Serbomans

Serbomans (Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian: србомани, romanized: srbomani; Bulgarian: сърбомани, romanized: sărbomani; Romanian: sârbomani) is a Bulgarian pejorative term used by Bulgarian nationalists for inhabitants in the region of Macedonia that claimed Serbian ethnicity (declared as Serbs) and supported Serbian national ideals until the middle of the 20th century.[1] They explained it as being imposed by Serbian propaganda promulgating a secondary identity, which resulted in a Bulgarian population that had lost its real nationality.[2] It is also still used pejoratively by Bulgarians to refer to residents of North Macedonia who proclaimed a separate Macedonian identity and act to subdue Bulgarian nationalism in Macedonia.[3] The term first appeared during the time of the Serbian-Bulgarian rivalry for present-day North Macedonia during the second half of the 19th century.[4]

  1. ^ Yugoslav communism and the Macedonian question, Stephen E. Palmer, Robert R. King, Archon Books, 1971, ISBN 0-208-00821-7, p. 12
  2. ^ Report of the Interallied Commission on the Violation of the Hague Convention and of the Principles of the International Law committed in 1915-1918 by the Bulgarians in occupied Serbia, Imprimerie "Yugoslavia", 1919, p. 27.
  3. ^ Contested Ethnic Identity: The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto, 1900-1996, Chris Kostov, Peter Lang, 2010, ISBN 3-0343-0196-0, p. 226
  4. ^ Historical dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Dimitar Bechev, Scarecrow Pres 2009 ISBN 0-8108-5565-8.