Macedonia (Greece)

For other uses, see Macedonia (disambiguation).

Macedonia Μακεδονία.
Traditional region of Greece
Flag Seal
Anthem: Famous Macedonia
Macedonia (blue) within Greece
Country	Greece
Capital	Thessaloniki
Region	1913
Regions	3 East Macedonia and Thrace (part) Central Macedonia West Macedonia
Government
• Body	Ministry for Macedonia and Thrace
• Minister for Macedonia and Thrace	Maria Kollia-Tsaroucha (Independent Greeks)
Area
• Total	34,177 km2 (13,196 sq mi)
Area rank	1st
Highest elevation	2,917 m (9,570 ft)
Lowest elevation	0 m (0 ft)
Population (2011 census)
• Total	2,400,721
• Rank	2nd in Greece
• Density	70/km2 (180/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Macedonian
GDP (PPP)	€39.749 billion ($53.140 billion)
Per capita	€16,557 ($22,135)
GDP (nominal)	€36.634 billion ($48.976 billion)
Per capita	€15,260 ($20,400)
The flag is widespread, even on an official level, but bears no official legal standing as a symbol for the region. The use of the Vergina Sun is widespread, though it bears no legal standing as an official emblem of the region. However, Greece has lodged a claim for trademark protection of it as an official state symbol under the World Intellectual Property Organization, Famous Macedonia is a military march of the Greek army, but is regarded as the regional anthem of Macedonia. East Macedonia is part of the region of East Macedonia and Thrace.

Macedonia (ⁱ/ˌmæsᵻˈdoʊniə/ MASS-ə-DOH-nee-ə; Greek: Μακεδονία, Makedonía [maceðoˈnia]) is a geographic and historical region of Greece in the southern Balkans. Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region, dominated by mountains in the interior and the port cities of Thessaloniki (or Salonika) and Kavala on its southern coastline. Macedonia is part of Northern Greece, together with Thrace and sometimes Thessaly and Epirus.

It incorporates most of the territories of ancient Macedon, a kingdom ruled by the Argeads whose most celebrated members were Alexander the Great and his father Philip II. The name Macedonia was later applied to identify various administrative areas in the Roman/Byzantine Empire with widely differing borders (see Macedonia (region) for details).

Even before the establishment of the modern Greek state in 1830, it was identified as a Greek province, albeit without clearly defined geographical borders By the mid 19th century, the name was becoming consolidated informally, defining more of a distinct geographical, rather than political, region in the southern Balkans. At the end of the Ottoman Empire most of the region known as Rumelia (from Ottoman Turkish: Rumeli, "Land of the Romans") was divided by the Treaty of Bucharest of 1913, following the Ottoman defeat in the Balkan Wars of 1912–13. Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria each took control of portions of the Macedonian region, with Greece obtaining the largest portion; a small section went to Albania. The region was an administrative subdivision of Greece until the administrative reform of 1987, when the region was divided into the regions of West Macedonia and Central Macedonia and part of the region of East Macedonia and Thrace, the latter containing also the whole of the region of Thrace. Central Macedonia is the most popular tourist destination in Greece with more than 3.6 million tourists in 2009 (18% of the total number of tourists who visited Greece that year).

History

Prehistory

Macedonia lies at the crossroads of human development between the Aegean and the Balkans. The earliest signs of human habitation date back to the palaeolithic period, notably with the Petralona cave in which was found the oldest European humanoid, Archanthropus europaeus petraloniensis. In the Late Neolithic period (c. 4500 to 3500 BC), trade took place from quite distant regions, indicate rapid socio-economic changes. One of the most important changes was the start of copper working.

Ancient History

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  Archaeological site of Pella, capital of ancient Macedonia

• 

  Facade of the "Tomb of the Palmettes" (3rd BC), Mieza

• 

  Lion of Amphipolis

• 

  View of the archaeological site of Philippi

• 

  View of ancient Dion

The golden larnax and the golden grave crown of Phillip II, Vergina.

The expansion of ancient Macedonian kingdom up to the death of Phillip II.

Statue of Alexander the Great in Thessaloniki, capital of the region of Macedonia.

