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Interview: Ismail Bojda, president of the Association of Macedonians with Muslim Religion
The Gorans are not a special ethnos, they are Macedonians with Muslim religion
The issue of protection of Gorans’ rights used to be more intensely treated in the media, but we do not notice anything like that in the month when the international day of human rights protection is being celebrated. What is happening at the moment?
Journalists always ask me about Gorans. It is not a separate national identity, they are Macedonians with Islam religion that live in the area of Gora. The area of Gora is divided in three countries, Macedonia, Albania and Serbia, that is Kosovo. 40,000 Macedonians with Muslim religion live in some 30 villages in these three countries.
What astonishes me is the fact that Macedonia treats these issues as daily-political events. The government and certain ministries do not have a clear concept what with these people. What with their education. There has not been a pupil enrolled in a secondary school, nor faculty since 1999 and those who have finished often face the problem of not being able to get their certificates for completed education. And not only this, but health insurance has not been regulated, too. Various problems burden these people and they do not know where to address.
This year the Association of Macedonians with Muslim Religion has held an international conference on the position and rights of Macedonians from the area of Gora. At the conference we passed 4 resolutions. The first one refers to the border crossing Strezimir-Restelica. It requires this crossing, instead of being of temporary character, to become a crossing of international character, thus improving the connection between Gora and Dragas (Kosovo) with Rostuse and Mavrovo. The second resolution refers to deepening the three-lateral cooperation (Macedonia-Albania-Kosovo). The third resolution refers to education. The requirement is to enable proper education in Macedonian language and the state to be able to support that process with appropriate teaching aids and teaching staff. The last, fourth resolution refers to the status of Macedonians from Gora in Kosovo. We asked, regardless of the status of Kosovo, Macedonians from Gora to enter the Kosovo constitution as Macedonians with Muslim religion. We have submitted this to UNMIK, to the Kosovo government, to Marti Ahtisari, to all embassies, we asked to get involved in the negotiations concerning the Kosovo status.
Our last attempt is the initiative for passing a declaration on the position and rights of Macedonians from the area of Gora and we have submitted it to the government of the Republic of Macedonia.
What are the reasons for this initiative and what does the Declaration contain?
The Declaration treats a few issues. One of them is acquiring citizenship. No one has the right to take away the right we have once acquired, and that is what the previous government did. As it had been its first task to stop the process of Macedonians from the area of Gora to acquire citizenship. And not only for them. It also happened to Macedonians from Golo Brdo, Mala Prespa. As if they had been afraid of influx of other population in Macedonia. However, it was not the case with ethnic Albanians, offices in Brest, Malino and Tanusevci were opened for them to acquire citizenship. But it was stopped on 15th September for the Macedonians from Gora, Mala Prespa and those immigrated to Turkey. 3.000-4.000 citizenships were issued by the end of 2002. And the process of acquiring a citizenship is another story. It is humiliating when a clerk accepts you in citizenship of the Republic of Macedonia, when you are to pay 50$ and if you do not do it on time, you are to pay 500$. This has happened to many Macedonians from Gora who had been late and they had to pay 500$ in order to “be accepted” in citizenship. Our people in Turkey, for example, really want to get Macedonian citizenship. I asked an older man who moved to Turkey why he wanted to get Macedonian passport so much and he answered: “I have never had a Macedonian passport, when I moved, it was Yugoslav. I want to have it in my hands, to put it under the pillow”. It is frightening how people experience these things, how emotionally. “They (the authorities) took away our citizenship 50 years ago”, says an emigrant to Turkey, “they gave us white pieces of paper to sign and they said: if you do not give up the Macedonian citizenship, you will not get a license to settle in Turkey. We had to get a dismissal”.
We always get promises that it will all be settled, but so far, nothing. Therefore, in the Declaration we ask “the requirements of Macedonians from the area of Gora to be respected for unconditional acceptance and in the Macedonian citizenship by origin and the competent organs shall take appropriate measures for that”.
