The Balkan Wars: 1912-1913: Second EditionSchurman, Jacob Gould
History
The Balkan Wars: 1912-1913: Second Edition
Schurman, Jacob Gould
Balkan Peninsula -- History -- War of 1912-1913
The difficulty comes when we attempt to give the racial character of
Central Macedonia, which is equally remote from Greece, Bulgaria, and
Servia. I travelled through this district last summer. On June 29,
when the war broke out between the Allies I found myself in Uskub.
Through the courtesy of the Servian authorities I was permitted to ride
on the first military train which left the city. Descending at Veles I
drove across Central Macedonia by way of Prilip to Monastir, spending
the first night, for lack of a better bed, in the carriage, which was
guarded by Servian sentries. From Monastir I motored over execrable
roads to Lake Presba and Lake Ochrida and thence beyond the city of
Ochrida to Struga on the Black Drin, from which I looked out on the
mountains of Albania.
Coming from Athens where for many months I had listened to patriotic
stories of {88} the thorough permeation of Macedonia by Greek
settlements my first surprise was my inability to discover a Greek
majority in Central Macedonia. In most of the cities a fraction of the
population indeed is Greek and as a rule the colony is prosperous.
This is especially true in Monastir, which is a stronghold of Greek
influence. But while half the population of Monastir is Mohammedan the
so-called Bulgarians form the majority of the Christian population,
though both Servians and Roumanians have conducted energetic
propaganda. In Veles two-thirds of the population are Christians and
nearly all of these are called Bulgarians. In Ochrida the lower town
is Mohammedan and the upper Christian, and the Christian population is
almost exclusively of the Bulgarian Church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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