Greeks in North Macedonia

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Greeks in North Macedonia (Macedonian: Грци во Северна Македонија [ɡr̩t͡si]) form a small community numbering 294 individuals per 2021 census.^[1]

Greeks are mainly settled now in the cities of Gevgelija (Greek: Γευγελή, Gevgelī́) and Bitola (Greek: Μοναστήρι, Monastī́ri).^[2] Today this community is a remnant from the times of Communist Yugoslavia. Then many Greek communists fled Greece due to the Greek Civil War as political refugees.^[3] Today here live mostly their descendants.^[4] Ethnologue cites Greek as an "immigrant language" in North Macedonia.^[5] In 2002, 422 individuals declared themselves as Greeks in the census.^[6] The 2021 census recorded only 294 individuals declaring their ethnicity as Greek.^[1]

There is a historical controversy surrounding a Greek minority within North Macedonia, that stems from the late 19th and early 20th century Ottoman era statistical treatment of Aromanian and Slavic-speaking population groups in the area, which partially used to identify themselves as Greeks as part of the Rum millet.^[7] A large number of Aromanians and Slavic-speakers with Greek identity left the region after the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) and First World War (1914-1918) and settled in Greece.^[8]

The following Aromanian and Slavic people were born during Ottoman times in what is today North Macedonia and identified as Greek after the rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire:

• Theodoros Adam, chieftain of the Macedonian Struggle
• Charalambos Boufidis, chieftain of the Macedonian Struggle
• Petros Christou (1887-1908), chieftain of the Macedonian Struggle
• Georgios Karaiskakis (-1910), chieftain of the Macedonian Struggle
• Evangelos Koukoudeas, chieftain of the Macedonian Struggle
• Eleni Karinte, first love of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
• Dimitrios Lalas (1844/48-1911), composer and musician
• Georgios Modis (1887-1975), jurist, politician, writer and participant in the Macedonian Struggle
• Theodoros Modis, merchant, scholar and participant in the Macedonian Struggle
• Traianos Nallis (1874-?), politician
• Pantelis Papaioannou (c.1880-1907), chieftain of the Macedonian Struggle
• Theofylaktos Papakonstantinou (1905-1991), writer and politician
• Anastasios Pichion (1836-1913), educator and participant the Macedonian Struggle
• Michail Sapkas (1873-1956), politician and doctor
• Dimitrios Semsis (1883-1950), violinist
• Michael Sionidis (1870-1935), chieftain of the Macedonian Struggle
• Alexandros Svolos (1892-1956), President of Political Committee of National Liberation during WW2
• Dimitrios Tsapanos (1882/1883-?), chieftain of the Macedonian Struggle
• Dimitrios Tsitsimis, chieftain of the Macedonian Struggle
• Georgios Vafopoulos (1903-1996), poet, writer, teacher and journalist
• Antonios Zois (1869-1941), chieftain of the Macedonian Struggle

• Greece–North Macedonia relations
• Grecomans
• Macedonians (Greeks)
• Slavic speakers of Greek Macedonia
• Aromanians in North Macedonia