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 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.
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, 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 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 Saloniki and Monastir with 1,397
teachers and 57,607 pupils.