INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM - Part 02

And no, the impossible did not happen… Despite our efforts, Greece never turned into a socialist state and still remained under Western influence. So, many Macedonians died for nothing, even more were exiled and permanently lost their ancestral homes and Greece and the West got exactly what they wanted; a Macedonia with less Macedonians and no access for Russia to Mediterranean waters…

And how did Greece and the West accomplish this? Well, they knew how to activate the so-called “Macedonian syndrome”. The Macedonian trait, the Macedonian desire for living free at any cost, the Macedonian desire to leap before looking… The “thing” that has turned Macedonians into victims countless times in Macedonian history. The thing that causes Macedonians to (self) destruct. The thing that “urges” Macedonians to act before they think… The thing that has fooled Macedonians, countless times in our history, to follow strangers while sacrificing ourselves, serving foreign interests.

2.2 WHAT TASK DID WE ACCOMPLISH?

(For years our souls were frozen in fear! We were surviving under the Macedonian proverbial axe… asking ourselves why?)

Why did we interpret our national defeat as victory?

We said “farewell” to our homeland… We said “farewell” to our illusions that the Macedonian state was the guarantor for the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia. How many candles must we now burn to atone for the victims of the Greek Civil War???!!!

What tasks did we accomplish? The only goal set for us was to destroy the Macedonian people… to destroy ourselves! But we were too blind to see it!

After DAG was liquidated, on August 29 and 30, 1949, all DAG military units withdrew from Greece and went to Albania. Then, one afternoon, the speakers boomed on and a message from the CPG Central Committee Politburo was read which said: “The DAG units withdrew from the battles in Greece because they accomplished their intended task!”

Bureli, Albania, August 31, 1949, we were asking one another: “What task did we complete?”

Two days later the leadership of NOF was sued, found guilty of treason and sent to the internment camps in Siberia.

The rest of us, Greeks included, found ourselves throughout the world, thrown into the ideological waste basket. The Greeks were later allowed to return to their homes because, according to the Greek state, they were Greeks by birth… which speaks volumes. Most of those so-called Greeks fighting amongst us were Turkish Christian colonists deposited in Greek occupied Macedonia in the 1920’s! How does that make them “Greeks by birth” when they were not even born inside Greek borders? Most of the Macedonians, on the other hand, were born after 1913, after Greek occupied Macedonia became Greek. On top of that all Macedonians who fought in the war were indigenous to Greek occupied Macedonia… but according to Greek logic, they were not Greeks by birth! This is solid proof that Greece did not want the Macedonians back and found a way to get rid of them permanently! So, in the end we turned out to be nothing more than “obedient idiots”.

Since the Greeks refuse to recognize a Macedonian identity then what were these people who were born in Greece, exiled and not allowed to return because they were not “Greeks by birth”? What were they then if not Macedonians? Were they Greeks? Absolutely not! Where they Yugoslavs or Bulgarians? Obviously not because, according to the same Greece, 98% pure Greeks and 2% Muslim Greeks live in Greece! So, what were they then? Martians?!

From the day we found ourselves in Albania to this day, I was left to wonder what did we Macedonians do that was so bad to be treated this way? What crimes did we commit?

And should someone ask: “What happened to you after that?” I would have to say that most of us remained mute for the next 50 years, observing the world and watching life passing us by. Personally, I dedicated myself to searching for the truth, trying to find reasons for what happened to us, why we left so many dead behind and why so many of us were permanently separated from our families and exiled from our ancestral homes. We were left alone to roam the world, to fend for ourselves with no one to protect us from the aggression of our former enemies.

WHY ARE MACEDONIANS THE ONLY PEOPLE TO HAVE A MACEDONIAN MODEL OF SECTORAL HISTORY?

A secret kept hidden for five decades; a history without details, craftily created and fiercely defended by the syndrome of power, masking the truth. Why?!

Perhaps there is some hope for our future and that hope comes with us learning the truth about ourselves and what happened to our people in those days. It is time that we open those wounds that so far have refused to heal. Our current historiography has shifted the facts in favour of daily politics… that has to change… we cannot allow the truth to be masked by current affairs and political games. Also, it would be an unrealistic desire to want to show history without placing any blame or feeling no guilt… But blame and guilt must be placed where they belong… and not on the innocent!

Historian Lazar Lazarov, in his book “Macedonia in French politics in the Balkans 1944-1957”, in 1998, cultivating the period of time from 1944 to 1957, felt that there was a need to show the realities under which we Macedonians were treated under the various communist parties.

As a dedicated historian, most likely he felt it was his duty to pursue this avenue and that, from a historical science point of view, he felt it was the task of every society to show a mirror of its past and to give itself an opportunity to face the truth. But also to confirm that a half century of history cannot change so easily, because under those conditions we Macedonians have compiled many historical issues which have imprisoned us… and we are now “free prisoners” of our own past.

He chose us perhaps because he was impressed by the many things he saw in us, but what is most important about his work is that he is one of the first historians to suggest that a large segment of our “ideological historiography” needs an “overhaul” and a break in the pattern of our “sectoral” written history as the history of Vardar, Aegean and Pirin Macedonia. This is only a phenomenon of our un-integral interpretation of the history of the Macedonian people, which was built on “regional” information concocted to disqualify and discriminate against us and many other people.

