Historical Facts about Skopje up to 1912

In Ottoman documents, there has never been found any “Macedonian” in Uskub/Skopje

– Ancient Scupi (modern Skopje), possibly an initial Paeonian settlement, was founded in early antiquity near Axius (Vardar). It became the Capital of ancient Dardania, hence it was not part of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon.

– Dardanians were racially, a totally unrelated people to Ancient Macedonians and belonged probably to the Illyrian Group [1] . They could be described as natural Enemies of ancient Macedonians since their relation is characterised by continuous Dardanian incursions in Macedonian territories and wars against Macedonians.

– Philip II defeated the Dardanian king Bardyllis and won the whole country up to the Lychnid lake which long remained the frontier between Macedon and the Illyrian Lands.

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– In the aftermath of the Roman Conquest of the Dardanian Skupi, it is worth noting that the town was included in the Roman Province of Moesia Superior. Later when a new province was extracted based on the people who inhabited it, namely Dardania, Scupi became its administrative center. During most of the Roman Period, Skupi (Skopje) also was not Part of Macedonia.

– During Byzantine era, much of the Early Medieval period, the town was contested between the Byzantines and the Bulgarian Empire. From 972 to 992 it was the capital of the First Bulgarian Empire. After that, it was a capital of Byzantine administrative region (katepanat) Bulgaria after the fall the First Bulgarian Empire in 1018.

– During the 11th century , the area was occupied by Normans, Scythians, Pecheneges, Crusaders, etc. Between 1045 and 1053, a certain number of Pechenegs settled in Ovche Pole.

– After Scupi’s conquest by Theodore of Epiros (1224) it was constituted as a theme with a Greek bishop (Dem. Chom. no. XIV, col. 63; no. CXXXI, col. 536. Akropolites, ed. Heisenberg, 78, Zlatarski, III, 435).

– Later in 1230, Skupi became a capital of the estate of the Bulgarian feudal lord. It passed into the Bulgarian Empire of John Asen, his son Kaliman, and its appointed governor was the PanSebastos sebastos Pribo (or Primpos).

. — In 1246 it was briefly incorporated in the Empire of Nicaea, before being taken over by Constantin Tich of Bulgaria. Again during these centuries, Skupi mostly was a Bulgarian capital with no relation to Macedonians and Macedonia.

– The Expansion of the Serbian Empire found Skupi on Serbian hands. Under the last Serbian Emperors of the Nemanja Dynasty, particularly Stephan Duros III Dusan (1331–1355), Skupi served as the capital the Serbian State. Its indicative that the Serb Ruler’s title was “Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks”.

– During the reign of Bayezit I (1392), Skopje was conquered by Pasha Yigit. The city of Skopje was subjected to a systematic settlement of Turkic people coming from Asia after the conquest. Most notable were the Turkic nomads, Yoruks and Koniars. They migrated from Asia Minor at the end of the 15th and during the 16th century settled in the areas around Skopje.

– In the surviving Ottoman documents of 15th and 16th century, the vast majority of Skopje’s inhabitants were Ottoman Muslims who identified themselves, mainly as Vardarians, Albanians, Turkomans, Yoruks, Karamanlis, Kurds. Its tiny Christian population (<20%) identified themselves as Bulgarians, Greeks, Vlachs, etc but never as the fictitious “ethnic Macedonians.”

– The 16th century was marked by another wave of colonists. This time led by the Roma.

– During the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the Slavs of the city of Uskub identified themselves and were identified by others mainly as Bulgarians, speaking a Bulgarian dialect.

–The literary sources are explicit about the Bulgarian character of the city’s Slavic element. (See related article Population of Skopje Through History — Contemporary Sources.)

– The intense Albanian colonization started from the end of the 18th century throughout the first half of the 19th century and from that time to a lesser degree to the end of Ottoman rule.

– In the 1860s after the Crimean War, a significant number of Tatars and Circassians inhabited across Skopje and the rest of today’s FYROMs territories. [2]

– In 1912, Albanians were the ones who liberated Skopje (then Uskub].

– From all the sources, we are becoming receivers of the same message. Historically, Skopje has nothing Macedonian on it.

[1] Strabo considers Dardanians as Illyrian people, while a large amount of modern scholars place them in the Thracian-Mysic Balkan Group.
[2] Pandevska, 1993

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