Letter to the Washington Post
Don't Refer to Macedonians as "Macedonian Slavs."

Lily N.

Mr. Finn, in your article, "Macedonia Agrees to Make Albanian Language Official" you use the term "Macedonian Slavs."

Were you aware that this terminology includes Macedonians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Croatians, Slovenians, etc. It is ambiguous and includes all so-called "Slavs" in Macedonia.

"Slavs" lacks any national meaning, which is probably why no one uses it to identify.

If you ever visit the Balkans you will never hear the following: 'hi, my name is Mira, I'm a Serb Slav and this is my friend Trajan, he's a Macedonian Slav and that's Dzevit he's an Albanian Shiptar.'

This is not the way people in the region self-identify.

The appropriate (normal, common) terminology is: 'hi, my name is Mira, I'm Serbian, this is my friend Trajan, he's Macedonian and that's Dzevit, he's Albanian.'

In future, when you refer to Macedonians just write "Macedonians." If this confuses you then write "ethnic Macedonians."

Don't incorrectly refer to us as "Macedonian Slavs." We find this terminology offensive and consider it a slur.

Yours truly,
Lily N.

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