According to Herodotus, the history of Macedonia began with the Makednoi tribe, among the first to use the name, migrating to the region from Histiaeotis in the south. There they lived near Thracian tribes such as the Bryges who would later leave Macedonia for Asia Minor and become known as Phrygians. Macedonia was named after the Makednoi. Accounts of other toponyms such as Emathia are attested to have been in use before that. Herodotus claims that a branch of the Macedonians invaded Southern Greece towards the end of the second millennium B.C. Upon reaching the Peloponnese the invaders were renamed Dorians, triggering the accounts of the Dorian invasion. For centuries the Macedonian tribes were organized in independent kingdoms, in what is now Central Macedonia, and their role in internal Hellenic politics was minimal, even before the rise of Athens. The Macedonians claimed to be Dorian Greeks (Argive Greeks) and there were many Ionians in the coastal regions. The rest of the region was inhabited by various Thracian and Illyrian tribes as well as mostly coastal colonies of other Greek states such as Amphipolis, Olynthos, Potidea, Stageira and many others, and to the north another tribe dwelt, called the Paeonians. During the late 6th and early 5th century BC, the region came under Persian rule until the destruction of Xerxes at Plataea. During the Peloponnesian War, Macedonia became the theatre of many military actions by the Peloponnesian League and the Athenians, and saw incursions of Thracians and Illyrians, as attested by Thucidydes. Many Macedonian cities were allied to the Spartans (both the Spartans and the Macedonians were Dorian, while the Athenians were Ionian), but Athens maintained the colony of Amphipolis under her control for many years. The kingdom of Macedon, was reorganised by Philip II and achieved the union of Greek states by forming the League of Corinth. After his assassination, his son Alexander succeeded to the throne of Macedon and carrying the title of Hegemon of League of Corinth started his long campaign towards the east.

Roman period

See also: Macedonian Wars and Macedonia (Roman province)

Macedonia remained an important and powerful kingdom until the Battle of Pydna (June 22, 168 BC), in which the Roman general Aemilius Paulus defeated King Perseus of Macedon, ending the reign of the Antigonid dynasty over Macedonia. For a brief period a Macedonian republic called the “Koinon of the Macedonians” was established. It was divided into four administrative districts. That period ended in 148 BC, when Macedonia was fully annexed by the Romans. The northern boundary at that time ended at Lake Ohrid and Bylazora, a Paeonian city near the modern city of Veles. Strabo, writing in the first century AD places the border of Macedonia on that part at Lychnidos, Byzantine Achris and presently Ochrid. Therefore ancient Macedonia did not significantly extend beyond its current borders (in Greece). To the east, Macedonia ended according to Strabo at the river Strymon, although he mentions that other writers placed Macedonia’s border with Thrace at the river Nestos, which is also the present geographical boundary between the two administrative districts of Greece.

The Acts of the Apostles (Acts 16:9–10) records a vision in which the apostle Paul is said to have seen a 'man of Macedonia' pleading with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us”. The passage reports that Paul and his companions responded immediately to the invitation.

Subsequently the provinces of Epirus and Thessaly as well as other regions to the north were incorporated into a new Provincia Macedonia, but in 297 AD under a Diocletian reform many of these regions were removed and two new provinces were created: Macedonia Prima and Macedonia Salutaris (from 479-482 AD Macedonia Secunda). Macedonia Prima coincided approximately with Strabo’s definition of Macedonia and with the modern administrative district of Greece and had Thessalonica as its capital, while Macedonia Secunda had the Paeonian city of Stobi (near Gradsko) as its capital. This subdivision is mentioned in Hierocles’ Synecdemon (527-528) and remained through the reign of emperor Justinian.

The Slavic, Avar, Bulgarian and Magyar invasions in the 6-7th centuries devastated both provinces with only parts of Macedonia Prima in the coastal areas and nearer Thrace remaining in Byzantine hands, while most of the hinterland was disputed between the Byzantium and Bulgaria. The Macedonian regions under Byzantine control passed under the tourma of Macedonia to the province of Thrace.

A new system of administration came into place in 789-802 AD, following the Byzantine empire’s recovery from these invasions. The new system was based on administrative divisions called Themata. The region of Macedonia Prima (the territory of modern Greek administrative district of Macedonia) was divided between the Thema of Thessalonica and the Thema of Strymon, so that only the region of the area from Nestos eastwards continued to carry the name Macedonia, referred to as the Thema of Macedonia or the Thema of “Macedonia in Thrace”. The Thema of Macedonia in Thrace had its capital in Adrianople.

Medieval history

See also: Strymon (theme), Thessalonica (theme), and Kingdom of Thessalonica

Saints Cyril and Methodius.

The medieval Castle of Platamon, Pieria.

