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The Torbeshes of Macedonia: Religious and National Identity Questions of Macedonian-Speaking Muslims

2008; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 28; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13602000802011044

1469-9591

Ali Dikici,

Balkans: History, Politics, Society

Abstract Torbesh is the name given to the Macedonian-speaking Muslim minority community living in the Republic of Macedonia. The name is a colloquial term and means “the bag carriers”. There are some prevailing discussions on whether Torbeshes are descendants of Christian Slavs who converted to Islam during the Ottoman period or if they are of Turkish origin. During the Ottoman rule, not language, but religion, motivated social groups and political allegiancies and was used in the designation of identity. After the disintegration of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, this situation reemerged and religion played an important role during the ethnic conflicts in the Balkans. Although religion and religion-based tradition appeared to be decisive ethnicity components for many other Muslim minorities in the Balkans, the Torbeshes of Macedonia have not developed their collective identity solely on religious grounds. The ethnic identity question of the Torbesh community is still under dispute although a majority declare themselves as Turks. A minor Torbesh group, for whom language is a much more important identity criterion, feels much closer to the orthodox Macedonians. Some of the Torbeshes declare themselves as Muslim Albanians for pragmatic or ideological reasons. Therefore, Torbeshes have neither a firm Macedonian national affiliation nor a separate Torbesh identity. Notes 1. Ömer Turan, “Pomaks, Their Past and Present”, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 19, No. 1, April 1999, pp. 69–83. 2. The region takes its name from the Radika river (reka is the Macedonian word for river). 3. “Project of Women's Organization “Radika”, in Debar Area—Reka Women Embroider Scarves for Americans”, Dnevnik (Diary), 19 Febuary 2003. 4. There are 10,718 inhabitants in Rostushe, which is the largest municipality in the region. See Information and Communications Technology Assistance for Macedonian Municipalities, Municipality of Rostushe, available online at: . 5. There are 6229 inhabitants in the municipality of Zhupa. See Župa Municipality webpage, available online at: . 6. Turan, “Pomaks”, op. cit., p. 70. 7. What is more interesting is that many Torbeshes that I met expressed that they do not enjoy the term Torbesh since they take it as an insult. The name is somewhat pejorative and derogatory sounding “vagrant, miserable, dishevelled and uncivil”. Some of them stated that the reason for their discontent is that the Torbesh and Pomak terms had been given by their Christian neighbors to degrade the Slavs who converted to Islam. Oppression and the intimidation under the former Republic of Yugoslavia also contribute to the formation of a “sense of shame” vis-à-vis their Torbesh identity. However, the term “Muslim Macedonians” is used by Macedonian authorities and scholars to engage the Torbeshes in their republic in the process of Macedonian nation building. Therefore, I will employ the term Torbesh to refer to the “Macedonian-speaking Muslim Community” instead of the questionable “Macedonian Muslim” (Makedonski Muslimani) or “Muslim Macedonian” (Muslimanski Makedoni). However, the Macedonian Muslim term will be quoted as the source originally implied. Similarly another pejorative term used for Torbeshes is poturi/poturlu. “It was generally used to refer to Islamicized or Turkicized Bosnian Slavs of a rather rustic and provincial kind, who may have retained some Christian practices.” See Noel Malcolm, Bosnia: A Short History, 2nd edn., London: Macmillan, 1996, pp. 59–60. 