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What are relations like between Slavic Macedonians and Albanian Macedonians? |
Travel Info Have they improved within recent years? Do (Slavic) Macedonians speak some Albanian?.. I noticed that an yahoo answers that a few know at least some.. Travel Tips This is one very interesting question. First, I think that you wrote it correctly - Slavic Macedonians and Albanian Macedonians - if they are all still considered the citizens of Macedonia. And being the citizen of some country implies certain rights, no matter how does someone feel like. I was traveling to Macedonia very often in last couple of years. I was really glad to visit this small but beautiful country, rich in history, culture and natural beauty. I have many friends among Macedonians and i really like these warm, friendly and nice people. Unfortunately, what disappointed me was a growing nationalism in Macedonia (the same as in other ex-Yugoslav countries). It does not look like any side is willing to make any step toward mutual understanding and tolerance. When you cross the bridge over the Vardar, fro the center of town to the Old Town, which is primarily Muslim, it looks like you are in completely another world. This is a very old and traditionally oriented part of the city, with the old paved roads ("kaldrma"), Turkish hamam (now turned into the gallery), mosques and a tot of stores with all those beautiful, traditional stuff like silver jewelry, carpets, copper pans, wedding equipment鈥? These people (Albanians, Turks鈥? live primarily of merchandise and old handicrafts and many of them usually speak almost all Balkan languages: Turkish, Albanian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Greek, Serbian鈥?鈥?what impressed me the most! Not politics but their merchant spirit and living with each other, made them speak all these languages. And they don't look rich at all. On the other side, the "Slavic" part of Skopje looks more developed. There are many civic initiatives and organizations working on democratization in Macedonia, but the nationalism spirit still looks stronger. I have noticed there one curiosity: There are giant light Christian crosses on many hills all over the country. And a lot of giant "post-modern" orthodox churches, growing around and looking horrible. They have nothing in common with real orthodox architecture, style and purpose. I have visited many old churches and monasteries in Macedonia (St. Jovan Kaneo, St. Naum鈥? and I find them the jewelries of European cultural treasure, but these new ones look rather like demonstrating the nationalist power, marking the territory and showing "who is the boss here", than like some spiritual places. What is more, they look very expensive. It seems that there is a lot of money invested in them while the public infrastructure, social institutions, traffic-system etc. are slowly declining. I haven't seen there any other religious symbols of that style and that high cost. Also, in almost all guides and web-sites of Macedonia, only Slavic Orthodox culture and tradition is promoted, while the other ones are neglected. It is true that Macedonians are making the majority and that Macedonian language is the official one 鈥?ant that is the reason why minorities usually speak it, but I am sorry for such a pretentious neglecting other cultures and nations living there. But you can hardly find any Slavic Macedonian speaking Turkish or Albanian like those merchants form the Old Town do. To plav a: I belong to the minority group in the country I live now and here, I have more rights and freedoms than I used to have in my country of origin - where I used to belong to the majority. The country where I live now is not so burdened by history and things that happened 500 years ago, though this history is much longer and older. And more experienced in democracy, because they used to trained it for a longer period and learned to live with other nations and cultures. Source(s): This is only what I have and haven't seen. Other Travel Tips I dont know about the relation between them, however none of those so-called "Macedonians" has any relation with the Ancient Macedonians of Greece or Alexander the Great. Noone can rewrite history. the whole region is a hotbed of ethnic tensions. The FYR of Macedonia contains ethnic Albanians, ethnic Serbians and ethnic Macedonians none of whom can get on. The state of Albania wishes to absorb part of the country of FYR of Macedonia to claim the Ethnic Albanians who are a distinct group from the Slavic Macedonians even though officially they are all Macedonians. However 15 years ago they were all called Yugoslavian . The questin you should ask is do the Albanians living in F.Y.R.O.M. consider thems selves Fyromians or Albanians.... ... I would consider them Albanians... but my question is that I thought FYROM was made out of 40% Albanians and 60 % Bulgarian Slavs. again thanks to albanians fyrom will be part of albania in 15-20 years. AND there is no Slavic or Albanian Macedonian. Macedonians are only greeks. Alexander was neither albanian nor slav, he was greek. |
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