A SLIP IN FAVOUR OF

BELGRADE'S AGGRESSION

The Macedonian Tribune published in its issue of November 10 (No.2057), an English translation of an article entitled "A Slip In Favour Of Belgrade's Aggression". The article was written by one of our Munich correspondents in West Germany and gave a brief review of the recent book called Macedonia - Yesterday and Today written by Professor George Nurigiani. The content of the book is an outright contradiction of everything Mr Nurigiani had published and spoken concerning Macedonia in the past until about a year ago. An attempt is made in this book to deny the Bulgarian past of the Slavs in Macedonia and to present a Macedonia which pleases Belgrade and the Communist dictators there. In the present issue of Macedonian Tribune we publish the second report of our contributor on Mr. Nurigiani's book, as follows.

In an English article published in No. 2057 of Macedonian Tribune I said, that Mr Nurigiani had made a slip in favour of Belgrade's aggression. To serve a monster of this description one has to trample over truth with heavy boots and so over one's own conscience. I pointed out that, according to Mr Nurigiani, Macedonia was the cradle of Bulgarian national regeneration and the Slavs from Dobroudja to the south, and west borders of Macedonia spoke Bulgarian. He wrote the same thing also in the introduction of his Bulgarian-Italian dictionary of 1928 and maintained this point of view uninterruptedly even after that date. Let us refer to some of his most recent expressions of opinion. In his report on Colonel Boris Drangov, published in Macedonian Tribune of 5 Nov 1959 he said:

"He was an enthusiastic fanatic and a top man, in Skopie, possessed of a strong love for the Bulgarian people and his goal was the liberation of the enslaved brothers"

So Mr Nurigiani wants us to know that when he refers to the fanaticism of a Macedonian, he means nothing less than the actual image of a firm and steady Bulgarian. Drangov is presented in his report as a Bulgarian, whereas in his present book Macedonia-Yesterday and Today Mr Nurigiani tells us that he belonged to some sort of "Macedonian" nationality. The genuine truth is that Drangov, as a Bulgarian, fought for his Bulgarian brothers in Macedonia. And Mr Nurigiani is right when he underscores the fact at the same place of his book, saying of him:

"He was oblivious of his own self and personality because he was imbued with the idea of the greatness of the Bulgarian people"

Mr Nurigian said about Professor Pavel Miliukov in Macedonian Tribune 28 Jan 1960, that

"he took a great part in preparing and publishing the Carnegie "Investigation in the Balkans."

Almost everybody knows what this investigation revealed. We read only of Bulgarians in Macedonia on almost every page of the report of the investigating committee. There is absolutely no mention of a so-called "Macedonian nationality". We know also the eminent scholars who participated in the investigation. They were all sons of great nations: A German, an Austrian, an American, an Englishman, a Russian and a Frenchman. Nurigiani gives us Prof Miliukov's personal statement to him.

"The indomitable fighting spirit of a tough and advanced people hovered over this Bulgarian land"

And it is Mr Nurigiani personally himself who puts down in black and white this evidence! We stress this fact. In his article "Mussolini and Macedonia" published in Macedonian Tribune 28 Apr 1960. Mr Nurigiani wrote:

"The Macedonian people are proud of their Bulgarian literature." And added further down. "The Yugoslav rulers were incapable of dealing with the living present and past realities."

So that Mr Nurigiani himself advises us that the rulers of Tito's Yugoslavia in 1960 were unable to cope with the existing reality in Macedonia under Yugoslav dominion, where the glory of the Bulgarian literature was growing more resplendent. He goes on with his observations by stating that

"the Macedonian Bulgarians regarded each foot of his birth land with reverence and love and was ready to defend it and die for it . . . This traditional love for his homeland, his self sacrifice and his tenacious resistance in preserving his mother tongue constitute his holy trinity, his historical distinction and the road he travelled throughout the ages"

And so, Bulgarian literature, Macedonian Bulgarians and their relentless struggle to preserve their Bulgarian language are the features by which Mr Nurigiani had chosen to distinguish the Macedonian Bulgarians in 1960. In his article "The Macedonian Spirit Is Indomitable" published by Macedonian Tribune 12 May 1960, Mr Nurigiani tells us that

"the Macedonian Bulgarians went through the excitement of great victories and suffered the disappointment of heavy downfalls throughout the ages."

