Greek propaganda Demographic history of Macedonia

greek ethnographic map professor george soteriadis, university of athens 1918.

it established end of 19th century majority of population of central , southern macedonia (vilaets of monastiri , thessaloniki) predominantly ethnic greek population, while northern parts of region (vilaet of skopje) predominantly slavic. jews , ottoman communities scattered over. because of macedonia s such polyethnic nature, arguments greece used promote claim whole region of historical , religious character. greeks consistently linked nationality allegiance patriarchate of constantinople. bulgarophone , albanophone , vlachophone greeks coined describe population slavic, albanian or vlach (aromanian)-speaking. there pressure on aromanians become linguistically dissimilated 18th century, when dissimilation efforts encouraged greek missionary cosmas of aetolia (1714–1779) taught aromanians should speak greek because said s language of our church , established on 100 greek schools in northern , western greece. offensive of clergy against use of aromanian no means limited religious issues tool devised in order convince non-greek speakers abandon regarded worthless idiom , adopt superior greek speech: there metsovian brothers, fooling sordid , vile aromanian language... forgive me calling language , repulsive speech disgusting diction .

as serbian , bulgarian propaganda efforts, greek 1 concentrated on education. greek schools in macedonia @ turn of 20th century totalled 927 1,397 teachers , 57,607 pupils. 1890s, greece started sending armed guerrilla groups macedonia (see greek struggle macedonia) after death of pavlos melas, fought detachments of internal macedonian revolutionary organization (imro).

the greek cause predominated in southern macedonia supported native greeks , substantial part of slavic , aromanian populations. support greeks less pronounced in central macedonia, coming fraction of local aromanians , slavs; in northern parts of region non-existent.