Welcome to Biser Balkanski : Canadian Macedonian Internet Community. We hope you find everything you were looking for and a few things you didn't expect. This site is here for you.
For those of you who are unaware of Macedonia and Macedonians it is fairly simple to explain. There is a region in Europe called Macedonia with its own culture, its own language, and its own people. This area is much sought-after by many people including present-day governments. Although some of us have emigrated to other countries we all want one thing ... basic human rights ... the right to call ourselves Macedonian ... the right to speak our own language ... the right to educate our children in our mother tongue ... the right to exist as Macedonians.
Our story is an interesting one. My name is Ted and I am the web administrator of "Biser Balkanski - Canadian Macedonian Internet Community". I originally created a web site by the name of "The Makedonka" way back in August of 1995 to promote the Macedonian community on the Internet at a time when it was practically non-existent. In fact "The Makedonka" was one of the first three Macedonian sites on the Internet. The now defunct website "Republic of Macedonia" (which was pro-Bulgarian) and "Virtual Macedonia". While the other two sites focused on promoting the Republic of Macedonia on the Internet I strived to promote the existence of Macedonians and Macedonian culture regardless of where it came from (Aegean Macedonia, Vardar Macedonia, Pirin Macedonia, Canada, USA, Australia, etc.).
In fact you could probably say that my goal was to promote Macedonian culture and awareness. That's what makes this site different from the rest. While most sites promote the Republic of Macedonia and others the ultra-hard aspects of Macedonian recognition by countries such as Greece, we have remained a very culturally oriented web site. We do not try to convince the world of the existence of Macedonians, the world has already proven that. We are here to promote cultural awareness of the present-day Macedonians as well as ancient Macedonia and Macedonians.
In your quest for knowledge on the Internet about Macedonians and Macedonian culture you will find many aspects and certainly many different views. Macedonia is a region, it is not the Republic of Macedonia. The Republic of Macedonia is the only portion of Macedonia that has received recognition and independence. Macedonia is a region that includes Vardar Macedonia (currently called North Macedonia), Pirin Macedonia (currently occupied by Bulgaria), Aegean Macedonia (currently occupied by Greece), and Prespa (currently occupied by Albania).
NORTH MACEDONIAWhile the borders haven't changed, North Macedonia has changed names at various points in its history. Under Yugoslavia the republic was referred to as "Macedonia". Following the breakup of Yugoslavia it gained it's independence and in 1991 was referred to as the "Republic of Macedonia", while the Greek state refused and coined the derogatory reference of "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (FYROM, and its peoples FYROMians). During later talks and ascension into a possible EU constituency it was deemed "North Macedonia".
Regardless of which name is used to name the state the people of the country were referred to as Macedonians ... this is wrong. Macedonia is a region that encompasses much more than North Macedonia. North Macedonia is made up of many different kinds of people ... these people are not all Macedonian ... some are ethnic Macedonians, some are ethnic Albanians ... they are all "citizens of North Macedonia" ... they are not all Macedonian.
REPUBLIC OF GREECEGreece gained its independence in the early 1800s. What most people don't know is that the region known as Aegean Macedonia (the Greek government calls it the northern Greek province of Macedonia) was not part of this declaration of independence. It wasn't until the first world war that Greece was given this piece of Macedonian in what is known as the Treaty of Bucharest. Ethnic Macedonians live in this area known as Aegean Macedonian but a majority of them live in fear because of the government of Greece's denial of an ethnic population other than Greek. Soon after their "inheritance" of Aegean Macedonia the government of Greece initiated a massive campaign of ethnic cleansing - family names were changed, cities and villages were re-named, tombstone writings engraved in Macedonian were desecrated, and a massive re-education program of the ethnic Macedonian population was started. To this day Greece continues to deny any existence of a non-Greek population within the current borders of Greece.
We hope you enjoy your stay at Biser Balkanski. Remember, this site is for you ... to inform you of Macedonian culture, to keep you up-to-date of Macedonian events and happenings, and to better inform you of the Macedonian question so that you can make an intelligent decision for yourself.
Enjoy.