An Open Letter to Georgi Lebamoff:

FOR THE BULGARIAN AND MACEDONIAN LANGUAGES

When I asked them what their nationality was, they answered by asking me the same question. I told them I was Macedonian. “Being of the same origin, makes us Macedonians, too”, they replied. I asked them how they declared themselves in Bulgaria and Greece, and this is what they said: “We do as we are told, so we are either Bulgarians or Greeks ‘by origin’.” You must be wondering how that may be possible, but I do not know the answer myself. Ask the democratic European Union, they may know the answer.

Mr. Lebamof, I took great interest in reading your interview published in Skopje’s “Forum” last October. I understand that you are an honest man and lover of truth. I decided to write to you as you are of the same age as my eldest brother, Dimitar, which means that your father and my mother may have been classmates at the Bulgarian Exarchate School in Istanbul.

However, before I start writing about your father and my mother, I would like to present you a small piece of our Macedonian tragedy: I was born in the Kostur village of Zagorichani, neighbouring the village of your father, Visheni. At that time, around 1870-1880, there were two little kids playing in the neighborhood: one was called Dimitar, the other was Vasil. Both of them attended a gymnasium in Thessalonica, Dimitar in a Bulgarian and Vasil who became Vasilis enrolled the Greek gymnasium. Dimitar left Solun and continued his education in Petrovgrad, Russia. After graduation, he intended to return home, but on his way back, he stopped in Sophia where he founded the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party. Dimitar’s family name was Blagoev. In his honour, the city was named Blagoevgrad.

Vasilis continued studying at the Greek clerical academy in Istanbul. It is quite possible that your father and my mother went to the same school. After his graduation, the Greek Church sent Vasilis to work in Anatolia, in the town of Smyrna. In 1922, when the Greek army invaded the city of Smyrna, Vasilis had already been appointed a head of the church of Smyrna and showed the Greek army the location of the Turkish villages. According to a Greek professor, only a few people survived there. That is the reason why, when Ataturk’s army besieged Smyrna, they had expelled all the Greeks along with Onosis, and hanged Vasilis.Hundreds of thousands of refugees took flight in Macedonia, some went to Kostur. In 1924, my grandfather, accompanied by two other residents from Zagorichani, visited Kostur on a humanitarian mission: 30 refugee families-Madjiri, were sheltered in Zagorihcani. They knew that Vasilis, the head of the church in Smyrna, was born in Zagorichani, so in 1928, the Madjirs renamed our village Vasiliada to pay respect to Vasilis. That is the official name of Zagorichani, Mr. Lebamoff, that is how Vasil became Greek and Dimitar turned Bulgarian.

In the Kostur village, your father and my mother spoke the same language, OUR language, at home. It was the first language of our parents. In Istanbul, they learnt the second language, Bulgarian. Your father immigrated to America and continued to teach you the second language, Bulgarian, whereas our mother cherished the first, language of Zagorichani, the Macedonian language. I can clearly recall the year 1943 when we used to go to church and where my mother would tell me: “This lady speaks Bulgarian; we studied together in Istanbul, but her husband can only speak our language.”

Some members of the MPO claim that the “Macedonian Tribune” ought to be printed in Bulgarian or the language of the Ilinden revolutionists. In 1903, there was no Macedonian alphabet and our neighbouring countries would not open academies in Athens, Sophia or Belgrade. If only the Ilinden revolutionists could have written in Macedonian! Almost all the leaders of Ilinden completed their education in Sophia, normally, without any fees, as is the case nowadays. They could only write in Bulgarian. That is exactly what they did. Even Goce Delcev wrote in Bulgarian, he was a Bulgarian teacher who said: “Whoever wishes to see Macedonia annexed to Bulgaria, Greece or Serbia, he can regard himself as a good Bulgarian, Greek or Serb, but can never be a good Macedonian.”

The Ilinden leaders wrote in Bulgarian because of the reasons mentioned above; the Ilinden army and its soldiers spoke ours, the Macedonian language. It was during the period of 1940 until 1948 when I communicated with those soldiers in that language which was not Bulgarian.

