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Greeks in North Macedonia

Greeks in North Macedonia (Macedonian: Грци во Северна Македонија ) form a small community numbering 294 individuals per 2021 census.

History

Refugees from the Greek Civil War

Greeks are mainly settled now in the cities of Gevgelija (, Gevgelī́) and Bitola (, Monastī́ri). Today this community is a remnant from the times of Communist Yugoslavia. Then many Greek communists fled Greece due to the Greek Civil War as political refugees. Today here live mostly their descendants. Ethnologue cites Greek as an "immigrant language" in North Macedonia. In 2002, 422 individuals declared themselves as Greeks in the census. The 2021 census recorded only 294 individuals declaring their ethnicity as Greek.

Trivia

There is a historical controversy surrounding a Greek minority within North Macedonia, that stems from the late 19th and early 20th century Ottoman era statistical treatment of Aromanian-speaking and Slavic-speaking population groups in the area, which partially used to identify themselves as Greeks as part of the Rum millet. A large number of Aromanian and Slavic-speakers with Greek identity left the region after the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) and First World War (1914–1918) and settled in Greece.

Notable historical personalities

The following Aromanian and Slavic speakers were born during Ottoman times in what is today North Macedonia and identified as Greek after the rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire:

See also

References