[ad_1]
The background to the attack on cultural heritage is what worries Serbs living in the former Yugoslav republic the most.
Experts believe that this is the continuation of a long process of systematic destruction of Serbian heritage and forced assimilation of Serbs. Historian Dr. Slavenko Terzic, a corresponding member of SANU, commented to “Novosti” about the violent “crossing” of Serbian saints:
– There is no doubt that this unprecedented act is the work of the Greater Bulgarian circles, which are not reconciled with the existing borders in the Balkans, continuing with the extinction of the Serbian cultural heritage in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which began in the last decades of the 19th century. We record examples of such brutal attacks at that time and then during the Bulgarian occupation in WWI and WWII. Unfortunately, after 1945, the Macedonian republican authorities continued to deny the Serbian heritage and forcibly assimilate the rest of the Serbian people, whose expulsion of the Bulgarians began immediately after the occupation, and the Yugoslav authorities prohibited their return in 1945 and 1946. Despite the fact that Serbia is the only neighbor that does not dispute the Macedonian identity and the status of North Macedonia, the position of the Serbs in it remains extremely unenviable. New, broader geopolitical projects, in which its western and eastern neighbors are trying to “get involved”, represent a great challenge for the future of this country.
In the capital monograph “Old Serbia: The Drama of a Civilization”, Dr. Terzić shed light on the taboo subject of the Yugoslavia of Broz, the tragedy of the southern Serbs of the medieval state. For centuries, their identity and heritage have been unsuccessfully tried to destroy the Ottomans, their Arnaut raiders, the Bulgarian terrorists and occupiers. The Serbs of the former Serbia, present-day North Macedonia, Kosovo and Metohija, were defeated only by the Yugoslav communist leadership after 1945.
– The Bulgarian propaganda presented all Serbian monuments as part of the “Serbian occupation” of Macedonia, which was also accepted by a good part of the bearers of the Macedonian regime, during Tito’s Yugoslavia. From 1945 until the separation of Macedonia in 1991, a systematic and long-term policy was implemented, first expelling the Serbs from the Macedonian federal unit and then denationalizing those who continued to live in their centuries-old homes, says Dr. Terzic.
The authorities of the new Macedonian nation, formed in 1943 by AVNOJ’s decision in Jajce, did not give peace to the dead Serbs either, barbarously destroying the cemeteries of the Serbian soldiers and civilians who died in the Balkan wars and the Great War.
Although the Serbian governments offered material means to renovate these monuments and cemeteries, the Macedonian authorities persistently avoided it. Any serious insistence on renovating these cemeteries was declared by Macedonian representatives, and even by the public media in Macedonia, a manifestation of Serbian nationalism, says Dr. Slavenko Terzić.
As part of the solution to the “Serbian question”, the return of Serbian clergy and monks to the churches and monasteries from which the Bulgarians expelled them was also prohibited. The highest party leadership of Yugoslavia, in agreement with the Macedonian communist leadership, made the decision to form the so-called Macedonian Orthodox Church. The objective was to Macedonize the Serbian heritage.
– It was a direct continuation of the practice of the Bulgarian terrorists and occupiers, who destroyed the names of the Serbian founders and saints on the frescoes, in order to Bulgarize them – says historian Borisav Celiković, editor of the Sabornik ethnographic library.
The Macedonian political “church” has never been recognized in the Orthodox world, but the goal of capturing the monuments of Serbian culture has been achieved. Including the Monastery of St. Joachim of Osogovo, near Kriva Palanka, which is originally Byzantine, and its founder-restorers were the Serbian kings Milutin, Stefan Dečanski and the nobleman Konstantin Dragaš Dejanović. How they are used is revealed by typing the name of the Joakim Osogovski monastery into the “Google” search engine. Among the first results is an advertisement for the hotel “Jovan Osogovski Monastery”.
– I stayed in that monastery, whose complex looks like a luxury resort run by a priest from a church that nobody recognizes. It’s an illustration of the imaginary of people with an identity crisis, who are trying to create a foundation in someone else’s inheritance that they don’t have, says Celiković.
Photo book “Ancient drama of a civilization in Serbia”
WHEN “IĆ” BECOMES “SKI” AND “OV”
The MACEDONIZATION of the Serbs after the Second World War was carried out by the Communist authorities by forcibly changing the Serbian surnames, replacing “ić” with “ski” or “ov”. Keeping surnames discriminated against Serbs. During the census, Serbs were pressured to declare themselves Macedonians, and those who refused were often arrested “for disturbing order and peace”.
– After the war, teachers and priests were expelled from Serbian villages and Macedonian teachers were brought in, a good part of whom served during the Bulgarian occupation. With the colonization in 1947, the emigration of Serbs continued. About 22,000 people were transferred to Vojvodina from Porec, Kicevo, Kriva Palanka and Kumanovo, says Dr. Terzic.
DESTRUCTION OF MONUMENTS
Tito’s Macedonian AUTHORITIES opened a mass grave of citizens, mostly Serbs from and around Kumanovo, and Serbian soldiers who died of typhus in 1912, and also destroyed the cemetery of fallen warriors in the Holy Trinity Church.
– Among the monuments destroyed in Skopje are a monument to Serbian students, a monument to King Peter the First, the fallen warriors 1912-1918, a memorial ossuary in the Church of the Holy Archangel Michael – says Dr. Slavenko Terzic.
Follow us through iOS and Android apps
[ad_2]
