Macedonia

"Macedonia has its own interests and its own politics which belong to the Macedonians. The one who works for joining of Macedonia to Bulgaria, Greece, or Serbia, can consider himself as a good Bulgarian, Greek, or Serb, but not as a good Macedonian". Gotse Delchev (1872-1903)

"People who are of the same origin and who speak the same words and who live and make friends of each other, who have the same customs and songs and entertainment are what we call a nation, and the place where that people lives is called the people's country. Thus the Macedonians also are a nation and the place which is theirs is called Macedonia". Gjorgi Pulevski (1838-1895)
In his "Dictionary of Three Languages" Pulevski laid claims to Alexander the Macedonian: "Macedonia was praised," he says, "in the time of the great tsar Alexander". Next, Pulevski mentions with pride that the first books of the brothers Cyril and Methodius were in our language: "... The Macedonian language is the one which is the closest to Church Slavonic books and it is Old Slavonic", "We are called Slavs because when Cyril and Methodius translated the church books from Greek into Slavonic, they found it would be good to write in Old Slavonic and the Old Slavs lived in Macedonia".
Gjorgi Pulevski (1838-1895)

"Yes, Macedonian culture and history are quite separate from Bulgarian and Serbian culture and history; they have never been the object of an impartial and detailed study. The Serbs and the Bulgarians most unfairly took from Macedonian culture only what they could make use of for the glory of their own national names; ignoring facts of capital importance either because they did not concern them, or because they contradicted their own national aspirations. Unfortunately, the Macedonians themselves are only now beginning to study Macedonian history, having realized, towards the end of last century, that they could no longer trust the historians of Belgrade or Sofia..." Krste Petkov Misirkov (1874-1926)