Editing Macedonia (region) (section)

====Post–World War II====
The end of the War did not bring peace to Greece and a strenuous civil war between the Government forces and EAM broke out with about 50,000 casualties for both sides. The defeat of the Communists in 1949 forced their Slav-speaking members to either leave Greece or fully adopt Greek language and surnames. The Slav minorities were discriminated against, and not even recognised as a minority. Since 1923 the only internationally recognized minority in Greece are the Muslims in Western Thrace.

Yugoslav Macedonia was the only region where Yugoslav communist leader [[Josip Broz Tito]] had not developed a Partisan movement because of the Bulgarian occupation of a large part of that area. To improve the situation, in 1943 the Communist Party of Macedonia was established in [[Tetovo]] with the prospect that it would support the resistance against the Axis. In the meantime, the Bulgarians' violent repression led to loss of moral support from the civilian population. By the end of the war "a Macedonian national consciousness hardly existed beyond a general conviction, gained from bitter experience, that rule from Sofia was as unpalatable as that from Belgrade. But if there were no Macedonian nation there was a Communist Party of Macedonia, around which the People's Republic of Macedonia was built".

Tito thus separated Yugoslav Macedonia from Serbia after the war. It became a republic of the new federal Yugoslavia (as the Socialist Republic of Macedonia) in 1946, with its capital at [[Skopje]]. Tito also promoted the concept of a separate Macedonian nation, as a means of severing the ties of the [[Macedonian Slav|Slav population of Yugoslav Macedonia]] with Bulgaria. A separate [[Macedonian Orthodox Church]] was established, splitting off from the [[Serbian Orthodox Church]]. The Communist Party sought to deter pro-Bulgarian sentiment, which was punished severely.

Across the border in Greece, [[Slavic speaking minority in northern Greece|Slavophones]] were seen as a potentially disloyal "[[fifth column]]" within the Greek state by both the US and Greece, and their existence as a minority was officially denied. Greeks were resettled in the region many of whom emigrated (especially to [[Australia]]) along with many Greek-speaking natives, because of the hard economic conditions after the Second World War and the Greek Civil War. Although there was some liberalization between 1959 and 1967, the Greek military dictatorship re-imposed harsh restrictions. The situation gradually eased after Greece's return to democracy, although even as recently as the 1990s Greece has been criticised by international human rights activists for "harassing" Macedonian Slav political activists, who, nonetheless, are free to maintain their own political party ([[Rainbow (political party)|Rainbow]]). Elsewhere in Greek Macedonia, economic development after the war was brisk and the area rapidly became the most prosperous part of the region. The coast was heavily developed for tourism, particularly on the [[Halkidiki]] peninsula.

Under [[Georgi Dimitrov]], [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] loyalist and head of the [[Comintern]], Bulgaria initially accepted the existence of a distinctive Macedonian identity. It had been agreed that [[Pirin Macedonia]] would join Yugoslav Macedonia and for this reason the population was forced to declare itself "Macedonian" in the 1946 census.{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} This caused resentment and many people were imprisoned or interned in rural areas outside Pirin Macedonia. After Tito's split from the [[Soviet bloc]] this position was abandoned and the existence of a Macedonian ethnicity or language was denied.