BULGARIA: Good Macedonian

BULGARIA: Good Macedonian, Time, Monday, Jan. 16, 1933

For six years Sister Catherine Konstantinoff, 26, has been a nurse in Alexander Hospital, Sofia. Renowned for herdevotion, her skill, her quiet bedside manner, not long ago she was promoted to ward matron. Sister Catherine is a good Macedonian. . .

Fortnight ago Christo Trojanoff and Ivan Petroff, also Macedonians, strolled past the Royal Palace in hunting clothes, equipped with rifles, hunting dogs, pistols and bombs. They were hunting editors, in particular Editor Simeon Eftimoff, leader of the Mikhailoffist faction of Macedonians which has been bitterly opposed by followers of the late General Protogeroff for reasons of which even other Bulgarians are none too certain. Across the street stepped Editor Eftimoff and his two bodyguards.

Inside the palace at that instant Little Tsar Boris and Alexander Malinoff, president of the assembly, were trying to pick a successor for Premier Nicolas Mouscha-noff. just resigned. CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! A volley of shots rattled the tall windows. His Majesty and his minister scampered to the tall portieres just in time to see the hunting dogs, yelping furiously, disappear in the distance while the hunters, the editor and his bodyguards blazed blindly away. Out from their sentry hutches dashed the royal guards to open fire on both parties indiscriminately. A policeman and a window watcher in the War Department were shot dead. Editor Eftimoff died of his wounds. Sixty shots were fired and eight people wounded before police reserves broke up the engagement.

Assassin Petroff was taken to jail, Assassin Trojanoff, gravely wounded, went to Alexander Hospital. There last week his troubles seemed to be over. Two policemen guarded the end of the ward. Competent Sister Catherine Konstantinoff moved quietly among the beds. Late at night she paid a last visit to the ward. She bent over Christo Trojanoff, smoothed his pillow, patted his head, then pulled a pistol from under her apron and blew his brains out.

"As a good Macedonian," said she, "I could not hesitate."

Source Time

BULGARIA: Black Kitten

BULGARIA: Black Kitten - Time, Monday, May. 21, 1934

No one of importance can arrive in Sofia, small Bulgarian capital, without everyone from the cab drivers at the station to the perfume dealers in their offices knowing it within half an hour. Before the smoke of the Belgrade express had cleared from the station rafters last week everyone knew that Boske Jeftitch was in town.

Boske Jeftitch is Foreign Minister of Jugoslavia. Even a year ago his presence in Bulgaria would have caused riots, for Jugoslavia is part of the French-inspired Little Entente. But things have changed in a twelvemonth. Spurred on by the menace of Hitlerism and the threat to the Balkan "succession states"* of a possible Habsburg restoration in Austria and Hungary, Boske Jeftitch has trotted up & down the Balkan corridor trying to organ ize a separate Jugoslav-Turkish-Bulgarian entente. The advantages of such an alliance to impoverished Bulgaria were obvious, but there was just one point on which Foreign Minister Jeftitch was insistent. Jugoslavia would join no pact unless the Bulgarian Government could prove its capacity to handle the noisy Macedonian minority that has made life hideous and uncertain in Sofia for many a year. On his honor, Premier Nicholas Mushanoff swore that Bulgarian Macedonians have been as mild as lambs since last June, though up to that time Bulgarian papers reported a Macedonian murder nearly every day. Last major operation was in December 1932, when a party of Macedonians, complete with rifles, pistols, bombs and bird dogs, went fowling for editors in front of the royal palace, one wounded eight people (TIME, Jan. 10 1933). Aside, Premier Mushanoff warned the Bulgarian Macedonians to be on their best behavior during the visit of Foreign Minister Jeftitch, then went to Sofia's Union Club to attend a great caviar champagne supper in honor of the visiting statesman.

In the midst of the reception the light: of all Sofia suddenly blinked out. Fearfully Union Club members tiptoed about in the dark. "The Macedonians!" All over the city everyone had the same idea. Out of their barracks poured squadrons of mounted police riding like Cossacks. Truckloads more roared up to the Union Club. Half an hour later the lights flickered on again. Engineers at the city power plant had found the trouble-small black kitten which had fallen against a switch and short-circuited the city. To stop all further Macedonian talk the animal's charred body was solemnly carried out by Government agents for exhibition to the Press and news photographers.

