As a result of the great migration of peoples a large number of Slavs moved from their ancient fatherland (the territory between the Baltic Sea, the Carpathians and the rivers Dnieper and Dniester) and by the close of the 5th century they had Slavicised the regions on the left bank of the River Danube. Thus the River Danube became a natural frontier between Byzantium and the Slavic world.

From the beginning of the 6th century the Byzantine dominions were subject to frequent massive movements and attacks on the part of the trans-Danubian Slavs. From then onwards the territory of Macedonia (which was governed as a province of the Illyric prefecture whose capital was Salonica) was exposed to continual spoliation by the Slavs. These attacks became particularly frequent from the mid-6th century, when the Slavs began to take over Byzantine territory. From the 60's of the 6th century the territory of Macedonia was also raped and pillaged by the Avars who had settled in the Pannonian plain.

From the close of the 6th century the territory of Macedonia, like the other Byzantine dominions in the Balkans, was exposed to continual settlement by the trans-Danubian Slav tribes. From that time onwards the city of Salonica (Thessaloniki) became an object of Slavonic and combined Slavonic and Avar sieges and attacks. As a result of large-scale and intensive Slav colonization, in the 30's of the 7th century the whole territory of Macedonia, with the exception of Salonica, was settled by Slavs (1). Influenced by its Slavonic surroundings even Salonica underwent considerable Slavonic influence so that in the 9th century, in the Life of St. Methodius. it is written that "all the citizens of Salonica speak a pure Slavonic" (2). Thus, as was stated by the French Byzantine scholar P. Lemerle, "Macedonia in the 7th and 8th centuries was more Slavonic than Greek" (3). According to G. Ostrogorsky. Macedonia was at this time lost to Byzantium "and found itself in the hands of the Slavs, consisting of a conglomeration of Sklavinii" (4). These were the districts of distinct Slav tribes: the Dragoviti, Sagudati. Velegiziti. Strumjani. Smoljani, Rinhini, Berziti. etc. (5).

As a result of the Slav colonization of Macedonia certain radical ethnic and socio-economic changes took place. The Slavonic ethnos became dominant. The native inhabitants, the Macedonians, had continued to exist and, after the extinction of the ancient Macedonian state in the 2nd century BC at the hands of the Romans, as writes F. Papazoglou (6) "maintaining their ethnic characteristics, their language, their belief and customs' they were by the period of Slavonic colonization already perceptibly diluted" (7). Those, however, who had remained in their native homesteads gradually became assimilated by particular Slavonic tribes, in the process transmitting to the Slavs certain of their own customs, the Christian faith, culture and also the name of their fatherland and their identity, Macedonia and Macedonians. This had the effect that the Byzantine authors of the 8th century called the Slavicised districts "the Sklavinii" in Macedonia (8).

In the course of the 7th century the Slav tribes which had settled in Macedonia were already attempting, through an association of larger tribal leagues, to take Salonica, which had remained as the single Byzantine base on the territory of Macedonia, and to create their own Slav state in Macedonia. The first such league was created in the second decade of the 7th century with Price Hacon at its head. Byzantium, however, succeeded in rendering it impossible for the associated Macedonian Slav tribes to capture Salonica. In the second half of the 7th century the Slavs in Macedonia once more came together in a larger tribal league led by Rex ("King") Prebond. But this tribal league was also dispersed by Byzantium when Prebond was captured by deceit and put to death in 674. After his death the Macedonian Sklavinii were exposed to continual attacks from the Byzantine army; and yet, in spite of this, they were not subdued. In the course of the 8th century the Macedonian Sklavinii developed into anti-state formations, administered by their princes (archonts, a Greek word) and "kings" (reges). During this period the Sklavinii had at their disposal their own hoplites (heavily-armed infantrymen, another Greek word) (9).

With the strengthening of the Bulgarian state at the beginning of the 9th century, the Macedonian Sklavinii were also exposed to more frequent Bulgarian attacks, on account of which Byzantium continued and intensified its attacks along the River Struma. As a result of this by the mid-9th century the majority of the territory of Macedonia had fallen under Bulgarian rule. The Macedonians lost their independence but still retained a significant degree of internal self-government. Towards the close of the century the Bulgarian ruler Simeon included the whole of Macedonia within his frontiers.

