BURNED VILLAGES - Part 01

BURNED VILLAGES

The list of burned villages which follows will be found to be accurate, in the sense that it includes no villages which have not been burned. But it is far from complete, save as regards the Kukush and Strumnitsa regions.

Many other villages were burned, particularly in the Serres and Drama districts. In many cases we have not been able to discover the exact number of houses in a village. It will be noted that the list includes a few Turkish villages in Bulgarian [occupied] territory

burned by the Greeks, and a few villages burned by the Servians [Serbians]. The immense majority of the villages are, however, Bulgarian [Macedonian] villages burned by the Greek army in its northward march.

The number of burned villages included in this list is 161, and the number of houses burned is approximately 14,480.

We estimate that the number of houses burned by the Greeks in the second [Balkan] war can not fall short of 16,000.

The figures which follow the names indicate the number of houses in each village.

District of Strumnitsa

Eleven Bulgarian [Macedonian] villages burned by the Greeks, with number of houses in each:

Dabilia (50), Novo-selo (160), Veliussa, Monastira, Svrabite, Popchevo (43), Kostourino (130), Rabortsi (15), Cham-Tchiflik (20), Baldevtsi (2), Zoubovo (30).

Nine Turkish villages burned by the Greeks: Amzali (150), Guetcherli (5), Tchanakli (2), Novo-Mahala (2), Ednokoukovo (80), Sekirnik (30), Souchitsa (10), Svidovitsa (10), Borissovo (15).

Two Patriarchist villages: Mokreni (16), Makrievo (10), with three-fourths of the town Strumnitsa, about 1,000 houses and shops.

In all, over 1,620 houses.

District of Petrits: Fourteen villages burned by the Greeks: Charbanovo, Breznitsa, Mouraski, Mitinovo, Ormanli, Michnevo, Starochevo, Klutch, Koniarene, Kalarevo, Mikrevo, Gabrene, Skrit, Smolare, (the last two partially).

District of Raslog: Dobrinishta (298).

District of Gorna: Djoumaia, Simitli, Dolno-Souchitsa,Srbinovo (200) (the last burned by the Greeks after the Bucharest peace treaty was signed).

District of Melnik: Sixteen Bulgarian [Macedonian] villages burned by the Greeks: Spatovo, Makriko- stenovo, Sklave (30), Sveti-Vratch (200), Livounovo (60), Dolni-Orman (90), Tchiflitsite, Prepetcheno (20), Kapotovo, Kromidovo, Harsovo (100), Dolna-Oumitsa, Hotovo, Spatovo (16), Spanchevo (30), Otovo (60).

District of Nevrokop: Seven Bulgarian [Macedonian] villages burned by the Greeks: Dolna-Brodi (300), Libiachovo (400), Kara-Keui (40), Godlevo, Tarlis (10), Obidin, Tcham-Tchiflik, (and ten houses in the town of Nevrokop) (also the Turkish village of Koprivnik (100).

District of Salonica: Bulgarian [Macedonian] villages burned by the Greeks: Negovan, Ravna, Bogorod.

District of Ziliahovo: Bulgarian [Macedonian] villages burned by the Greeks: Skrijevo, Libechovo. Kalapot (partially), Alistratik (partially), Guredjik.

District of Kukush: Forty Bulgarian [Macedonian] villages burned by the Greeks: Kukush town 1,846 houses, 612 shops, 5 mills. Idjilar (70), Aliodjalar (50), Goliabache (40). Salamanli (15), Ambar-Keul (35), Karaja-Kadar (25), Alchaklish (13), Seslovo (30), Stresovo (20), Chikirlia (15), Irikli (20), Gramadna (100), Alexovo (100), Morartsi (350), Roschlevo (40), Motolevo (250), Planitsa in part (180), Nimantsi (40), Postolar (38), Yensko (45), Koujoumarli (30), Bigliria (18), Kazanovo (20), Dramomirtsi (115) in part, Gavalantsi (45), Kretsovo (45), Michailovo (15), Kalinovo (35), Tsigountsi (35), Harsovo (50), Novoseleni in part (20), Malovtsi (20), Vrighitourtsi (15), Garbachel (30), Haidarli (10), Daoutli (18), Tchtemnitsa (40), Rayahovo (150) in part, Gola (15).

In all 4,725 buildings.

District of Doiran: Eleven Bulgarian [Macedonian] villages burned by the Greeks: Akanjeli (150), Dourbali, Nicolits, Pataros, Sourlevo, Popovo, Hassanli, Brest, Vladaia, Dimontsi, Ratartsi.

District of Demir-Hissar: Five Bulgarian [Macedonian] villages burned by the Greeks: Kruchevo (800), Kirchevo (180), Tchervishta (170), German (80), Djouta-Mahala.