Familiarity with the Slavic element in the area led two brothers from Thessaloniki, Saints Cyril and Methodius, to be chosen to convert the Slavs to Christianity. Following the campaigns of Basil II, all of Macedonia returned to the Byzantine state. Following the Fourth Crusade 1203–1204, a short-lived Crusader realm, the Kingdom of Thessalonica, was established in the region. It was subdued by the co-founder of the Greek Despotate of Epirus, Theodore Komnenos Doukas in 1224, when Greek Macedonia and the city of Thessalonica were at the heart of the short-lived Empire of Thessalonica. Returning to the restored Byzantine Empire shortly thereafter, Greek Macedonia remained in Byzantine hands until the 1340s, when all of Macedonia (except Thessaloniki, and possibly Veria) was conquered by the Serbian ruler Stefan Dušan. Divided between Serbia and Bulgaria after Dušan's death, the region fell quickly to the advancing Ottomans, with Thessaloniki alone holding out until 1387. After a brief Byzantine interval in 1403–1430 (during the last seven years of which the city was handed over to the Venetians), Thessalonica and its immediate surrounding area returned to the Ottomans.

The capture of Thessalonica threw the Greek world into consternation, being regarded as the prelude to the fall of Constantinople itself. The memory of the event has survived through folk traditions containing fact and myths. Apostolos Vacalopoulos records the following Turkish tradition connected with the capture of Thessalonica:

While Murad was asleep in his palace at Yenitsa, the story has it that, God appeared to him in a dream and gave him a lovely rose to smell, full of perfume. The sultan was so amazed by its beauty that he begged God to give it to him. God replied, "This rose, Murad, is Thessalonica. Know that it is to you granted by heaven to enjoy it. Do not waste time; go and take it". Complying with this exhortation from , Murad marched against Thessalonica and, as it has been written, captured it.

Ottoman Rule

Main article: Ottoman Greece

Metrophanes Kritopoulos; theologian, monk and Patriarch of Alexandria who was born in Veria in 1589.

Thessaloniki became a centre of Ottoman administration in the Balkans. While most of Macedonia was ruled by the Ottomans, in Mount Athos the monastic community continued to exist in a state of autonomy. The remainder of the Chalkidiki peninsula also enjoyed an autonomous status: the “Koinon of Mademochoria” was governed by a locally appointed council due to privileges obtained on account of its wealth, coming from the gold and silver mines in the area.

There were several uprisings in Macedonia during Ottoman rule, including an uprising after the Battle of Lepanto that ended in massacres of the Greek population, the uprising in Naousa of the armatolos Zisis Karademos in 1705, a rebellion in the area of Grevena by a Klepht called Ziakas (1730–1810) and the Greek Declaration of Independence in Macedonia by Emmanuel Pappas in 1821, during the Greek War of Independence. In 1854 Theodoros Ziakas, the son of the klepht Ziakas, together with Tsamis Karatasos, who had been among the captains at the siege of Naousa in 1821, led another uprising in Western Macedonia that has been profusely commemorated in Greek folk song.

Modern history

Main articles: Greek War of Independence, Greek Struggle for Macedonia, and Macedonian Question

Greece following the Balkan Wars, the province of Macedonia can be seen written at the bottom.

Greece gained the southern parts of region with Thessaloniki from the Ottoman Empire after the First Balkan War, and expanded its share in the Second Balkan War against Bulgaria. The boundaries of Greek Macedonia were finalized in the Treaty of Bucharest. In World War I, Macedonia became a battlefield. The Greek Prime Minister, Eleftherios Venizelos, favoured entering the war on the side of the Entente, while the Germanophile King Constantine I favoured neutrality. Invited by Venizelos, in autumn 1915, the Allies landed forces in Thessaloniki to aid Serbia in its war against Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, but their intervention came too late to prevent the Serbian collapse. The Macedonian Front was established, with Thessaloniki at its heart, while in summer 1916 the Bulgarians took over Greek eastern Macedonia without opposition. This provoked a military uprising among pro-Venizelist officers in Thessaloniki, resulting in the establishment of a "Provisional Government of National Defence" in the city, headed by Venizelos, which entered the war alongside the Allies. After intense diplomatic negotiations and an armed confrontation in Athens between Entente and royalist forces the King abdicated, and his second son Alexander took his place. Venizelos returned to Athens in June 1917 and Greece, now unified, officially joined the war on the side of the Allies.

In World War II Macedonia was occupied by the Axis (1941–44), with Germany taking western and central Macedonia with Thessaloniki and Bulgaria occupying and annexing eastern Macedonia.