However, a significant event in the history of Macedonia and the history of the Slavs in general took place in 863 when the distinguished Byzantine missionaries from Salonica, the brothers Sts. Cyril and Methodius and their disciples, set out for Moravia bearing with them the first books in a Slavonic language, written in the Glagolitic alphabet which they themselves had invented. It is of particular significance that this new form of writing was created on the basis of the phonetic principles of the Slavs in Macedonia (from the surroundings of Salonica) and that the first translations of the holy books were made into the language of the Macedonian Slavs. This was the fourth language, in addition to Hebrew, Greek and Latin, which was officially recognized by the Christian church.

The process of Christianisation was completed in Macedonia as early as the course of the second half of the 9th century. After the propagation of Sts. Cyril and Methodius' Moravian mission (885), St. Clement, after a brief sojourn in Pliska, was nominated a teacher in the region of Kutmichevica, which included the south-western Macedonian districts (Strumica Region), and the Ohrid Glagolitic literary school was established. Thanks to St. Clement and, after 893, St. Naum (who took over the role of teacher when St. Clement was named the first Slav archbishop), about 3,500 Slav teachers, clergy, writers and other literary figures emerged from the Ohrid literary school whose activity was crowned with the laying of sound foundations for the building-up of the Slavonic cultural, educational and ecclesiastical organization (10).

In the first half of the 10th century Bogomil teaching, led by the priest Bogomil, appeared in Macedonia and became active chiefly in the Veles and Prilep regions. Within a short period of time Bogomilism had grown into a large-scale popular movement. Neither the Bulgarian Czar Peter nor help from the Patriarchate of Constantinople was able to eradicate this newly-appeared heresy (11). In such circumstances the Slavs in Macedonia raised a rebellion towards the close of the 60's of the 10th century. At the head of the uprising were the sons of Prince Nikola, the comitopules David, Moses, Aaron and Samoil. The rebellion. which was against Bulgarian rule, was carried out successfully and as a result of this the foundations of a new Slav state in the Balkans, known as Samuil's Empire after the founder of the imperial dynasty were laid in 969. Its nucleus was the territory of the former "Bersite" Sklavinia where the capital Prespa was situated. This town became not merely a state but also in ecclesiastical seat. Up to 976 the four brothers were jointly ruling the state whose basic nucleus was made up of Macedonian Sklavinii. After the destruction of the Bulgarian Empire in 971 Byzantium imposed its supreme authority on this state, which continued to exist but as a vassal state. An uprising against Byzantine rule took place in Macedonia and as a result of this it once again attained its independence. In the same year Samuil's brothers were killed and he became the sole monarch of the state. Within a short period of time Samuil had built up a body of military commanders and trained a large army. As a result of this, by the close of the 10th century, the entire territory of Macedonia (with the exception of Salonica), large parts of Bulgaria, Serbia, Duclia and Bosnia, a part of Dalmatia, part of Albania including Dyrrachium and a part of Greece had been included within the borders of this state. After their considerable territorial conquests Samuil was proclaimed Emperor in his capital of Prespa which was situated on the island of Achilleus in the lake of Prespa and was crowned by the Pope of Rome and thus his state was transformed into an empire and the church was elevated to the rank of an archbishopric (12).

State institutions were established in Samuil's state and vast state and ecclesiastical systems were formed as well as a standing army. All of this enabled Macedonia to institute the process of tribal integration into a people in the 10th century. And thus the tradition of Samuil, the founder of an imperial dynasty, became permanently linked to it.

Samuil's empire, which was a typical early-feudal state, existed up to the year 1018. In the course of Byzantine rule (11th and 12th centuries) there were two large-scale uprisings whose ultimate goal was the renewal of Samuil's Empire. These endeavours, however, bore no success.

Throughout the entire period of Byzantine rule the Macedonians continued to cherish their ethnic characteristics - their language, culture and customs. Even in Ohrid itself, the seat of the Archbishopric, the citizens of Ohrid, as the Greek Archbishop Theophilactos himself declared, continued to communicate in their mother tongue which was for him a "barbarian" one. Likewise the name Macedonia continued to be used as is testified to in the letters of Theophilactos of Ohrid himself, who stated to the recipients of the letters that he lived "within the narrow confines of our Macedonia" (13).

