Macedonia

In every culture, regardless of its geographic or chronological affiliation, we can identify a focus point in which it directs most of its energetic, mental and emotional potential, building, in fact, its entire social, economic and religious system around it. Among Balkan Neolithic cultures this role is carried by the house, whereas among the ones in Macedonia this character of the house is even more pronounced due to the presence of an exceptionally specific type of objects that nowhere in the world appear in such a striking form and in such a large number of specimens and variants. These are ceramic objects shaped like a human-house or more precisely woman-house, which in academia are most often referred to as anthropomorphic house models or altars in the form of an anthropomorphized house. The shape and context of discovery of these objects has so far led all researchers to the conclusion that they are symbolic objects that participated in the spiritual life of Neolithic people, i.e. in those spheres of life that today we call religion, mythology, magic and cult. According to the large number of such finds, it can be safely concluded that the territory of today’s North Macedonia was the nucleus of this phenomenon, whose peripheral manifestations can be also sporadically seen in neighboring regions. The place of Cerje-Govrlevo within the frames of this phenomenon is especially important, given the fact that the existence of the largest number of such objects (almost 160) has so far been ascertained there, based on the excavations of a fairly small part of the former Neolithic settlement. This was the reason why in this publication, dedicated to the spiritual life of the Neolithic community that existed on the site, a special place was given to these objects, also followed by an attempt to reveal their former spiritual significance. Most of the anthropomorphized house models present an unrealistic image – fusion of house and human, in numerous cases with highlighted female characteristics (breasts, pubis, pregnancy, more complex hairstyles, jewelry). In studies so far, the combination of these two elements has been interpreted as an aspiration for their symbolic identification, that is, the representation of the house as a woman, i.e. of the woman as a house. In several of our articles, including the one in the previous volume of this edition, we have justified the mentioned combination by the Neolithic man’s discovery of the common morphological and functional components in the two elements. Both the house and the woman, in fact, encompass space in which humans exist, where the space of the house is identified with the uterus, and its occupants with the fetus. Because of this, we suggested that such objects be named ceramic models of the type “Mother-House”.

On the face of it, the relations between politics and the armed forces in Macedonia, one of the ex-Yugoslav republics that gained independence in 1991, seem to have gone through the same evolution as civil-military relations in other countries in transition. The Macedonian case, however, is far from straightforward and simple. To start with, the country’s emergence on the world scene was marked by unique circumstances: with no army, it was practically a demilitarized State! And amidst the Yugoslav imbroglio, it was even regarded as an “oasis of peace”. Yet, only ten years later, in 2001, Macedonia found itself on the verge of a violent internal ethnic conflict, as a weak (predominantly native Macedonian) military then confronted the Albanian minority’s apparently well-organized paramilitary forces. By the end of 2018, while it now miraculously stood on NATO’s threshold as its prospective 30th member-state, the dilemma posed by armed forces/ State/ society relations remained. Any meaningful (theoretical as well as practical) analysis of the situation requires exploration of the troublesome aspects of each side of the State/politics - military - ethnicity triangle.
Key requirements for any candidate country’s NATO membership are a successful democratic transition, internal stability, and societal consensus over national values and interests. In Macedonia’s case, none of these conditions have actually been met. But its military has been practically invisible in internal politics, while it has been vastly used as a key asset to bring the country closer to NATO by direct involvement in any military intervention launched by the US, NATO or the international community, from Afghanistan and Iraq to new plans for involvement in Mali affairs. Behind the façade, there is silent internal strife within the armed forces along political and ethnic lines (i.e. exactly the same lines that sharply divide the Macedonian State and society, challenging its internal cohesion and democratic prospects). In addition, the armed services have to cope with a serious lack of resources, while military officers’ self-respect is severely diminished by low societal regard for their profession. The democratic transition is far from complete since the country is experiencing an on-going deep internal crisis related to its dual societal security dilemma (i.e. the identity security, as viewed through the prism of the Copenhagen school), and possible redefinition of the political system. The military is just one of the institutions that suffer from the long-standing inter-ethnic competition and unprincipled power-sharing bargaining.

