PART OF THE MONOGRAPH “GOJKO JAKOVLEVSKI” BY SLAVE KATIN
According to Goyko Yakovleski, alias Goyko Delchev Rafkin – Got se of Macedonia the story of his ancestors is very interesting. Namely, his grandfather Petko was a fortune seeker in Istanbul, Turkey. He was a baker by profes sion, and he has worked in his uncle Ilko’s bakery, who has later left Istanbul with his three children, two daughters and a son Jane and moved to Chicago, USA.
However, his great-grandfather Petko stayed in Istanbul, where he is buried. He shares the destiny of many Macedonians who went to Turkey for fortune seeking. Namely, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the fortune seeking in Macedonia became a mass phenomenon. Large numbers of people from the villag es were leaving Macedonia and they went mainly to Constantinople and other cities within the borders of Turkey.
So, several thousand people from Lerin, Prespa and Kostur regions went to Constantinople and Smyrna every year. Most of them were part time workers, and a number of them stayed there forever. Thus, today there are about 200 families, who have lived in Istanbul for more than five generations and are of Or thodox religion. Their religious affiliation is one of the major components that have separated them from the environment in which they lived and preserved them as a compact ethnic group until today.
Also, the migratory movements of the Turkish population from the Republic of Macedonia to Turkey, over a period of hun dreds of years, has been taking place with varying intensity and has undergone major transformations. However, the period of the 1960s was characterized by intense em igration of Turks, which numbered around 200,000. According to some unofficial data, there are about one million Turkish and Macedonian Muslims in Turkey today.
As an overall economic, political and cultural center of the Turkish Empire, Con stantinople also played a significant role in the development of the Macedonian popu lation. The city attracts many citizens from various countries and is important not only as an economic and commercial center, but it has played a significant role in the educa tional, cultural and religious Christian ac tivity that took place there. Unfortunately, the Macedonian migrants in Turkey have been and are registered as Bulgarians, as foreign nationals, or as Turkish citizens – Christians.
The iron church in Instanbul
The religious activity carried out by the Slavic population, including the popula tion from Macedonia in Constantinople, was crucial for the Macedonian settlers to acquire the attribute – BulgaIrians and to bear that name until nowadays. That was a time when the Slavic population, having the common interests of separation from the Greek Orthodox Church and the crea tion of an independent Slavic Church, came together in the hope of successful achieve ment of that goal.
Under the pressure of Hellenization and the Greek Church, the population from Macedonia in Constantinople was often re ferred to as Greek, which was the reason of its joining the then only Slavic, Bulgarian Exarchate in which establishment Macedo nians were also actively involved.
In Turkey, religion is identified with ethnicity and therefore only those peoples who have their own church can be official ly named by their ethnic name. Therefore, most Macedonians in Istanbul were regis tered as Bulgarians.
Lacking its own state and having no other choice at the time, while protecting itself from becoming Greeks, the Macedo nian population determined itself as Bul garians, preserving in that way at least its Slavism. Most of the older citizens from the Mac edonian migrant community in Istanbul to day declare themselves as Macedonians and only a small number as Bulgarians-Mace donians, explaining their origin and some of the reasons for the changes made.
However, a number of the younger gen erations, unaware of the historical facts sufficiently, temporally and spatially dis tant from the homeland of their ancestors, unfortunately declare themselves as Bul garians. Among other things, the biggest “contribution” to this, of course, has the influence of the church and the Bulgarian schools.
Bulgarian school in Istanbul existed un til the 1970s of the last century. Citizens with Bulgarian citizenship could attend it from first to seventh grade, while those who had received Turkish citizenship, went to Turkish school for the first four years with the right to continue in the Bulgar ian school for the next three years.
Today, according to some data, about 200 families live in this city, all of which, except some, are originally from Macedonia, and some families are from the Resen-Prespa region, Gostivar-Kichevo region and Skop je. However, the most numerous are from Aegean Macedonia, from Kostur region, from the villages of Zagorichani, Olishta, Bobishta, Bambuki, Chereshnica and Pe tele. They have come in the late nineteenth century, as well as the 1920s and 1930s of the twentieth century. Several families have mainly moved to Istanbul after World War II. Former gardeners, bakers, florists and millers from Macedonia today are either owners of shops selling grains, cereals, seeds, chemicals and supplements for ag riculture, or are wholesalers.
Former hos tlers have modern restaurants or taverns, some of which are very famous in the city. More recently, there are jewelers, doctors, electrical engineers and architects. They can been also found in diplomatic missions, foreign companies, travel agencies and the like. This fact seems to be important because it indicates their well-being, ena bling them to attend foreign colleges in the city or to study abroad.
To be continue
By SLAVE KATIN