From the 1870s, Slavic speaking communities of northern Greece split into two hostile and opposed groups with two different national identities - Greek and Bulgarian. By the Second World War and following the defeat of Bulgaria, another further split between the Slavic group occurred. Conservatives departed with the occupying Bulgarian Army to Bulgaria. Leftists began identifying as Macedonians (Slavic), joining the communist-dominated rebel Democratic Army of Greece. At the conclusion of the Greek Civil War (1946–49), most Macedonians of Slavic background left Greece and settled in the Yugoslav Socialist Republic of Macedonia. Some also migrated to Canada or Australia.

Etymology

Main article: Macedonia (terminology) § Etymology

The name Macedonia derives from the Greek Μακεδονία (Makedonía), a kingdom (later, region) named after the ancient Macedonians. Their name, Μακεδόνες (Makedónes), is cognate to the Ancient Greek adjective μακεδνός (makednós), meaning "tall, slim". It was traditionally derived from the Indo-European root *mak-, meaning 'long' or 'slender', but according to modern research by Robert Beekes both terms are of Pre-Greek substrate origin and cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European morphology. However, Beekes' views are not mainstream.

Local government

Macedonia is divided into three regions (Greek: Περιφέρειες) comprising fourteen regional units (Greek: Περιφερειακές ενότητες). The regional units are further divided into municipalities (Greek: δήμοι) or "communities" (Greek: κοινότητες – roughly equivalent to British or Australian shires). They are overseen by the Ministry for the Interior, while the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace is responsible for the coordination and application of the government's policies in the region. Prior to the Kallikratis Reform in 2010, Greece's regional units were called "prefectures", and Thasos was part of the prefecture of Kavala.

Macedonia borders the neighboring regions of Thessaly to the south, Thrace (part of the East Macedonia and Thrace region) to the east and Epirus to the west. It also borders Albania to the north-west, the Republic of Macedonia to the north and Bulgaria to the north-east. The three Macedonian regions and their subdivisions are:

Map of Macedonia	#	regions, regional units and autonomous communities as of 2011	Capital	Area	Population
	Total	West Macedonia	Kozani	9,451 km²	301,522
	1	Regional Unit of Kastoria	Kastoria	1,720 km²	53,483
	2	Regional Unit of Florina	Florina	1,924 km²	54,768
	3	Regional Unit of Kozani	Kozani	3,516 km²	155,324
	4	Regional Unit of Grevena	Grevena	2,291 km²	37,947
	Total	Central Macedonia	Thessaloniki	18,811 km²	1,871,952
	5	Regional Unit of Pella	Edessa	2,506 km²	145,797
	6	Regional Unit of Imathia	Veria	1,701 km²	143,618
	7	Regional Unit of Pieria	Katerini	1,516 km²	129,846
	8	Regional Unit of Kilkis	Kilkis	2,519 km²	89,056
	9	Regional Unit of Thessaloniki	Thessaloniki	3,683 km²	1,057,825
	10	Regional Unit of Chalkidiki	Polygyros	2,918 km²	104,894
	11	Regional Unit of Serres	Serres	3.968 km²	200,916
	Total	East Macedonia (Part of East Macedonia and Thrace)	Kavala	5,579 km²	249,029
	12	Regional Unit of Drama	Drama	3,468 km²	103,975
	13	Regional Unit of Kavala	Kavala	1,728 km²	131,289
	14	Regional Unit of Thasos	Thasos	379 km²	13,765
	15	Mount Athos (autonomous community)	Karyes	336 km²	2,262
	Total	Macedonia (Greece)	Thessaloniki	34,177 km²	2,424,765

The geographical region of Macedonia also includes the male-only autonomous monastic state of Mount Athos, but this is not part of the Macedonia precincts. Mount Athos is under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and enjoys a special status: it is inaccessible to women; its territory is a self-governed part of Greece, and the powers of the state are exercised through a governor. The European Union takes this special status into consideration, particularly on matters of taxation exemption and rights of installation. The governor of Mount Athos is appointed by the Greek Foreign Ministry.

Economy and transport

The port of Thessaloniki, major economic and industrial center.

Marble quarry, Thasos island.

View of Egnatia Odos (modern road).