This article deals with the analysis of migrant crisis in the years 2015–2016 and its impact on the relations between Macedonia and the EU member states. In 2015 Macedonia, which has an official EU candidate status, was in the centre of the migrant crisis. It was one of the countries on the Balkan migrant route. Migrants entered Macedonia mainly from Greece. Macedonia was receiving contradictory statements from EU countries concerning the issue of dealing with the migration crisis. The aim of this article is to present the complex situation of this country as a multi-ethnic with a large Muslim minority and its politics in the context of disputes with EU concerning solving of the migration crisis. To accomplish the goal, the analysis of election campaigns and content analysis of media which were done during the study visit will be presented. Main research problem concerns the influence of Macedonia’s policy and actions taken as a response to migrant crisis on the direction of the bilateral relations between Macedonia and EU countries.

The consequences of Thessaloniki’s Bishop Sofronios resignation, in the communal prob-lems of the Orthodox Community of Veria.

In the 2nd half of the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire applied the “Ottoman Reforms” known as “Tanzimat”. In order for the Ecumenical Patriarchate to be able to apply these reforms, they composed and voted the “National Regulations” so as to administrate the Orthodox Mil-let. Bishop Sofronios Christides supported the new administration system referred as the “community system”, throughout all the metropolitan positions he served. This article presents the intention of bishop Sofronios to highlight  and solve  the community problems of the Orthodox Community of Veria,  along with the consequences of his decision to resign from the Metropolis of Thessaloniki. At that time, Kosmas Evmorfopoulos was the Bishop of Veria and Naousa and the one that first suggested the implementation of full regu-lation for the administration of the community. While attempting to implement this regula-tion, Bishop Kosmas had to face various problems associated with the reaction of Vlachs in Veria, Seli and Ksirolivado, who were connected to the Romanian propaganda. In addition, there were priests Vlachs who were practicing ecclesiastical sequences for the fore mentioned population and they played leading role to this reaction. Bishop Kosmas informed the Ecu-menical Patriarchate and the Ottoman Principles about this propaganda. Moreover, he was keeping updated Bishop Sofronios and was asking for his support so as first to inform the Ottoman authorities in Thessaloniki about community’s problems and then manage them. As a result of this cooperation, a great friendship was created between the two Bishops. Unfor-tunately, when Bishop Sofronios resigned from his position, this great relationship of trust came to an end and the Orthodox Community of Veria lost a great supporter who used to intermediate in favor of them. Corresponding author : Emmanuel Xynadas Veria, GreeceEmail : emmxynadas@gmail.com

Having entered its third decade, the Macedonia-Greece naming dispute i seems as if it is set to join an infamous category of international relations-that of the world's chronic unsolvable issues. By focusing on the post-2006 decline in Macedonian-Greek (political) relations and the stalemate in negotiations on the name issue, this paper lays out and reassesses most of the fundamental components and recent variables in the dispute but also seeks to demystify important aspects of the dispute and to identify the space for a rational, common sense solution. Beginning with a substantiated claim that obstructive politics have been practised by certain NATO/EU circles towards Macedonia, and going on to deconstruct the myth that the dispute is purely bilateral and limited only to the name issue, this article warns that the intermittent optimism exhibited among the stakeholders in the negotiations means little given the historical depth of this otherwise simple dispute. The main message of this paper, however, is contained in a subsequent definition of the dispute as (part of) a perverse, inherently unsolvable, centuries-old problem that can only be mitigated rather than conclusively addressed, since it is based on vital, incompatible national interests and, consequently, a rigid, inter-state/inter-society disagreement. The pressing need to mitigate the dispute via local pragmatism, balanced diplomatic pressure, and the adoption of an inventive approach, especially after the Kosovo problem has been satisfactorily closed (at least temporarily), guarantees almost nothing, since both Macedonia and Greece have strong strategic rationales for not approaching a compromise. As the imperative of preserving the Macedonian national identity in every form seems somewhat stronger than the Greek national security concerns underlying the dispute, any so-called rational compromise seems to be possible only within the broad-dual formula‖ spectrum. Therefore, both parties are encouraged to leave reactive-antiquisation‖ aside, to focus (only) on the name issue, and to search for a mutually acceptable name variant within a flexible-dual formula‖ framework. Final success, however, remains elusive, as Macedonia and Greece continue to struggle with deep intra-social divisions and/or aversive intellectual trends in the context of the name dispute. In conclusion, policy-makers should bear in mind that the only intelligent way to settle the dispute and the inexorable Macedonian question in the 21 st century is by fully integrating the Macedonian national identity in the European cultural and political mosaic.