District of Serres: Six Bulgarian [Macedonian] villages burned by the Greeks: Doutli (100), Orehovatz (130), Drenovo, Moklen, Frouchtani, Banitsa (120).

District of Gevgheli: Fifteen Bulgarian [Macedonian] and three Vlach villages burned, mainly by the Greeks, but in two cases by the Servians [Serbians]: Sehovo, Schlopentsi, Matchoukovo, Smol, Baialtsi, Marventsi, Orehovitsa, Smokvitsa, Balentsi, Braikovtsi, Kostourino, Mouine, Stoyacovo, Fourca, Ohani, Houma (Vlach),Longountsa (vlach).

It is important to note at this point that the Macedonian people did not raise arms against the invading allied armies (Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian). Instead of opposing them, the Macedonians welcomed the allied armies and in fact helped them evict the Turkish forces from Macedonia.

The atrocities committed against the civilian population in Macedonia including the burning of villages was simply a cold act of genocide perpetrated to eradicate the Macedonian population in order to make room for Greek colonization.

“ANASTASIA PAVLOVA, a widow of Ghevgheli.

Shortly before the outbreak of the second [Balkan] war I was staying with my daughter, a school teacher, in the village of Boinitsa. A Greek lady came from Salonica and distributed money and uniforms to the Turks of the place some six or eight days before the outbreak of the second [Balkan] war. She also called the Bulgarians [Macedonian parishioners of the Exarchate Church] of the village together, and told them that they must not imagine that this village would belong to Bulgaria. She summoned the Bulgarian priest

[Exarchate priest], and asked him if he would become a Greek. He replied “we are all Bulgarians [Macedonians belonging to the Exarchate Church] and Bulgarians [Macedonians belonging to the Exarchate Church] we will remain.” There were some Greek officers with this lady who caught the priest by the beard. Then the men who were standing by, to the number of about fifty, had their hands bound behind their backs, and were beaten by the soldiers. They were told that they must sign a written statement that they would become Greeks. When they refused to do this they were all taken to Salonica. When the men were gone, the soldiers began to violate the women of the place, three soldiers usually to one girl. [She named several cases which she witnessed.] The soldiers came in due course to my house and asked where my daughter was. I said she was ill and had to gone to Ghevgheli. They insisted that I should bring her to them. The Greek teacher of the village, Christo Poparov, who was with the soldiers, was the most offensive of them all.

They threatened to kill me if I would not produce her. The soldiers then came into the room and beat me with the butts of their rifles and I fell. “Now,” they said, “you belong to the Greeks, your house and everything in it,” and they sacked the house. Then sixteen soldiers came and again called for my daughter, and since they could not find her they used me instead. I was imprisoned in my own house and never left alone. Four days before the war I was allowed to go to Ghevgheli by rail with two soldiers to fetch my daughter. She was really in the village of Djavato. At Ghevgheli, the soldiers gave me permission to go alone to the village to fetch her. Outside the village I met five Greek soldiers, who greeted me civilly and asked for the news. Suddenly they fired a rifle and called out, “Stop, old woman.” They then fired six shots to frighten me. I hurried on and got into the village just before the soldiers. They bound my hands, began to beat me, undressed me, and flung me down on the ground. Some Servian soldiers were in the village and interfered with the Greeks and saved my life. My daughter was hidden in the village and she saw what was happening to me and came running out to give herself up, in order to save her mother. She made a speech to the soldiers and said, “Brothers, when we have worked so long together as allies, why do you kill my mother?” The soldiers only answered, that they would kill her too. I then showed them the passport which had been given to me at Boinitsa. I can not

read Greek and did not know what was on it. It seems that what was written there was “This is a mother who is to go and find her daughter and bring her back to us.” The Greek soldiers then saw that it was my daughter, and not I, who was wanted and my daughter cried, “Now I am lost.” The soldiers offered me the choice of staying in the village or going with my daughter to Ghevgheli. I begged that they would leave us alone together where we were until the morning, and to this they agreed. In the night I fled with my daughter, who disguised herself in boy’s clothes, to a place two hours away which was occupied by Bulgarian soldiers. I then went myself to Ghevgheli and immediately afterwards, the second war broke out.

