Post by ivo on Jan 15, 2010 16:19:41 GMT -5
War in Eastern Europe
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John Reed (Scribners, London, 1916)
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John Reed (Scribners, London, 1916)
The Macedonian question has been the cause of every great European war for the last fifty years, and until that is settled there will be no more peace either in the Balkans or out of them. Macedonia is the most frightful mix-up of races ever imagined. Turks, Albanians, Serbs, Rumanians, Greeks, and Bulgarians live there side by side without mingling - and have so lived since the days of St Paul.
But the vast majority of the population of Macedonia are Bulgars; up to the time of the first Balkan War no intelligent Greek or Serbian or Rumanian ever denied this.
Almost all of Bulgaria's great men have come from Macedonia. They were the first people, when Macedonia was a Turkish province, to found national schools there, and when the Bulgarian Church revolted from the Greek Patriarch at Constantinople - no other Balkan Church is free - the Turks allowed them to establish bishoprics, because it was so evident that Macedonia was Bulgarian.
Ambitious Serbian nationalists followed the Bulgarian example of establishing schools in Macedonia, and sent comitadjis there to fight the Bulgarian influence; but Serbian scientists and political leaders recognized for a century that Macedonia was peopled with Bulgarians.
The Serbians did not spread south; they came from the north and spread east through Bosnia, Herzegovina, Dalmatia, and beyond Trieste - and that way their logical ambitions lie.
Even in the treaties of the Balkan Alliance that preceded the war of 1912z, Serbia recognized Macedonia as Bulgarian. Mr Milanovitch, the Serbian premier who helped draw the treaties, said: 'There are districts which cannot be disputed between us. Adrianople ought to go to Bulgaria. Old Serbia north of the Char Planina Mountains ought to go to Serbia. Most of Macedonia will be Bulgarian. But a strip of eastern Macedonia ought to be given to Serbia. And the best thing will be to leave the division to the Emperor of Russia as arbitrator.' And this was inserted in the treaty. Greece also accepted the principle of Bulgarian dominance.
Adrianople fallen, the Bulgars pressed on, amazed at their success. They said they would stop at a line drawn through Midia on the Black Sea to Enos on the AEgean; but the Turks tried so frantically to make peace that they broke the armistice, and drove straight for Constantinople. Only Tchataldja stopped them, and they might finally have stormed that if events in their rear hadn't taken a disquieting turn.
In the meanwhile the Serbians and Greeks, who had occupied all of Macedonia, Epirus, and Thessaly, were jealous of the boundless Bulgar ambition. Nothing in the Balkan Alliance had given Bulgaria the right to seize the capital of the Eastern world. Together Greece and Serbia had conquered the western vilayets, and they didn't see why they should give up territory fairly won to any powerful Balkan Empire - no matter what the treaties were.
In the meanwhile the Serbians and Greeks, who had occupied all of Macedonia, Epirus, and Thessaly, were jealous of the boundless Bulgar ambition. Nothing in the Balkan Alliance had given Bulgaria the right to seize the capital of the Eastern world. Together Greece and Serbia had conquered the western vilayets, and they didn't see why they should give up territory fairly won to any powerful Balkan Empire - no matter what the treaties were.
So they made a secret treaty and quietly went to work to Grecianize and Serbianize their new territories. A thousand Greek and Serbian publicists began to fill the world with their shouting about the essentially Greek or Serbian character of the populations of their different spheres.
The Serbs gave the unhappy Macedonians twenty-four hours to renounce their nationality and proclaim themselves Serbs, and the Greeks did the same. Refusal meant murder or expulsion.
Greek and Serbian colonists were poured into the occupied country and given the property of fleeing Macedonians. Bulgarian school-teachers were shot without mercy, and Bulgarian priests given the choice of death or conversion to the Orthodox religion.
The Greek newspapers began to talk about a Macedonia peopled entirely with Greeks - and they explained the fact that no one spoke Greek, by calling the people 'Bulgarophone' Greeks or 'Vlaquophone' Greeks.
The Serbs more diplomatically called them 'Macedonian Slavs.' The Greek army entered villages where no one spoke their language. 'What do you mean by speaking Bulgarian?' cried the officers. This is Greece and you must speak Greek.' Refusal to do so meant death or flight.
Bulgaria called upon the Tsar to arbitrate, but Serbia, in possession of far more than she ever had dreamed of gaining, realized that she had powerful friends: Russia,
Finally Tsar Nicholas agreed to settle the question; but just as the two delegates were about to start for St Petersburg, Bulgaria took a step that justified the fears of the Great Powers, alienated the world's sympathy, and lost her Macedonia.
In the first place more than half a million Bulgarians fled from persecution in Macedonia under Turks, Greeks, and Serbs and were scattered throughout the villages of Bulgaria, forever preaching the liberation of their country.
In the middle of the summer half the population of Sofia was composed of Macedonian refugees