Since long before the independence of the Republic of Macedonia, the Macedonian nation and its state-building capacity have suffered from a lack of recognition. Since 1991, the country’s national security and well-being have been plagued by more or less interrelated strategic threats despite its explicitly pro-Western orientation. The 2001 conflict between the Macedonian security forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas was a watershed event, after which the country has never been the same. Today, Macedonian politics is preoccupied with two major issues: domestic interethnic relations and the prolonged naming dispute with Greece. Both have serious regional implications, with the former also having the potential to ignite the Balkans, especially when—and if—combined with the latter. Thus, although Macedonia continues to stand shoulder to shoulder with Western allies in the Global War on Terror, its desired Euro-Atlantic future remains uncertain.

R u m e l i D E D i l v e E d e b i y a t A r a ş t ı r m a l a r ı D e r g i s i 2 0 2 0. 1 8 (M a r t) / 3 3 5 Kültürlerarası iletişim olgusunun sinema boyutu: Makedon sineması / S. Akova Öz "İnsanlık için, aydınlık için, gelecek için sinema yapıyoruz, filmlerimiz insanlık mücadelesi içindir, kriterlerimiz yoktur" özdeyişi ile Josef Broz Tito'nun, nefesi ile üfleyerek can kattığı 2 kristal ülke olarak tariflenen, temelinde Eski Yugoslavya'da, çalışmamızın da konusunu oluşturan Makedonya Sineması, Slav halkının gönüllü desteği, Özyönetim sisteminin varlığı, Sosyal Devlet olma bilinci ve dönemin Tito hükümetinin teşvikleri ile güçlü temeller üzerine inşa edilmiştir. Sinema disiplinine ve sanatına büyük bir özveri ve saygı ile yaklaşan, kıymet atfeden Yugoslav (Güney Slav) halkı, bilimin, güzel sanatların, teknolojinin her alanını destekleyen hükümet liderlerinin, kamu arazilerinin sinema platolarına tahsis edilmesi, dönemin şartları içerisinde önemli miktarda bütçeler ayrılması, bilim, sanat, edebiyat gibi disiplin emekçilerinin eğitimleri adına yurtdışına gidiş imkanlarının tanınması gibi konulardaki destekleri, Makedon sinemasının nicelik ve nitelik anlamda gelişiminin başat unsurlarını oluşturmuştur. Tarihi 1905'li yıllara dayanan, Milton ve Yanaki Manaki Kardeşler'in ilk yaşayan (canlı) görüntüleri Bioscope adlı kameraya almaları ile başlayan Makedon Sineması, 1952 yılında Vardar (Skopje/Üsküp) Film Stüdyosu'nun kurulması ile birlikte, özgün, yaratıcı ve kaliteli yapıtlara imza atarak, önemli başarılar elde ederek, isminden söz ettirmiştir. Jeostratejik konumu itibariyle, savaşların ve beraberinde travmaların sıkça yaşandığı, temelde Balkan Coğrafyasında ve dahi Makedon topraklarında süregelen güncel olayların, Makedon Sineması'na da yansıdığını ifade etmek mümkündür. Manaki kardeşlerin sinema sanatının ilk tohumlarını attığı Balkan toprakları Üsküp'te (Skopje) Vardar (Makedonya), Saraybosna'da (Sarajevo) Sutjeska (Bosna Hersek), Budva'da Zeta (Karadağ), Zagreb'de Jadran (Hırvatistan), Belgrad'dan Avala (Sırbistan) ve Ljubljana'da Triglay (Slovenya) devlet destekli kurulan film kasabalarının yapıtları ile önemli başarılar elde etmişlerdir. İlgili film kasabaları Balkan coğrafyası sinema sanatına önemli katkılar sağlar iken bir yandan Josip Broz Tito'nun da etkisi ile yoğun düzeyde propaganda aracı olarak kullanılabilmiş öte yandan da dönemin şartları içerisinde farklı coğrafyalara film ihraç edebilme ve ülke ekonomisinde lokomotif bir sektör olma başarısını kazanmıştır. Özellikle Vardar Film platosunun gelişim süreci araştırmanın sorunsalını oluşturmaktadır. 2 Yugoslavya ülkesinin kuruluş süreci, Eski Yugoslavya halkı tarafından Josef Broz Tito'nun, nefesi ile üfleyerek can kattığı kristal bir ülke olarak betimlenmektedir. Farklı etnik kökenlere mensup halkların Güney (Yugo) Slavları üst kimliğinde bir araya geldiği Yugoslavya ülkesi, Tito döneminde birlikte (ortak) yaşam kültürünü deneyimlemişlerdir. Tito'nun ölümü sonrası etnik çatışmalar sonucunda parçalanan Yugoslavya'nın Balkanizm olarak adlandırılan bölünme süreci ise Josef Broz Tito'nun, nefesi ile üfleyerek can kattığı kristalin kırılması olarak ifade edilmektedir.