And in the following centuries, when the Macedonians had a variety of alien overlords, they remained as a separate Slavonic people. It is, for example, confirmed in the synodal acts of the Archbishopric of Ohrid that in the first half of the 13th century, when Macedonia came under the rule of the Despots of Epirus, the inhabitants of Macedonia continued to declare themselves as Macedonians (14). Such was the case too in the first half of the 14th century when the greater part of Macedonia came under Serbian rule. Even the Serbian ruler himself in his law-code (the Ravenica Transcript) is entitled "the bountiful and Christ-loving Macedonian Czar Stefan the sole ruler of the Serbian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Dalmatian, Albanian, Hungaro-vallachian and many other parts and lands" (15). Tzar Dushan, who was corronated in Skopje, is also designated both in the Sofia and the Zagreb transcripts of the Law-Code as "Macedonian Czar" (16). Such broader titling of Dushan was, as Ivan Snegarov says, a result of the fact that he had a large number of alien peoples under his rule (17).

After the collapse of Dushan's Empire towards the middle of the 14th century a number of independent feudal states and districts were created in the territory of Macedonia. The chief place among these was occupied by the Kingdom of Prilep, which was established in 1365 by King Volkasin (1365 - 71) and which, after his death, was administered by his son Marko (1371 - 1395), as an independent Macedonian ruler until 1385 and thereafter as a vassal of Ottoman Turkey. Smaller states were established by Uglesha (Volkasin's brother), by Constantine and other independent rulers (18). After the death of Marko and Constantine at the Battle of Rovine (1395), in which they took part as Ottoman Turkish vassals, the whole territory of Macedonia (with the exception of Salonica) came under direct Turkish Ottoman rule.

A different approach to the same issue

 With the split of the Roman empire into Western and Eastern, Macedonia found herself in the Eastern Roman empire, that later became the Byzantine Empire. Thessaloniki became the 2nd in importance city of the empire, after Constantinople.

For the early Byzantine period we don't have much of data available on Macedonia. The same happens with other areas of the Byzantine Empire proving that the things in those areas were pretty normal. For the time that Macedonia was a secured inner part of the empire, there are no data concerning the area. But as time goes by, and the Byzantine empire starts its shrinking, then military events take place in the area and data on the area appears. The data that we have for the early periods originate in the Byzantine legislation, the records of Agion Oros, and the narrations of the Miracles of Saint Dimitrios. From the last source we learn most of the things about the Avar and Slav invasions.

By the days of emperor Ioustinianos I (482-566), a number of barbaric tribes appeared in the Balkans, and performed invasions against the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines organized the state's defence with the formation of the themas (Click here to view a relevant map). First appeared the Avars, and later the Slavs that cooperated with the Avars in invading the empire below the Danube (Istros) river (avaroslav invasions). The avaroslav invasions finally stopped in 626, when the Avars departed form the Balkans. The Slavs remained in the area below the Danube river.

By the 7th century some Slavic tribes already lived inside the Byzantine empire, in Macedonia, Central Hellas and Peloponnissos. The Slavs lived in small groups that were named as Sklavinies. The Sklavinies were located amongst the native Greek populations, and were agricultural communities that were influenced by the native populations. They recognized the authority of the Byzantine emperor and paid taxes, though some rebellions against the Byzantine empire were recorded. They also participated in the Byzantine army. There are no records of Sklavinies after 836/837 and no mentioning of them in the sources. The Byzantine emperors implemented a demographic policy, in order to protect the homogeneity of the hellenic population of Macedonia, and generally, of the empire. The expeditions of 658, 688, 759, 783, of the Byzantine emperors against the Sklavinies, along with their colonizing policy and the Christianization of the Slavs in 864, resulted in the obeisance and absorption of the slavic populations by the native Greek population.

Meanwhile the Bulgarians arrived in the Balkans and got mixed with the Slavs that were already living there (in Bulgaria), and were culturally affected by them. They started creating trouble at the Northern borders of the Byzantine empire until 864 when the Byzantinian emperor Michael III send two brothers from Thessaloniki, the monks Cyrillos and Methodios to christianize the Slavs and the Bulgarians and teach them to read and write. The Bulgarian hegemon, Vogoris, was first baptized as Christian. After 864 the Bulgarians had good relationships with the Byzantines for a short period of time.