Macedonia possesses some of the richest farmland in Greece in the plains of Veria, Thessaloniki, Serres and Drama. A wide variety of agricultural products and cash crops are grown, including rice, wheat, beans, olives, cotton, tobacco, fruit, grapes, Florina peppers; there is also production of wine and other alcoholic beverages. Food processing and textile weaving constitute the principal manufacturing industries. Tourism is a major industry along the coast, particularly in the Chalcidice peninsula, the island of Thasos and the northern approaches to Mount Olympus. Many tourists originate from Germany and Eastern Europe. Thessaloniki is a major port city and industrial center; Kavala is the second harbor of Macedonia. Apart from the principal airport at Thessaloniki (Makedonia Airport), airports also exist in Kavala (M.Alexandros Airport), Kozani (Filippos Airport), and Kastoria (Aristotelis Airport). The "Via Egnatia" motorway crosses the full distance of Macedonia, linking most of its main cities. It also has a train system; it is usually criticized for being underfunded, and there has been much anger directed against OSE, the national railway company.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Greece

See also: List of Greeks and List of Macedonians (Greek)

Macedonian cuisine

Main article: Macedonian cuisine (Greek)

The arrival of Greek refugees from Asia Minor and Constantinople in the 20th century popularised Ottoman and Constantinopolitan recipes.

A continuation from ancient days is dishes such as lamb cooked with quince or various vegetables and fruits, goat boiled or fried in olive oil: modern recipes from Kavala to Kastoria and Kozani offer lamb with quince, pork with celery or leeks.

Some current specialties are trahana with crackling, phyllo-based pies (cheese, leek, spinach) and wild boar. Favourites are tyrokafteri (Macedonian spicy cheese spread), soupies krasates (cuttlefish in wine), mydia yiachni (mussel stew). Unlike Athens, the traditional pita bread for the popular souvlaki (kebab) is not grilled but fried. The variety of sweets has been particularly enriched with the arrival of the refugees. (Information included from 'Greek Gastronomy', GNTO, 2004)

Macedonian music

Main article: Music of Macedonia (Greece)

See also: Famous Macedonia

Music of Macedonia is the music of the geographic region of Macedonia in Greece, which is a part of the music of whole region of Macedonia. Folk dances in Macedonia include Makedonia (dance), chasapiko, leventikos, zeibekiko, zonaradiko, endeka Kozanis, Samarinas, stankena, Akritikos, baidouska, Macedonikos antikristos, mikri Eleni, partalos, kleftikos Makedonikos, mpougatsas, Kastorianos, o Nikolos and sirtos Macedonias. In Macedonia, there are also patriotic songs sung by the Greek army and local citizens like: famous Macedonia.

Demographics

See also: Demographic history of Macedonia

Panorama of Serres.

Panoramic view of Kavala.

Panorama of Veria.

Naousa, Imathia.

Kastoria.

The inhabitants of Greek Macedonia are overwhelmingly ethnic Greeks and most are Greek Orthodox Christians. In East Macedonia and Thrace there is also a sizable Muslim minority consisting mainly of Pomaks and Western Thrace Turks, although almost all Greek Muslim communities of Western Macedonia such as the Vallahades left the region as part of the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey of 1922-23. Most Pontic Greeks and Caucasus Greeks who came to Greece during or shortly before the 1922-23 population exchange with Turkey were resettled in Greek Macedonia rather than other parts Greece, mainly in towns and villages that had had large Muslim populations until 1922. From the Middle Ages to the early 20th century, the ethnic composition of the region of Macedonia is characterized by uncertainty both about numbers and identification. The 1904 Ottoman census of Hilmi Pasha recorded 373,227 Greeks and 204,317 Bulgarians in the vilayet of Selânik (Thessaloniki) alone. According to the same census, Greeks were also dominant in the vilayet of Monastir (Bitola), counting 261,283 Greeks and 178,412 Bulgarians. Hugh Poulton, in his Who Are the Macedonians, notes that "assessing population figures is problematic" for the territory of Greek Macedonia before its incorporation into the Greek state in 1913. The area's remaining population was principally composed of Ottoman Turks (including non-Turkish Muslims of mainly Bulgarian and Greek Macedonian convert origin) and also a sizeable community of mainly Sephardic Jews (centred in Thessaloniki), and smaller numbers of Romani, Albanians and Vlachs.

