The conflict between Greece and Macedonia is known worldwide. The conflict comes from the fact that Greece states that Republic of Macedonia stole the name Macedonia which belongs historically to Greece. Therefore, internationally Macedonia is recognized as FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). Greece is also upset because Macedonian citizens claim to be descendants of Alexander the Great and the ancient Macedonians. These are the two issues that create the conflict between Greece and FYROM. Even though, they are much unpopular, the issues that create conflicts between FYROM and Bulgaria are countless.
The official FYROM history states that the inventors of the Glagolithic Alphabet St. Constantine Cyril the Philosopher and St. Methodius, and the inventor of the Cyrillic Alphabet St. Clement of Ohrid were Macedonians. According to FYROM, the medieval Tsar Samuil, the freedom fighters Georgi Delchev, Damyan Gruev, Yane Sandanski, and many others were Macedonians. But all Byzantine, Armenian, German, English, French, Russian, Greek, Ottoman, and Bulgarian sources state that these persons were Bulgarians.
Prior to 1945, no one in Europe talked or knew about Macedonians, Macedonian nation, or Macedonian language. In 1878, after the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877-1878, Bulgaria was liberated in its ethnical boundaries including the territory of today's FYROM. This made Bulgaria the largest and strongest nation on the Balkan Peninsula, something that the Great Powers could not allow and as a result, FYROM's territory was included in the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. After the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, FYROM's territory was given to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes which later became Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Yugoslavia ruled today's FYROM from 1913 until 1941 when FYROM was occupied by the Germans and returned to Bulgaria. In the years between 1913 and 1941 the Yugoslavian government was trying to impose on the Bulgarians in the FYROM's territory that they were actually Serbs, not Bulgarians. This tactic was very unsuccessful; the locals knew they were not Serbs. At the end of World War II, FYROM's territory was once again included in the boundaries of Yugoslavia.
Serbs knew it is impossible to make the people of FYROM Serbs, therefore they remembered the words of the Serbian scholar Stojan Novakovic who had said that the only way to separate FYROM's territory from Bulgaria was to create a new nation. Novakovic had seen such nation in the Macedonism. As a result, the Macedonian nation was invented by stealing Greek and Bulgarian history and historical persons such as Alexander the Great and Tsar Samuil. The local dialect was introduced as a separate language from the Bulgarian and a new nation was born - the Macedonian one. Generations passed, people learned the fake Macedonian history and as adults they cannot accept the truth about who they really are.
In the globosphere there are many conflicts between Bulgarians and Macedonians. A strong argument for the "Macedonians" is the fact that the majority of the people who migrated to Australia from FYROM think of themselves as Macedonians, not as Bulgarians. The anthropologist Loring Danforth, author of the book The Macedonian Conflict, made a study case of the migrants from Macedonia to Australia. He states that those people define themselves as Macedonians. But he also says that the majority of the people who migrated to Australia prior to 1945 define themselves as Bulgarians. Guess why!
Yes, there is a Macedonian nation, but it is an artificial one. Today's "Macedonians" are still Bulgarians, because if a cat gives a birth in a stable the little ones are still kittens, not horses, aren't they?
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