The Bulgarians took the town and then retired from it, and the Greeks entered it. The moment they came in they began killing people indiscriminately in the street. One man named Anton Bakharji was killed before my eyes. I also saw a Greek woman named Helena kill a rich Bulgarian [Macedonian belonging to the Exarchate Church] named Hadji Tano, with her revolver. Another, whose name I do not know, was wounded by a soldier. A panic followed in the town and a general flight. Outside the town I met a number of Greek soldiers who had with them sixteen Bulgarian [Macedonian belonging to the Exarchate Church] girls as their prisoners. All of them were crying, several of them were undressed, and some were covered in blood. The soldiers were so much occupied with these girls that they did not interfere with us, and allowed us to flee past them. As we crossed the bridge over the Vardar, we saw little children who had been abandoned and one girl lying as if dead on the ground. The cavalry were coming up behind us. There was no time to help. A long way off a battle was going on and we could hear the cannon, but nobody fired upon us. For eight days we fled to Bulgaria and many died on the way. The Bulgarian soldiers gave us bread. I found my daughter at Samakov. My one consolation is that I saved her honor”. (Page 304, 305) George F. Kennan. “The Other Balkan Wars” A 1913 Carnegie Endowment Inquiry in Retrospect with a New Introduction and Reflections on the Present Conflict. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment For International Peace, 1993.

Denationalizing Macedonia

By the Treaty of Lausanne in July 1923, the Greco-Turkish war came to an end. Greece and Turkey signed a population exchange agreement using “religion as the basic criterion for nationality.” (Page 120, Richard Clogg, A Short History of Modern Greece)

The November 1925 issue of National Geographic Magazine best illustrates the magnitude of the human wave, the audacity of the Greek and Turkish authorities and the total disregard for human life.

“History’s Greatest Trek, Tragedy Stalks the Near East as Greece and Turkey Exchange Two Million of their People. ...1922 began what may fairly be called history’s greatest, most spectacular trek-the compulsory intermigration of two million Christians and Muslims across the Aegean Sea.” “ ...the initial episodes of the exchange drama were enacted to the accompaniment of the boom of cannon and the rattle of machine gun and with the settings pointed by the flames of the Smyrna holocaust.” (Page 533, Melville Chater, National Geographic, November 1925)

“Stroke of the Pen Exiles 3,000,000 People. It is safe to say that history does not contain a more extraordinary document. Never before in the world’s long pageant of folk-wanderings have 2,000,000 people-and certainly no less than 3,000,000 if the retroactive clause is possible of complete application-been exiled and re-adopted by the stroke of the pen” (Page 569, National Geographic, November 1925). “Even if regarded as a voluntary trek instead of a compulsory exchange, the movement would be without parallel in the history of emigration.” “One might just add that history has never produced a document more difficult of execution. It was to lessen these difficulties that exchangeability was based in religion and not race. Due to five centuries of Turkish domination in Greece, the complexities in determining an individual’s racial status are often such as would make a census taker weep.” (Page 570, National Geographic, November 1925)

“Greece with one-fifth Turkey’s area has 1,5000,000 more people. Turkey with a population of 5,000,000 and naturally rich territory contains only 15 people to the square mile...Greece, with less than

one fifth of Turkey’s area, emerges with a population exceeding the latter’s for the fist time by 1,500,000 people averaging 123 to the square mile.” (Page 584, National Geographic, November 1925)

“History’s Greatest Trek has cost 300,000 lives. Conservative estimates place it at 300,000 lives lost by disease and exposure.” (Page 584, National Geographic, November 1925)

“The actual exchange was weighted very heavily in Turkey’s favour, for some 380,000 Muslims were exchanged for something like 1,100,000 Christians.” “The total population in Greece rose between 1907 and 1928 from 2,600,000 to 6,200,000.” “After the Greek advances of 1912, for instance, the Greek elements in Greek Macedonia had constituted 43 percent of the population. By 1926, with the resettlement of the refugees, the Greek element has risen to 89 percent.” (Page 121, Richard Clogg, A Short History of Modern Greece)

After all this, surprisingly (and shamefully) Greece still claims her population to be homogeneous; direct descendents of the peoples of the ancient City States.

“If Greece exists today as a homogeneous ethnos, she owes this to [the Asia Minor Catastrophe]. If the hundreds of thousands of refugees had not come to Greece, Greek Macedonia would not exist today. The refugees created the national homogeneity of our country. (Antonios Kandiotis, Metrpolite of Florina, Page 141 in Anastasia Karakasidou, Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood)

According to Karakasidou, almost half of the refugees were settled in urban centers and rural areas in Macedonia. “Searching for locations in which to settle this mass of humanity, the Greek government looked north to the newly incorporated land in Macedonia...” “...by 1930, 90 percent of the 578,844 refugees settled in rural Greece were concentrated in the regions of Macedonia and western Thrace. Thus Macedonia, Greece’s newly acquired second ‘breadbasket’ (after Thessaly), became the depository for East Thracian, Pontic, and Asia Minor refugees.” (Page 145, Anastasia Karakasidou, Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood)

Greek governments have never made a sincere attempt to solve the question of the Macedonians and their ethnic rights in Greece.