During the first half of the twentieth century, major demographic shifts took place, which resulted in the region's population becoming overwhelmingly ethnic Greek. In 1919, after Greek victory in World War I, Bulgaria and Greece signed the Treaty of Neuilly, which called for an exchange of populations between the two countries. According to the treaty, Bulgaria was considered to be the parent state of all ethnic Slavs living in Greece. Most ethnic Greeks from Bulgaria were resettled in Greek Macedonia; most Slavs were resettled in Bulgaria but a number remained, most of them by changing or adapting their surnames and declaring themselves to be Greek so as to be exempt from the exchange. In 1923 Greece and Turkey signed the Treaty of Lausanne in the aftermath of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), and in total 776,000 Greek refugees from Turkey (674,000), Bulgaria (33,000), Russia (61,000), Serbia (5,000), Albania (3,000) were resettled in the region. They replaced between 300,000 and 400,000 Macedonian Turks and other Muslims (of Albanian, Roma, Slavic and Vlach ethnicity) who were sent to Turkey under similar terms.

Macedonian cities during Ottoman rule were often known by multiple names (Greek, Slavic or Ottoman Turkish by the respective populations). After the partition of Ottoman Europe, most cities in Greece either became officially known by their Greek names or adopted Greek names; likewise most cities in Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia became officially known or adopted names in the languages of their respective states. After the population exchanges, many locations were renamed to the languages of their new occupants.

Year	Greeks	Bulgarians	Muslims	Others	Total
1913	42.6% (513,000)	9.9% (119,000)	39.4% (475,000)	8.1% (98,000)	1,205,000

After the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine ten thousands of Bulgarians left and after the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey almost all Muslims left the region, while hundreds of thousands of Greek refugees settled in the region thus changing the demography of the province.

Year	Greeks	Bulgarians	Muslims	Others	Total
1926 League of nations data	88.8% (1,341,000)	5.1% (77,000)	0.1% (2,000)	6.0% (91,000)	1,511,000

The 1928 Greek Census collected data on the religion as well as on the language.

Year	Christians	Jews	Muslims	Total
1928 Greek Census data Religion	95.51% (1,349,063)	4.28% (60,484)	0.21% (2,930)	1,412,477

Year	Greek	Slavic dialects	Turkish	Ladino	Aromanian	Armenian	Other	Total
1928 Greek Census data Language	82.52% (1,165,553)	5.72% (80,789)	5.09% (71,960)	4.19 (59,146)	0.95% (13,475)	0.84% (11,859)	0.69% (9,695)	1,412,477

The population was badly affected by the Second World War through starvation, executions, massacres and deportations. Central Macedonia, including Thessaloniki, was occupied by the Germans, and in the east Nazi-aligned Bulgarian occupation forces persecuted the local Greek population and settled Bulgarian colonists in their occupation zone in eastern Macedonia and western Thrace, deporting all Jews from the region. Total civilian deaths in Macedonia are estimated at over 400,000, including up to 55,000 Greek Jews. Further heavy fighting affected the region during the Greek Civil War which drove many inhabitants of rural Macedonia to emigrate to the towns and cities, or abroad, during the late 1940s and 1950s.

Mount Falakro, Drama Prefecture, eastern Greek Macedonia

Macedonian dialect

Greek is by far the most widely spoken and the only official language of public life and education in Macedonia. The local Macedonian dialect is spoken alongside dialects from other parts of Greece and Pontic Greek still spoken by some Greeks of Pontic descent. One archaic Greek dialect indigenous to Greek Macedonia and other parts of Northern Greece is that spoken by the Sarakatsani, a traditionally transhument shepherd community whose dialect has undergone very little change through foreign influences. Macedonian Slavic dialects are the most widely spoken minority language while Aromanian, Arvanitic, Megleno-Romanian, Turkish and Romani are also spoken. Ladino is still spoken by some Jews in Thessaloniki.

Population of largest towns

Town or city	Greek name	Population
01. Thessaloniki (municipality)	Δήμος Θεσσαλονίκης	363,987
02. Kavala	Καβάλα	63,293
03. Katerini	Κατερίνη	56,434
04. Serres	Σέρρες	56,145
05. Drama	Δράμα	55,632
06. Kozani	Κοζάνη	47,451
07. Veria	Βέροια	47,411
08. Giannitsa	Γιαννιτσά	33,775
09. Ptolemaida	Πτολεμαΐδα	28,942
10. Kilkis	Κιλκίς	24,812
11. Naoussa	Νάουσα	22,288
12. Aridaia	Αριδαία	20,213
13. Alexandria	Αλεξάνδρεια	19,283
14. Edessa	Έδεσσα	18,253
15. Nea Moudania	Νέα Μουδανιά	17,032
16. Florina	Φλώρινα	16,771
17. Kastoria	Καστοριά	16,218
18. Grevena	Γρεβενά	15,481
19. Polygyros	Πολύγυρος	10,721
20. Skydra	Σκύδρα	5,081

Regional identity

Main article: Macedonians (Greeks)

Apogevmatini headline quoting Kostas Karamanlis:
"I myself am a Macedonian, just as 2.5 million Greeks are Macedonians."

