning St. Clement of Ohrid to popularise the Slavonic language.
This, of course, was lost on Bulgaria's politicians who were keen to score some cheap points by creating a little media spectacle.
Yet, while such kitschy displays of patriotism based on a shallow understanding of history by Bulgaria’s political elite could provoke laughter, other issues relating to history do not.
Nationalist myths, like ones about which modern “nation” can claim copyright to the Cyrillic alphabet, not only distort history but often serve to bolster worrisome political developments such as the ascendancy of the far right.
Since Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States, fears of right-wing populists and of the far right breaking through in Europe rose to alarm levels.
However, only in one country did the far right actually manage to enter government. Yes, in Bulgaria. The United Patriots, a coalition of Valeri Simeonov’s National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria, NFSB, Krasimir Karakachanov's Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation, VMRO, and Volen Siderov's ATAKA now hold significant ministerial posts - responsible for defence, the economy, and the environment.
The alphabet soup of far-right parties that make up the United Patriots likes to indulge in nationalist kitsch. A few years ago, TV Alfa, which is linked to ATAKA, ran weather reports for “Bulgaria on three seas” based on a map of the First Bulgarian Empire.
When the NFSB and VMRO threw their lots in together, it was announced at a press conference with the party leaders flanked by a number of men wearing tacky costumes of “heroes of Bulgaria's past”.
Before the elections in March, the now United Patriots initiated a border blockade to prevent voters coming in from Turkey. In order to stop such “foreign interference”, they employed bagpipers in traditional dress and “kukeri” to chase away evil spirits.
Such antics can be ridiculed as a fringe freak show, but Bulgaria's far right is no laughing matter. Their leaders are notorious for their abusive racist comments and hate speech. Simeonov, who holds the vice-premiership in government, stated in parliament that Roma were “ferocious humanoids” whose children “play with pigs in the street” and whose women “have the instincts of street dogs”.
Another “Patriot” leader, Siderov, known for committing violent acts of hooliganism and even assaulting a French cultural attaché, has in the past denied the Holocaust, called for raids on Roma “ghettos”, and has spun anti-Muslim rhetoric to incite religious violence in front of Sofia's only mosque.
This has contributed to a climate in which hate crimes, targetting members of national minorities like Roma and foreigners alike, has become rampant.
Anti-refugee sentiments are whipped up regularly; vigilante groups patrolling the border even made for rare Bulgaria-featured international news. The sad plight of refugees in Bulgaria has been documented by Human Rights groups, but Bulgarian journalists who write positively about the refugee cause have been harassed.
Anti-Turkish or anti-Muslim frenzies arise when convenient for political expediency, as all parties now dabble in populist hyperbole. The authorities have neglected to act decisively against the xenophobic climate, thereby enabling and normalising the far right.
Last autumn, the chairman of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Krasimir Kanev, was beaten up in daylight in front of the parliament, an attack he attributed to rising nationalist political rhetoric.
The far right, in its various incarnations, has faired quite well electorally. As a result, for years every Bulgarian government had to rely on the support of the far right in parliament to govern. But now the far right has become the junior governing partner.
Already, some of the “Patriots” in government have caused controversy when photos emerged of them giving Nazi salutes.
While Borissov tried his teflon hand at crisis management, demanding their resignation, he saw the problem as rather that the photos had been made public than what they represented.
Simeonov allegedly dismissed the affair by joking how he made funny pictures in the former Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald. Shortly after, as if to add to bad taste, Simeonov was appointed to head the country's National Council for Cooperation on Ethnic and Integration Issues.
None of this is a joke or a matter of bad taste.
Bulgaria clings to a myth that it saved its Jews during the Second World War. This myth conveniently ignores its complicity in the near-total extermination of Jews in Bulgarian-occupied Macedonia and Thrace, a result of the country’s alliance with Nazi Germany.
Walking around in my neighbourhood in Sofia, while navigating potholes and broken-up sidewalks, one can see scores of Celtic crosses and swastikas sprayed on the walls of building after building.
The prominence of Nazi and far right symbols adorning the city is ignored. Perhaps one can blame ignorance and a lack of historical knowledge.
But then, again in my neighbourhood, on Lincoln Boulevard, one “patriotic” graffiti boasts: “We remember Neuilly!”, referring to the punishing post-war peace treaty Bulgaria had to sign in 1919. Seriously? Neuilly?
Perhaps there are other things in history that should be remembered. Or will it take Putin one day to remind the Bulgarian political class of them?
www.balkaninsight.com/en/blog/far-right-in-bulgaria-is-no-laughing-matter-05-30-2017