While there were some prospects for basic human rights for the Macedonian people in the Greek State in the early 1920’s, those prospects died as Greece tightened its grip on Macedonia by implementing more racist assimilation policies. If that was not enough, on December 18, 1936 the Greek Government issued a legal act concerning, “Activities Against State Security”. By this act thousands of Macedonians were arrested, imprisoned and expelled from their homeland. Among other things, Metaxas on September 7, 1938, by legal act 2366, outlawed the Macedonian language and prohibited people from speaking it by imposing heavy fines and imprisonment.

The act of forbidding the use of the Macedonian language in Greece is best illustrated by an example of how it was implemented in the Township of Assarios (Giuvezna). Here is a quote from Karakasidou’s book Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood.

“[We] listened to the president articulate to the council that in accordance with the decision [#122770] of Mr. Minister, General Governor of Macedonia, all municipal and township councils would forbid, through [administrative] decisions, the speaking of other idioms of obsolete languages within the area of their jurisdiction for the reconstitution of a universal language and our national glory. [The president] suggested that [the] speaking of different idioms, foreign [languages] and our language in an impure or obsolete manner in the area of the township of Assirios would be forbidden. Assirios Township Decision No. 134, 13 December 1936.” (Page 162, Anastasia Karakasidou, Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood)

By 1928 1,497 Macedonian place-names in the Greek occupied Macedonia were Hellenized (LAW 4096) and all Cyrillic inscriptions found in churches, on tombstones and icons were destroyed (or overwritten) prompting English Journalist V. Hild to say, “The Greeks do not only persecute living Slavs (Macedonians)..., but they even persecute dead ones. They do not leave them in peace even in the graves. They erase the Slavonic inscriptions on the headstones, remove the bones and burn them.”

In the years following World War I, the Macedonian people underwent extensive measures of systematic denationalization. The applications of these “denationalization schemes” were so extensive and aggressively pursued that in the long term, they eroded the will of the Macedonian people to resist.

“In Greece, in 1929 during the rule of Elepterios Venizelos, a legal act was issued ‘On the protection of public order’. In line with this Act each demand for nationality rights is regarded as high treason. This law is still in force.

On December 18, 1936, Metaxas’s dictatorial government issued a legal Act ‘On the activity against state security’ on the strength of which thousands of Macedonians were arrested, imprisoned, expelled or exiled (EXORIA) on arid, inhospitable Greek islands, where many perished. Their crime? Being ethnic Macedonian by birth.

On September 7, 1938 legal Act No. 2366 was issued banning the use of the Macedonian language. All Macedonian localities were flooded with posters: ‘Speak Greek’. Evening schools were opened in which adult Macedonians were taught Greek. Not a single Macedonian school functioned at the time.” (Page 8, What Europe has Forgotten: The Struggle of the Aegean Macedonians, A Report by the Association of the Macedonians in Poland)

Many Macedonians were fined, beaten and jailed for speaking Macedonian. Adults and school children alike were further humiliated by being forced to drink castor oil when caught speaking Macedonian.

In Vardar (Republic of) Macedonia, the Yugoslav government attacked the problem of denationalization and assimilation by enacting laws, such as the September 24, 1920 “Resolution for the Settlement of the New Southern Regions”, designed to effectively exclude Macedonians from owning any property. The Macedonian language was banned along with cultural institutions through a uniform code known as the December 30th, 1920 EDICT, which was aimed at persecuting all political and trade union associations.

The bulk and most arable of Macedonian lands were awarded to Serbian army officers who survived the World War I Solun front. Land was also awarded to the Serbian administrators of Macedonia including government bureaucrats, judges and the police. The denationalization measures were complemented with aggressive re-education programs producing “little Serbs” out of the Macedonian children. As for the unwilling adults, they were given two options -“live as a Serb” or “die as a Macedonian”!

In Pirin (Bulgarian occupied) Macedonia, the Bulgarian government enforced compulsory name changes and, through repressive political and economic means, stepped up the assimilation process. Initially land reforms favoured the poor, including the Macedonian peasants. Later, however, that too changed and Macedonians here were exposed to a similar fate as the Macedonians in Aegean (Greek occupied) and Vardar (Serbian occupied) Macedonia.

The Macedonians in Albania posed little threat to Albania’s authority and faired relatively better than their kin in Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. The village inhabitants were not persecuted or subjected to any comprehensive denationalization programs. As a result the Macedonian culture flourished, original names remained and the people spoke Macedonian uninhibited.

After the Great War (WW I) ended there was peace in Europe. Unfortunately, Macedonians continued to endure denationalization, forced assimilation, forced emigration and economic neglect at the hands of Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria.

