The Macedonians — Μακεδόνες, Makedónes — are a regional and historical population group of ethnic Greeks, inhabiting or originating mainly from the Ancient Greek Kingdom of Macedonia, in Northern Greece. The modern Macedonia incorporates most of the territories (and the two capitals) of the ancient Kingdom of Macedonia. Today, most Macedonians live in or around the regional capital city of Thessaloniki and other cities and towns in Greek Macedonia, while many have spread across Greece and in the diaspora.

Name

The name Macedonia — Μακεδονία, Makedonía — comes from the ancient Greek word μακεδνός (Makednos). It is commonly explained as having originally meant "tall" or "highlander".

Identity

Origins

There had been a documented continuous Greek presence in Macedonia since antiquity, which marked the region. After the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, half of the refugees from Asia Minor, Pontus, and Eastern Thrace settled in the region.

Culture

The Greek Macedonians have their particular version of Greek cultural heritage, which is classified as a subgroup of the national Greek culture. They admire, along with the ancient Macedonians (especially Alexander the Great), the fighters of the Macedonian struggle as their own primary heroes, in contrast to southern Greeks who mainly praise the southern heroes of the Greek War of Independence. According to late-19th century folklorist Frederick G. Abbott:
“ Everything that savours of antiquity is by the Macedonian peasant attributed to the two great kings of his country. His songs and traditions, of which he is vastly and justly proud, are often described as having come down " from the times of Philip and Alexander - and Heracles", a comprehensive period to which all remnants of the past are allotted with undiscriminating impartiality. ”The use of the Macedonian flag is very common in the Macedonian population, depicting the Vergina Sun as their regional symbol, while "Famous Macedonia" is an unofficial anthem and military march. They have even some folk dances that bear the name of the region, Makedonia and Makedonikos antikristos.

The overwhelming majority of the Greek Macedonians speak a variant of Greek, called Macedonian (Μακεδονίτικα, Makedonitika). It belongs to the northern dialect group, with phonological and few syntactical differences distinguishing it from standard Greek which is spoken in southern Greece. One of these differences is that the Macedonian dialect uses the accusative case instead of genitive to refer to an indirect object. The Macedonians also have a characteristically heavier accent, which readily identifies a speaker as coming from Macedonia. There is also a minority of Slavic-speakers (Slavophones: Greeks speaking Slavic) that predominantly self-identifies as Greeks, primarily found in West Macedonia.

Diaspora

Australia had been a popular destination for the waves of Macedonian Greek immigrants throughout the 20th century. Their immigration was similar to that of the rest of the Greek diaspora, affected by their social-economic and political background in their homeland, and has been recorded mainly between 1924–1974. Settlers from West Macedonia were the first to arrive in Australia and dominated the immigration waves until 1954. Macedonian families from the regions of Florina and Kastoria established settlements in rural areas, while people from Kozani settled mainly in Melbourne. Only after 1954, people from Central and Eastern Macedonia began to arrive in Australia. Vasilios Kyriazis Blades from Vythos, a village in the prefecture of Kozani, is believed to be the first Macedonian settler to arrive in Australia and was landed in Melbourne in 1915; his arrival exhorted other people from his village and adjacent Pentalofos to settle in Melbourne, while several families from other districts also settled in Australia, bringing with them hundreds of people in the following decades.

The Vergina Sun, that also appears in the regional flag, is used alongside the Greek flag by Greeks to declare their Macedonian origin in various rallies; here in Melbourne, Australia.

The geographic distribution of Macedonians before World War II differed from the distribution of other Greek settlers. While the Greeks from the islands settled mainly in the eastern states of the country attracting more Greek immigrants there, large portions of Macedonians were concentrated in western Australia. During the first years of their settlement, the Macedonians were dispersed in the Australian countryside close to the metropolitan centers, working as market gardeners, farmhands and woodcutters; there was a significant change of their occupational patterns after 1946, when they began to bring with them their families from Greece. The urbanization process for the Macedonians started after the Great Depression, when the availability of work in urban areas increased, something that led to extended move of Macedonians towards the large cities, especially Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, where they set up their own communities and regional institutions. While the majority of the settlers were indigenous Macedonians, there were also small numbers of Pontic Greeks coming from the region of Macedonia, who did not share the same regional identity and founded distinct institutions, however both of Greek origin.

