ABSTRACT
The Macedonians constitute the largest national group in the Republic of Macedonia, and the Albanians are the second largest. Apart from these two major groups, the Macedonian population is composed of Turks, Serbs, Gypsies, Vlachs and over twenty other national groups with more or less different ethnic identities. Macedonian nationalists consider Macedonia as the territory of Greater Macedonia, while other Macedonians and members of various other neighbouring nations regard it as a geographic territory or region in the Balkans. The geographic region of Macedonia is located between the Shar and Osogovo mountains in the north, the Rila mountains and Mesta river in the east, the Bistrica river, the Aegean Sea and the Pindus mountains in the south, and the Albanian highlands in the west. In 681 the Bulgars established their first state, which from the ninth to fourteenth centuries was shifting rule with the Byzantine Empire over Macedonia.