*States whose territory comes in whole or in part from the old Austro-Hungarian Empire: Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Jugoslavia, Rumania, Italy, Austria.

Source - Time

MONTENEGRO: Appeal

MONTENEGRO: Appeal, Time, Monday, Sep. 22, 1924

M. Luigi Criscuolo, head of the Manhattan Branch of the Committee for Montenegrin Independence, sent a memorandum to the League of Nations at Geneva requesting justice from that body for Montenegro, forcibly annexed by Yugo-Slavia in 1921.

Points from the memorandum:

Nearly six years have elapsed since the question of the independence of Montenegro was first brought to the attention of the nations of the world.

There is no abatement in the practice of the Serbs in imprisoning, torturing and murdering Montenegrin men, in mistreating and even violating women, in persecuting old men merely because they have refused to swear allegiance to the new Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and persist in maintaining that they are Montenegrins and that the sovereign rights of their country shall not be violated.

The ostensible object of the League of Nations is to prevent wars. For years, those who sympathized with the aspirations of the

Montenegrin people have been pointing out to the world that the inhuman policy of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes towards its minorities would only lead to another struggle in the Balkans. The attitude of the Croatian separatists under M. Stefan Radich, of the Macedonian insurgents under Alexandrov, of the Montenegrin insurgents under the late Savo Raspopovich gives proof that the spark exists that can kindle another war, if it be not extinguished. The League of Nations is hereby petitioned to appoint a Commission to investigate the condition of the minorities in the Balkans— in Montenegro in particular—in order to ascertain the truth of the assertions which we have made, and with a view of conducting an impartial plebiscite in Montenegro at the earliest possible moment. If it is possible for small nations to be forcibly annexed by large ones and no objection is forthcoming from an international tribunal such as is the League of Nations, then this is proof that civilization is declining rather than advancing. There is no one question that would inspire more faith in the League of Nations and gain for it many thousands of adherents and supporters than an immediate solution of the question of Montenegrin independence. This is particularly so in the United States, where the question has been brought to the attention of the American public and has received srong support— by the press of the country which, while realizing the almost hopelessness of the fight, has, nevertheless, in many instances maintained that the forcible annexation of Montenegro by Serbia was a crime against humanity as well as against International Law.

—An overstatement. While various sections of the U. S. press have from time to time published letters and articles on the plight of Montenegro, it is untrue to say that any paper has given "strong support."

Source Time

BULGARIA: Usual Crisis

BULGARIA: Usual Crisis, Time, Monday, Sep. 17, 1928

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Andrei Liapchev fell, last week, for the usual reason: trouble with the belligerent Macedonian Minority.

A few days later His Majesty Tsar Boris called upon M. Liapchev to form another cabinet, for the usual reason: after other statesmen have had their try at assembling a Government, they are usually willing to compromise again on Liapchev. M. Liapchev duly formed another cabinet, but it, too, fell.

Source Time

BULGARIA: Macedonian Try

BULGARIA: Macedonian Try - Time, Monday, May. 05, 1958

As a taxi driver by trade, Traiko D. Ivanov was allowed to keep his black 1927 Chrysler touring car under Communism. But with the fiery pride of the Macedonian mountaineer, he did not like what the Communists were doing to Bulgaria, could see no future ahead for his three sons, and thought of fleeing to Australia or America. As a Macedonian, it was easy enough for him to get a pass to visit his sister in her village across the border in Yugoslav Macedonia, but how would he get out of Communist Yugoslavia into the freedom of Greece? Ivanov decided to make over his Chrysler into a homemade armor-plated tank.

With his electrician son Luben, 19, he fixed up iron shields to fit in front of the radiator and on the sides of the motor, and then filled the space with concrete to stop border guards' bullets. Luben thought of another idea. Out of old pipes and bits of glass he built a crude periscope, so that during the last dash Traiko Ivanov could steer from the comparative safety of the floor, where the whole family would lie.