Macedonians (Greek: Μακεδόνες, Makedónes) is the term by which ethnic Greeks originating from the region are known. Macedonians came to be of particular importance during the Balkan Wars when they were a minority population inside the Ottoman province of Macedonia. The Macedonians now have a strong regional identity, manifested both in Greece and by emigrant groups in the Greek diaspora. This sense of identity has been highlighted in the context of the Macedonian naming dispute after the break-up of Yugoslavia, in which Greece objects to its northern neighbour calling itself the "Republic of Macedonia", since explicit self-identification as Macedonian is a matter of national pride for many Greeks. A characteristic expression of this attitude could be seen when Greek newspapers headlined a declaration by Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis at a meeting of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg in January 2007, saying that "I myself am a Macedonian, and another two and a half million Greeks are Macedonians."

The distinct regional identity of Greek Macedonians is also the product of the fact that it was closer to the centres of power in both the Byzantine and Ottoman period, was considered culturally, politically, and strategically more important than other parts of Greece during these two periods, and also the fact that the region had a far more ethnically and religiously diverse population in both the medieval and Ottoman periods. In the late Byzantine period Greek Macedonia had also been the centre of significant Byzantine successor states, such as the Kingdom of Thessalonica, the short-lived state established by the rival Byzantine emperor, Theodore Komnenos Doukas, and - in parts of western Macedonia - the Despotate of Epirus, all of which helped promote a distinct Greek Macedonian identity. In the contemporary period this is reinforced by Greek Macedonia's proximity to other states in the southern Balkans, the continuing existence of ethnic and religious minorities in East Macedonia and Thrace not found in southern Greece, and the fact that migrants and refugees from elsewhere in the Balkans, southern Russia, and Georgia (including Pontic Greeks and Caucasus Greeks from northeastern Anatolia and the south Caucasus) have usually gravitated to Greek Macedonia rather than southern Greece.

Minority populations

The exact size of the linguistic and ethnic minority groups of Macedonia is officially unknown, as Greece has not conducted a census on the question of mother tongue since 1951. The main minority groups in Macedonia are:

Slavic-speakers

Main article: Slavic-speakers of Greek Macedonia

Distribution of the Slavic Macedonian language in Florina Prefecture and Aridaia regions (1993).

Slavic-speakers are concentrated in the Florina, Kastoria, Edessa, Giannitsa, Ptolemaida and Naousa regions. Their dialects are linguistically classified variously either as Macedonian or Bulgarian, depending on the region and on political orientation. The exact number of the minority is difficult to know, and its members' choice of ethnic identification is difficult to ascertain (since some people are cautious in the replies that they give when surveys are conducted). The Greek branch of the former International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights has estimated that those of an ethnic Macedonian national conscienceness number between 10,000–30,000.

Aromanians

See also: Aromanians in Greece and Aromanian speakers of Greece

Aromanians form a minority population throughout much of Macedonia. They largely identify as Greeks and most belong to the Greek Orthodox Church. In the 1951 census they numbered 39,855 in all Greece (the number in Macedonia proper is unknown). Many Aromanians villages can be found along the slopes of the Vermion Mountains and Mount Olympus. Smaller numbers can be found in the Prespes region and near the Gramos mountains.

Megleno-Romanians

Main article: Megleno-Romanians

Right: The Megleno-Romanian and the Aromanian linguistic area.
Left: Map of the Megleno-Romanians settlements.

Megleno-Romanians can be found in the Moglena region of Macedonia. The Megleno-Romanian language is traditionally spoken in the 11 Vlach villages, Archangelos, Notia, Karpi, Koupa, Lagkadia, Perikleia, Skra and Kastaneri (the other three are found in the Republic of Macedonia). They are generally adherents to the Orthodox Church while the former majority in Notia was Muslim.

Arvanites

Main article: Arvanites

See also: Albanian-speakers of Western Thrace

Arvanites communities can be found in Greek Macedonia. Five Arvanite communities exist in Serres regional unit while many can be found in the capital, Thessaloniki. There are three Arvanites villages in the Florina regional unit (Drosopigi, Lechovo and Flampouro) with others located in Kilkis and Thessaloniki regional units.

