Church Split in the Republic of North Macedonia: The Foreign Policy Dimension

Abstract

The unexpected reconciliation of the Serbian Orthodox Church with the Macedonian ‘schismatics’, which took place in May 2022, determines the relevance of the retrospective analysis given in the article of this church conflict that has lasted more than half a century in the Republic of North Macedonia. Using the historical-genetic method, the underlying reason is revealed and the dynamics of the conflict that unfolded between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Archdiocese of Ohrid – is traced. With the use of the realistic approach to international relations and the hypothesis of maintaining a close connection between the church and state in the Balkans, the author identifies the key parties to the conflict, which, in addition to Serbia and the Republic of North Macedonia, include Bulgaria, Greece, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and describes the evolution of the strategies chosen by these parties to conduct. At the same time, the focus of the study is not the theological dimension of the subject in question, but its foreign policy implications. The history of the church schism is considered in the broader context of the political elites of the Republic of North Macedonia finding the solution to the task of integration into Euro-Atlantic structures, the possibilities of using the church factor in the reaching of geostrategic goals are shown. It is stated that the reasons that pushed the hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church to reach agreements with the Macedonian ‘schismatics’ lie in the dimension of foreign policy, and the discussion of the status of the Ohrid Archdiocese was one of the elements of the struggle for influence in the Balkans, both regional and non-regional players. By its decision to support the autocephaly of the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Archdiocese of Ohrid, the Serbian Orthodox Church has demonstrated the recognition of a specific Slavic-Macedonian national identity, which is questioned in the official historical narratives of Greece and Bulgaria, and, at least on the Balkan track, the papist aspirations of the Patriarchate of Constantinople were limited. Ultimately, the pragmatic position of the Serbian Orthodox Church did not allow the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Archdiocese of Ohrid to be turned into an instrument for realizing the interests of the Phanar supported by Western countries and took away the conflict potential from the topic that could contribute to the political demarcation of Serbia and the Republic of North Macedonia. Nevertheless, in the prognostic part of the conclusion, a high probability of ‘church wars’ resuming is stated, but with a new, not united by Orthodoxy, list of participants, namely containing representatives of the Albanian and Macedonian communities.