When he alludes to the Macedonian spirit in the introduction of his article, our author actually means the Bulgarian spirit, just as it was understood by the whole world all the time. Furthermore, he puts emphasis on the point, that the Slavs in Macedonia were Bulgarians ever since their settlement in Macedonia. The same article carries the following statement:

"The Macedonian Bulgarians were endowed abundantly with moral qualities and had assigned to them important historical missions from time to time …" And further:
"The great figures of the Macedonian drive, the eternal, guardian of the treasured yearnings of the Macedonian Bulgarian, shine like illuminated guideposts wrapped in everlasting aura along the road throughout the ages."

So that all those great figures, that are presented in his present book as aliens, were all Bulgarians according to Mr Nurigiani! We still read further in the article that

"the Macedonians had a great part; in the regeneration of the Bulgarian people. The Bulgarian Macedonians were united in suffering the common cross that history is apt to allot to magnanimous and heroic peoples."

Mr Nurigiani mentions only in passing the name of Mara Bouneva in his article, where as in his new book he speaks of "Macedonian heroines", who are of a sort that nobody knows, avoiding any description of either Bouneva or Karnicheva. Neither does he say anything about the fact that the Serbian Communists of Skopie destroyed the memorial plaque on the spot, where Bouneva committed suicide right after her unforgettable bold and daring act. Nurigiani behaved in connection with these events in accordance with their methods and the yardstick of the Serbian Communists. Despite such outrageous acts of denationalisation, he took upon himself the duty of convincing the naive and uninformed, that "freedom" existed in the part of Macedonia under Yugoslavia since 1944! Mr Nurigiani contributed to Macedonian Tribune 9 Jun 1960, another article under the caption "Macedonia is Alive" which began with the following words:

"Ever since the Turkish regime, eminent friends of Macedonia and a great number of her defenders appreciated the rare, characteristics of the Macedonian Bulgarians. They wrote enthusiastic paces concerning the purity of their morals and their spiritual uplift. Among those friends of Macedonia were William Gladstone, Lady Strangford, Kalnoki, Kanits, Amie Boue etc". Then he goes on to say: "The unbridled tyrant will never succeed in destroying the national consciousness of the Macedonian Bulgarian. He will never kill what is already in him, no matter how hard he tries. . . ."

Why doesn't Mr Nurigiani say this in his new book, so that the tyrants of Skopie and Belgrade may have an opportunity to read it also? On the contrary, he indulges in the recitation of their denials of any Bulgarian nationality in Macedonia and undertakes to prove to us that the Bulgarians were absent from that land even in the past. This article on Macedonia he ends by saying:

"In his drive for advancement in the future the Macedonian Bulgarian leans firmly on his glorious past and moves ahead with steadfast strides, pride and self-confidence. His gaze is clear. his moral strength is great and his faith is indomitable"

He has an article on Grigor Purlichev, in Macedonian Tribune, No. 1774, 1961. Mr Nurigiani says in it

"The fiery patriot and writer Grigor Purlichev, who was the eminent factor in the Bulgarian renaissance, died 68 years ago on February 6, 1893…"

And now, he describes Purlichev as a person belonging to an alien nationality, the so called "Macedonian nationality". Mr Nurigian wrote an article on the brothers Cyril and Methodlus too. Its title is "An All Bulgarian Relic In Rome". He says that especially the grave of Saint Cyril is a sacred relic for the Bulgarians. But now he keeps a silence of approval and does not object when the Serbian Communists "expropriate" this grave, which in his opinion was "a sacred Bulgarian relic".