CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER SEVEN

1. A provocative stand

At this point it is important to review how the Macedonian people were seen by the CPG in the period after Zahariadis returned to Greece.

Let us point out that during the 2nd Plenum, held in February 1946, Zahariadis proclaimed that the Macedonian people in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia were treated like an incomplete “Slavophone national mass living in Greek Macedonia in the landscapes of the Greek state” which, in EAM and CPG circles, were publicly referred to as being Greeks with a “diminished national feeling” or, simply, as “Slavophone Greeks”. (CPG 1931-1952, p. 149.)

So, from being an enslaved nation with the right to self-determination, as the Macedonian people in Aegean Macedonia were recognized by the CPG during its 3rd CPG Extraordinary Congress in 1924, they were simply reduced to an incomplete Slavophone national mass living on Greek lands. (CPG, official documents, vol. 1, p. 517.) Also, as I mentioned before, the CPG while headed by Zahariadis in 1935 proclaimed that the Macedonian people were a “national minority in the Greek homeland.” (CPG 1931-1952, p. 74.) And now, again under Zahariadis’s leadership, the CPG treated the Macedonian people as if they were a nationally “unformed mass” without a national conscience and without aspirations.

This is how the Greek bourgeoisie treated the Macedonian people since the Greeks occupied Macedonia in 1912 and now this is how the CPG is treating them. There is no difference in their policies when it comes to the Macedonian people.

This has always been the Greek stand, provocative and full of wrath and fury.

This is why the Macedonian people living in Greek occupied Macedonia were denied their recognition, rights, national freedom

and statehood. Unlike those Macedonians living in the Yugoslav part of Macedonia who achieved all that.

The Macedonian people never expected this from the CPG and had high hopes that finally their age-long dreams and aspirations would be fulfilled. That is why every Macedonian, from the youngest to the oldest, became organized in NOF and persistently strived to win the CPG’s recognition and approval to struggle in order to get out of the humiliating position of being completely oppressed and a subjugated people.

Unfortunately, in practical terms, the CPG did not want freedom for the Macedonian people. All it wanted to do was continue with the previous hostile Greek policies to keep the Macedonian people down and in essence to rob them of their rights. In practical terms, the CPG implemented policies that were against the Macedonian national liberation movement, and indirectly against Macedonian national ideals and interests.

2. Trojan horse tactics

But despite all that, and the extreme conditions they were put under, the Macedonian people continued to build their revolutionary struggle in Greece. NOF’s military and political power continued to grow despite the persecution it received from the Athens governments and the hostilities from the CPG. It soon became clear to everyone that the Macedonian national liberation movement could not be destroyed by open frontal attacks such as those utilized to date.

Zahariadis was forced to use different tactics.

Using the Macedonian people’s natural aspirations Zahariadis decided to offer the Macedonian people a partnership, which was to be led by the Macedonian Communists, to join the Greek people’s revolutionary struggle. The first act was to join forces, and by doing this Zahariadis declaratively recognized NOF. Unfortunately this was not Zahariadis’s true intention. His true intention was to infiltrate the NOF fortress, like some kind of Trojan horse, and

destroy it from within by taking it over and by taking over its military forces.

This took place on November 21, 1946.

After a few preliminary meetings between CPG and NOF representatives, it was decided that a meeting should be held between the NOF leadership, the CPG and DAG. After the meeting was held in the village Turie, Lerin Region with NOF’s immediate leadership on one side and Skotidas representing the CPG and DAG on the other, it was decided that NOF should merge with the CPG and its battalions stationed in Paiak, Kaimakchalan and Vicho should merge with DAG. But, as it turned out, NOF was subordinated to the CPG and the Macedonian battalions were placed under DAG’s command.

It was also decided to make some changes to NOF’s leadership. It was decided to reduce the number of members in the NOF executive council from five to three. The three member executive council now consisted of Mihailo Keramidzhiev, myself (Pavle Rakovski) and Kicha Nikolova-Vera who was also AFZH president. Removed were Paskal Mitrevski and Giorgi Urdov-Dzhodzho. Mitrevski was appointed instructor of the NOF provincial bureau and Urdov was sent to DAG Headquarters for Central and Western Macedonia, to represent NOF.

After getting inside NOF, Zahariadis and his top CPG leaders replaced the external and frontal aggression towards NOF and began to implement an internal but devastating struggle. I will devote some time in the following paragraphs to the end of this chapter to explain how this was done and its effects on NOF.

