By Gyorgy Scrinis
In his article on Macedonia in GLW, May 5, Michael Karadjis again fails to engage with the way various nationalisms have been constructed in the Balkans in modern times. He seems unwilling to deal with the question of nationalism in itself, and instead, in a move typical of some left reductionist approaches, tries to explain away the current conflict by reducing it to the familiar categories of oppressor/oppressed, capitalists/workers and left/right.
In brief, I had argued (GLW, April 21) that there is not one Macedonian people, as Karadjis continues to claim. Rather, the diversity of people who have lived in the greater Macedonian region have fragmented into a number of national/regional/cultural identities. There are currently at least three Macedonian regions: the province of Greek-Macedonia in Greece, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (now an independent nation-state), and the Macedonian part of Bulgaria.
I referred to the majority of people who live in these states respectively as Greek-Macedonians, Slav-Macedonians and Bulgarian Macedonians. Depending on what criteria we use to distinguish them, we could also add Albanian-Macedonians, Vlach-Macedonians, etc, as other inhabitants of this region.
I referred to the people of the former Yugoslav Republic as "Slav-Macedonians", for want of a better name. These people refer to their part of Macedonia as "Vardar", to distinguish it from the Greek and Bulgarian Macedonian regions. For this reason, I suggested that a possible name for this new nation would be "Vardar-Macedonia". I will from here on refer to "Slav-Macedonians" as "Vardar-Macedonians", for it seems a more appropriate name.
In my article, I described how the slow emergence of a Macedonian cultural/national identity in the 19th century was fragmented into a number of
regional/national identities following the carve-up of the region between Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria in 1913. In particular, people in Greek-Macedonia largely took on a more general Greek national identity, and Macedonia became for them a more particular regional level of their identity. The exchange of populations that took place in the region also ensured the dominance of the Greek-Macedonian identity in Greek-Macedonia.
But for a number of reasons, the Slavic people of Serbian-Macedonia (which became the Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) did not adopt a Serbian national identity, nor later a Yugoslav national identity. Instead, theirs developed into a "Macedonian" cultural-national identity in itself, with no other national orientation.
Unfortunately, these Vardar-Macedonians began to claim that only they were the "true" Macedonians, and they fashioned their nationalist ideology, including their written history, accordingly. Meanwhile, the Greek-Macedonians were also claiming that they were the true Macedonians. This fairly tragic turn of events has led to great confusion and conflict over the name to this day, and has also been used to further all sorts of political agendas — from Yugoslav expansionist aims to the current Greek government's use of nationalism as a diversion to boost its ailing popularity.
I did not imply that Vardar-Macedonians are really Serbians or Bulgarians, as Karadjis claims. In fact, Karadjis' accusation again reveals how thoroughly he takes for granted national identities as if they always existed throughout history. For Karadjis, one is either a Greek, or a Serb, or a Macedonian etc, whether we are speaking of the present or 200 years ago. Yet the thrust of my analysis was to problematise these names, by recognising that all national identities and ideologies have emerged and been constructed since the rise of nationalist movements in the 18th century. I outlined the way the emerging nationalisms of Serbia and Bulgaria failed to win over the hearts and minds of all the Slavic people in the Serbian-Macedonian region, who instead went on to fashion their own national identity. They were not always
"Macedonians", since before the 19th century (ancient times aside for now) there was no group of people known as "the Macedonians". Instead the local village and religious affiliations formed the primary level of their identities.
There are a minority of people of Slavic background living in Greek-Macedonia who identify with the Vardar-Macedonian national identity. As I stated, these people have been and continue to be oppressed by Greek governments, to the extent that they are not allowed to speak openly the Vardar-Macedonian language or dialects, nor to refer to themselves as "Macedonians" in this way. The Greek government has pursued this course because it does not recognise any use of the name other than its own, not to mention because of the ongoing expansionist rhetoric of Vardar-Macedonia, which has only been curbed in the last couple of years as it seeks international recognition. This is not to say that I don't, all the same, condemn such oppression.
Yet for Karadjis, the dispute over the name is merely an attempt to divert attention from the "real" issue: the oppression of this Vardar-Macedonian minority in Greek-Macedonia. But the two issues cannot be separated. Karadjis dismisses the question of the name, yet offers no other reason why these people are oppressed.
The other "real" issue for Karadjis is the attempt by Greece to move towards the domination of the region by Greek capital, and to direct attention from the class war waged against Greek workers by the conservative Greek government. This is familiar language, intended to assure left-wing readers that this issue can neatly be divided up into the categories of capitalists/workers, oppressors/oppressed, left/right, us and them. I am not suggesting these categories and these issues are not always at play in this and all other conflicts — indeed they are. But it seems to me to be a poor attempt to divert attention from a conflict of nationalisms which I believe resists any such reductionist analysis. Neither Greece nor Vardar- Macedonia has the moral high ground in this conflict, since both have attempted to monopolise the term Macedonia to this day, and have both used that as the
basis of other indefensible strategies.
Karadjis himself is unable to break out of a narrow Vardar-Macedonian nationalist understanding of this conflict, which he tries to convince us is "really" just a class war dressed up in nationalist clothing. I see nothing particularly left/progressive about Karadjis' participation in the attempt to monopolise the use of the name Macedonia, as if it referred to one homogeneous cultural identity — this is in fact a common nationalist strategy.
An adequate understanding of the construction of national identities, and of the current re-emergence of nationalist sentiment worldwide, continues to elude those who over-emphasise class as the key category of all political analysis. An understanding of the emergence and co-existence of local, national and global identities requires a framework of analysis which classical Marxism does not in itself offer.
Significant steps in this direction are to be found in the theoretical framework developed in the pages of the local left journal Arena over the years. Paul James in particular has tackled the question of nationalism within a broader theoretical framework. Other writers such as Benedict Anderson and Eric Hobsbawm have also theorised nationalism from non-reductionist left perspectives.
To summarise again my position here: no nation or people now has the right to monopolise the name "Macedonia" or "Macedonian". A qualifying prefix will always be necessary, such as Greek-Macedonian, Vardar-Macedonian and so on.