Antartiko

Antartiko, (Greek: Ανταρτικό, Bulgarian/Macedonian Slavic: Желево, Želevo, Zhelevo) is a village in the Prespes Municipality in Macedonia. Nestled in the mountains to the west of Florina, the village has suffered from a long decline in population and influence.

History

The area had been settled for hundreds of years under the original Slavic name of Zhelevo and there are two old Churches testifying to the villages' age. Following the Greek occupation of the area in 1913, Zhelevo was renamed to Antartiko in the 1920s as part of the government's policy of hellenization. Antartiko had a population of approximately 2000 people in the early 20th century but starting in the 1920s, many of its residents began to emigrate elsewhere.

The church "St. Nikolay" was built in the early 18th century.^[1] The second church in the village "St. Atanas" was built under the initiative of the local benefactor and the activist of the Bulgarian Revival Movement Pavle Yankov in 1880s, but the Greek Bishop of Kastoria refused to sanctify it because of Slavic inscriptions. The inscriptions were not removed until 1908.^[2]

The first attempt to open a Bulgarian school was made by locals in 1883, but was unsuccessful because of the opposition of the Greek teacher.^[3]

The village was a base for the Greek andartes in the struggle with the detachments of IMORO in the beginning of 20th century. Local inhabitants took part in this struggle on both sides. The main part of the population of the village came under the supremacy of the Bulgarian Exarchate towards the end of the first decade of 20th century. According to officials of the Exarchate, in 1909 over 200 households were under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Exarchate and 50 under the Patriarchate of Constantinople).^[4] Until the summer of 1908 the Exarchate families were served by the Bulgarian priest from the neighboring village of Oshtima (present-day Trigono). Several weeks after the Young Turk Revolution the first Exarchate priest, local resident Ivan Trayanov, started his work in Zhelevo.^[5]

Many people emigrated to Canada, the United States and Australia. Today, the population of Antartiko is just over 100. According to a 1993 study, the village was inhabited by Slavophones and the Macedonian language was used by people over 30 years of age in public and in private.^[6] In more recent decades, the area has seen an increase in illegal immigration from Albania, as the border is close by. The main industry of the area for a long time was farming, and a main road only connected the village with Florina in the last 50 years or so.

References

1. Tomev, Foto. Short history of Zhelevo village, Macedonia, Zhelevo Brotherhood, Toronto 1971, p. 19-20.
2. Tomev, Foto. Short history of Zhelevo village, Macedonia, Zhelevo Brotherhood, Toronto 1971, p. 20-24.
3. Tomev, Foto. Short history of Zhelevo village, Macedonia, Zhelevo Brotherhood, Toronto 1971, pp. 22-24.
4. Macedonia - documents and materials, Sofia 1978, N 111
5. Tomev, Foto. Short history of Zhelevo village, Macedonia, Zhelevo Brotherhood, Toronto 1971, p. 30-31.
6. Riki Van Boeschoten. "Usage des langues minoritaires dans les départements de Florina et d’Aridea (Macédoine)"

Coordinates: 40°45′40″N 21°12′25″E / 40.761°N 21.207°E