3. A grave crime

Soon after establishing “unity” (joining NOF and the CPG and combining armed forces), as I mentioned earlier, the Macedonian battalions were withdrawn from Macedonia and sent deep into the Greek south. As soon as they reached “purely Greek terrain”, they were “reorganized”. Namely, all Macedonian commanders were replaced with “more experienced” Greek commanders. Then, while

stationed in the Greek south, these battalions were ordered to fight against a larger and more organized foe in uneven battles against overwhelming odds. This resulted in the Macedonian battalions being decimated.

Here Zahariadis and the top CPG leaders committed a grave crime against the Macedonian people. The battalions which they sent to the south to be decimated, and there is no doubt about that, were composed of exclusively first-rate, elite Macedonian revolutionary fighters. This was a devastating blow to the Macedonian people which could have been avoided, unfortunately the NOF leadership did not show the necessary vigilance and care to save the fighters and for that they bear a heavy responsibility.

But this was nothing new. By now abuse of the Macedonian people by Greeks in Greece had become a well-known tradition. The Greek bourgeoisie had always employed genocidal policies against the Macedonian people. Their practice had been to physically exterminate the most conscious, the most resistant and the most revolutionary Macedonian elements. And now these same policies were practiced by the same Greeks but through the CPG.

4. Political killings

At the same time the Macedonian battalions were destroyed, a large number of Macedonian individuals, mostly prominent activists associated with the Macedonian national liberation movement, were murdered.

While sent to execute an order, Giorgi Urdov-Dzhodzho then NOF representative at DAG Headquarters for Central and Western Macedonia, found himself surrounded by an enemy unit. He was sent there knowing he would not return. Dzhodzho used his last bullet on himself. His personal courier, who barely managed to “escape” alive, corroborated this story.

But, as it turned out, the “enemy unit” was not an enemy unit but a number of “executioners”, confidential persons sent there to ambush and liquidate Dzhodzho. I found out about this many years later from a conversation that took place between several inmates in a

Solun prison. Among those inmates was G.K. a former “counter-band” member from Dimchev’s unit in Voden. He had moved to the ELAS Macedonian battalion in Kaimakchalan and while serving a prison sentence in Solun he met up with several ex-ELAS officers who were serving in DAG. In this particular conversation they were talking about events of that time and about the withdrawal of the Macedonian battalion to the People’s Republic of Macedonia and about Dzhodzho being responsible to the Party for the fate of the battalion.

Today G.K. lives in Skopje. He told me that the ex-ELAS officers serving in DAG told him that Dzhodzho had to pay with his life for some sins that he had committed against the Party and that it was the Party that ordered his execution.

Another Macedonian executed was Vangel Shamardanov from the village Krontselevo, Voden Region. Shamardanov was commissar of the DAG battalion and former chairman of the Voden Region NOF District Committee. He was shot in the back and killed. Shortly before this happened, Sharmardanov confidentially confessed to me that he was afraid of his Greek “comrades” around him and suspected that one day they would “eliminate” him... This happened under the following, otherwise very characteristic, circumstances: Sometime in March-April 1947, I was on my way to Kaimakchalan when I ran into a group of Macedonian fighters. They were reading a Greek flyer written in Greek issued by a DAG affiliate exclusively to the Greek people. There was not a word in it about the Macedonian people, about the Macedonian fighters even though 80 to 85% of the DAG fighters and DAG’s basic forces in this region were Macedonians. And not just that! I learned from the fighters that when they joined DAG they too were registered as Greeks. In other words the commander, a man named Stathis and the commissar a man named Alekos, in charge of this DAG affiliate headquarters did not recognize the existence of the Macedonian people. This, apparently, was done in the spirit of Zahariadis’s new line adopted during the 2nd Plenum in 1946. By this line the Macedonian people were regarded as Greeks “with a reduced national sense” or simply as “Slavophone Greeks”. And this was their reason for publishing the flyer in Greek which addressed all

people as “Greeks” with the lines “Greek people!” and “Greek brothers!”

When I found out that this particular group of fighters belonged to the battalion whose commissar was Vangel Shamardanov, otherwise a very good and valued comrade of mine, I was surprised. I wanted to talk to Shamardanov in person and, with the help of these fighters, I found him. We spoke alone and the question I had for him was “why put up with all this…? After a long silence and with a painful facial expression he said: “Because I am afraid! One day they will eliminate me!”

