Of all perplexing subjects in the world few can be more baffling than
the distribution of races in Macedonia. The Turks classify the
population, not by language or by physical characteristics, but by
religion. A Greek is a member of the Orthodox Church who {80}
recognizes the patriarch of Constantinople; a Bulgarian, on the other
hand, is one of the same religious faith who recognizes the exarch; and
since the Servians in Turkey have no independent church but recognize
the patriarchate they are often, as opposed to Bulgarians, called
Greeks. Race, being thus merged in religion--in something that rests
on the human will and not on physical characteristics fixed by
nature--can in that part of the world be changed as easily as religion.
A Macedonian may be a Greek to-day, a Bulgarian to-morrow, and a
Servian next day. We have all heard of the captain in the comic opera
who "in spite of all temptations to belong to other nations" remained
an Englishman. There would have been nothing comic in this assertion
had the redoubtable captain lived in Macedonia. In that land a race is
a political party composed of members with common customs and religion
who stand for a "national idea" which they strenuously endeavor to
force on others.
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Macedonia is the land of such racial propaganda. As the Turkish
government forbids public meetings for political purposes, the
propaganda takes an ecclesiastical and linguistic form. Each "race"
seeks to convert the people to its faith by the agency of schools and
churches, which teach and use its own language. Up to the middle of
the nineteenth century the Greeks, owing to their privileged
ecclesiastical position in the Ottoman Empire, had exclusive spiritual
and educational jurisdiction over the members of the Orthodox Church in
Macedonia. The opposition of the Bulgarians led, as we have already
seen, to the establishment in 1870 of the exarchate, that is, of an
independent Bulgarian Orthodox Church with the exarch at its head. The
Bulgarian propaganda in Macedonia demanded the appointment of bishops
to conduct churches and schools under the authority of the exarchate.
In 1891 the Porte conceded Bulgarian bishops to Ochrida and Uskub, in
1894 to Veles and Nevrokop, {82} and in 1898 to Monastir, Strumnitza,
and Dibra. As has been well said, the church of the exarchate was
really occupied in creating Bulgarians: it offered to the Slavonic
population of Macedonia services and schools conducted in a language
which they understood and showed a genuine interest in their education.
By 1900 Macedonia had 785 Bulgarian schools, 39,892 pupils, and 1,250
teachers.
The Servian propaganda in Macedonia was at a disadvantage in comparison
with the Bulgarian because it had not a separate ecclesiastical
organization. As we have already seen, the orthodox Serbs owe
allegiance to the Greek patriarch in Constantinople. And at first they
did not push their propaganda as zealously or as successfully as the
Bulgarians. In fact the national aspirations of the people of Servia
had been in the direction of Bosnia and Herzegovina; but after these
provinces were assigned to Austria by the Treaty of Berlin, a marked
{83} change of attitude occurred in the Servian government and nation.
They now claimed as Servian the Slavonic population of Macedonia which
hitherto Bulgaria had cultivated as her own. The course of politics in
Bulgaria, notably her embroilment with Russia, inured to the advantage
of the Servian propaganda in Macedonia, which after 1890 made great
headway. The Servian government made liberal contributions for
Macedonian schools. And before the nineteenth century closed the
Servian propaganda could claim 178 schools in the vilayets of Saloniki
and Monastir and in Uskub with 321 teachers and 7,200 pupils.
These Slav propagandists made serious encroachments upon the Greek
cause, which, only a generation earlier, had possessed a practical
monopoly in Macedonia. Greek efforts too were for a time almost
paralyzed in consequence of the disastrous issue of the Greco-Turkish
war in 1897. Nevertheless in 1901 the Greeks claimed 927 schools in
the vilayets of {84} Saloniki and Monastir with 1,397 teachers and
57,607 pupils.