Your father, as well as other Macedonians from Kostur region, Mr. Lebamoff, who started to publish the “Macedonian Tribune”, were not writing in their mother tongue, in the Kostur language, in the Macedonian, but used the language they had studied at the Bulgarian school, as had Goce Delcev. You maintain that Blaze Koneski modified the language and the alphabet; you are mistaken; what he did is he took the language variant spoken in Kostur, Lerin, Bitola and Prilep in order to define an official Macedonian language. Now you will say that in Kostur we do not use the word “vlada”(government), or “pravitelstvo” (legislation). After the liberation of Bulgaria from the Turkish occupation in 1878, the Bulgarians borrowed thousands of Russian words, among which “pravitelstvo”. Who passed a law in 1945 stating that we should be borrowing words only from the Bulgarian or Russian languages, and not the other Slavic languages like Serbo-Croatian? Both the Serbs and Croats have the same word “vlada”, but in Kostur we did not say that’s how the Turks “pravestvuvaja” for 5 centuries, but “vladeeja” (governed) for 5 centuries.

Some people in Bulgaria and MPO claim that the Macedonian language and nation were born under the command of Stalin and Tito in the monastery of Prohor Pchinski, on Ilinden 1944. If you, or anybody else can tell me exactly when and at what time that took place, I will be ready to forget the Macedonian history starting from the times of Alexander the Great to Cyril and Methodius and Tsar Samuil, followed by Karposh, Delchev and Chento ending with Kiro Gligorov, in other words everything that is Macedonian, and I will start to declare as Macedonian from that day, that hour and that very minute. Oh, Mr. Lebamoff, where were Stalin and Tito in 1903 when Misirkov published his book “For the Macedonian Matters”? There he declared to be Macedonian, that his grandfather who was illiterate and believed in foreign propaganda might have declared as Bulgarian, but, the question Misirkov posed is the following: Being educated and literate, do I have to do the same?” Misirkov wrote the book in Macedonian and if you start reading it, you will notice that today’s Macedonian language is closer to the Bulgarian than to the language of Misirkov.

Do you know that the Greek government in Athens in 1925 ordered the publication of a Primer book in the language spoken in the village of Visheni? The three teachers who were the authors of the book intended for the Macedonian students were Macedonians originating from Kostur. If you find it hard to believe me, I keep one sample of the book and I am willing to send it to you. That book was written in the language of your and my mother, the first language of your father. We, the Macedonian students, back in the year 1953, in Budapest, formed a secret literacy society. One of the members was from Visheni. At that time, being still children, never before had we heard of Koneski, or Kolisevski, but knew that there existed an “imperialistic dog” residing in Yugoslavia, whose name was Tito.

If the people who state that the Macedonian language was born in 1944, are right, then that is not a miracle each language develops. Until 1990 there was no Serbian or Croatian, but only a Serbo-Croatian language. All the dictionaries before 1990 had been printed in Serbo-Croatian-Russian, Serbo-Croatia-English etc. Now, it is only Serbian or Croatian. Even at present times, radio London announces: this is London in Serbo-Croatian, or Paris: This is radio Paris in south Slavic, which is actually Serbo-Croatian. If you speak the same language, does it necessarily mean that you are of the same nationality? Are you a Englishman? What about the Germans and Austrians? Not to mention the Spaniards and Mexicans, or Argentineans? The Serbo-Croatian is far more related than Macedonian to Bulgarian, and yet the Serbs and Croats regard themselves as separate nations. What seems to be the problem then between the Bulgarians and us? Due to the aspirations towards Macedonia, Bulgaria suffered a great loss, but it apparently did not learn its lesson.

For the tragedy to be greater, I will tell you that 5 years ago, I invited 15 close relatives from Macedonia, Greece and Bulgaria to spend their vacation in Ohrid, among which my sister from Zagorichani. When I asked them what their nationality was, they answered me by asking the same question. I told them I was Macedonian. “Being of the same origin, makes us Macedonians, too,” they said. I asked them how they declare themselves in Bulgaria and Greece and they answered: “We do as we are told: we are either Bulgarians or Greeks by ‘origin’.” You will ask me how that may be possible, but I do not know the answer. Ask the democratic European Union. They may have the right answer.