In 894 the situation changed when the Bulgarian hegemon Symeon invaded Thrace. In 899-900 the Byzantines defeated the Bulgarians and obliged Symeon to a peace treaty.

In 30/7/904 the Arabs (Sarakinoi) lodged Thessaloniki, and abandoned the town 3 days later with 22,000 prisoners who were transferred to Tarsos of Kilikia, and finally returned after the Byzantine's diplomatic acts.

In the 11th century the Bulgarians, with leader the Tsar Samuel, began invading Byzantinian lands and managed to create a large Bulgarian state that included Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thessaly. In 1014 Samuel was finally defeated by the Byzantinian emperor Vassilios II the Bulgarocton, and 4 years later (February 1018) his state was destroyed, and the last Bulgarian Tsar, Ioannis Vladislavos was killed. The "historians" of FYROM claim that the state of Samuel was the first "Macedonian" state. That is untrue because if it was so then the Byzantinian emperor would not be named as Bulgarocton (=killer of the Bulgarians) but as Macedonocton! Also the Byzantines themselves regarded Samuel and his state as Bulgarian, and that is the reason why they named the new Thema they founded in his state's lands as Bulgaria.

In 971 the Typikon of Mount Athos was written, and only in the 12th century were some monasteries given to non-Greek monks:

In 1169 Russians monks entered the Monastery of Panteleimon
In 1198 Serbian monks were given the Monastery of Chilandarion
By 1220 Bulgarian monks lived in the Monastery of Zografou
In 1204, during the 4th Crusade, the Franks occupied Constantinople.

After the conquer of Constantinople in 1204, the Franks proceeded with the occupation of the remaining lands of the Byzantine empire. The residents of those lands practically surrendered to them. The Byzantine empire was temporarily succeeded by the non-Frankish states of the Empire of Nikaia, and the Despotate of Epirus.

The hegemon of the Despotate of Epirus, Theodoros Doukas acquired the lands of Macedonia, from the Franks. In 1216 he captured Achrida, Prilapo and Pelagonia. In December 1224 he captured Thessaloniki and destroyed the Lombardic Kingdom of Thessaloniki. In 1227 he was proclaimed an emperor in Thessaloniki and formed the Byzantine Empire of Thessaloniki.

In 1246 the emperor of Nikaia Ioannis III Vatatzis extended his empire to the lands of Macedonia and destroyed the Empire of Thessaloniki. In 1254 the Tsar of Bulgaria Michael I Assen, occupied territories of Thrace and Macedonia. The successor of Vatatzis, Theodoros Laskaris (1254-1258) attacked the Bulgarians and defeated them in 1256.

In 1258 Laskaris died and was succeeded by Michael VIII Palaiologos (1258-1282). M. Palaiologos defeated (summer 1259) the allied forces of the Despotate of Epirus and the Franks in the Pelagonia valley, and extended the empire of Nikaia to the Adriadic Sea. On 25/7/1261 he recaptured Constantinople by his general Alexios Stratigopoulos and ended the Frankish occupation of the town. On 15/8/1261 he was announced Byzantine emperor in Agia Sofia. The Byzantine empire was reformed, but basically limited to the areas of Macedonia, Thrace and Asia Minor.

In 1282 the Byzantines signed a peace treaty with the Serb kralli Stefan Ouresi II Miloutin (1282-1321) that had previously captured Scopje. The peace treaty was verified in 1299 with the marriage of Miloutin with Simonis, the daugher of emperor Andronikos II (who had succeeded Michael VIII in the Byzantine throne).

In 1328 Andronikos III succeeded Andronikos II. Until 1354 the Byzantine empire faced a civil war, and the attacks of the Bulgarians, Serbs and Turks. The Serb kralli Stefan Doussan managed to occupy many territories of the Byzantine empire (in 1343 Edessa, Kastoria, Florina and in 1345 Serres). He was announced emperor of Serbia and Romania in the sring of 1346 in Scopje, by the Patriarch of Serbia. After his death in 1355 his state was destoyed.

On March 1354 the Turks occupied Kallipolis, in Thrace, which they used as a base for performing attacks in the European lands.

