ACRONYMS AND GLOSSARY

ACRONYMS AND GLOSSARY

AFZ The Women’s Antifascist Front of EAM during the occupation of Greece by Nazi Germany

Bulkes Village in Northern Yugoslavia used by Tito as a refuge for Greek communists

CPG The Communist Party of Greece, also referred to as KKE in some texts for the Greek initials

DAG Democratic Army of Greece during the Greek Civil War;it was dominated by, but not exclusive to, Communists

EAM The National Liberation Front of Greece in World War II (WWII) dominated by the Communists but involving other leftist and centrist parties

EDES The Greek Democratic National Army (or National Republican Greek League) was backed by the British and challenged ELAS for control of the resistance movement during the occupation.

ELAS The National People’s Liberation Army of Greeceduring the occupation in WWII

ETA An organization formed during the occupation to protect the partisans

EPON United Pan-Hellenic Organization of Youth

IMRO (VMRO in Macedonian initials)

Caserta (Italy) Agreement

KNOY

Lebanon Agreement

NOF

NOO

NOV

OK

OKNE

OZNA

The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization was started in the late nineteenth century to achieve Macedonian independence. They attempted to defeat and expel the Ottomans. After the Ilinden Uprising was suppressed by the Ottomans in 1903, it continued to be active with a pro-Macedonian group but the Vrhovists (Bulgarian supremacists) more-right wing, continued to act for Bulgarian interests.

See Lebanon Agreement

People’s Defence Corps of Yugoslavia

This agreement brought all partisan factions under the control of the monarchist Greek government-in-exile near the end of WWII

National Liberation Movement, organized by Macedonians

Board of the National Liberation Front

National Liberation Army/National Liberation War

Regional Committee

Communist Youth Organization of Greece

The Department for People’s Protection (The Security Agency of Communist Yugoslavia)

Madzhiri, “Immigrant” in Turkish

SNOF

NOF

Varkiza Agreement

YNA, YNRA

One of several terms given to the refugees from Asia Minor (Turkey) in the 1920’s. They were part of the population exchange between Turkey and Greece after Greece lost the Greco-Turkish war. They were Christians with long-standing roots in Turkey. Many of them did not know Greek. The ones settled in Banitsa Station in fact came from the Caucasus and spoke a Russian-like language.

Slavo-Macedonian National Liberation Front created by Macedonians in Greece

National Liberation Front

An agreement signed by the KKE and the Greek Government in February 1945 after the failed leftist Dekemvriana uprising of late 1944.

Yugoslav People’s Army (directed by Tito)

SUGGESTED READINGS

There is a plethora of material available now on Macedonian and Balkan history. The website Pollitecon maintained by Victor Bivell has many good titles available on line including the original Macedonian version of Katinovski’s book. I include these publications below as they are interesting and informative. Although one has to be wary of writers on Balkan history with axes to grind, there are many good publications out there. These are just some of those.

• Danforth, L. (2000) How Can a Woman Give Birth to One Greek and One Macedonian? The Construction of National Identity among Immigrants to Australia from Northern Greece. Macedonia: The Politics of Identity and Difference. Jane Cowan ed. London: Pluto Press. Pp. 85–103. Loring Danforth writes on how people self-identify. This is just one of his many contributions to the literature.

• Horncastle, J. (2019) The Macedonian Slavs in the Greek Civil War, 1944–1949. London: Lexington Books.

A thorough overview of the involvement and influence of Macedonians in the civil war and the role external forces played in shaping developments.

• Karakasidou, A. N. (1997) Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Anastasia Karakasidou writes a moving history on the changes of Greek Macedonia.

• Koroloff, L. (2016) Drenoveni, The Life and Demise of a Macedonian Village. Toronto: Canada Self Publishers. Larry Koroloff has a good description of local cultural practices.

• Kovras, I. (2014) Truth, Recovery and Transitional Justice: Deferring Human Rights Issues. London: Routledge. Iosif Kovras writes on the difficult barriers to finding the truth in history and on attempts to bring to light misdeeds by all sides in past conflicts.

• Kramer, C., Fraenkel E., (1993) Language Contact— Language Conflict. Peter Lang Inc. Professor Christina Kramer has contributed immensely to teaching Macedonian and to education about the Balkans. This is a book on linguistics and nationalism.

• Mazower, M. (2004) Salonica, City of Ghosts. New York: Random House. A fascinating history of the peoples of Solun.

• Mojzes, P. (2011) Balkan Genocides: Holocaust and Ethnic Cleansing in the Twentieth Century. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield. The early part of the book details the tragic consequences of unbridled nationalism in the late Ottoman years.

• Rossos, A. (2008) Macedonia and the Macedonians: A History. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press. An excellent overview of the history of the Macedonian people.

Figure 4: Aerial View from the South-West of Banitsa

Figure 5: The school and the church in the fall

Figure 6: Summertime

Figure 7: Nivja

Figure 8: Vojvoda Dzole Gjergev and his cheta

Figure 9: The cover of Katinovski’s original book