Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Macedonia for the Macedonians" in English language version.
The economic integrity of the region was clear, but the challenge of bringing into being an internally heterogeneous and externally coveted state — in the British Prime Minister William Gladstone's often misquoted 1897 phrase, a 'Macedonia for Macedonians'...
Few accepted the idea that there might be a separate Macedonian nation, although Gladstone had raised the slogan 'Macedonia for the Macedonians' during the Midlothian campaign of 1879-80.
By the term of "Macedonians" Gladstone had in mind the various ethnic groups who had settled and lived for centuries in Macedonia, such as: Bulgarians, Turks, Greeks, Albanians, Romanians, and others.
Gladstone's much quoted phrase, Macedonia to the Macedonians, clearly referred to all the inhabitants of Macedonia irrespective of creed or ethnic origin, not to an imagined Macedonian ethnic group.
Gladstone's much - quoted phrase, Macedonia to the Macedonians, clearly referred to all the inhabitants of Macedonia irrespective of creed or ethnic origin, not to an imagined Macedonian ethnic group.
mit dieser ebenso einfachen wie genialen Frage verblueffte der englische Staatsmann Gladstone Anfang 1897 die europaeische Oeffentlichkeit. Seine Rethorik verwies nitch nur die schaerfsten Konkurrenten um den Zankapfel Makedonien, Serbien und Bulgarien, in ihre Grenzen. Es musste auch so scheinen, als haette er mit einem Federstrich eine Nationalitaet aus der Taufe gehoben, die sich allein ueber den Namen ihres Siedlungsgebietes definierte, die Makedonier. Dies wirkte um so befremdlicher, als eigenstaendige Interessen der Bewohner des umstrittenen Raumes bis dahin weder wahrgenommen worden waren, geschweige denn zur Debatte gestanden haetten. Ihre Interessen waren berets von Serbien, Bulgarien, und Griechenland festgelegt - wenn auch divergent. Entsprechend war die "makedonische Frage" ausschliesslich unter dem Aspekt diskutiert worden, welcher dieser drei Nachbarstaaten die zentrale Balkanregion zugebilligt werden koennte, ohne das labile politische Gleichgewicht auf dem Balkan zu gefaehrden.
By the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the European powers were well aware of a spirit of national consciousness, based on ethnic and language differences from other Balkan areas, within Macedonia. The slogan "Macedonia for the Macedonians" was adopted by the English politician Gladstone in this period.