On April 1387 the Thessaloniki surrendered to the Turks. In 1385 the Turk Sultan Murat I, captured Prilapo, Monastiri, Kastoria. In 1386 Naissos, Kitros (Pydna), Stomion, Larissa, in 1387 Veroia, Sofia.

In 1389 his successor Vayazit I subjugated the Serbs and the Bulgarians in 1393. In 1391 he captured Thessaloniki and in 1393 Thessalia.

On 28/7/1402 Vayazit was defeated and imprisoned by the Mongol Timour (Tamerlan). His son Suleiman, returned to the Byzantines Thessaloniki, Chalkidiki, Athos mount, Skiathos, Skopelos, Skyros, Propontis and the coasts of Black Sea.

In 1422 Murat II sieges Thessaloniki which was surrendered to the Venets on 14/9/1423. The Othoman occupation in Macedonia started on 29/3/1430 Murat II when captured Thessaloniki.

Typically the year 1430 (conquer of Thessaloniki) is the beginning of the Othoman occupation of Macedonia. Even from the end of the 14th century (1372,1385,1394), when the Turks warriors of Evrenos appear against Thessaloniki, a number of semi-nomadic Turkish populations settled in Macedonia (Yiouroukoi). They cooperated with the Othoman authority and in reward they were exempt of some taxes.

A part of the enslaved native Greek populations of Macedonia, immigrated to the free, or, frankish-held Greek lands, and then to the West (Italy, etc). Among them were many intellectuals who promoted the Greek culture:

Theodoros Gazis
Andronikos Kallistos
Ioannis Laskaris (librarian of Lorenzo de Medici, end of 15th century)
Another part of the Greeks, moved from the plains to the mountainous areas of Macedonia, and formed mew villages. So the muslim population became rather dominant in the plains. Almost all of the villages of Western Macedonia were formed that way: Galatini, Kleisoura, Vogatsiko, Selitsa, Vlasti, Siatista, Kostaratzi.

While he was in Thessaloniki collecting manuscripts (end of 15th cent.), Ioannis Laskaris reported that:

"...In most of the mountainous areas the Turks are afraid to approach, and they only collect the charatsi (tax) that the villagers willingly pay. In some areas the christians don't want to pay and they sometimes attack the Turks..."
He was also present in a meeting in Thessaloniki, where other Greeks were describing the night of the town's conquer, and that's why, when he returned to the West, he asked from the Western hegemons to even provide the Greeks with wooden broadswords with the word "eleftheria" (freedom in Greek) printed on them!

The schools of the 16th century provided the basic education for the Greeks that helped the coiling of the Hellenism. The old Byzantine institutions were adapted to the new conditions. The structure and composition of the communities' councils of Thessaloniki and Serres prompted to the Byzantine origin of the members (Mazaris, Laskaris, Melissinos, Argyropoulos, Palaiologos, etc.).

During the 16th and 17th century the development of the Middle East trade, the overpopulation of the mountainous villages and the decline of the Othoman empire, caused the reverse movement of the Greek populations. Many villages immigrated to the plains where urban centres were formed: Scopje, Monastiri, Kassandreia, Kavala, Serres, Drama. Those people were workers and traders. Also Bulgarians, Serbs and Arvanites seasonal workers moved from their lands to work in the estates of the Turks of Macedonia and Thrace.

From the mid of 17th century we have much more data on the condition in occupied Macedonia that derives from the reports of travellers, like: the Turks Evlia Tselembi and Catzi Kalfa, the French Robert De Dreux and the English Ed. Brown (1674) and John Covel (1667). All of them mark the Greek tradition of the Greek populations. The talk about Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Hebrews, Serbs, Bulgarians, but, not of any special Macedonian nationality!

According to Chatzi Kalfa, the villages around Kastoria were inhabited by Turks, while on the mountains lived a population that originated in the mixture of Serbian and Bulgarian population. Also, according to Kalfa, the same kind of people lived in the areas near Achrida. Those were groups of nationally-unconscious people as they were characterized by the Serbian anthropologist J. Cvijic in 1907-1918 ("La peninsule balkanique, Geographie humaine", Paris 1918). Those people came from the mixture of some Serbian populations, with numerous Bulgarian workers and farmers, who moved to the S.Balkan in the 18th century. The main passages of the Bulgarians were the valleys of Strymonas and Nestos, and the mountains' slacks. Those populations gradually acquired a Bulgarian national conscience in the 19th century. In the 19th century the movement of Bulgarians to the South was increased because of:

The Panslav propaganda
The propaganda of the Bulgarian Exarchate
The attempts of the Turks to wear down the dominant Greek demographic character of Macedonia, in order to prevent the unification of Macedonia with Greece.

