Ilinden or fracture?
Kate Byrnes, the new US Ambassador to Macedonia, recently granted her first public interview to Albanian-language Alsat TV. Leaving aside that deliberate and intentional choice, for now, she began her public diplomacy by giving the standard and well-rehearsed answer to the question of what her priorities are by stating that her first one is to “support stability through strong institutions.” While that’s all fine and good, there is one very important thing needed in Macedonia, first, that will bring stability and security to Macedonia, and the region: a strong identity for both the Macedonians and Macedonia. That identity, however, continues to be under attack, by the Embassy of the United States of America, among others.
What I, and many others, wholly object to, with regard to the US Embassy and US foreign policy in general, as well as the EU and its foreign policy apparatus (and NATO), is their attempt to degrade the identity of Macedonia and the Macedonians. Whether they realize it or not (I think they do), they are actively working and supporting the degradation and destruction of that identity, their major contribution to this being their installation of the Government of Zoran Zaev. So while supporting “strong institutions” is fine, we need the various Western elites to cease and desist their meddling in Macedonia’s identity because those attacks will lead to a fracture of Macedonia, first among the people, and second, possibly, through the physical breakup of the country.
In the United States we now have a sizable portion of our 330 million citizens who no longer believe the central tenets of what it means to be an American and who no longer believe that the country was founded on principles of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” by men who, though imperfect (and who admitted it) nevertheless strived to do better and created a framework in which it could be better. A sizable number of our citizens now believe the country was founded on racism, sexism and other sins and is therefore, today, illegitimate.
In the United States, a total fracture will lead to civil war. In Macedonia, it will lead to other countries literally carving up Macedonia. When nothing holds a country together, or when the people are divided about what it means to be a part of that country, then “things fall apart; the centre cannot hold” to quote Yeats.
While Western elites are both passively and actively working to degrade the identity of Macedonia and the Macedonians, Zoran Zaev and his government are the ones legally responsible for allowing this to happen. And not just in allowing this to happen; Zaev and his government are complicit themselves in this.
Here are three areas in which they are doing this:
First, Macedonians have existed for a very long time; they were not created as a people or nation in 1991, 1944, 1913, or 1903: they are much, much older. But Zoran Zaev thinks he can sell Macedonia’s long and rich history to the Bulgarians and the Greeks which then gives them an opportunity to claim that the Macedonians are a recent, rather new, creation. This claim of the Greeks and the Bulgarians — and Zaev’s apparent agreement with it — only serves to further fracture Macedonia.
Second, Macedonia has its own heroes and does not need to “share” them with anyone else. If others claim them, then so be it. But Macedonians should be able to determine and claim their own heroes based on their own history. Zoran Zaev and his government think that Macedonia’s heroes belong to others.
Third, the things dug up from the ground in the current territory of Macedonia belong to the Macedonians and can be claimed by the Macedonians. This includes the Star of Kutlesh, found on items literally dug up from the ground in Macedonia. Others may claim it as well, but it also belongs to the Macedonians who have no obligation to reject it and every right to use it and celebrate it. And as to Zaev’s problem (others have made the same point) that Macedonia is “appropriating” the architecture of ancient empires, well, I would only invite him to take a look at the United States Capitol building and other buildings in Washington, D.C. as well as around the United States.
There are many more things that make up Macedonian identity and that make Macedonians unique in the world today. These include the Macedonian language, the Macedonian Orthodox Church, the rich cultural heritage encompassed in song and music (to include certain musical instruments), literature, poetry, dance, painting and other arts, food and drink, science, architecture, and much more. These then extend out to create and inform the rich cultural traditions and habits that make Macedonia and the Macedonians starting with the warm hospitality that Macedonians are famous for. And then there are the contributions Macedonians have made to the world, both from Macedonia as well as from Macedonians who have gone abroad. And so much more.
All of these things — and more — serve and work, over time, to strengthen and solidify the Macedonian identity by reminding Macedonians of their rich past, and encouraging them of their future of unique contributions to the world. But when individuals — either outsiders like the Western elites or Macedonians like Zoran Zaev and his government — not only deny this but seek to give away Macedonia’s identity, history, heritage, culture, language, faith and much else, that only leads to fracture which serves to weaken, not strengthen, Macedonia. And a weak Macedonia, just like any other weak country, is a target for others.
This week Macedonians in Macedonia and around the world remember and acknowledge the Ilinden Uprising in which Macedonians sought to establish their own homeland. That struggle continued and culminated on September 8, 1991 with the establishment of a Macedonian state. That state, however, is in danger.
Which will it be, Ilinden or fracture? The choice is yours, Macedonia.
