Milos Rancic wrote:
Greek nationalists, supported by one Bulgarian
nationalist (just to
say that Bulgarian Wikipedian community is not nationalist) are
forcing naming (modern) Macedonians as "Macedonian Slavs".
Even (some) people on English Wikipedia think that they can vote about
the name of one ethicity/nation. This is a horror. I urge to all of
you to stop that (Greek) nationalist orgy there!
The problem is that the name "Macedonian", in English at least, is
ambiguous. In some contexts, it primarily refers to residents of the
Republic of Macedonia. In other contexts, it primarily refers to
residents of the ancient Macedonian Empire. In still other contexts, it
refers generally to inhabitants of the Balkan region named "Macedonia"
(corresponding roughly to the former Ottoman province of that name),
some of whom are in the RoM, but others of whom are in Greece and
Bulgaria. This latter usage in particular leads to some disputes,
especially with northern Greeks who call themselves "Macedonians", and
consider the name an important part of their history (the 1912 war that
captured Thessaloniki from the Ottomans is and long has been called the
"Macedonian Struggle", for example).
Generally, Wikipedia tries to find some compromise on disputed issues,
so in this case the compromise is that none of the claimants get the
unadorned "Macedonians" as a descriptor.
I do agree something other than "Macedonian Slavs" would be good.
"Macedonian (nationality)" has been proposed on one of the talk pages
and seems relatively neutral (since the ancient Macedonians weren't part
of a "nationality" by a modern definition, and the modern Greek
Macedonians are a component of the Greek nationity, not a separate
nationality).
-Mark