Category: Non-Fiction

UNRECONCILED DIFFERENCES – Turkey, Armenia & Azerbaijan

By:  Scott Taylor © 2010

Tpb: 176 pgs.

Price: $18 CAD/USD

During the past century, there have been two major clashes in the Anatolia-Caucasus region.  Both resulted in the widespread slaughter and forced expulsion of innocent civilianz from all sides.  The first was during the Great War (WWI) caused by the collapse of both the Ottoman Empire and Czarist Russia:  the second erupted between 1988-1994.  What these two conflicts also share is that few in the West have observed, chronicled or been able to fully understand the complexity of the situation.  Thos existing accounts are rife with partisan propaganda.  It is important to peel away the rhetoric and get to the core.

Scott Taylor has written about the Macedonian region, and now gives the same attention to this region.  There are always two and even three sides to every conflict, and this book gives the reader a better understanding of what happened.  Many of the Begaltsi were shipped to Azerbaijan, and this comprehensive history is useful to understand this region.  Taylor wrote Diary of an Uncivil War, which gives you a view of what happened to Macedonia during the Kosovo conflict.  It is amazing that many of the events parallel what happened in Macedonia and the region in some ways.

 

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MACEDONIA … EM BABA… EM NEVESTA: The History and Culture of Macedonia told through its folk songs

Macedonia em baba em nevesta cvr

By:  Kathy Dimitrievski, Ph.D.

300 pages © 2003           

Large format trade paperback  (incl. photos)

Price: $28 CAD             USD  $21

 

Like many cultures, oral history plays an important and vital role in Macedonia.  In the past, they did not have the opportunity to write their own history, and create a literary tradition.  Songs and poetry, which were easy to remember, expressed the joys and sorrows of their existence, current events, the passing of famous and ordinary people, laughter and local customs.  People passed on songs in full voice in the fields, or whispered melodies as men and women gathered around the fire at night.

Dimitrievski’s research includes the diaspora of Canada, the United States, Pirin (Bulgaria) and Mala Prespa (Albania).  The interviewees from Aegean Macedonia were interviewed in the diaspora and Bitola, Macedonia.  The many interviews and stories told, along with the words to the songs, provide a very interesting view of Macedonian history.  Dr. Dimitrievski included exclusive interviews with folk singers Sarievski, Tomovska, Kostadinova and Ilieva, along with a comprehensive analysis of Macedonian folk songs.

 

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THE CONTEST FOR MACEDONIAN IDENTITY 1870-1912

Contest for Mk Identity 1897-1912

By:  Nick Anastasovski

Tpb  © 2008

520 pages, Large format 245 mm high x 170 mm wide,

ISBN 978-0-9804763-0-9

Price:  CAD$45          USD$35

 

Although The Contest is a scholarly book detailing the ongoing campaigns to divide and conquer the Macedonian people, it is easy to read.  It is big and a generous book and well researched.

First it was the Ottoman Empire under which Macedonia was colonized by Muslims and many Macedonians converted to Islam.  Then it was Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria as they fought to turn Macedonians into Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians using State-sponsored teachers, priests, bandits and terrorists.

The Contest for Macedonian Identity examines in detail this fierce competition, and how it was fought at the political, religious, educational, and day-to-day village level. It analyzes Ottoman, Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian and other sources and introduces new and original research by the author from the Bitola region, western Macedonia, and many other parts of ethnic and Ottoman Macedonia. This is a definitive work on the occupation of Macedonia in the modern era and the development and defense of the Macedonian identity.

 

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CHILDREN OF THE BIRD GODDESS: A Macedonian Autobiography

Children of the Bird Goddess

By:  Kita Sapurma and Pandora Petrovska

© 1997

Tpb: 168 pages

Price:  $29 CAD        USD   $25

 

Children of the Bird Goddess, a Macedonian “her-story” is an oral history that spans over 100 years and explores the lives of four generations of Macedonian women from Aegean Macedonia.

Commencing in the 19thC when Macedonia was under the Ottoman Empire, the family’s story is interwoven with the upheavals of the Balkan wars, Greek takeover and colonization of half of Macedonia, two World Wars, and the Macedonian struggle for independence during the Greek Civil War.  Amid this historical turbulence, the book is a detailed portrayal of Macedonian village life and culture as practiced over centuries.  It offers a personal account of Macedonian women’s culture, giving a woman’s perspective on many of the most important Macedonian customs and rituals passed down from mother to daughter through the generations.

This is also a moving account of political and cultural oppression, and the tragic effects on the family’s lives and fortunes.  This legacy becomes an integral part of Australia’s history, as the family eventually flees Greece and must manage the joys and difficulties of settling in a new land.

This is one of the first autobiographies in English of a woman from Aegean Macedonia.  This is breaking the silence and invisibility of Macedonian women.

 

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MACEDONIA AGENDA

By: Macedonian Welfare Workers’ Network of Victoria (Australia)

© 1999

P/b 232 pgs

Ed:  Victor Bivell

 

Check:  www.pollitecon.com  to order directly from Australia.

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