Genocide committed during the Greek Civil War 1946 to 1949

The Greek Civil War was a perpetrated war, perpetrated by the English to achieve two goals; get rid of the communist menace and evict the Macedonian population.

After Greece ethically cleansed its population by getting rid of the Muslims, Macedonians and Albanians from its territory it declared itself homogeneous consisting of 98% pure Greeks and 2% Muslim Greeks.

The reason it declared that there was a 2% Muslim population was to placate Turkey so that the Turks would not expel the Christians from Istanbul. Greece was hoping that the Christian population would grow in the future and Istanbul would be theirs. But, it seems that backfired on Greece because, of the higher birth rate, the Muslims outgrew the Christians.

When the Greeks consolidated their power in Macedonia they told the Macedonian people that this is Greece now and that they were now Greeks, and if they didn’t agree they could pick up what they could carry and leave immediately. Many did just that; they picked up their things and left.

The Macedonian Muslims were all kicked out and so were the Macedonians who insisted on being Macedonian and not Greeks, Serbians, or Bulgarians. Those who insisted too much found themselves with a noose around their necks hanging from a tree.

Sometime later Greece exchanged populations with Bulgaria and got rid of more Macedonians and imported all kinds of non-Greek people from Bulgaria and from the Caucasus’s who claimed to be Greeks.

Before 1913 and before the Greco-Turkish war, the Macedonian people living in Greek occupied Macedonia were a majority with minorities such as Albanians, Vlachs, Christian Turks and others. After Greece occupied Macedonian territories it cleansed itself of non-Greeks; it assimilated everyone it could, evict those who did not agree with its principles, and jailed and murdered all those who caused trouble.

But those who were assimilated were still Macedonians and still a majority in Greek occupied Macedonia, that is until Greece deposited 600,000 Turkish Christian settlers and colonists it acquired during the population exchange with Turkey by the Treaty of Lausanne.

After that Greece published demographic statistics claiming that the population in Greece was 98% pure Greek and 2% Muslim Greek. Ever since then Greece has been covering up the fact that Macedonians existed in Greece and has been misleading its patrons, particularly the English, about its ethnic composition.

After Greece occupied Macedonian territories it closed all Macedonian language schools and churches and expelled the priests. The Macedonian language and Macedonian names were forbidden, and the Macedonians internally were referred to as Bulgarians, Serbians or natives. By law all place names were Hellenized; that is the names of cities, villages, rivers, lakes and mountains were discarded and Greek names put in their place. At the same time the Macedonians were forced to change their first and last names; every Macedonian surname had to end in ‘os’, ‘es’, ‘ou’, or ‘poulos’.

In the years following World War I, the Macedonian people underwent extensive measures of systematic denationalization.

One of the worst Greeks the Macedonian people had to face was Metaxas. Metaxas and his Fascist supporters were extremely anti-Macedonian and wanted everything that was Macedonian erased, including the Macedonian language.

All this was happening under the watchful eyes of the Western Great Powers and nothing was done to stop it. Without a doubt, Hellenization in Greece was taking place with Western Great Power consent.

Greek policemen often stood outside people’s windows just to hear what language they were speaking and fined the entire family if they were caught speaking Macedonian.

After people realized that they would be fined and even physically punished and force-fed castor oil for repeat offences, fear and suspicion began to set in, forcing people to keep silent.

This assimilation-ist policy however was not new. And, as I said earlier, it was started a long time ago and became evident around 1878 when it became clear that Macedonia would not be allowed to become a nation state and would be divided among the other Balkan nations.

Ever since then, the practice of denationalizing the Macedonian population has continued all throughout the years and is continuing to this.

Evidence of this is Greece’s insistence that the Republic of Macedonia change its name.

Let me be clear on this, the name change imposed on the Republic of Macedonia, aided by the western foreign embassies in Skopje is nothing new, it is a continuation of a Western Great Power policy that was drafted sometime before 1878 to exterminate the Macedonian nation and everything that is Macedonian.

During World War II, when the Western Great Powers thought no Macedonians existed in Greek occupied Macedonia, English spies and military personnel dispatched to Greek occupied Macedonia to monitor the war situation discovered that Greece had been lying to them.

Contrary to Greek claims that no Macedonians existed in Greece, a sizable Macedonian population, speaking the Macedonian language and aware of its Macedonian consciousness, was living in its territory. When the British found this out they again resumed their policy of extermination. Some people say the English must have panicked because of fear of Russian influence and the possibility of

these people wanting to carve out “Greek territory”, but the truth is England never wanted a Greek Macedonia with Macedonians in it.

