Funny things have been happening lately in cyberspace:
instead of celebrating
the recent Athens-Skopie agreement for lifting the Greek embargo,
people from the Republic of Macedonia are lamenting having to give up state symbols which never
belonged to their country anyway
Recently Wentworth Smithoski wrote:
"So, I am not sorry that the Sun is gone, but I am VERY UPSET that it
was done in this way. I cannot express my anger that the flag was sold.
Only people who don't care about nationality and tradition can
shamelessly manipulate a national flag or ANY national symbol, like
this. Regardless of how this new flag was introduced to the
Macedonians, and whether I like it or not, it is a shame to sell a
national flag, and also play with the feelings of those Macedonians who
decided to bond with that symbol."
Now, now, Wentworth. You cannot take something that belongs to other people,
"bond" to it, and then, when asked to return the stolen goods, cry out that you
have been robbed. You explain clearly enough the story with the stolen state
symbols:
"Frankly speaking, this new designer's creation for the official flag of
Vardar Macedonia (combination of the communist and Yugoslav SR Macedonia's
old red flag with the Sun of Alexander the Great) as for practically all
Macedonians a completely new thing... Without offending anyone, I
know that there were my fellow countryman (in Macedonia and
abroad) who, "didn't know that they were Macedonians until 4 years
ago". In my experience, they are the ones who most strongly grasped
the new flag. Among my friends those who were the biggest Yugoslavs
before, and used to cry so loudly for Yugoslavia, became biggest
Macedonians in 1991. Interestingly but not surprisingly enough, they
were usually also absolutely clueless about our history."
So, here is the crux of the matter: national amnesia. Amnesia caused by
eighty-three years of cruel foreign domination over the people of Vardar
Macedonia; eighty-three years during which the occupiers first tried to make
them part of the Serbian nation, and when this failed tried to create an
appendage to the Serbian nation called "Macedonia".
No doubt, Wentworth knows some of the historic truth, although his knowledge, as
he admits himself, goes back to the Berlin Congress, 1878. He explains to his
fellow countrymen:
"Traditional Macedonian flag has two equal horizontal parts.., the
upper half being red and the lower black... This traditional
Macedonian flag had also a symbolic meaning - the same meaning as
the slogan of the Macedonian fighters from the beginning of the
century: "Freedom (red) or Death (black)". During the 1903 Ilinden
uprising and the Krushevo republic the formal flag of Macedonian
fighters was black-and-red. However, local flags used by different
guerrilla groups (cheti) were more colourful. Usually they had a cross, a
picture of a young woman (representing Macedonia) or a lion (also a
traditional symbol), on a red, or red and black background, with the
words "Liberty or Death" - "SVOBODA ili SM'RT" written in golden
letters (needless to say, with the Cyrillic alphabet of Kliment Ohridski
and not the one of Karadzich-Koneski)."
The trouble with partial knowledge is that being incomplete, it can be also
misleading. The flag of the uprising in Macedonia and Eastern Thrace in 1903
(Ilindensko-Preobrazhensko Vustanie) has its own history, and you should
know it, because it is yours.
It begins with a man from the Bulgarian town of Kotel, named Georgi
Stoykov Popovich, better known as Georgi Sava Rakowski. In 1837 the 16-
year old Georgi enters the Greek Gymnasium in Kurucheshme,
Constantinople. Four years later he is in Athens to become a free citizen of a
free country. His Greek passport (which later saves his life) carries the name
of Georgios Savva Makedon. In Athens he forms his first revolutionary
organization, the secret "Macedonian Society". His dream is to unite the
Christians of the Ottoman Empire, regardless of ethnicity, in revolt against
the Sultan. He speaks of a "federation" of culturally autonomous entities.
Twenty years later, disillusioned by general indifference to his proposals, he
moves to Belgrade, where he forms his first Bulgarian legion, a paramilitary
organization intended to prepare future military leaders of an armed uprising
of the Bulgarian people. The blue-green flag of the Legion bears in Bulgarian
the motto of the Greek revolution, 'Eleutheria I Thanatos' - "Svoboda ili
sm'rt". Beneath the arching motto stands a golden lion rampant (the heraldic
symbol of the last independent Bulgarian kingdom).
Rakowski did not steal "Freedom or death" from the Greeks. Although the
idea of individual freedom is a Greek one, the motto of the Greek revolution
was first heard in the New World almost a half-century earlier:
"Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of
chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course
others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
Patrick Henry, Speech, Virginia Convention, Richmond [23 Mar 1775]
Ideas cannot be stolen; they travel through time and space to whatever minds
are ready to receive them. Patrick Henry had doubtless read, in the
Agamemnon of Aeschylus, "Death is better, a milder fate than tyranny."
The flag of Rakowski saw its baptism of fire in 1867, when Panayot Hitov
and Filip Totyu led the first battles of the Bulgarians against the Turks. Vasil
Kunchev, one of Rakowski's legionnaires, assumed his nom de guerre,
"Levski" from the lion on the flag. He later became not only the leader of the
Bulgarian revolution, but the ideal hero of Goce Delchev, leader of the
Ilinden uprising.
In the spring of 1876, the 20-year-old primary-school teacher of the town of
Panagyurishte, Rayna Popgeorgieva Futekova embroidered the revolutionary
flag on a piece of red silk, the best piece of cloth available. On the day of the
April Uprising she carried the flag, for which she became known as "Rayna
Knyaginya" (Princess Rayna). When the Uprising was crushed, she was held
in detention for three months (during which she was beaten and raped
repeatedly), but then released after international intervention and sent abroad
to study.
The 20,000 fighters of the Bitola Vilaet did not suffer from historical amnesia.
They knew what flag they were carrying in the 150 battles against 300,000
Turkish soldiers. Nor were the leaders of the Krushevo Republic amnesiacs.
It is their great-grandchildren who do not remember, and who dig for their
roots in the grave of Philip of Macedon. It is those descendents who have
never heard of the Krushevo Proclamation to the neighbouring Turkish and
Albanian villages:
"Brat zemljaci i mili komshii ! Nie se bontueme protiv tiranijata i
robstvoto, protiv predatelite, protiv zolumcharite, protiv nasilnicite na
nashata chest, i protiv tie, shto ni ja smukat nashata pot i ekspluatirat
nashiot trud.. Elate, bratja muslimani, pri nas, da trgneme protiv
vashite i nashite dushmani! Elate, da gi skrshime sindjirite na
robstvoto, da se kurtulisame ot maki i stradanie!"
[Brother countrymen and dear neighbors! We are rebelling against
tyranny and slavery, against traitors, against rapists and violators of
our honor, and against those who drink our sweat and exploit our
labor... Come, brother Muslims, join us as we attack our common
enemies! Come, let us break the chains of slavery, let us free
ourselves from pain and suffering!]
Now, in
Vardar Macedonia, the "dear neighbors" have become "stinking
Albanians" - their great-grandchildren are not allowed to enter the
same school building as the rest of the children. And you wonder to yourselves
what the actual historical flag looked like.
I doubt if the parliament in Skopie is going to choose the Ilinden flag as the
new national symbol of the country. Its heraldic meaning is too unsettling for
people who feel uneasy about their Bulgarian origins.
My grandfather, a simple carter from Prilep, fought in 1903 for the freedom
of his people. My grandmother, his new bride, cared for the wounded and
comforted the orphans. The Ilinden uprising is part of my family history, and
I do not suffer from amnesia.