The Declaration also treats the issue of education. With its adoption in the Assembly, the state would declare that “it shall take effective measures for the organization of education in Macedonian language in the area of Gora in Kosovo and the area of Gora in the northern part of the Republic of Albania, printing necessary textbooks, literature and forms for pedagogical records, in accordance with the syllabus of domicile authorities and established by bilateral agreements”. It also recommends the government to increase the number of scholarship holders and to improve the enrollment procedure and studying conditions of Macedonians from the area of Gora in the educational institutions in the Republic of Macedonia.
The whole declaration has 18 items where cultural development of Macedonians from Gora is treated, cherishing Macedonian language, economic aspects of area development, communication aspects (prequalification of the border crossing Strezimir-Restelica from temporary and selective into international border crossing with 24-hour movement regime) etc.
Do Macedonians with Muslim religion face any assimilation?
There are such phenomena, it is not a secret. Assimilation is most frequent in the Turkish and Albanian ethnic group. For instance, a group of Macedonians with Muslim religion from Skopje declare themselves to be Turks. Their children have lately been educated in Turkish. The most frequent reason for this is that people make their own identification through religion, not through ethnicity. For example, older women say “I swear to Turkish faith” and they say it in Macedonian, as it is their mother tongue. The people have a need to identify faith with ethnicity, with their national identity. We have to realize that religion is a fugitive category, but nation is not. We should not deprive someone who is of Macedonian nationality and Muslim religion of the right to be Macedonian.
What are your remarks on the government?
We feel angry about its global policy. It, pressed by other problems, intentionally or unintentionally, neglects the problems with Macedonians in the neighborhood. Macedonia cannot “be” if it the problem with Macedonians from the neighboring countries is not solved. Macedonia has a rare fate to border itself. “Thank to” the wars in the past and gerrymandering the borders by the big powers, most of the Macedonians stayed in the neighboring countries. But they are still Macedonians, regardless of the names we call them: Gorans, Aegean Macedonians, Pirin Macedonians, they are all Macedonians.
Our other remark is that they have not included Macedonians with Muslim religion in the executive power or give them functions in legislative power. This non-acceptance of Macedonians with Muslim religion contributes towards loss of self-confidence.
What will you require from this government?
In both the past and present period our cooperation with the Government is reduced to the same: we have a meeting, they listen to us, they “cry” with us and that’s it, then we leave.
All our requirements have been put in the Declaration I have already mentioned. They are a few corpus issues that cover citizenship, education, cultural identity, economic development and communications.
It suits us to be called nationalists
The Association of Macedonians with Muslim Religion was formed in 1979. We have been called nationalists and it suits us to be called like that, as nationalism is a good thing, it means that I love my country and the nation. I would take it hard to be called national-chauvinist.
The organization is financed by individuals or companies that are willing to help us. We have no membership fee.
It is not the problem to find the money, the problem is to mobilize the people. The problem with Macedonians with Muslim religion is not local and national.
Why did Macedonians with Muslim religion move to Turkey?
Emigration of Macedonians with Muslim religion in Turkey, which took place in the 1950s of the last century, was in the name of Islam. In the young communist country, immediately after the World War II, practicing religion was at the least uncertain, not to say unwanted. People started moving to the promised, Muslim land – Turkey. As soon as they arrived, they saw how promised it had been. The surnames of the emigrants in Edrene were immediately changed, so that they did not sound Slavic, but Turkish. It was Turkey’s intentional politics. But they also saw that not only Muslims, but also Christians lived there.
A lot of Macedonians with Muslim religion live in Turkey. In Istanbul there are about 17 Macedonian clubs. About 170.000 Macedonians with Muslim religion live there. There are also clubs in Manisa, in Izmir (70.000-80.000 Macedonians) etc.
We regularly keep in touch with them. In 2003 we shot a documentary called “Bridges”. The film is about Macedonians with Muslim religion, globally in the world and specifically those who live in Turkey. Unfortunately, no one in the national television house had virtue to edit it and show it to the public.
The people there still have deep feelings for Macedonia. During one of our visits, an older man emigrated from Macedonia 40 years ago came to say hello and asked what was new in Macedonia. “Is the water in the bottle from Macedonia?” he asked us. He could not rejoice at the water from Macedonia. He was washing his face as if he wanted to soak up Macedonia in himself and to make up for the 40 years of life outside it.
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