One grey dawn last week, having slithered over some 200 miles of mountain roads, an odd-looking apparatus fitted with armor plate and periscope came roaring out of a Macedonian pass and, before anyone could stop it, bored through the wooden frontier barrier. "I took my chances and steered with the help of the periscope," said Ivanov later. "The road was straight and level. The old goat would not give more than 30 miles an hour, but I took all 30. And we made it."

As five people crawled out of the weird and apparently driverless vehicle safe in Greek territory, Ivanov called out the one word of Greek he had learned was a magic password. "Prosphyges! [Refugees!]," he cried.

Source Time

Macedonians in Greece - Time Amanac

Time Amanac 2010 - Countries in the world - Greece, page 287

Тајм Алманах 2010 - Земји во светот - Грција, стр 287

"... Популација (2008): 11.239.000 ... Етнички групи (2000; неофицијален извор; владата тврди дека нема етнички малцинства во Грција) ... Македонци 1.8% ..."

Macedonian Echo

Macedonian Echo - Time, Monday, Jan. 05, 1925

Long ago, in the days of Philip of Macedon, when whole armies hurled themselves against the dread Macedonian phalanx, Macedonia was a great and independent country. Today, Macedonia is merely a geographical expression; its territories are divided principally between Yugoslavia and Greece.

If the country is nonexistent, the people are not. They have managed, directly or indirectly, to make more Balkan blood flow in the past 20 years than have any other people. Since the War, their activities have shown no sign of abating. Greece and Yugoslavia and Bulgaria have been much troubled by them.

Chief of the modern Macedonians who have demanded autonomy have been Todor Alexandrov, General Protogerov, Peter Schankev. For years, this triumvirate kept the Macedonian question well before the world. A few months ago, Todor Alexandrov was murdered; and last week one Dimitri Stefanov met Peter Schankev in a cafe at Milan, fired five shots from an automatic pistol at him, killed him. The two deaths were connected by the tale which the assassin told:

Peter Schankev decided last spring that Macedonian autonomy was a dead issue, so he quitted the triumvirate to found a movement for transforming the Balkans into a confederation. When Todor Alexandrov stood in his way, the natural thing for him to do was to have Todor Alexandrov quietly murdered; this was done. Immediately Alexandrov's friends called a meeting in a Macedonian village with General Protogerov as chairman. At this meeting, sentence of death was pronounced on Peter Schankev and his executioner went out into the world on a search for his victim—a search which ended at Milan.

Arrested, the assassin said:

"I am a Macedonian Nationalist and I love my mother country intensely. It was only to serve her that I executed this renegade. I am glad I was chosen to sacrifice myself."

Source Time

Terror In Macedonia

THE BALKANS: Terror In Macedonia - Time, Monday, Jul. 16, 1945

Premier Marshal Tito last week charged that Greek forces had fired across the Yugoslav frontier in an effort "to provoke us." Thousands of Macedonians, he said, had escaped into Yugoslavia to escape Greek terrorism. "Our soldiers," Tito added, "have not replied with a single shot." At the same time Moscow, which last week reported similar atrocities from Macedonia, announced that the National Front Government of Federal Macedonia had protested to the Yugoslav Government that "fascist" Greek organizations, supported by units of the Greek Army, were carrying on a reign of terror. The Macedonian organization, said Tass, official Russian news agency, described the terror as comparable in savagery to "the most horrible in the times of Turkish enslavement."

To similar reports a week ago Greek cabinet members replied: "Malicious propaganda. . . ."

Were the Greeks clearing Macedonia of everyone who is not a Greek citizen? Or was the Government of Marshal Tito, which long ago included part of Macedonia in its plans for a federated Yugoslavia, preparing to carry out its plans? It was still too soon to say. But there was little doubt that terror of one kind or another was sweeping Macedonia.

Source Time

What's in a Name?

What's in a Name? - Time, Monday, Apr. 19, 1993

A lot, at least for the 2 million residents of Macedonia. For more than a year, Greece has blocked this newly independent nation, with its capital in Skopje, from joining the U.N. by arguing that its name implies a territorial claim on a province of northeastern Greece also called Macedonia. The two sides have now struck an acceptable, if somewhat ponderous, compromise: Macedonia will be admitted as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Its flag, which Greece considers an emblem of Skopje's claim to Greek Macedonia, will be barred from flying at U.N. sites.

Source Time