Macedonian weekly magazine Makedonsko Sonce

On July 6, 2000 in its 310th edition, the Macedonian weekly magazine Macedonian Sun (Makedonsko Sonce), under the title “Where are the Macedonians?”, published on its front page the map of Aegean Macedonia which became part of Northern Greece after the partition of Macedonia in 1913. The map depicts the areas where the ethnic Macedonians today live in Greece. It was compiled by the Macedonians in Greece and submitted to the European Parliament. In the cities, towns, and villages in the yellow areas, the Macedonians make up 100% of the population, while in the red are marked the areas where they make between 50 and 100%. The rest of the uncolored areas, the Macedonians are minority among the Greeks with less then 50% of the population.

Taking in consideration this map made by the Macedonians of Greece, we put the data of the approximate area and marked with red where the Macedonians make a majority in Aegean Macedonia (50% to 100%) and where they make minority we used red stripes while in the same time representing the Greeks with blue stripes.

Macedonians in Aegean Macedonia

One can easily see that the Macedonians make up majority in the northern half of Aegean Macedonia, bordering the Republic of Macedonia and the Pirin part of Macedonia in Bulgaria where Macedonians also live. In the other southern half of Aegean Macedonia the Macedonians are minority. The population of Aegean Macedonia is about 2,000,000 which would result that the Macedonian minority in Greece numbers about 1,000,000 people.

The Greek government claims that in Greece live 98% Greeks and that there is not one national minority in the country. These claims are clearly an exaggeration as every country in Europe has national minorities. Therefore Human Rights Watch was correct when after visiting Aegean Macedonia concluded that the “large Macedonian minority” in Greece is under daily oppression, and urged Greece to end its discrimination.