World Macedonian Congress

The World Macedonian Congress (shortened as WMC or SMK; Macedonian: Светски македонски конгрес; Svetski makedonski kongres) is a Macedonian diaspora organization based in Skopje. It presents itself as an organization fighting and demanding for more human rights to ethnic Macedonians on an international level, but is seen as a nationalist or ultranationalist organization by researchers.[3][4][5] The organization was registered during the fall of communism, on 15 September 1990 by Todor Petrov, who is also the president of the organization.[6][7][8]

World Macedonian Congress
Светски Македонски Конгрес
AbbreviationWMC
Formation15 September 1990
TypeNon-governmental[1]
HeadquartersSkopje, North Macedonia
Location
  • Worldwide
Chairman
Todor Petrov
Honourable Presidents
Gjorgjija Atanasoski
Zan Mitrev[2]
Vice-Presidents
Ismail Bojda
Borce Stefanovski
Vangel Božinovski[2]
Main organ
General Assembly
Websitewww.smk.mk

History

Foundation and ideology

The World Macedonian Congress was the second of the two international lobby organizations or World Macedonian Congresses established in the Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) with the disintegration of former Yugoslavia. It was created as a rival to the first World Macedonian Congress (created by John Bitove, Sr., a Canadian-Macedonian businessman with the encouragement of the first president of the Republic of Macedonia, Kiro Gligorov) by the opposition (VMRO-DPMNE) politician Todor Petrov and current president of the Congress.[7] Petrov claimed the Congress was created partly to replace the "Institute for the Macedonian Diaspora", which had been discredited through its past association with the Yugoslavian secret service.[9]

The organization claims ideological descent from one offshoot of the Macedonian Secret Revolutionary Committee, founded by Georgi Kapchev in Geneva, which sent a call to convene an International Congress, to solve the Macedonian Question in January 1899.[10] This idea is disputed by Bulgarian historians on the grounds that Kapchev was a Bulgarian journalist and lawyer.[11][12]

International researchers and Macedonian researchers have generally seen the organization as a nationalist or ultranationalist organization.[3][4][5][13] According to Macedonian researcher Cvete Koneska, the organization has generally taken hard nationalist stands on political issues, usually regarding Macedonian foreign policy and the country's issues with Greece and Bulgaria.[14] During the Macedonia naming dispute, the organization stood for ending talks with Greece and continuation of Macedonia's membership in the United Nations under its then constitutional name.[5] It also saw antiquity as a source of Macedonian national identity. Macedonian political scientist Zdravko Savevski labelled the organization as far-right.[15]

2004 referendum

In 2004, Todor Petrov and the World Macedonian Congress initiated 2004 referendum against changes of administrative divisions. According to the government proposal of municipal border, which would decrease the percentage of Macedonians, and transform Struga and Kičevo into Albanians dominated cities, as well as make Albanian an official language in the capital Skopje.[16] Prior to the referendum, the U.S. recognized the Republic of Macedonia under its constitutional name.[17] The referendum was held on 7 November.[6] Although 95% voted in favor of the change, the voter turnout of 26% was well below the 50% threshold, and the referendum was unsuccessful.[3][4]

See also

References
  1. Ramet, Sabrina; Hassenstab, Christine; Listhaug, Ola, eds. (2017). Building Democracy in the Yugoslav Successor States: Accomplishments, Setbacks, and Challenges since 1990. Cambridge University Press. p. 304. ISBN 978-1-10718-074-1.
  2. "Дневник". www.dnevnik.com.mk. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  3. Elena Gadjanova (2006). The State of Local Democracy in the Western Balkans. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. p. 130. ISBN 978-9289503914. The World Macedonian Congress (an ultra nationalist political formation).
  4. Hughes, James (2013). EU Conflict Management (Association for the Study of Nationalities). Routledge. p. 86. The World Macedonian Congress, a nationalist pan-Macedonian diaspora organization.
  5. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, The radical right in Macedonia, Zdravko Saveski, Artan Sadiku, December 2012, ISBN 978-3-86498-439-6, pp. 1–3.
  6. Historical Dictionary of North Macedonia, Dimitar Bechev, Rowman & Littlefield, 2019, ISBN 9781538119624, p. 309.
  7. The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, Loring Danforth, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0691043566, 1995, p. 101.
  8. The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, James Jupp, Cambridge University Press, 2001, ISBN 0521807891, p. 573.
  9. James Jupp, The Australian People; An Encyclopedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins, ch. "Macedonians", Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 572
  10. The program of Kapchev contained 12 items and was a revision of the program of reforms made by the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee in 1896. According to it, Macedonia and Eastern Thrace should to form an autonomous region into the Ottoman Empire with its own legislative and executive powers and presumed that Bulgarian language, ought to be used there as official one. "Istoricheski pregled," Volume 48, Issues 7–12, Bŭlgarsko istorichesko druzhestvo, Institut za istoria (Bulgarian Academy of sciences) Bŭlgarsko istorichesko druzhestvo, 1992, pp. 106-108.
  11. Централният македонски комитет на Георги Капчев (1898 - 1899), в: Елдъров, Светлозар. Върховният македоно-одрински комитет и македоно-одринската организация в България (1895 - 1903), Иврай, 2003, стр. 241–268.
  12. Нова организация с познати идеи. По повод решенията на X-то юбилейно генерално събрание на Световния македонски конгрес. Анализи, прогнози, документи. Бюлетин на Македонски научен институт, 2001, № 1, с. 21–29;39.16.
  13. Ljupcho Petkovski; Dimitar Nikolovski (2016). "Populism and Progressive Social Movements in Macedonia: From Rhetorical Trap to Discursive Asset". Politologicky Casopis. 23 (2): 6.
  14. Cvete Koneska (2016). After Ethnic Conflict: Policy-making in Post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia. Routledge. p. 106. ISBN 978-1-31718-397-6.
  15. "State of Hate: Far Right Extremism in Europe 2021". Amadeu Antonio Stiftung. p. 100. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  16. TV Sitel (In Macedonian)
  17. A narrow squeak, The Economist, 11 November 2004.
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