The Jews of Thessaloniki

Main article: History of the Jews of Thessaloniki

File:Saloniquefemmejuive19e.jpg

Jewish woman of Thessaloniki, gravour of late 19th century.

Sabbatai Zevi

Jewish workers of the Socialist Workers' Federation march (1908-1909).

Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki.

The Jewish population in Greece was the oldest in mainland Europe, and was mostly Sephardic. Thessaloniki became the largest center of the Sephardic Jews, who nicknamed the city la madre de Israel (Israel's mother) and "Jerusalem of the Balkans". It also included the historically significant and ancient Greek-speaking Romaniote community. During the Ottoman era, Thessaloniki's Sephardic community comprised more than half the city's population; the Jews were dominant in commerce until the ethnic Greek population increased after independence in 1912. By the 1680s, about 300 families of Sephardic Jews, followers of Sabbatai Zevi, had converted to Islam, becoming a sect known as the Dönmeh (convert), and migrated to Salonika, whose population was majority Jewish. They established an active community that thrived for about 250 years. Many of their descendants later became prominent in trade. Many Jewish inhabitants of Thessaloniki spoke Ladino, the Romance language of the Sephardic Jews.

The Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 burned much of the center of the city and left 50,000 Jews homeless of the total of 72,000 residents who were burned out. Having lost homes and their businesses, many Jews emigrated: to the United States, Palestine, and Paris. They could not wait for the government to create a new urban plan for rebuilding, which was eventually done.

After the Greco-Turkish War in 1922 and the expulsion of Greeks from Turkey, many refugees came to Greece. Nearly 100,000 ethnic Greeks resettled in Thessaloniki, reducing the proportion of Jews in the total community. After this, Jews made up about 20% of the city's population. During the interwar period, Greece granted the Jews the same civil rights as other Greek citizens. In March 1926, Greece re-emphasized that all citizens of Greece enjoyed equal rights, and a considerable proportion of the city's Jews decided to stay.

World War II brought a disaster for the Jewish Greeks, since in 1941 the Germans occupied Greece and began actions against the Jewish population. Greeks of the Resistance and Italian forces (before 1943) tried to protect the Jews and managed to save some. By the 1940s, the great majority of the Jewish Greek community firmly identified as both Greek and Jewish. According to Misha Glenny, such Greek Jews had largely not encountered "anti-Semitism as in its North European form."

In 1943 the Nazis began actions against the Jews in Thessaloniki, forcing them into a ghetto near the railroad lines and beginning deportation to concentration and labor camps. They deported and exterminated approximately 96% of Thessaloniki's Jews of all ages during the Holocaust. Today, a community of around 1200 remains in the city. Communities of descendants of Thessaloniki Jews – both Sephardic and Romaniote – live in other areas, mainly the United States and Israel. Israeli singer Yehuda Poliker recorded a song about the Jews of Thessaloniki, called "Wait for me, Thessaloniki".

Others

Other minority groups include Romaniotes, Armenians and Romani. Romani communities are concentrated mainly around the city of Thessaloniki. An uncertain number of them live in Macedonia from the total of about 200,000-300,000 that live scattered on all the regions of Greece.

See also

• Macedonians (Greeks)
• Macedonia (region)
• Macedonia (terminology)
• List of Macedonians (Greek)
• Modern regions of Greece

References

Bibliography

• Samsaris, Dimitrios C. Historical Geography of Eastern Macedonia during the Antiquity (in Greek), Thessaloniki 1976 and Historical Geography of Western Macedonia (in Greek), Thessaloniki 1989 (publisher=Society for Macedonian Studies)
• [sic]

External links

• Macedonian Press Agency
• Museums of Macedonia
• Nikolaos Martis - Macedonia's Hellenism: Empirical documents and sources
• An online review of Macedonian affairs, history and culture
• EMS.name
• University of Macedonia
• University of Western Macedonia
• Macedonia, The Historical Profile of Northern Greece
• Map of Makedonia
• Technological Educational Institution of Serres
• Department of Physical Education Science & Athletics of Serres
• Roman province of Macedonia
• Alistrati Cave in Serres
• Lake Kerkini in Serres - Kerkini Wetland (Ramsar & Natura 2000 Protected)

Official links

• Macedonia and Thrace region site
• Ministry for Macedonia–Thrace (Greek)
• Region of Central Macedonia
• Region of Western Macedonia
• Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace
• Municipality of Pella
• Serres Prefecture
• City of Thessaloniki
• City of Edessa
• City of Serres
• Map of Macedonia