So the English, as they had done in the past, decided that the Macedonian people had to go by any means possible. This information was later discovered in declassified British diplomatic dispatches in which the English wanted to expel 120,000 Macedonians en masse from their homes in Greek occupied Macedonia.

In a British diplomatic report sent from Leeper to Eden, dated Athens November, 14, 1944, referring to the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia, among other things Leeper said:

“4. The problem of the Western Macedonian Bulgarophones, who are briefly mentioned in paragraph 7 of the paper, also remains serious and formidable, in spite of its limited dimensions. This minority, which extends through the region from Florina and Kastoria through Siatista to the plain of Yannitsa, has proved exceedingly unreliable during the war. Satisfactory data are not available, but it appears from events during the occupation that the dissatisfied minority must be considerably larger than is suggested by Greek census figures; and it is certain that successive Greek Governments have shirked facing the problem and have preferred to persuade even themselves that it did not exist. On the assumptions (1) that the policy of His Majesty’s Government is to treat Greece as the most important Balkan country from the point of view of British interests, and to support those elements in Greece which are most stably pro-British and (2) that Greece does not wish to belong to a Balkan Federation in which there would be a large Slav majority, it would appear to follow that Greece had better not contain any Slav minorities at all. And since the amputation of the Slav areas in Western Macedonia and their annexation to a Slav Federation is a practical impossibility and would also be economically disastrous for Greece. It would follow that, difficult as it may be, a home must be found for perhaps 120,000 Slav Macedonians north of the Greek frontiers of 1941.”

I would like to draw your attention to the sentence “It would follow that, difficult as it may be, a home must be found for perhaps 120,000 Slav Macedonians north of the Greek frontiers of 1941”.

This information was discovered in declassified British diplomatic dispatches. British Ambassador to Athens Mr. R.A. Leeper, in November 1944, toyed with the idea of displacing 120,000 Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia and moving them north of the Greek border. Mr. Leeper suggested this to Mr. Eden, then UK Foreign Minister, in a letter dated November 24, 1944 in which, among other things, he wrote “…and since the amputation of the Slav areas in Western Macedonia and their annexation to a Slav Federation is a practical impossibility and would also be economically disastrous for Greece. It would follow that, difficult as it may be, a home must be found for perhaps 120,000 Slav Macedonians north of the Greek frontiers of 1941.” (5a) (See: FO 371/43649 XP 00201 R 20431/1009/67.)

Here is the actual report in its entirety:

[Mr. Leeper to Mr. Eden Athens 24th November, 1944

Sir,

I HAVE the honour to submit the following comments on Research Department paper of the 26th August, 1944, on the subject of Macedonia. (1)

2. The two formidable Macedonian problems in which Greece is concerned are: (a) that of Greek relations with the Slav world as represented by Serbia and Bulgaria, both of whom must be expected in the immediate future to be under strong Russian influence and to have Russian sympathy for their aspirations; and b) that of the surviving Bulgarophone minority in Western Macedonia.

3. The former problem turns chiefly on that of Serbian and Bulgarian access to the Aegean, the subject discussed in paragraphs 35-40 and 41-43 of the paper under reference. There is clearly no case (or handing over to Slav Powers any part of the North Aegean

coast, which in 1940 had nowhere anything but an infinitesimal minority of Slav inhabitants. On the other hand, the strategic position of Greece here, even with Turkish backing, is very weak, vis-à-vis the Slav world, so that even in her own interests it behooves Greece to come to terms with her northern neighbours. The only possible solution-however difficult in practice under present conditions-seems to be that referred to in paragraph 51, namely, a return to, and preferably an extension of, the system of free zones. A Serbian free zone at Salonica is not difficult, but a Bulgarian zone at Kavala, or even at the outlying Alexandrupolis, would probably be out of the question for a considerable period to come, in view of the passions aroused by the atrocious conduct of the Bulgarians in Northern Greece since 1941. It remains, nevertheless, a Greek no less than a Bulgarian interest that Bulgaria's desire for access to an Aegean port should be satisfied so far as possible; since otherwise Bulgaria's southward political aspiration, which are now largely artificial, will be kept alive by the real and continual irritation of an unsatisfied economic need. (How far this need might be met by the alternative of a free zone at Durazzo is a matter for separate study.) It may further be pointed out that the grant of free zones at her northern ports would, in fact, be of direct financial benefit to Greece herself through the revivifying influence of increased trade on the life of those ports in general and through the restoration of a natural degree of intercourse between these Greek ports and their Slav hinterland.

