Greeks are mainly settled now in the cities of
Gevgelija (
Greek: Γευγελή, Gevgelī́) and
Bitola (
Greek: Μοναστήρι, Monastī́ri).[2] Today most Greeks in the country are political refugees who fled Greece due to the
Greek Civil War[3] and their descendants.[4]Ethnologue also cites
Greek as an "immigrant language" in the Republic of North Macedonia.[5] In 2002, 422 individuals declared themselves as Greeks in the census.[6] The 2021 census recorded 294 individuals declaring their ethnicity as Greek.[1]
Aromanians
There is a historical controversy surrounding a Greek minority within North Macedonia, that stems from the
Ottoman era statistical treatment of
Aromanian population groups in the country, which in their majority used to identify themselves as Greeks as part of the
Rum millet.[7] A large number of Aromanians with Greek identity left the region after the Balkan Wars, with
Florina in
Greece witnessing the arrival of a large Greek-speaking commercial population from Monastiri (Bitola).[8] The present-day community is a remnant of the formerly larger Aromanian community of the part of
Macedonia that fell within the borders of the
Kingdom of Serbia after the
Balkan Wars.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Today, the
Aromanians in North Macedonia are an officially recognized minority group numbering ca. 10,000 people, although some estimates put this number higher.
Notable historical personalities
The following people were born during Ottoman times in what is today
North Macedonia:
^Few, William Preston; William Henry Glasson; John Spencer Bassett; William Kenneth Boyd; et al. (1918).
"Search for Greek Monastir". {{
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