8. Jean-Arnault Dérens, “Winners and Losers among the Minority Groups in Former Yugoslavia: Forgotten Peoples of the Balkans”, Le Monde Diplomatique, August 2003, available online at: Hüseyin Memişoğlu, “Pomaklar (Pomaks)”, in Balkanlar El Kitabı (Balkans Handbook), eds. Osman Karatay and Bilgehan A. Gökdağ, Vol. II, Çorum-Ankara: KaraM&Vadi Publishing, 2007, pp. 523–535. 9. See also Turan, “Pomaks”, op. cit., p. 69. 10. Hugh Poulton, “Non-Albanian Muslim Minorities in Macedonia”, in The New Macedonian Question, ed. James Pettifer, London: Macmillan Press, 1999, pp. 107–126. For instance, N. Skiryabin uses the term Pomak for the people in Debar and Radika valley which are Torbesh regions. Quoted by Gligor Todorovski, “Verskiot Faktor Kako Islamiziranite Makedonci” (The Factor of Religion on the National Identity of Islamicized Macedonians), in Istorija Folklor i Etnologija na Islamiziranite Makedonci (History, Folklore and Ethnology of Islamicized Macedonians), Skopje: Scientific-Cultural Activities of Islamicized Macedonians in Macedonia, 1987, p. 70. 11. Aneta Svetieva, “Politicisation of the Ethnic Identity of the Torbesh (the Nashinci)”, available online at: . 12. Turan, “Pomaks”, op. cit., p. 69; Kemal Gözler, “Osmanlı Tahrir Defterlerine Göre Lofça Pomak Köylerinin İlk Müslüman Sakinleri: 1479–1579” (Pomak Villages of Lofça in 15th and 16th Centuries According to Ottoman Tahrir Defters: 1479–1579), available online at: . 13. Erhan Türbedar, “Balkanlar'da Müslüman Topluluklar ve Türkiye” (Muslim Communities in Balkans and Turkey), available online at: . The Gorans are a small group of Muslim people who live in the mountains in the far south of Kosovo and speak a Slavonic language closely related to Macedonian. There is another argument that the Macedonian governments are trying to record these people as “Macedonians” by offering them Macedonian citizenship and passports. See Taner Güçlütürk, “Göç ve Terk Edilmişlikle Bütünleşenler: Gora ve Goralılar” (Those who Integrate with Migration and Neglect: Gora and Gorans), Yeni Dönem (The New Era), Kosovo, available online at: . 14. Poulton, “Non-Albanian Muslim Minorities”, op. cit., p. 117. 15. Bilal Eryılmaz, Osmanlı Devletinde Millet Sistemi (Millet System in Ottoman State), İstanbul: Ağaç Publishing, 1992, p. 13. 16. Kemal Karpat, Ottoman Population 1830–1914: Demographic and Social Characteristics, London: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985, p. 55. 17. Karpat mentions only the Turks, Albanians, Bosnian Muslims (Bosniacs) and the Pomaks as Muslim populations in the Balkans. In some cases, however, the Ottoman principle of regarding people in terms of their religious identity was violated due to requirements of the administration, state management or the military. See ibid., pp. 22–23. 18. H. R. Wilkinson, Maps and Politics: A Review of the Ethnographic Cartography of Macedonia, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1951, pp. 162–163. 19. P. Cilev, “Obikolka iz Albanski Selica v Pristinako, Prizrensko, Debarsko i Ohridsko” (The Settlement of Albanian Villages in Ohrid, Debre, Prizren and Pristina), Izvestija na Narodnija Etnografski Muzej v Sofia (The Yearbook of Sofia Museum of Ethnography), Vol. V–VI, Sofia, 1926, p. 10, quoted by Turan, “Pomaks”, op. cit. 20. Emil Zafirovski, “Muslims Ache with Macedonian Tears”, Media Diversity Institute, available online at: . 