SPIRIT OF MACEDONIAN-ISM IN TITO’S YUGOSLAVIA

SPIRIT OF MACEDONIAN-ISM IN TITO’S YUGOSLAVIA

The fact is that during Tito’s Yugoslavia, any manifestation of the spirit of independence, especially the independence of the Macedonian state, was fiercely opposed for the sole purpose of creating an imaginary supranational “Yugoslav nation” within Yugoslavia for which Tito fought during his entire life to maintain. Tito tried in vain to create an illusion, a cohesion of glass legs, on which to rest the SFRY.

THIS IS WHAT WAS REALIZED:

THE HIGH PRICE PAID FOR THE MASSIVE POLITICS APPLIED TO THE MACEDONIANS IN THE GREEK CIVIL WAR (1945 - 1949), A SUCCESSFUL MODEL FOR ITS FOREIGN ORGANIZERS.

To this day, our Macedonian mainstream history has yet to answer the following:

- WHAT HAPPENED TO US?

- WHY AND BY WHOM WAS THIS MASS VENTURE STRATEGY DEVELOPED?

- WITH THIS IDEOLOGICAL CALL THE MACEDONIAN PEOPLE WERE FORCED TO ABANDON THEIR TRADITIONAL FAMILY AND FORM A POLITICAL FAMILY.

- High Engagement of the Macedonian Woman was demanded.

- WOMEN INDUCTED BY FORCE FOUND THEMSELVES IN THE FRONT LINES. THE MACEDONIAN HOME WAS ABANDONED...

- WHY DIDN’T THE GREEKS DO THE SAME?

It is a fact that the Macedonian people were pushed into a war by the CPM/CPY even before the Greek Civil War had started. After WW II ended the Cold War started. The “iron curtain” was drawn between Greece and Yugoslavia, dividing the Republic of Macedonia from Greek occupied Macedonia. It was during this time that the CPM/CPY sent NOF, AFZH and NOMS on a senseless campaign to start a war in Greek occupied Macedonia. A dream was created full of lies and deceit… a fantasy about the prospect of re-uniting Macedonia… but through war and blood, which in the end brought disaster and genocide on the Macedonian people.

And this is how we the Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia lost so many lives, our ancestral lands and became aimless wanderers.

We are told the truth will eventually surface, history will see to it, and perhaps it will, but for us MACEDONIANS unfortunately, to this day, even 70 years later… we still have a lot of unresolved issues in our Macedonian history.

We have been making ourselves naive and blind for over half a century now, and turning every situation to a new situation. We felt no pain because, in the absence of reliable information, we felt we

committed no wrong. We were held hostage to our own powerlessness unable to realistically look at what happened to us and how we lost our ancestral birthplace for eternity. There is no question that we have all become complicit in the loss of our true history in these last 70 years.

It was a time of pure political propaganda and brainwashing.

We have been required to remain silent for the last half century. In doing so we have “actively” participated in the genocide of our own population in our homeland in Greek occupied Macedonia. I am not only thinking of the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia but also of their supporters led by Tito and his policy of wanting “the Macedonian question to be buried!”

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THE MACEDONIAN POLITICAL EMIGRATION FILE

All this reminds me of the twisted obstacles the various authorities used to put before us: If you are not with the CPG then you are automatically an autonomist and protect the counter-bands (Macedonian rebels - 1944). If you are not with NOF, AFZH or NOMS, formed in Skopje (1945), then you are against Macedonia’s unification… you are a Grkoman (Macedonian working for the Greek cause) and you do not trust Tito. If you are not with the Ilinden organization formed outside of Greece (1950), then you are automatically Tito’s agent. Finally when we, the Greek Civil War refugees, arrived in the Republic of Macedonia from the USSR and from other Eastern European countries, the NOF, AFZH and NOMS leaders, except for Pavle Rakovski, were welcomed with marching bands and given state housing and government jobs. Rakovski was shunned, isolated and in the end, not even given a grave to be buried in. But the most memorable event of all was the welcoming of us ordinary DAG fighters who had to go through Idrizovo Prison to be interrogated and screened by UDBA like we were some sort of criminals. And the most tragic and comical encounter of all was when those NOF activists and DAG fighters who deserted their posts and units in the struggle in Greek occupied Macedonia and fled en masse to Yugoslavia after 1948, became our overseers.

Recruited by UDBA and KOS, they were installed in state institutions and given authority to oversee the returnees from the Eastern European countries. These were the people, the traitors, who historian Risto Kiriazovski depended on to give him information for his books and for the Macedonian history archives.