Meanwhile we have an immigration of Greeks to the North, the towns of Eastern Pomylia, Efxinos Pontos, etc. Such Greeks were the Sarakatsanoi. That immigration was even helped by the 1718 Passarowic Agreement that brought the Austrian borders below Belgrade, near to occupied Macedonia. The Russian-Turkish war of 1774 caused a lot of anarchy in Macedonia because of the actions of Albanians and Turks robbers. Many villages were abandoned (Katranitsa, Ostrovo, Gramenikos, Chorovina, Gerakina, Ochtas, etc ), and the villagers settled around Thessaloniki, Serres, Veroia, Edessa and Giannitsa.

The Russian-Turkish wars of 1787-1793 caused permenant trouble in Macedonia, where the people started hoping for freedom. The Greek Revolution of 1821 was rapidly spread in Macedonia, but didn't result in its liberation with the rest of Greece in 1827. With the 3/2/1835 agreement, Theodoros Vallianos was appointed as the first Greek Consul, in Thessaloniki.

The revolutions in Thessalia (1854) and Crete (1860-1864) initiated numerous, unsuccessful though, rebellion acts in Macedonia.

The formation of the Greek kingdom in 1827 was the beginning of the end for the occupation of European lands by the Othoman empire.

The Bulgarian and Serbian nationalism have reached a climax, with the dream of their own "Big National Idea":

The renaissance of the state of Stephan Doussan (1331-1355), for the Serbs
The renaissance of the state of Hegemon Symeon (893-927) and Tsar Samuel (976-1014), for the Bulgarians.
The basic aim of those ideas for Macedonia was either to be annexed to future Serbia, or, to future Bulgaria

The same thing was happenning with the Greek populations that were dreaming the renaissance of the Byzantine empire, and that had fought against the Othoman empire in the Greek Revolution (1821-1828), but had not been liberated yet.

Also Austria and Russia wanted to gain access to the Aegean Sea through the port of Thessalokini and they would use any method to succeed in it. The statement of the Russian Tsar Nikolaos in 1854, while addressing to the British Ambassador of Petroupolis, Hamilton Seymour is quite characteristic:

"A strong Greek kingdom or Greek nation is against the interests of Russia's southern gates"
New York Tribune, 5/4/1854 and "Eastern Question", London 1897
In 1870 the Bulgaric Exarchate was founded with a Sultan's Decree, and in 1872 the scism of the Bulgaric Exarchate occured. On 21/2/1878 (3/3/1878), Russia obliged the Othoman empire with the signing of the Saint Stefan treaty. Tsar Nikolaos had given his ambassador in Constantinople, Ignatiev, the order:

"Not a span of earth to Greece"

According to the treaty, the Othoman empire recognized the independence of a Bulgarian state (Hegemony) that lay from Danube river to the Aegean Sea and from the Black Sea to Thessaloniki (without Thessaloniki, Chalkidiki, Kozani, Servia). That treaty gave Russia the access to the Aegean Sea that she was after and satisfied the Bulgarians' nationalism. The Greek populations immediatelly opposed to that treaty. They sent memos protesting to the Great Forces. The Greeks of Scopje sent a memo with 14,000 signatures. Also a spontaneous revolution started in Olympos mountain, but wasn't successful. On 1/7/1878 (13/7/1878) the Great Forces interfered and cancelled the Saint Stefan treaty, with the Treaty of Berlin.

On September 1885 Bulgaria annexed the area of Eastern Romelia (NE of Macedonia) with 200,000 Greeks, violating in that way the Treaty of Berlin.

The Bulgarians, with the support of Russia, the discreet British coverage and the favorable for them Othoman neutrality, proceeded in their plans for systematic religious and national propaganda in Macedonia. They aimed first in the increase of the number of members of the Bulgarian Exarchate, and then at their proselytism. They offered scolarships for studies in Sofia, in order to affect young people. Also, since 1885 Bulgaric invasions in Eastern Macedonia were reported.

