DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL PROCESSES AND EVENTS AFTER WORLD WAR II

DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL PROCESSES AND EVENTS AFTER WORLD WAR II

The events that took place in 1945, which contributed to the outbreak of the Greek Civil War (1946 - 1949), were seen by Greek historians as the start of the civil war. According to official history, the Greek Civil War began on March 31, 1946, when the town Lithohori was attacked by armed CPG sympathizers and ELAS members who disagreed with the Varkiza Agreement. So, research done to expose the historical cause for the civil war revealed that it was ideology that started the war from the first attack on the police station in Lithohori on the night of March 30, 1946 at 22.30 o’clock.

That was official history but there are people, however, who question official history, especially some of the resistance leaders and DAG participants who know that the armed resistance began on April 23, 1946, when NOF, AFZH and NOMS were formed and dispatched to Greek occupied Macedonia to prepare the people for war. These people have posed the question:

Why did the CPG call for an armed resistance exactly one year after the Varkiza Agreement was signed on February 12, 1945?

From a political standpoint, all Greek assessments - historical, Greek government army general staff, DAG general staff assessments, etc. to this day have deemed the Greek Civil War (1946 - 1949) a great historical mistake because it took place after World War II had ended and after all issues were settled. That is after the major powers agreed at the Yalta conference on how to divide the Balkans by spheres of influence and had decided to allow state borders to remain “status quo”.

By then a Greek government was already established in Athens and the iron curtain was in place dividing Greek occupied Macedonia from the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgarian occupied Macedonia. In other words, with very minor changes, the 1913 border between Greece and Yugoslavia was to remain “status quo”.

After World War II ended many things took place in Greece, especially after the Varkiza Agreement was signed opening the door for the Greek political right to take power. As a result the door was opened for the English to take a foothold in Greece and for organized terror aimed at the CPG, ELAS, EAM… to begin.

Results of organized terror, in the period from February 12 to March 31, 1946, were summarized in a report prepared by the EAM Central Committee and submitted by Mihalis Kirkos at one of the UN Special Commission Oversight sessions. Following is a summary of the report:

Killed 1,284 Wounded 6,681 Interned 31,632 Arrested 34,931 Missing 151 Raped 165

And about 500 more were mistreated in various other ways.

For the sake of historic accuracy let us also mention that the EAM report was written by a Frenchman named Octav Meliee, director of the French Institute in Athens in 1945. (See: Tasos Vournas, 1981/32, Athens.)

GREEK MILITARY DEVELOPMENTS UP TO 1946

At the beginning of July 1946, the Greek government military was composed of four mountain divisions:

The 7th Division located in Kavala, The 8th Division located in Ioannina, The 10th Division in Solun, and The 15th Division in Kozhani.

By July 1946, the Greek government forces numbered 104,000, of which 45,000 were in the infantry. They were organized into 80 infantry battalions.

AMERICAN IMPACT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREEK GOVERNMENT FORCES

Many important events took place as a result of Western Power influence in Greece in 1946 and 1947, but the most important event took place during the Tehran Conference, when Greece agreed to be placed under English and American influence.

1. In February 1947, the United Kingdom informed the United States that for economic reasons, as of March 31, 1947, England would cease to support Greece. The US government estimated that if it did not inherit its new role, Greece would inevitably fall under Russian influence.

2. An agreement between the US Government and the Greek Government in Athens was signed bringing US dominance in Greece and pushing England out.

3. US President Harry Truman on March 1, 1947, proclaimed the “Truman Doctrine” allowing the United States to be engaged in Greece. Greece was given credit and modern military equipment to equip its government forces. At the same time, US General Van Fleet, an anti-guerrilla specialist, was made available to the Greek government. Van Fleet was commander of the American military advisory group which was also made available to the Greek government in early 1947.

Van Fleet’s strategy and tactics were used all throughout the Greek Civil War especially during the Vicho and Gramos battles on August 28-30, 1949, when DAG was defeated and driven out of the bunkers in Greece to Albania.

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Sadly the global assessment of DAG’s history which highlights some of the basic problems experienced during the Greek Civil War mentions nothing about the Macedonian contribution. It does not mention the Macedonian people at all even though they contributed more than 50% of DAG’s military resources. Therefore, it is time that we ourselves recognize our Macedonian contribution, the

problems we faced and mistakes we made. It is time to dump our mainstream political, national and historical nonsense and find the answer to the question: Did Greek propaganda on both sides of the conflict influenced us to voluntarily give up our children?!

A historical agreed upon solution was concocted to solve the so-called “DAG problem” for analysts and historians. During the CPG Central Committee Second Plenum it was declared that the Armed Uprising began on March 31, 1946, exactly one year after the Varkiza Agreement was signed on February 12, 1945. It began after EAM and the CPG left forces handed over power to the right forces. And this was a historical mistake.

Were we Macedonians a factor in any of these agreements? The answer is NO! Why not? Because we were never a political entity – we never fought to become one – we simply blindly followed the lead of others – outsiders and strangers.

There is a lot written about this and some things are explained much better than the official CPG documents and various works of historians and writers. So, let us continue with the chronicles