RUDOLPH ARCHIBALD REISS ON THE MACEDONIANS (1467)

RUDOLPH ARCHIBALD REISS ON THE MACEDONIANS (1467)

1918

I said that I would rather call your Bulgarophones Macedonians. You call those people Bulgarophones, owing to their language which is similar to Bulgarian. But, is it Bulgarian, is it the same language spoken in Sofia? No. Macedonian is just as similar to Serbian as it is to Bulgarian. I am not a linguist and I would not allow myself a personal judgment, but disinterested Balkanologists have asserted to me that Macedonian is more similar to Serbian than Bulgarian. It is possible that there are linguists who assert the opposite. But it is a fact that the Macedonian language is spoken neither in Sofia nor in Belgrade. It is an individual Slav language, just as we have the Romansch in Switzerland, spoken in Grisons, apart from Italian. To my mind, the Macedonian can be called neither Bulgarian nor Serb, but simply Macedonian.

R. A. Reiss, Sur la situation des Macedoniens et des musulmans dans les nouvelles provinces grecques. Paris, 1918, pp. 6-7.

(1467) Rudolph Archibald Reiss (1876-1929) was a prominent Swiss lawyer and Professor at Lausanne University. As an expert on international military law and later as a volunteer in the Serbian Army, he participated in World War I and on the Solun front.

(Pages 640-641, The University of “Cyril and Methodius”, Documents on the Struggle of the Macedonian People for Independence and a Nation-State, Volume I)

EDMNOND BOUCHIE DE BELLE ON THE MACEDONIANS (1468)

1918

The Macedonian Question is not a question of yesterday or today. Macedonia has had a long past behind it, and it will not cease to interest Europe in the future. Europe has come to know Macedonia mainly owing to two facts: one, its geographical position as a crossroads of world routes - the first, from Belgrade and Novi Pazar through the Vardar valley to Solun, and the second, the ancient Via Egnatia from Durazzo to Solun again, while Solun as Macedonia’s port and according to its importance does not lag behind Constantinople or Suez. Solun has a dominant position over the East Mediterranean and the routes to Asia. The second reason is: the population is different in nationality according to its origin and has long since been an object of the tactics of influence by the neighbouring Balkans states, with the support of the Great Powers, the interests of which have been linked with the situation in the Balkan countries. Macedonia is populated by three groups of nationalities. One of them is the disputed nationality of the Macedonian Slavs, or briefly, Macedonians, which comprise the core of the rural population. Then follow three other nationalities which aim to dominate the Macedonians - the Bulgarians, Serbs and Greeks - and still another three nationalities detached from the dispute - the Wallachians, Turks and Jews. But none of these nationalities populates a defined territory, but appears here and there throughout the country. In all the fields of Macedonia there is a nationality of peasants with a Slav language and of the Orthodox religion. The Bulgarians consider them as being their own “in language and heart,” even citing the Greater Bulgaria, created by the Treaty of San Stefano and the name “Bulgarians” under which the victims of the Treaty of Berlin fought against Turkish oppression. The Serbs consider them as “Serbs” .- since Dushan’s state formerly included “the whole of Macedonia,” according to the manuscripts surviving Turkish subjugation, and since the language was allegedly “Old Serbian” and since the Macedonians celebrated the family “Slava” or Saint’s day. Finally come the Greeks, according to whom neither the origin nor the language are of decisive significance, but only the “spirit” and culture, which are allegedly Greek; just as no

one can say, for instance, that the French are not Latins, so, too, no one can say that the Macedonians are not “Greeks.” It is obvious that the Macedonian Slavs are not Greeks. And in spite of the fact that they bear some similarities in their character, faith and language with the Bulgarians and the Serbs, they differ from both. You may ask a peasant from the district of Ostrovo, or Bitola, what he feels himself to be, and in nine instances out of ten, he will answer you -Macedonian! Accordingly, the Slav population of Macedonia should be considered as a separate nationality, the name of which would be Macedonian Slavs, or briefly, Macedonians...

Edmond Bouchie de Belle, La Macedoine et les Macedoniens, Paris, 1922, 80, IV, 303.

(1468) Edmond Bouchie de Belle, born August 23rd, 1878, Doctor of Law, was a high financial official in Paris, advisor at the Ministry of Finances, and during World War I occupied a prominent position in the Headquarters of the French East Army in the Balkans. In this way, de Belle had the opportunity of spending a substantial period of time near the great bend in the River Tsrna, following the movement of the Army in the vicinity of Lake Ostrovo, Lerin, Bitola, Prilep and finally, Skopje, where he died on October 20th, 1918. During his stay, de Belle wrote a book about Macedonia, which was printed posthumously in Paris under the title La Macedoine et les Macedoniens (Macedonia and the Macedonians), 1922. De Belle’s book, which was given an award by the French Academy of Sciences, is interesting and significant from several aspects. Here we quote a few extracts from it.

(Pages 641-642, The University of “Cyril and Methodius”, Documents on the Struggle of the Macedonian People for Independence and a Nation-State, Volume I)