4. The problem of the Western Macedonian Bulgarophones, who are briefly mentioned in paragraph 7 of the paper, also remains serious and formidable, in spite of its limited dimensions. This minority, which extends through the region from Florina and Kastoria through Siatista to the plain of Yannitsa, has proved exceedingly unreliable during the war. Satisfactory data are not available, but it appears from events during the occupation that the dissatisfied minority must be considerably larger than is suggested by Greek census figures; and it is certain that successive Greek Governments have shirked facing the problem and have preferred to persuade even themselves that it did not exist. On the assumptions (1) that the policy of His Majesty’s Government is to treat Greece as the most important Balkan country from the point of view of British interests, and to support those elements in Greece which are most stably pro-British

and (2) that Greece does not wish to belong to a Balkan Federation in which there would be a large Slav majority, it would appear to follow that Greece had better not contain any Slav minorities at all. And since the amputation of the Slav areas in Western Macedonia and their annexation to a Slav Federation is a practical impossibility and would also be economically disastrous for Greece. It would follow that, difficult as it may be, a home must be found for perhaps 120,000 Slav Macedonians north of the Greek frontiers of 1941.

5. I have sent copies of this dispatch to the Resident Minister at Caserta, to Mr. Houstoun-Boswall at Sofia and to Mr. Broad at Bari.

I have, &c. R. A. Leeper.

(1) See “Balkan States” print section, 26th August, Section 6.]

In doing this the British requested the assistance of the former (fascist) Yugoslav government, before the communists came to power. The British received a positive response from Yugoslavia.

The Fascist Yugoslav government in fact agreed to take these Macedonians out of Greece and resettle them on Yugoslav territory.

The fascist Yugoslav government, however, fell to the communists before it had a chance to implement the plan. But after the war (WW II) it was difficult to move 120,000 people without causing world attention. So “someone” decided to force them out by other means… by legal means so that there would be no ramifications after the fact and with the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY) and with the Communist Party of Macedonia’s (CPM) cooperation.

Their idea was to have the Macedonian people raise arms against Greece so that Greece would have “no other choice but to defend itself against an aggressor who wants to carve out parts of its territory”!

Communist Yugoslavia, for the sake of having good relations with the West, naturally prepared the groundwork through the creation and indoctrination of the Peoples’ Liberation Front (NOF) and the

Women’s Anti-Fascist Front (AFZH) with aims at starting an armed uprising in Greek occupied Macedonia.

The Macedonian people, however, did not want to fight and initially refused to participate. To get them motivated the Greek right, the Fascists, pitched in and initiated what was later termed the “white terror”.

Greeks indiscriminately began to kill people and burn properties and homes. Fearing for their lives many Macedonians fled to the mountains (Vicho and Gramos) where they were armed and trained to protect themselves. And this is how the conflict was started.

This was a war that would be fatal to the Macedonian people; it had to be an ideological war in order to involve the international factor (US and Britain); a war that Greece would have no choice but to fight in order to save its territory.

This was going to be a legal genocide because these “Slavs” were prepared to carve out Greek territory! The Macedonians, on the other hand, were told they needed the guns to protect themselves but as soon as the shooting started they were told they were fighting to “re-unite their Macedonia” and after Yugoslavia abandoned them they were told they were fighting for their human rights to gain equality with the Greeks. Then, when the war became very hot, they were told to fight for their lives; “to fight or die!”

There was no single Macedonian in those days that not only publicly proclaimed that he or she was fighting to re-unite Macedonia but many Macedonians were made to believe that it was possible to do that!

And why do you suppose they believed that?

Because the architects of this war, through NOF and AFZH, told them so…, naturally through lies and deception!

Now let us go back and have a look at the general situation on the ground during the German, Italian and Bulgarian occupation of Greek occupied Macedonia.

In terms of their cultural rights, the Macedonian people in Greece found more freedom under the German, Italian and Bulgarian triple occupation than they did under Greek rule.

As long as they did not cause trouble for the occupiers, the Macedonian people were not prohibited from freely speaking their Macedonian language or from calling themselves Macedonians. The biggest trouble they faced came from the Greek fascists, Metaxas’s former supporters who now worked for the occupiers. These people were thugs and criminals and were the first to offer their services to the occupiers as long as they were allowed to rob and torment the civilian populations, especially the Macedonians.

After they formed their gangs these fascists began to terrorize the Macedonian population. They particularly disliked the Macedonian people, especially those who openly spoke their Macedonian language and asserted themselves as Macedonians. The Macedonian people complained to the occupiers but that did not seem to help, except for the Italians, who also disliked the fascist Greeks and allowed most of the Kostur Region villagers to arm themselves and fight back.

After the Bulgarians fascists occupied parts of Macedonia they too attempted to organize and arm Macedonian people under the organization “Ohrana” but for different reasons; to fight for the Bulgarian cause. But all the Bulgarians could attract was the criminal element which was willing to do harm to its own people for any cause as long as it personally benefited.