Κατά την ανεξαρτητοποίησή της η πρώην ομόσπονδη γιουγκσλαβική  δημοκρατία της Μακεδονίας διεκδίκησε καθετί μακεδονικό (ιστορία, πολιτισμό, μνημεία, ιστορικές προσωπικότητες, κλπ.), προβαίνοντας επιπλέον και σε ανακίνηση μειονοτικών και εδαφικών διεκδικήσεων εις βάρος της Ελλάδας. Προκειμένου να γίνει κατανοητό το πρόβλημα που έχει δημιουργηθεί από την εκτεταμένη προπαγανδιστική προβολή των σλαβομακεδονικών απόψεων, αυτό το βιβλίο αναλύει τα ιστορικά αίτια που συνδέονται με το ταραγμένο παρελθόν και την εθνολογική σύνθεση των βαλκανικών λαών και αποσαφηνίζει ορισμένους όρους που δεν είναι απόλυτα σαφείς, αν και βρίσκονται σε καθημερινή χρήση. Επιπλέον εξετάζει τα σπουδαιότερα επιχειρήματα των Σκοπιανών υπέρ της "μακεδονικότητας" τους και παρουσιάζει την ελληνική απάντηση σε αυτά

In 1971 the athlete, politician, and writer Chris Zalokostas published the book Μέγας Ἀλέξανδρος, ὁ πρόδρομος τοῦ Ἰησοῦ (Alexander the Great, the forerunner of Jesus). In this book, Zalokostas claims that, by spreading the Greek language to the countries which he conquered, Alexander created the basis for a unified Greek community ready to accept the Christian message. Thus, Alexander’s world-empire is a forerunner of the Christian one, and the entire Christendom owes its existence to the Greeks.
Zalokostas’ idealized Alexander shares many traits with Tarn’s Macedonian hero: in the book, Alexander pronounces an oath, which is a hymn to peace, brotherhood and equality. Although Zalokostas’ Alexander is a fictional character, Greek people have particularly welcomed his Orthodox Alexander, and “his oath” has been used and abused several times by different political parties.
In this paper I aim at exploring how fiction and forgery based on ancient history serve the political discourse and different religious and economic interests in Modern Greece.

