For all Macedonian brothers and sisters with love
Once he ascended on the Macedonian throne, Alexander quickly disposed of all of his domestic enemies by ordering their execution. But soon he had to act outside Macedonia. Philip’s death caused series of rebellions among the conquered nations and the Illyrians, Thracians, and Greeks saw a chance for independence.
Alexander acted swiftly. He forced his way into Greece despite the roads leading to the country being blocked by the Thessalians. As soon as he restored Macedonian rule in northern Greece, he marched into southern Greece. His speed surprised the Greeks and by the end of the summer 336 BC they had no other choice but to acknowledge his authority.
Believing the Greece would remain calm, Alexander returned to Macedonian, marched east into Thrace, and campaigned as far as the Danube river. He defeated the Thracians and Tribalians in series of battles and drove the rebels beyond the river. Then he marched back across Macedonia and on his return crushed in a single week the threatening Illyrians, before they could receive additional reinforcements.
But now in Greece, upon rumors of his death, a major revolt broke out that engulfed the whole nation. Enraged, Alexander marched south covering 240 miles in two weeks appearing before the walls of Thebes with large Macedonian army. He let the Greeks know that it was not too late for them to change their minds, but the Thebans confident in their position called for all the Greeks who wished to set Greece free to join them against the Macedonians. They were not aware that the Athenians and the Peloponnesians, stunned by the speed of the Macedonian king, quickly reconsidered their options and were now awaiting the outcome of the battle before they make their next move.
Alexander's general Perdiccas attacked the gates, broke into the city, and Alexander moved with the rest of the army behind him to prevent the Thebans from cutting him off. The Macedonians stormed the city, killing everyone in sight, women and children included. 6,000 Thebans citizens died and 30,000 more were sold as slaves. The city where Alexander's father was kept as hostage for three years, was plundered, sacked, burned, and razed to the ground, just like Philip acted with Methone, Olynthus, and the rest of the Greek cities in Chalcidice. Only the temples and the house of the poet Pindar were spared from distraction. This was example to the rest of Greece and Athens and the other Greek city-states quickly rethought their quest for freedom. Greece remained under Macedonian rule.
Partition of Macedonia
Following their own interests and aims to conquer and partition the European part of Ottoman Turkey, the neighbouring Balkan states Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria and Montenegro decided to start a war. The Treaty between Serbia and Bulgaria signed on March 12th 1912 (with a secret annexe) included a possibility for the transformation of Macedonia into an autonomous region and anticipated the arbitration of the Russian Tsar.
In such form, this agreement was a compromise to avoid the territorial separation and partition of Macedonia. After Greece and Montenegro joined the agreement, a Balkan Alliance was formed and it immediately began preparations for a war against the Ottoman Empire. In autumn 1912 the Balkan allies declared war on Turkey.
The offensive actions of the Balkan allies against the Turkish army were carried out mainly on Macedonian territory and on the Thracian front. Believing that this war would bring the long-expected freedom, the Macedonian people took active part in the First Balkan War with their own regiments (chetas) and voluntary units. Forty-four such units were operating in Macedonia at the time impeding the mobilization and the movement of the Turkish army with their diversions.
About 14,000 Macedonians fought together with the Bulgarian army within the so-called "Macedonian Regiment". At the same time there were Macedonian soldiers distributed in thirty units within the "National Defense" and the "Voluntary Regiments" of the Serbian army. A similar formation, called the "Holy Regiment", was operating within the Greek army. The victories of the Balkan allies over the Turkish army conditioned Turkey to sign a cease-fire and a short-term truce, but the battles went on until May 30th, 1913.
However, new bloodshed started soon among the Balkan allies who could not reach an agreement as how to partition the territories taken over from Turkey.
The partition was carried out by force of arms and sanctioned by the Bucharest Peace Treaty signed on August 10th, 1913 according to which all the Balkan states expanded their territories. Macedonia was not only denied its autonomy which had originally been one of the causes of the war against Turkey, but it was forcefully divided and partitioned by the neighboring Balkan states. Greece seized the biggest, southern part of Macedonia, Serbia won the central Vardar region and the Pirin part with the Strumica vicinity was given to Bulgaria
Drawing new borders under the excuse of establishing a "balance" and peace on the Balkans was a violent denial of the rights of the Macedonian people to live and develop as a free, unified and independent nation. The aspirations towards the creation of a state of their own as a necessity, a guarantee of the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Macedonia, were evident in the ideas and actions of the Macedonian patriots. Despite the conquering and partitioning of their homeland they fought for independence and the establishment of a Macedonian government and national assembly which would decide on the form of government and the internal structure of the Macedonian state.