After World War II greater numbers from all parts of Macedonia entered Australia, many of them as refugees due to the Greek Civil War. These new waves of immigrants resulted in crowded communes and over sixty Macedonian organizations were established in the country, the most prominent of which is the Pan-Macedonian Federation of Australia, the peak umbrella organization. Apart from its regional character, the federation also serves as the voice of the Greek Macedonian communities in Australia and has taken active role in the Macedonia naming dispute. Its headquarters is in Melbourne, where the non-profit organization of Pan-Macedonian Association of Melbourne and Victoria was established in 1961, while the federation is also active in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. According to an estimate in 1988, there were around 55,000 Macedonians in Australia. More recent accounts cite 145,000 Macedonians.

Other large Greek Macedonian communities can also be found particularly in the United States, Canada and Great Britain. The main institutions which were established by some of these communities or are closely affiliated with them are:

Pan-Macedonian Association USA, founded in 1947 in New York City by Greek Americans whose origin were from Macedonia to unite all the Macedonian communities of the United States, works to collect and distribute information on the land and people of Macedonia, organize lectures, scientific discussions, art exhibitions, educational and philanthropic activities, while they have funded work in the Library of New York University with books about the Macedonian history and culture. Additionally, they promote the social welfare and educational advancement of the inhabitants of Macedonia.

The Pan-Macedonian Association of Canada is the association's branch for the Greek Canadians of Macedonian origin.

The Macedonian Society of Great Britain, founded in 1989 in London by Macedonian immigrants, promotes the Macedonian history, culture and heritage, organizes lectures and presentations, as well as social events and gatherings for the British Greeks.

Panhellenic Macedonian Front, a Greek political party founded in 2009 by politician Stelios Papathemelis and professor Kostas Zouraris to run for the 2009 European Parliament elections, which is affiliated with several Macedonian diaspora organizations.

Notable Modern Macedonians

Athanasios Christopoulos, writer, poet.
Emmanouel Pappas, leader of the Greek War of Independence in Macedonia. Other notable personalities included Georgios Lassanis, Nikolaos Kasomoulis and Anastasios Polyzoidis.
Ioannis Papafis, benefactor.
Stamatios Kleanthis, Xenophon Paionidis, architects.
Emilios Riadis, composer.
George Zorbas, the character upon which Nikos Kazantzakis based the fictional protagonist of his novel Zorba the Greek.
Panagiotis Fasoulas and Dimitris Diamantidis, prominent basketball players and European champions with Greece in 1987 and 2005 respectively. Fasoulas was also mayor of Piraeus, while Diamantidis was announced European Player of the Year in 2007. Other basketball players include Giannis Ioannidis, Nikos Hatzivrettas, Kostas Tsartsaris, Nikolaos Zisis and Fedon Matheou, widely considered to be the Patriarch of Greek basketball.
Theodoros Zagorakis, captain of the Greek national football team that won the UEFA Euro 2004, and other players of the 2004 Euro team such as Vassilios Tsiartas, Traianos Dellas, Vassilis Lakis, Pantelis Kafes, Nikos Dabizas, Zisis Vryzas, Georgios Samaras (from his father's side) and Angelos Charisteas. Other notable figures of the Greek football include Kleanthis Vikelidis, Giorgos Koudas and Alketas Panagoulias.
Several Greek Olympic medalists: Georgios Roubanis (Melbourne 1956, bronze medal), Voula Patoulidou (Barcelona 1992, gold medal), Ioannis Melissanidis (Atlanta 1996, gold medal), Dimosthenis Tampakos (Athens 2004, gold medal), Alexandros Nikolaidis (Athens 2004, silver medal) and Elisavet Mystakidou (Athens 2004, silver medal).
Konstantinos Karamanlis, former President and Prime Minister of Greece, as well as his nephew Kostas Karamanlis who also served as Prime Minister.
Christos Sartzetakis, former President of Greece.
Stephanos Dragoumis and his son Ion Dragoumis, politicians with contribution in the Macedonian Struggle, with Macedonian descent.
Herbert von Karajan (originally Karajanis) (1908–1989), an Austrian born orchestra and opera conductor who was descended paternally from Greek-Macedonian ancestors who migrated centuries earlier from Kozani to Chemnitz, Germany and then to Saxony and subsequently to Vienna where they held key academic, medical, and administrative posts.
Thalia Flora-Karavia, artist and painter
Vassilis Vassilikos, writer. Other writers include Anthoula Vafopoulou, Georgios Vafopoulos
Giannis Dalianidis, Takis Kanellopoulos, Titos Vandis, Costas Hajihristos, Zoe Laskari, Kostas Voutsas: notable figures of the Greek cinema.
Patrick Tatopoulos, movie production designer and is a French-Greek with Macedonian descent on his father's side.
Figures of the musical scene: Manolis Chiotis, Giorgos Hatzinasios, Marinella, Dionysis Savvopoulos, Antonis Remos, Despina Vandi