21. Jovan Hadzhi Vasilevich, Muslimani nashje krvje vo Juzhnoj Srbiji (Muslims of our Blood in Southern Serbia), Belgrade: Bratsvo, 1924, p. 34. 22. A sweet prepared with sesame oil, various cereals, and syrup or honey. 23. Galaba Palikuruseva, “Islamizacija na Torbesite i Torbeskata Subgrupa” (The Islamization of Torbes and Torbes Subgroups), unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, 1965, pp. 132–137. 24. The Janissaries (or janizaries; corrupted from Turkish: Yeniçeri, meaning ‘New Troops’) comprised infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultan's household troops and bodyguard. The Janissaries were a renowned, organized and elite corps of the Ottoman army, founded in the fourteenth century. It was abolished by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826. 25. Dimitar Angelov, Bogomilstvoto v Bulgarija (The Bogomils in Bulgaria), Sofia: Nauka i izkustvo, 1969, p. 150. See also Dragan Taskovski, Bogomilskoto Dvizenje (The Bogomil Movement), Skopje: Nasha Kniga, 1970, pp. 148–149. 26. Svetieva, “Politicisation of the Ethnic Identity”, op. cit. 27. Ş, ş pronounced sh as in ship. So, Torbesh (Eng.)=Torbeş (Tur.). 28. Yusuf Hamzaoğlu, Balkan Türklüğü (Turkish Identity in Balkans), Ankara: Kültür Bakanlığı Publishing, 2000, p. 453. 29. Yaşar Kalafat, Makedonya Türkleri Arasında Yaşayan Halk İnançları (Turkish Folk Beliefs among the Turks in Macedonia), İstanbul: Türk Dünyası Araştırma Vakfı Publishing, 1994, pp. 18–20. 30. It is known that the Torbesh name appears also as denoting territory of origin such as the village of Torbach in Golo Brdo—the part which is in Albania. 31. Turan, “Pomaks”, op. cit., p. 70. 32. Türbedar, “Balkanlar'da Müslüman Topluluklar ve Türkiye”, op. cit. 33. Milivoj Pavlovic, Skopski Torbesi-Najstrarije Pleme na Balkanskom Poluostrvu (The Oldest Skopje Torbeshes Who Come from Serbian Origin in the Balkan Peninsula), Skopje: Juzna Srbija, 1939; Vera Mutafchieva and Antonina Zhelyazkova, Turcija (Turkey), Sofia: Open Society Publishing House, 1994, p. 10; Center for Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe—Southeast Europe (CEDIME-SE), “Minorities in Southeast Europe: Muslims of Macedonia”, updated August 2000, available online at: . 34. Turan, “Pomaks”, op. cit., pp. 70–71. 35. Stanford J. Shaw, “Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nda Azınlıklar Sorunu” (The Problem of Minorities in the Ottoman Empire), in Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyet'e Türkiye Ansiklopedisi (Encyclopedia of Turkey from Tanzimat to the Republic), Vol. V, İstanbul: İletişim Publishing, 1986, pp. 1002–1006. 36. Eran Fraenkel, “Turning a Donkey into a Horse: Paradox and Conflict in the Identity of Macedonci Muslimani”, Balkan Forum, Vol. 3, No. 4, 1995, pp. 153–163. 37. Maria Todorova, “The Ottoman Legacy in the Balkans”, in The Balkans: A Mirror of the New International Order, eds. Günay Göksu Özdoğan and Kemal Saybaşılı, İstanbul: Eren Publications, 1995, p. 72. 38. Dmitri Obolensky, The Bogomils: A Study in Balkan Neo-Manichaeism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1948, p. 167. 39. Hamzaoğlu, Balkan Türklüğü, op. cit., p. 454; Turan, “Pomaks”, op. cit., p. 71. 40. Hüseyin Memişoğlu, Pomak Türklerinin Tarihi Geçmişinden Sayfalar (Pages of History of Pomak Turks), Ankara: Şafak Publishing, 1991, pp. 11–12; Asen Balıkçı, “Pomak Identity: National Prescriptions and Native Assumptions”, Ethnologia Balkanica, München: Waxmann Verlag, No. 03, 1999, pp. 51–57. The name of some locations such as Kumanova in Macedonia is given as the proof of this opinion. 