The Macedonians[1] (Macedonian: Македонци, Latinic:Makedonci) - also referred to as Macedonian Slavs [2] - are a South Slavic ethnic group who are primarily associated with the Republic of Macedonia. They speak the Macedonian language, a South Slavic language. The overwhelming majority of ethnic Macedonians live in the Republic of Macedonia, although there are also minority communities in neighboring Serbia, Greece, Albania and Bulgaria, as well as in diaspora communities in a number of other countries.

The vast majority of Macedonians live in the valley of the river Vardar, the central region of the Republic of Macedonia and form about 64.18% of the population of the Republic of Macedonia (1,297,981 people according to the 2002 census). Smaller numbers live in eastern Albania, southwestern Bulgaria, northern Greece, and southern Serbia, mostly abutting the border areas of the Republic of Macedonia. A large number of Macedonians have immigrated overseas to Australia, USA, Canada and in many European countries: Germany, UK, Italy, Austria, etc.

Origins and identities

The geographical region of Macedonia, which spans portions of Bulgaria and Greece, and the Republic of Macedonia, has been inhabited by a variety of peoples, including Greeks, ethnic (Slav) Macedonians, Albanians, Bulgarians, Jews, Turks, Serbs, Roma and Vlachs. The oldest recorded continuous presence are the Greeks (who are also referred to as Macedonians).

In Bulgaria, and to some extent in Greece, the question of whether the Macedonians constitute a distinct ethnic group is controversial - the popular and the academic consensus in these countries regards them as a branch of the Bulgarians. The majority of international organizations consider modern ethnic Macedonians to be a distinct cultural, if not ethnic group.

Historians generally date the arrival of the Slavs in Macedonia and the Balkans to the 6th or 7th centuries AD. Ethnic Macedonians (assuming such a group existed) had little or no political national identity of their own until the 20th century. Any Macedonian identity during the Byzantine centuries is mostly expressed through the Greek medium. Medieval sources traditionally describe them as Bulgarians, a definition which survived well into the period of Ottoman rule as attested by the Ottoman archives and by descriptions of historians and travelers, for example Evliya Celebi and his Book of Travels.

During the Ottoman rule, there is no documentation attesting to a specific Macedonian national identity, be it Slav, Greek or otherwise, until the 20th century. From the 17th century, authors who declared themselves 'Macedonian' did so in the context of publishing Greek books and belonging to the Greek nation. 19th century ethnographers and travelers were generally united in identifying the Slavic speakers as Bulgarians, at least until the period between 1878 and 1912 when the rival propaganda of Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria succeeded in engaging the Slavophone population of Macedonia into three distinct parties, the pro-Serbian, the pro-Greek or the pro-Bulgarian (Henry Brailsford).

In the late 19th century and the beginning of 20th century, there were many clashes between Serbophile Chetniks (originating from Macedonia) and Bulgarophile Komitas from all over Slavic-speaking Macedonia, which shows the lack of a distinctive urge to form a Macedonian nation state.

The key events in the formation of a distinctive Macedonian identity thus emerged during the first half of the 20th century in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 and especially following the Second World War.