Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk a makedonská otázka
Tomaš Garrigue Masaryk and the Macedonia Question

Summary/Abstract: The Republic of Macedonia has been established as an independent state on September, 8th, 1991. It was established in the Vardar part of Macedonia, which was a part of the Royal Yugoslavia under the Serbian infl uence and from 1944 it was one of the six federative Republics of Yugoslavia. Macedonia was divided into three states after the Balkan Wars and WWI, whereas until then Macedonia was under the infl uence of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Apart from the Vardar part in Yugoslavia, there were the Pirin Macedonia, affi liated to Bulgaria and the Aegean Macedonia affi liated to Greece. Moreover, a part of the Slavonic (Macedonian) inhabitants remained in Albania. After the WWI the Macedonian question, which was in the eyes of Macedonians still unsettled, contributed to the animosity and unrest in the Balkans. The diplomatic stance of the First Czechoslovak Republic towards Macedonia was specific due to the complex geographic and political reasons. A Czechoslovak Consulate was seated in Skopje, and the news was sent to Prague via Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia. Macedonian intellectuals from the Macedonian national liberation movement did contact T. G. Masaryk (first time in 1919) and asked him to comment on the Macedonian question. They desired a united Macedonia. According to the archive documents, Masaryk had detailed knowledge of the Macedonian question. It was essential for Czechoslovakia that there was no tension among the Balkan states about these issues, predominantly between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Unrest in the Balkans was disadvantageous for Czechoslovakia (and Europe) fi rst of all economically and commercially.

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