Mr. LebamoFf, I am not a man of substantial wealth, however, I will be able to collect enough means and support your transportation so that together, we could follow the traces of truth. First of all, I would like to let you know that I grew up in Hungary with over 100 children, some of whom came from your village Visheni. Let us begin with Budapest, where, we will pay a visit to Kosta Andreov who publishes the Macedonian magazine ”Macedonian Well”. Then, we will ask this patriot, born in your village, to tell us how he regards himself in Hungary, as a Macedonian or Bulgarian. We will then continue our trip to Bulgaria to see my relatives. You will not disclose your name, for if they find out you are Lebamoff, they will be frightened. I am not certain that the Bulgarians will grant me a visa because they rejected my application in 1961 when I wished to spend my honeymoon there, only because I declared myself as Macedonian, whereas my wife had no problems obtaining it. Leaving Bulgaria, our next destination will be my native village Zagorichani and there we will ask my sister some questions. She won’t be afraid of you since she will have no idea who you are. Then, we will head to your village of Visheni. Should we find a single person during our journey declaring to be a Bulgarian, then you will not have to return the travel expenses. However if they all say to be Macedonians, then you are responsible for bearing the expenditures. I would have suggested Australia as a better place since there is a large number of children-refugees I grew up together with in Hungary, but I’m afraid if they see me with you, they will beat me up thinking I became a Janissary.

I will be ready to anything that can happen to me in Bulgaria or Greece, since every day is my punishment, having outlived the three of my brothers who had sacrificed their lives in order to be allowed to speak the language of the Ilinden revolutionists who had been educated in Bulgaria.

Do you, Mr. Lebamoff, know that in May 1903, just before Ilinden, a Greek reporter interviewed the president of the Krushevo republic, Nikola Karev. He asked him the following question: “ What are you? –A Macedonian, replied Karev. Then, why are you in favour of Bulgaria? –Bulgaria is aiding us in our struggle against the Turks. If you Greeks offer yourselves to help us, we will favour you as well,” said Karev. The interview was published in the Athenian “Akropolis” newspaper. Should you wish to read it, I can send you the Macedonian translation or the original copy of the newspaper written in Greek. You will excuse me but I do not have the Bulgarian version, a fact that is still hiding there until this present day.

You say you visited Vancho Mihajloff when you were 50 years of age, and Mihajloff was at the age of 100. Then he told you: “Georgi, you are a Bulgarian.” Didn’t you know that already? Or did you have to wait for a senile old senseless man to tell you who you are? What would you say if I visited you and told you were a Turk. Would you believe me? I graduated from 2 universities and I believe to have more brain than Ratko and here is the argument: at the beginning of 1944, Ratko arrived in Skopje in order to form a second Bulgarian state the Balkans - a fascist Republic of Macedonia. The whole world knew that Germany had lost the war and that the Red Army crossed Danube and was within reach of the city of Sophia. What was Mihajloff doing there? Did Mihajloff lose his brain? His people in Skopje told him this: “Uncle Ratko, get out of here right now since Chento’s partisans are arriving in Skopje from all sides and once they catch you, they will hang you on a tree by the river Vardar. Mihajloff got scared and left immediately. Did you know that?

Mr. Lebamoff, if you do know the tragic history of our suffering Macedonian people, you will not only become a Macedonian patriot like myself, but a Macedonian nationalist as are all the people born in Visheni, especially those living as far as Australia.

To sum up, Mr. Lebamoff, I would like to let you know that my youngest brother was shot in Solun at the age of 17, and the other two brothers and my mother lost their lives fighting for the rights of the Macedonian people at the battlefield near your father’s village, Visheni. I do not have any information as to the location of my mother’s and my brothers’ graves, but when we meet up there, in front of the gates of heaven, can I tell them: Sorry mother and brothers, you were in a delusion.

D-r Lefter Mance,

Ottawa, February