Religion and Mythology in Ancient Macedonia - The Gods of the 4th c. BCE Macedonian Empire and following Macedonic kingdoms, Commagene, Ptolemaic Egypt, etc., their prehistoric roots and their descent. The immemorial timeworn creation myths of the world, of the Supreme Creator-God from the sky, the Great Mother-Goddess of the Earth, the birth of the young Sun-God, myths of the Moon that gets to the earth and turns into a cow, conception of the months as divine creatures,  - they all gave us the notion of the beginning of the time, the emergence of the order from the chaos, which have central role in each nation collective conscience. In that unknown epoch when the ancestors of the Macedonians were still united with the mythological Belasgians (Lat. Pelasgians), they were worshipers of the primordial gods of nature, animals and woods, members of the ancient Aryan Pantheon. These primordial myths have deep roots that stretch back to the prehistoric times. They have survived numerous conquerors and influences of various religions, showing sturdy vitality, which is engraved deeply into the subconscious collective memory and traditions of the people.

In the wider geographic region of Macedonia and the Balkans trade and transport were developed in late 19th and early 20th century. This kind of development enabled Hellenic wealthy bourgeois to settle in central Europe so as to study and even find better living prospects at that time. Respectively, the well-off Hellenes of the Diaspora contributed to the education and development of their compatriots in their ancestral homes, transferring there the western culture. In this context, the region of Macedonia is a large and central area of the Balkan Peninsula, which encloses a coastal zone, lowland and a mountainous area. Consequently, it contains urban centres of all categories in terms of their location. The essay focuses on the study of the original proliferation of western music in the Hellenic population of Macedonia, which took place during the late Ottoman Empire. The cases of the Hellenic schools, in which music was taught, are examined from a historical and musical-pedagogical point of view. The proposal also examines the contributions of the Associations and Philharmonic Societies, where various musical groups were operating and with the help of specialized music instructors taught their members (adult and minors) music theory and practice. The study involves significant urban centres of Macedonia, in which Hellenic communities developed substantial educational and cultural activities such as Thessaloniki, Serres, Veria, Monastir, Kozani, Choristi, and Kavala, despite the fact of whether those cities were eventually incorporated into the Hellenic national space or not.

Poor maintenance of the infrastructure of the health system, unprepared hospitals to deal with epidemic emergencies, widespread presence of villages where basic toilets and Roma ghettos are absent or in short supply, these are the main elements of the explosive combination that has transformed the Balkans into the health powder keg of the Old Continent. Like the rest of Europe, even the peninsula is not immune from China's mask diplomacy, but the great protagonist of the aid war in the region is another, Turkey .

Although the majority of recent scholarship on Alexander the Great agrees that he adopted Achaemenid practice, the nature and extent of this influence is disputed. This thesis therefore offers a comprehensive evaluation of the influence of Achaemenid royal ideology and court practice on Alexander. Through the comparison of the traditional Greco-Roman literary tradition (Arrian, Diodorus, Curtius, Plutarch, Justin) with contemporary Persian and Near-Eastern sources (in particular cuneiform inscriptions), this study seeks to better understand the nature of, and reasons for, Alexander’s gradual shift towards Persian culture. This study also attempts to differentiate between Alexander’s historical actions and the attribution of Persian stereotypes by later literary traditions. To this end, parallels between Alexander’s behaviours and key elements of Achaemenid royal ideology—including emulation of earlier Kings, divine bestowal of kingship, emphasis on truth and the Lie, relationships with nature, the centrality of reward and punishment to court culture, and attempts at integration and unity through marriage and banqueting—are explored. This thesis also demonstrates how Alexander fits into a wider narrative of Persian decadence and degeneration stereotypical of the Greek literary tradition. The thesis concludes that Alexander consciously and actively adopted elements of Achaemenid royal ideology and court practice to augment power gained through conquest of Persia and the Near East. This does not mean that he sought to be an Achaemenid King in his own right; rather, he recognised the centrality of this ideology to local populations accepting his authority and the legitimacy of his rule.