In the German and Bulgarian occupied parts of Greek occupied Macedonia, having no other option, the tormented Macedonians fled to the mountains to save themselves from the Greek terror. There they organized into groups, armed themselves and fought back for their survival. These small groups often combined together into larger groups to repel Greek fascist attacks on their friends, families and villages.

Not long after the triple occupation of Greek occupied Macedonia, in addition to the foreign occupiers there were Greek fascist criminal

gangs working for the Germans and Italians, Macedonian fascist criminal gangs working for the Bulgarians, Macedonian armed groups protecting the Kostur Region villages from all Greeks in general, and Macedonian armed groups in the mountains protecting themselves and their villages from the fascist Greeks.

Sometime in the fall of 1941, the Communist Party of Greece (CPG) began to organize a resistance movement in an attempt to expel the occupiers but was not popular with the Greek people so it created and led a national liberation movement (EAM) that included all the left leaning parties in Greece which were closer to the Greek working class.

There are several reasons why the CPG took the initiative to organize a resistance movement. First, as part of a greater plan it would be able to expand the communist ideology so that communism could take root in Greece. Most people, especially the Macedonians, had had enough of the fascists and wanted change.

Second, because it represented the working class multitudes it would be able to harness their power and spill their blood in future revolts, instead of the blood of the bourgeois and their supporters who saw no profit in dying for a cause.

Third, because the CPG was the only party willing to recognize the existence of the Macedonian people in Greece, it would be able to harness their power not only to fight against the occupiers but to also keep them from being swayed by occupier propaganda, especially Bulgarian propaganda which offered autonomy and independence for Macedonia.

But no sooner had the CPG established itself as the leader of the resistance movement in Greece, than England began to worry about losing Greece to the Soviet Union, especially when the Soviets turned the tide on the war with the Germans and began to drive south.

To make sure Greece remained in the English sphere of influence, England began to infiltrate the CPG with its own spies and people. It even managed to infiltrate the top CPG leadership with Siantos, one

of its agents, who was appointed temporary Secretary General in charge of the CPG. This way England would be able to control the situation in Greece in the future and make sure things went its way.

After the CPG formed its resistance army called National Liberation Army of Greece (ELAS), it began to disband the Macedonian armed groups in the mountains and made every effort to incorporate them into ELAS.

Those who refused were attacked and disbanded by force. When it amassed enough of a fighting force ELAS began to attack the fascist gangs. It then attacked the Macedonian bands in Kostur Region but without success. They were simply too powerful. The CPG needed a better plan, especially against the Macedonian bands in Kostur Region, so with Yugoslav help, it came up with the idea of forming a Macedonian organization called Slavo-Macedonian National Liberation Front (SNOF) and its military wing Slavo-Macedonian National Liberation Army (SNOV).

The idea behind SNOF was to have the Macedonians fight it out – Macedonians fighting Macedonians - and get the Kostur Region bands to surrender. The plan worked. All the Macedonian bands in the villages, one by one, surrendered their arms and joined SNOF.

SNOF’s peaceful tactics of persuasion and its agitation through the Macedonian language press contributed a great deal to not only the surrender of arms but also in convincing members of these bands to join SNOF and even ELAS.

After that SNOF was abruptly dissolved and SNOV was disbanded and its fighters were absorbed by ELAS. In other words, SNOF, regardless of what the Macedonian people were told or thought of it, was nothing more than a communist weapon concocted by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY) and by the Communist Party of Greece (CPG) to destroy the Kostur Region Macedonian bands.

At the time, on the surface, the CPG looked like and officially acted like any other Balkan communist party, so the general impression was that the CPG would eventually bring socialism to Greece, rights

to the Macedonian people, and would look north to Moscow in the future.

But deep down the CPG was not like the other Balkan communist parties, at least not at the top level. While the CPG preached a communist ideology it harboured nationalist ideas and made Greece’s sovereignty, with Greek occupied Macedonia in it, its highest priority, something Moscow would not support.

Moscow was looking at a communist Balkan federation with Greece in it that would include Greek occupied Macedonia. No Greek of any political affiliation however was prepared to give up Greek occupied Macedonia for socialism.

As it turned out the West, particularly England, was offering Greece exactly what it wanted and was prepared in time to deliver it. But for the time being the CPG had to act like a communist party in order to prevent the Soviet Red Army from “liberating” Greece and to maintain a lid on the local communists and the Macedonians.

In other words, the CPG’s objectives were to keep the Slav armies from invading Greece, to use the real communists and Macedonians to drive out the occupiers, and to make sure the communists or the Macedonians did not win or take power.

This became evident when the CPG started looking to the West.