Lazar Lazarov’s book, in my opinion, is one of the most “vivid” books ever written. It is an elaboration of past events that have been highlighted through a comprehensive analysis with an abundance of reliable facts which, perhaps, will free us from our current collective fear. Lazarov, with the French archives at his disposal, managed to piece together a continuous development of historical events from 1944 to 1957. He has opened for us another invaluable dialogue between our present and our past. But most importantly he did this without “adjusting” the facts to suit the interpretation, i.e. without the customary dual approach to the facts. As a result, his book has caused great interest and opened a view on the current taboo - topics. But, with this book he has also uncovered our half-century rare phenomenon known as “silence”… our heads being buried in the sand like that of an ostrich.

And like he said: “...There is need to emphasize that attention must be paid to the fact that the French official documentation covered here represents all three parts of divided Macedonia, treating them as an integral whole, not only geographically but also in ethnic and socio-economic terms. These views were expressed by French diplomats, military, political and economic experts...” (23)

This raises the question: What Macedonian author, in an integral part, has presented us to the world?!

Perhaps the book: “Macedonia and its relations with Greece”, Skopje, 1993, from the top of science, or perhaps still a non-Macedonian author like Loring M. Danforth, author of the book “The Macedonian Conflict”, Skopje, 1996, the book that, without shading, has brought us to the door of our past with striking proof of the cost of the non-integral view of Macedonian national history.

But let us follow the order of things, which will make it easier for us to peek at the root of evil and at our dark secrets, let it serve as leverage for us in pursuing Todor Chepreganov’s book “Great Britain and the Macedonian National Question 1944-1948”, 1997 (52), in which he wrote:

“...The CPY Central Committee in Yugoslav terms, formally set the Macedonian Question without entering into its essence and beside the fact that the Macedonian communists at the September 8, 1940 Conference, altogether clearly placed in query the solving of the Macedonian Question. At the Conference, promoted as “the Macedonian platform”, behind which stood Metodia Shatorov – Sharlo, it was predicted that a struggle would ensue in which the Macedonian people would have to prove their national identity, equality with the other nations in the Balkans, freedom in their own sovereign and independent state and ultimately unity or in alliance with the other Yugoslav or Balkan nations.

During the 5th World Conference in Zagreb, Metodia Shatarov -Sharlo (who later became a victim of political games) reacted strongly to the attitude the CPY took in handling the resolution of the Macedonian National Question, especially in regards to Gilas’s abstract views of the Question; referring to him as a ‘chauvinist’.

Shatarov accused the CPY of sectarian backsliding. According to Shatorov, it was wrong for the CPY to want to wait and resolve the Macedonian National Question during the revolution…”

Now let us return to the investigation and see how the author analyzed the syndrome of power in a totalitarian system, in our recent history. And hopefully we will familiarize ourselves with the attempts made to solve the “Macedonian Questions” and what the desire and strategy was for the unification of Macedonia under the care of strangers.

Lazarov not only meticulously analyzed promises made by the political leaders of the time, but also reminded us of our blind faith and obedience to them, of how we were kept in the dark by cries of demagogy and how, to this day, we remain unconvinced of events that affected vital national issues.

Let us now take a look at a few excerpts from the book and see what the French documents have to say about that period of time (1944-1957):

“...Of all the regions in Yugoslavia, communism had the strongest hold in Macedonia. The Macedonian people had been oppressed for centuries by the Turks, then by their ‘liberators’. For the Macedonians the communist ideology is most acceptable. Tito found support in this region (meaning in Macedonia). For the Macedonians, their country covers parts of Bulgarian and Greek territories and they consider Thessalonica their real capital...” (185).

“No Communist Party of Yugoslavia Central Committee Plenary Sessions were held until the fall of the Informburo because the entire political power was held by the CPY Central Committee Politburo, which was convened by Josip Broz - Tito, General Secretary of the Party.

Sadly, for some unknown and unjustified reasons, Macedonia had no representatives in the CPY Central Committee Politburo, except for Kolishevski who was summoned only to those sessions which discussed issues relating to Macedonia. The greatest political power was concentrated in the body of the Politburo, which was the de-

facto nerve centre, the brain and the most directive point for all agencies and organizations in the country. The Politburo’s will and policies were implemented through: Organizational – instructional departments, personnel departments, agitation propaganda departments, as well as internal party advisory committees for the various branches of work - the people’s government, unions, the department of foreign affairs, education and schooling institutions, etc.” (102)

It was not by chance that Lazarov, in his analysis, asked the following very serious question: “Why did Macedonia have no representation in the CPY Central Committee Politburo throughout the entire Second World War period?!”

“...The CPY Central Committee Politburo, convened by Josip Broz -Tito, Party General Secretary, was the executive and commanding point for the entire life of the country, which in August 1948 was reorganized and in which it was evident that no representatives from Macedonia were appointed. The following nine members were elected: Josip Broz - Tito, Milovan Gilas, Ivan Boshniak, Edward Kardeli, Boris Kidrich, Franz Leskovshek, Blagoia Neskovich, Mosha Piade and Aleksandar Rankovich.” (186)

It is also worth mentioning here that, according to Greek historiography, there were no Macedonians in the CPG Central Committee Politburo or in the CPG Central Committee in general; not during World War II and not during the Greek Civil War, even though the Macedonians provided more than 50% of the resources and manpower for the war effort as well as most of the soldiers that served in DAG with honour. Unfortunately our historiography does not want to blame the CPG for any of this, not even for our national defeat. Our historiography paints a picture of the CPG as being an honourable leader who led us to victory.