41. Hugh Poulton, “Changing Notions of National Identity among Muslims in Thrace and Macedonia: Turks, Pomaks and Roma”, in Muslim Identity and the Balkan State, eds Hugh Poulton and Suha Taji-Farouki, London: C. Hurst, 1997, p. 93. 42. In a search on “tendencies rejecting the behaviors against the religion and moral values”, Torbeshes and Pomaks have the highest and most severe reaction ratio in comparison to other Muslim minorities in the Balkans. See Musa Musai, “Balkan Müslümanlarında Din-Kimlik Bütünleşmesi” (Religion-Identity Integration of Balkan Muslims), Hikmet, No. 6, Gostivar: ADEKSAM, 2005, pp. 7–25. Relative to the others, Torbeshes displayed the highest desire (68.8%) to live in a country having full freedom of religion and conscience, and this is directly related to their definition of identity on the basis of religion. See ibid., p. 23. 43. Halim Çavuşoğlu, “Yugoslavya-Makedonya'dan Türkiye'ye 1952–67 ‘Kitlesel’ Göçü ve Bursa'daki Göçmen Kesimi” (The “Mass” Migration in 1952–67 from Yugoslavia–Macedonia to Turkey and the Part of Immigrants in Bursa), Karadeniz Araştırmaları (Black Sea Studies), Vol. 3, No. 10, 2006, pp. 107–147. 44. Turan, “Pomaks”, op. cit., p. 75. 45. Çavuşoğlu, “Yugoslavya-Makedonya'dan Türkiye'ye”, op. cit., p. 120. 46. Ibid., p. 120. 47. Dışişleri Bakanlığı (The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey), “No: 183, 843/412/3186, 6 Temmuz 1963, Belgrad Büyükelçiliği'nden Dışişleri Bakanlığı'na” (From Turkish Embassy in Belgrade to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey), Dış Türkler (Belgeler)—Turks in Abroad (Documents), Ankara: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, 1969, pp. 642, 649–650. 48. Spiridon Gopčević, Stara Srbija i Makedonija (Old Serbia and Macedonia), Belgrade: Ilije M. Kolarca, 1890, p. 58. 49. Turan, “Pomaks”, op. cit., p. 72. 50. Mario Apostolov, “The Pomaks: A Religious Minority in The Balkans”, Nationalities Papers, Vol. 24, No. 4, 1996, pp. 727–742. Also available online at: Columbia International Affairs Online, . 51. Nijazi Limanovski, Islamizacijata i etničkite promeni vo Makedonija, Makedonci Muslimani (Macedonian Muslims, Ethnic Changes and Islamization in Macedonia), Skopje: Makedonska Kniga, 1984, p. 54. 52. Atanas Benderev, Voenaja Geografija i Statistika Makedoniji (The Military Geography and Statistics in Macedonia), St. Petersburg, 1890, p. 592, quoted by Turan, “Pomaks”, op. cit., p. 83. Benderev gives the figures of “Islamicized Macedons” living in the towns which are found within Macedonia today: in Dojran, 2763; in Strumitsa, 11,823; in Tikvesh, 47,938; in the district of Skopje, 20,870; in Kumanovo, 800; in Radovish, 5387; and in Kochani, 7930. In the district of Manastir their number was 35,423; in Prilepe, 8000; in Resen and Prespa, 4000; and in Debre-i Zire, 6000. Although other Muslim minorities like Pomaks are included in these figures, they reflect mostly the population of the Torbeshes. 53. Stefan M. Verkovic, Topograficesko-Ethnograficeskij ocerk Makedonii (Ethnography and Topography of Macedonia), St. Petersburg: Voennaja tip, 1889, p. 238. According to Verkovic, the Muslim Macedonians in selected towns in present-day Macedonia number as follows: in Koprulu, 4646; in Strumica, 7497; in Ohrid, 1523; in Kichevo, 5690; in Resen, 2806; in Monastir, 5177; in Prilep, 4695; in Debar, 8046; in Tikvesh, 15,685; in Tetovo, 8149; in Skopje, 5509; in Shtip, 3468, and in Kochana, 3790, etc. 54. Jordan Nikolov Ivanov, Bulgarite vi Makedonija (Bulgars in Macedonia), Sofia, 1915, quoted by Turan, “Pomaks”, op. cit., p. 73. 