Blagoevgrad Province

The Blagoevgrad ( Bulgarian Област Благоевград ) is a region in south-western Bulgaria. It borders with Greece and Macedonia, on the river Struma, which represents a connection between Bulgaria and Greece. The region is part of the broader area of Macedonia and is therefore also known as Pirin Macedonia. The largest city in the region is the same Blagoevgrad. Found in this region of Pirin National Park.

Population

In the oblast (district or region ) Blagoevgrad lived 341 173 inhabitants at the 2001 census. Of these, 84.0 % described as Bulgarians, 9.3% as Turks, 3.6% Roma than and less than 1.0 % ( 3,117 ) as Macedonians. Religious denomination, according to 79.4 % Christian and 18.3 % are Muslims (mostly Pomaks ).

The population of the region referred to as the Macedonians, as a regional designation.

Administrative divisions

The Blagoevgrad Province is divided into 14 municipalities:

• Municipality Bansko
• Community Beliza
• Municipality Blagoevgrad
• Municipality of Garmen
• Municipality Gotse Delchev
• Municipality Kresna
• Municipality Petrich

• Municipality Razlog
• Municipality Sandanski
• Community Satowtscha
• Community Simitli
• Community Strumjani
• Community Chadschidimowo
• Community Jakoruda

Cities

Macedonian Bulgarians

The proper name of the Bulgarian population of Macedonia; particular of the Bulgarian part of this region is Macedonian Bulgarians ( Bulgarian македонски българи; short Macedonians, Bulgarian Македонци ). This Bulgarians identify themselves through their Bulgarian identity addition to the historic region of Macedonia. A closer look at the historical development and the current political situation in the Balkans, this term turns out to be highly problematic and politically controversial, as it is interpreted differently by different sides.

The usual in Bulgaria short term " Macedonians " ( Bulg македонец / makedonez ) can be misleading in the German translation, as it can lead to confusion with the state people of the Republic of Macedonia and with the Slav majority there, which is also known as Makedonzi ( Македонци, transl Makedonci, see Macedonian ( Slavic ethnic group ) ), respectively.. In the German literature is also the vague term " Bulgarian- Macedonian population " used.

It is in the Macedonian Bulgarians not a separate ethnic groups of the Bulgarians, but a regional identity that is shared by many people of this region who have a different national self-confidence and speak different languages.

However, the term " Macedonian Bulgarians " is also a category of Bulgarian ethnography. The Bulgarian national view is that the ancestors of today's Macedonians were undoubtedly always been Bulgarians. Today's Macedonians had been made by the Serbian Communists forcibly from Bulgarians.

" The interpretation of the ethno-genesis and evolution of the South Slavs in the region of Macedonia from prehistoric times until today, derived from propagandists of history and learned historians in Athens, Belgrade, Sofia, Thessaloniki and elsewhere, so vary widely, that it is totally incompatible have. "

Accordingly, the existence of this alleged ethnic Bulgarians of Serbian, Macedonian and Greek side is denied. The term " Macedonian Bulgarians " is rarely used in the international literature.

Bulgaria goes for years massively against the Macedonian minority in the district of Blagoevgrad before indicating their nationality as the Macedonians. Officially, the Bulgarian side, the existence of these "real Macedonians " in Bulgaria is denied and they used the term " Macedonians " only on the Bulgarian majority population of the Oblast Blagoevgrad on.

As a " Macedonian Bulgarians " in the strict sense, the Bulgarian refugees from the areas of the landscape of Macedonia are referred to, the direction of Bulgaria during the turmoil of the last 150 years from the present-day Greece and the present-day Republic of Macedonia - have emigrated - voluntary or forced. In a broader sense, the Bulgarian population is called " Pirin Macedonia " as " Macedonian Bulgarians ". Also, the ethno - national defining as part of the Bulgarian Macedonian movement describes itself as " Macedonian Bulgarians ".

Overlapping and contradictory statements and allegations are available with the Slavic ethnic Macedonians in which it is the people that we know today as Macedonians and until the 20th century, from the outside, but partly also in the self- definition of Bulgarians (or Serbs ) was held.