In 1893 the Bulgarians organized the "Secret Macedon-Andrianopolitical Revolutionary Organization" that was renamed into "Internal Macedon-Andrianoupolitical Revolutionary Organization", mostly known as IMRO. Their basic "request" was "Macedonia for the Macedonians", in their attempt to organize all the nations of Macedonia in a multi-national fight for the autonomy of Macedonia, which they later planned to annex to Bulgaria. IMRO proceeded with its aims with the use of force and intimidation. Known members of IMRO were Poptraecov, Pavel Christov.

At the same time (1895), in Bulgaria the "Supreme committee" (Verchoven Komitet) was formed, and it promoted the direct annexation of Macedonia to Bulgaria. In 1895 it sent armed forces (komitadji) in Northern and Central Macedonia. There were also some inner-bulgaric (between Verchovists and IMROs) fights reported.

The Serbs, on their side, proceeded in 1886 with the formation of the "Association of Saint Sabbas", in order to promote the Serbian education, and also aims in Macedonia. That organization had limited capabilities and acted only in Northern Macedonia.

In 1894 C.Pallis, P.Melas, G.Souliotis, and other Greek sublieutenants formed the "Ethniki Etairia" aiming to generally promote the liberation of the occupied Greek lands. 2 years later they sent in Macedonia, armed forces to support and colligate the Greeks of Macedonia. Ethniki Eteria was dispersed in 1897.

Macedonia during the Othoman occupation (1902-1912)
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On September 1902 the Verchovists start a rebellion in Eastern and Central Macedonia, without having previously agreed with the IMRO. The rebellion was eliminated by the Turks, but Bulgaria achieved the international publicity of the problem of the occupied Macedonian lands. The Turkish troops withdrew from the area in the spring of 1903, and the Bulgarians returned there. In Western Macedonia the members of IMRO accept the Verchovists' proposal of promptly organizing a revolution.

On the Elidjan day (20/7/1903) the Bulgarian organizations started another rebellion. Again their aim is the international promotion of the problem of the occupied lands of Macedonia. So they used every mean (violence, intimidation, threats,..) in order to mobilize the population so that it would seem like a universal uprising! According to the Greek army records 2,600 komitadjiis (1,600 from IMRO) divided into small groups, performed rebellious movements in Monastiri, Achrida, Kleisoura and Kastoria. The Turkish forces reacted very fiercelly against the komitadjiis and the unarmed population and performed massive slaughters, settings of villages on fire , and any other kind of violence. Among the towns that were destroyed by the Turkish reprisals were the Greek towns of Kroussovo, Nymfaion, Kleisoura. The Bulgarians obviously achieved their aim, which was to promote the problem of the occupied Macedonian lands, but, the ones who suffered the consequences of their games, were the Greeks and not them.

That event is the one that the FYROMians so triumphally present as the Ilinden Uprising and as a "Macedonian" revolution. Isn't that a little suspicious? Why do they celebrate the Bulgaric provoking acts?

One other proof that the events of 20/7/1903 were provoked by the Bulgarians is that on 6/9/1903 Austria and Russia announced to the Big Forces of the Berlin treaty, that they had to interfere in order to prevent the ignition of a Turk-Bulgarian war, because the Turks regarded the Bulgarians as responsible for those trouble. The mobilization of Great Britain and the meetings of the emperors of Russia and Austria resulted in the reformatory plan, named as "Murzsteg project", for the improvement of the quality of life of the Christian populations of the Othoman empire.

In May 1904 the Macedonian Committee is founded in Athens and acted mainly in the Vilaeti of Monastiri (Bitolia). It should be mentioned here that it didn't cooperate very effectively with the Greek Consulate of Thessaloniki. Greek military forces are sent into Macedonia. Among them were Pavlos Melas and Efthimios Kaoudis. Melas was killed on 13/10/1904 by the Turks. Many followed his example and went to Macedonia. By 1905 the situation had evolved into a fight between Greek and Bulgarian armed forces. By 1907 the situation had been reversed for Bulgaria and in favour of the Greeks.

The revolution of the Neoturks (1908) and their manifests of "isonomy and equality" (!), temporarily calmed things. Greece started to withdraw her troops in 1909, but soon the Neoturks' true intentions were revealed and the fighting started again.