55. Dışişleri Bakanlığı (The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey), “No: 183, 843/412/3186, 6 Temmuz 1963, Belgrad Büyükelçiliği'nden Dışişleri Bakanlığı'na”, op. cit., p. 645. 56. For a thesis regarding their lifestyle and customs in Turkey, see Metin Demir, “Manisa'da Yaşayan Torbeşler'in Düğün Adet ve Gelenekleri” (Wedding Ceremonies and Customs of Torbeshes Living in Manisa), unpublished Master thesis, Turkish Folk Science Department, Hacettepe University, Ankara, 1990. 57. Ivo Banac, The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics, New York: Cornell University Press, 1989, p. 50. 58. Poulton, “Non-Albanian Muslim Minorities”, op. cit., p. 115. 59. Baskın Oran, “Religious and National Identity among the Balkan Muslims: A Comparative Study on Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Kosova”, Cahiers d'études sur la Méditerranée orientale et le monde turco-iranien (Study documentation/research findings on the Oriental Mediterranean and Turkish-Iranian civilization), No. 18, Juillet–Décembre 1994, available online at: . 60. Oran, “Religious and National Identity among the Balkan Muslims”, op. cit. 61. Tom Gallagher, The Balkans in the New Millennium: In the Shadow of War and Peace, London and New York: Routledge, 2005, p. 85. 62. Necati Çayırlı, “Makedonya Türkleri” (Turks in Macedonia), in Türkler Ansiklopedisi (Encylopedia of Turks), Vol. 20, Ankara: Yeni Türkiye Publishing, 2002, pp. 444–454. 63. Murat Oral, Makedonya Cumhuriyeti U¨lke Profili (The Profile of Republic of Macedonia), Skopje: The Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA), February 2005, available online at: . 64. Türbedar, “Balkanlar'da Müslüman Topluluklar ve Türkiye”, op. cit. 65. Zafirovski, “Muslims Ache”, op. cit. 66. Hamzaoğlu, Balkan Türklüğü, op. cit., p. 453. 67. Çavuşoğlu, “Yugoslavya-Makedonya'dan Türkiye'ye”, op. cit., p. 121. 68. Poulton, “Changing Notions of National Identity”, op. cit., p. 94. Another author gives the full name of this association as “The Culture and Science Center of Macedonian Muslims”; see Oran, “Religious and National Identity among the Balkan Muslims”, op. cit. In addition to these attempts to bring them back to the “Macedonianness”, especially in the 1970s “there were also political attempts to make the Christian Macedonians accept the Macedonian Muslims as their co-nationals. However, this process has been rather difficult. Although the two communities share the same language, Macedonian Christians presume one cannot be ‘Macedonian’ without being Orthodox Christian. They view Orthodoxy as a necessary, if not a sufficient, component of the Macedonian cultural and communal identity.” See Fraenkel, “Turning a Donkey into a Horse”, op. cit., p. 154. Therefore, “the emphasis of Macedonian nationalist politicians on the connection between the Macedonian Orthodox Church and Macedonian nationality has further alienated some Macedonian Muslims. However, the current dispute is thus not a new one. The precipitous banning of the Muslim veil (zar and feredže) in the early 1950s also created significant alienation of some Macedonian-speaking Muslims from the state and increased their sense that Macedonian identity was a Christian identity.” See Victor A. Friedman, “Language Policy and Language Behavior in Macedonia: Background and Current Events”, in Language Contact, Language Conflict, eds. Eran Fraenkel and Christina Kramer, New York: Peter Lang, 1993, pp. 73–99. 69. Oran, “Religious and National Identity among the Balkan Muslims”, op. cit. 70. Limanovski, Islamizacijata i Etnickite Promeni vo Makedonija. Makedonci Muslimani, op. cit., p. 29. 