However, the attempts to prevent the compulsory partition of Macedonia were in vain because the Balkan and the European states remained deaf to the demands of the Macedonian people for preserving the integrity of their land and its constitution as a state.
The new masters of the conquered Macedonian regions introduced a violent military and police regime, denied the national individuality of the Macedonian people, deprived them of their rights and tortured and denationalized the Macedonian people. A regime of "special decrees" from the mid-nineteenth century was imposed in the territory under Serbian rule. In the part of Macedonia under Bulgarian rule, military commanders helped by comitadji voivodes ruled over the civil authorities and "dispensed justice" to the people. In the Macedonian districts under Greek rule the notorious Cretan gandarmerie, which acted in support of the conservative Greek governors, kept law and order. The territorial, ethnic and economic disintegration of Macedonia caused severe damage to the economy, to the Macedonian movement for national liberation and to its socio-political development.
After the Balkan Wars, Macedonia was completely devastated. Besides the tens of thousands killed in the war, there were several hundreds of thousands of refugees (more than 135,000 Macedonians and a small number of Bulgarians from Thrace escaped from the Aegean part of Macedonia occupied by the Greek army alone). There were numerous cases of genocide towards the Macedonian population in the territories occupied by the Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian armies and, according to the Carnegie Commission, several towns like Voden, Negush, Ber, Enidze Vardar, Dojran, etc., more than 200 villages (out of which around 170 villages with 17,000 homesteads in the Aegean part of Macedonia) were completely destroyed. In June 1913 the Greek army burnt to ashes the Macedonian town of Kukush with its 1,846 houses, 612 shops, 6 factories, etc. At the same time 4,000 houses were burned to the ground in the Seres vicinity. The tragic outcome of the Balkan Wars was a real national catastrophe for Macedonia. The unresolved Macedonian question continued to be "an apple of discord" for the Balkan states. It remained in the whirlpool of events which were of fatal importance both for Macedonia and the future of the Balkans.
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Republic of Macedonia
In the Second World War, the Macedonian people fought on the side of the anti-fascist forces against the German, Bulgarian and Italo-Albanian occupiers. During this struggle, a Macedonian Liberation Army developed from the initially small partisan detachments; with the help of its military activities the Vardar part of Macedonia (that part of Macedonia which was included in the former Yugoslavia) was completely liberated in the autumn of 1944.
A complete system of government was created on the liberated and semi-liberated territory, which, together with the Liberation Army, were the foundations of the modern Macedonian state . On the basis of the inviolable, permanent and unalienable right of each people to self-determination and as an expression of the sovereign will of the Macedonian people and all nationalities living there together, the establishment of the modern Macedonian state was proclaimed at the First Session of ASNOM, held on August 2, 1944 on the liberated territory in the Monastery of St. Prohor of Pchinja.
At this session, the Macedonian state was constituted as a member state of the Yugoslav federation, which was established in accordance with the decisions of the Anti-Fascist Council of the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ), held on November 29, 1943 in the Bosnian town of Jajce. At the outset the Macedonian state bore the name Democratic Federate Macedonia, and, following the proclamation of Yugoslavia as a Federal People's Republic at the session of Constitutional Assembly of Yugoslavia on November 29, 1945, the Macedonian state adopted the name People's Republic of Macedonia.
This name was also established in its first Constitution adopted by the Constitutional Assembly of the People's Republic of Macedonia on December 31, 1946. In accordance with the Constitution of April 7, 1963, its name was Socialist Republic of Macedonia. which it held until June 7, 1991 when the Assembly passed a constitutional amendment deleting the designation "Socialist" from the state's name, establishing its present name - Republic of Macedonia.
The Republic of Macedonia, established during the Second World War was an outcome of the national liberation struggle of the Macedonian people and its centuries-long aspirations and demands for national freedom and independence and for a state of its own in which only the people itself would decide about its position and future.
By the decisions of the First Session of ASNOM, the Macedonian people secured its further survival and development and provided protection from the despotic appetites and domineering aspirations of the nationalistic and chauvinistic forces in neighboring countries. A wide spectrum of prospects opened up before the Macedonian people for free life and comprehensive social, economic, political and cultural development.
Since then, compared to the level of development at the time of the establishment of its state, the Macedonian people has achieved a high degree of economic and cultural development. In this period, the Macedonian people further strengthened its national identity and the Republic of Macedonia obtained broad international affirmation and recognition. The modern world accepted the reality of the existence of the Macedonian people and its state within the framework of the former Yugoslav federal community. When a further life within the federation became impossible, the Macedonian people, like the Slovenes and the Croats, opted for an independent life, for life in a sovereign and independent state.
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