Dimitar Rizov (1912)

Dimitar Rizov (1912)

Our people were only ‘Macedonian Christians,’ and then, when
Greek propaganda developed they became ‘Macedonian
Christian Slavs’. It was all the same to us which Christian country
would help us to free ourselves from the Turks. I was born in
Bitola. There were several grammar-schools in Bitola: Turkish,
Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian. It was all the same to us, the
Slavs, which Slav grammar-school we attended. For example,
alongside many of my friends who later became Bulgarians, I
attended the Serbian grammar-school. It is true that the teachers
in the grammar-school told us that we were Serbs, just as those in
the Bulgarian grammar-school were told that we were Bulgarians;
but we kept our own counsel, and that was what our parents told
us at home: it does not matter, let them talk, but we are
Macedonian Christian Slavs.