71. Ibid., pp. 35–36. 72. These materials were given by Gligor Todorovski, Alexander Matkjovski, Nijazi Limanovski and Stojche Dojcihnovski-Rosokloja during the first scientific Muslim Macedonian Symposium held in Kichevo on 3–4 October 1981. See Center for Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe—Southeast Europe (CEDIME-SE), “Minorities in Southeast Europe: Muslims of Macedonia”, updated August 2000, available online at: . 73. Xavier Bougarel, “Islam and Politics in the Post-Communist Balkans”, available online at: . 74. Oran, “Religious and National Identity among the Balkan Muslims”, op. cit. 75. Inma Pérez Rocha, “Power-sharing in the FYR of Macedonia after the Ohrid Framework Agreement and its Impact on the Turkish Community”, unpulished Master thesis, UNESCO Chair on Education for Human Rights and Peace, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, June 2003, p. 48. 76. Bougarel, “Islam and Politics in the Post-Communist Balkans”, op. cit. 77. Dérens, “Winners and Losers among the Minority Groups in Former Yugoslavia”, op. cit. 78. Musai, “Balkan Müslümanlarında Din-Kimlik Bütünleşmesi”, op. cit., p. 24. 79. Poulton, “Changing Notions of National Identity”, op. cit., pp. 94–95. 80. Ibid. 81. Duncan M. Perry, “The Republic of Macedonia: Finding its Way”, in Politics, Power and the Struggle for Democracy in South-East Europe, eds. Karen Dawisha and Bruce Parrott, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 256. This is interpreted as “a process of Albanization of the part of the population practicing Islam (through increasing the level of the Albanian language in the religious practis[sic], the religious service and the education of the preachers)”. See “Report on Minority Rights in the Republic of Macedonia”, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in the Republic of Macedonia, Skopje, September 1999, available online at: . 82. Bougarel, “Islam and Politics in the Post-Communist Balkans”, op. cit. 83. “Protest against the Denationalisation of Macedonian Moslems”, The MILS News (Macedonian Information and Liaison Service), Skopje, 23 October 1996, also available online at: . 84. Current mayors of two Torbesh towns Dzupa and Plasnitsa, Dr. Nuzi Şahin and Dr. Fidail Salifoski respectively, are members of TDP. Before parliamentary elections of July 2006 a new party was formed by a Torbesh businessman, Fiat Canovski, and he was elected as a parliamentarian. 85. Oran, “Religious and National Identity among the Balkan Muslims”, op. cit. 86. Çavuşoğlu, “Yugoslavya-Makedonya'dan Türkiye'ye”, op. cit., p. 132. 87. Poulton, “Non-Albanian Muslim Minorities”, op. cit., p. 116. When I was working for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje, many Torbeshes told me that they want to learn Turkish, and in the past their grandparents spoke Turkish secretly in their homes and implied that their parents were seeking to return the children to their roots. 88. Oran, “Religious and National Identity among the Balkan Muslims”, op. cit. 89. Nova Makedonija (The New Macedonia), 7–10 January 1993. 90. Mario Apostolov, “The Pomaks: A Religious Minority in the Balkans”, op. cit. 91. “A Threat to ‘Stability’, Human Rights Violations in Macedonia”, Human Rights Watch/Helsinki Human Rights Watch, available online at: . 92. Ibid. 93. Nedim Yalçın, “Türkçe için açlık Grevi” (Hunger Strike for Turkish Language), Aksiyon, No. 97, 12 October 1996, available online at: . 94. Many Torbesh cadets enlisted themselves as Turkish with the OSCE Police Academy. 95. Dérens, “Winners and Losers among the Minority Groups in Former Yugoslavia”, op. cit.