200 000 Fell Prey to Political Repressions in Yugoslav Macedonia - Scholar

Macedonian Professor Ackoska believes at least 200 000 fell pray to political repressions in Macedonia after 1945. Photo by Utrinski Vesnik

The number of victims of political repressions in Macedonia after 1945 is much higher than widely believed, according to a Macedonian scholar.

More than 200 000 were repressed in Macedonia, one of the six republics of the former Yugoslavia, according to Professor Violeta Ackoska from the History Institute of the Philosophy Department of the Skopje University, as cited by BGNES.

"The accepted figure of 50 000 repressed in Macedonia after 1945 is not real, the actual figure is much higher. Not only individuals but enter families became victims of political repressions in that period. They were interned, persecuted, and many just disappeared because they were murdered. The road after 1945 was not just laid with flowers but also with a lot of corpses," she is quoted as saying.

However, she has not specified the reasons for the political repressions in Macedonia after the establishment of communist Yugoslavia after World War II, i.e. whether they are based primarily on ideological grounds – such as opposition to the communist regime – or have other causes.

Studies by Bulgarian historians claim that the majority of those who were victims to political repressions in Yugoslav Macedonia were in fact repressed because of their self-determination as Bulgarians.

In 1878-1944, the entire political and social life of Bulgaria was focused on the goal of unifying all Bulgarian-populated lands on the Balkans in one nation state, including the region of Macedonia. While holding large parts of the region of Macedonia in the Wars of 1912-1918, Bulgaria ultimately failed in its national unification goals, keeping only the so called Pirin Macedonia (today's Southwest Bulgaria, roughly 10% of the entire region of Macedonia, as opposed to Vardar Macedonia, 40%, remained in Yugoslavia, becoming today's Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in 1991, and Aegean Macedonia, 50% of the region's area, which is part of today's Northern Greece.)

In 1941-1944, today's Macedonia was made part of Bulgaria as part of Bulgaria's alliance with Nazi Germany.

After that, in 1944, Tito's communist regime decided to form a Macedonian nation in Yugoslavia that should be distinct from the Bulgarian nation, and made Macedonia one of Yugoslavia's six republics.

Even in independent Yugoslavia after 1991 people declaring themselves to be Bulgarian based on their ancestry have faced harassment by the Macedonian authorities, as a recent example indicates. In 1992, Bulgaria become the first sovereign state to recognize independent Macedonia.

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