" Influenced by the Enlightenment and the philhellenism were in Western Europe at the turn of the 18th to the 19th century again the ancient concepts common to refer to the geographical situation of Turkey in Europe. This is also how the reuse of the historic landscape name Macedonia. Both ... for a strong influence of pan-Slavic feelings generation that fought in the middle of the 19th century against the dominating influence of Greek culture, as well as for the generation of nationalist revolutionaries founded in 1892 ' Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization " ( VMRO ), the Macedonians were a regional group of the Bulgarian nation. In this sense it is still used today Macedonians in Bulgaria. "

Macedonians: Slavic ethnic or regional identity

On the one hand there are inhabitants of Bulgaria, the Bulgarian part of the political geographical Macedonia who consider themselves even today as members of a regional - cultural sub-grouping of the Bulgarian nation. In this sense, as a regional identity, can the term " Macedonian Bulgarians " also based on the present use entirely.

However, this present population group should not be confused with the total national identities of the Slavic population of the geographic Macedonia, mixed or even subordinated to it, since the development of the Macedonians in the 20th century was much different in the Bulgarian, Serbian or Yugoslav and Greek part of Macedonia.

The term " Macedonian Bulgarians ", as used in the 19th and early 20th century to serve as a term for the Slavic population of the geographic Macedonia as a whole, is to be distinguished from the same sounding term " Macedonian Bulgarians ", which is on a group of people in today's Bulgaria applies. These are two different things, even if the identity construct of the latter is based on the traditions of the former. But the identity construct of today's Macedonian nation does that, since these two interpretations are incompatible with each other, there is disagreement among historians, politicians and nationalists who try to impose one of the two as the only correct one.

Refugees

Refugees in Bulgaria, the " Macedonian clubs " (Association of Macedonian organizations - Bulg Съюз на македонските организации; organizations of the Macedonian Bulgarians - Bulg Oрганизация на македонските българки; Association of Macedonian cultural and educational associations - Bulg Съюза на македонските културно - просветни дружества ) have established, have also called Macedonians. With respect to the region from which they come - Likewise, their descendants, who founded after 1990, the VMRO- BND, today still Macedonians call. Otherwise, they consider themselves as Bulgarians.

Macedonian minority

In the Blagoevgrad Province, the Bulgarian part of Macedonia; itself an indeterminate proportion of the population considered " Macedonian minority ". They speak the Macedonian language, according to another view only a particular dialect of Bulgarian. This other is considered especially from the Bulgarian side, the Macedonian language also largely denies the status of a separate language, and instead recognizes only as a dialect of the Bulgarian language, as distinguish the Bulgarian language and the Macedonian language as a South Slavic languages ​​are not very widely.

From the Bulgarian side is trying not to let this politically Macedonians appear as they would otherwise be officially recognized as a minority, with all the associated rights.

Amnesty International reported in the Annual Report 2002 on persons against whom proceedings have been initiated in Blagoevgrad, because they had " invited the inhabitants of the region refer to themselves as Macedonians in the census " in leaflets. In contrast, it is argued by the Bulgarian side that it is with these people ( en: United Macedonian Organization Ilinden - Pirin, Bulg ОМО Илинден - Пирин ) is a vanishingly small group of 360 people who only had a share of 0.01 % in accounts for the population in the district of Blagoevgrad and represent only 0.0048 % of the population throughout Bulgaria.

In the 2007 annual report by Amnesty International to Bulgaria there have been complaints about the handling of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria.

" As before, denied enforcement and the judiciary, the existence of a Macedonian minority in Bulgaria and insisted on their point of view, therefore, there is no legal obligation to protect them. This policy was supported by all parties represented in parliament. In October denied the Sofia City Court of the political party OMO Ilinden Pirin, which represents a part of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria, the official approval, although the European Court of Justice had ruled on Human Rights in October 2005, the existing ban on the party was a violation of the rights of assembly and freedom of association dar. In November urged the European Parliament's rapporteur on Bulgaria and in charge of the EU Enlargement Commissioner of the European Commission, the Government, OMO Ilinden Pirin be given official approval. "

The contrary held by the Bulgarian side that the required number of signatures according to the law 500 establishing a party was not applied. In addition, the objective of this party against the Bulgarian unconstitutional (Article 11, Clause 4 ), which requires: "It may be based on ethnic, racial or religious grounds, and no parties no political parties, the forcible seizure of state power to be have set goal. "