After my (Stoian Kochov) return to the Republic of Macedonia in 1957, and after my first fateful encounter with these criminals, I was sent to a shelter in “Chair”, Skopje.

How could the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia remain Macedonian after their return from the Eastern Europe countries to the Republic of Macedonia when Macedonian officials and institutions, under the column nationality, labeled them NOT Macedonians but “Aegeans”!

In the days that followed after my return I stood with many of my comrades in line in front of a counter which had a sign on it that read: “Counter for the Aegeans”. I don’t remember when I heard the word “Aegean” for the first time in my life and why we were treated not as Macedonians but as “Aegeans”, when for many centuries, we were always called Macedonians. So, not just for me but for all of us it was absolutely inappropriate to be separated from the Macedonian nation in such a demeaning way. It was as if someone wanted us to lose our identity. But, of course, it was all manipulation for the sole purpose of destroying the Macedonian core, like it is today with the “Macedonians of the Islamic faith”, the Torbeshi, the Pomaks and so on.

I looked at the sign again and again and thought to myself, “This counter is yet one more evil that has landed on us!”

In the confirmation of my application for residence that I received I was referred to as Kochov Atanas Stoian, nationality “Aegean” repatriated from the USSR under No. 152/29, October 17, 1957. Then in 1962, I received a reply (no. 6368, May 16, 1962, Department of Housing, Risto Iankulovski) confirming that I qualified for a one bedroom apartment.

I don’t remember ever having heard that word “Aegean” from either of my parents or relatives at home or during the Greek Civil War (1945 - 1949), not even in the USSR.

It made me angry and resentful, that word made me feel lonely. It made me feel guilty, without being guilty. It alienated me, pushed me and every other so-called “Aegean” Macedonian out of our Macedonian history. Even though I knew exactly who we were and what nation we belonged to, it made me often wonder “WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ARE WE?”

To this day I still cannot explain what made me search for the truth about our Macedonian drama and prove that we are all “Aegeans” and there is no one who has not felt joy, fear, pain, love, anger, injury and abandonment. We are all the same inside. But we living in the shelter still rely on the image that is installed in our heads: “how to move towards a perfect communist society!”

I later realized that all this was propaganda. The “Aegean” people were not evil for Macedonia. This propaganda was well-worked out by the CPY’s UDBA since 1948, and as Alexander Rusiakov said in his article: “The End of the World: Holy War”, published by “Nova Makedonija” on September 18, 2010, “... these CPY UDBA agents still rule to this day within the ranks of the two largest Macedonian and Albanian parties.”

I had no intention of keeping quiet. I was among the first to speak my mind in various articles I wrote, but also in my book “(Self) Sacrifice of the Macedonians under Greece”. And because I was one of the first to publicly protest I suffered personal damage. I was deprived of my veteran privileges, but then I realized that only evil people could accuse me of being anti-Macedonian, or of defending wrong-doing when in fact I was telling the truth. How can one be doing wrong by telling the truth? Historian Risto Kiriazovski’s criticisms were particularly vitriolic but I continued my struggle like it was a pure political battle. I did not ignore his blows but fought right back with facts and arguments and with the truth on my side. I wanted justice for my living comrades and for those who died in battle. I fought against those who had deserted DAG.”

It is well-known that “informing on your friends” is one of the constitutive features of any totalitarian society. Those who were informed on lost their jobs, reputation and honour. This was also true for us Macedonian DAG fighters, some who during the Greek Civil War fought until the end of the war and others deserted to Yugoslavia. Those who deserted, of course, left the entire burden of the war to those who remained. Unfortunately for us who remained to the end, those who deserted hell to save their heads, became our worst impediments in life.

Unfortunately, many of those who deserted had very unrealistic desires - they wanted to write a fictional history in which we did things right. I could not agree with that because events in the war showed the opposite. I could not agree to a history that portrayed us Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia as having our own Macedonian strategy and of being a factor in the Greek Civil War. But because they had the upper hand in such matters, things tended to go their way. One thing is for sure however, the past never dies completely!

After our repatriation from the Eastern European countries to the Republic of Macedonia, many of us fighters were characterized as NOT supporters of Tito’s line and were long under investigation by those who deserted DAG. They slandered us endlessly. It’s a matter of fact both sides slandered one another through their ideological affiliations. This division lasted until the Republic of Macedonia became independent in 1991.

This however is nothing new for us Macedonians. These kinds of manipulations have been around for a long time. We also have been treated like criminals for many centuries and have lived in anger and silence ever since... We need to accept this and begin to understand it.

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