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.