From there I went to find Aspromalis (Takis Papadopoulos), EAM Committee Secretary for Central Macedonia, Tasios Gusiopoulos, CPG city committee secretary for the city Voden, and Alekos, commissar of the affiliate DAG headquarters. When I got the four of us together we had a meeting...

They listened to what I had to say with hypocritical generosity and compassion and with smiles on their faces. These were the executioners of the Macedonian people, the deliverers of Greek chauvinism… they sat there covered by the CPG mask smiling at me! Yes, they were confident in their own strength, that is, in the success of their calculation with regards to our Macedonian liberation movement. They let me speak… they listened to me without objection and… smiled…

Ignoring their hypocrisy I kept throwing facts in their faces.

I also told them the following. I said to them:

“Yesterday during a NOF activist gathering, a Greek DAG captain asked one of our associates a man named Foti Ilkovski, member of the NOF Central Committee working for the Central Agitation and Propaganda Department, who was just passing by him, ‘who are those people there?’

Foti replied ‘they are NOF activists!’

The Greek captain then swore and said: ‘Hmm! After we finish with the Monarcho-Fascists, we will start with them’…!”

I then decisively said: “This kind of flower only flourishes in this kind of climate... A threshing thistle flourishes only in a climate that suits it…!”

Not only were they not interested in finding out who this captain was but saw only my nationalism in my words of protest. Of course, they quickly informed those above them who said that I was simply an “incurable nationalist”. Petris, organizing secretary of the Provincial Bureau, later told Keramidzhiev that:

“And after all this, Rakovski said to me that he had a Greek education and that he was a Greek educated worker…!”

Sometime later Vangel Shamardanov was shot in the back and the Macedonian fighters were sent to the south of Greece to be slaughtered...

In my presence Giorgi Kalkov, a prominent activist from Kostur Region, told Keramidzhiev that he was convinced that he would be killed if he returned to his unit. He begged Keramidzhiev to do something, to keep him in NOF, at least temporarily. But it was not that simple. Keramidzhiev had no authority to arbitrarily detain an officer and told Kalkov to go back to his unit while Keramidzhiev tried to do something from his end.

Kalkov, like Shamardanov, was not wrong in his assessment of the matter and he too was killed. There was no investigation and the matter was closed because “this was war and people get killed during a war…”

Lazo Koroveshov was also murdered. Lazo was a gun repair specialist and operated a shop in Lerin before he joined the resistance. He was a cheerful and well-built man, a good fighter, loved by the people and influential among the Macedonian DAG fighters. He was shot from the distance in the middle of a guarded camp near the cauldron while trying to get his food. A single “stray”

bullet left him dead on the spot. The shooter was never found and the incident was pinned on the enemy...

In reality no one knows or has the means to find out how many Macedonians were murdered this way while serving in DAG’s ranks...

5. Political murders committed by Siantos’s leadership

Todor Simovski, a senior expert in the Institute for National History, provided the following information in one of his articles:

About Tashko Karadzha’s murder;

Some of the cadres and part of the population in Kostur Region believe that Tashko Karadzha’s capture on April 8, 1942, was not a coincidence. Tashko, a Macedonian Communist, was holding an illegal meeting which was also attended by the top CPG leaders for Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia but only he was captured. Many believe that it was not by chance that only this man was caught in the raid and then executed by the Gestapo in Solun on May 25, 1942... (See Nova Makedonija, December 29, 1971.)

About Lazo Trpovski’s murder;

Sometime in March or April 1943, a group of partisans wearing ELAS markings, attacked several Macedonian villages in Kostur Region including Dobroslava, Zagoricheni, Staricheni, and Mokreni, for no other reason except to murder Macedonians. Having had prior bad experiences with ELAS and with some chauvinistic Greek CPG leaders, the Macedonian cadres and the Macedonian population in that region suspected that Lazo was killed by betrayal. New published documents show that the enemy knew exactly which route Lazo was going to take on his way to Solun. This information could only have come from the higher level in the Greek resistance leadership. (Ibid.)

About Pando Dzhikata’s murder;

After the organization MAO and its organ the “Red Star” were banned in a rough manner, the Macedonian people were forced to join EAM and other Greek anti-fascist organizations. MAO was formed in response to persistent demands and pressure from the Macedonian communists in Voden who felt there was a need to neutralize the intensified Bulgarian propaganda. As a result, in the summer of 1942, the CPG formed MAO (Macedonian Liberation Organization) in Voden and placed it under the direct leadership of the CPG District Committee in Voden. The following were decided during the MAO founding meeting:

1) The MAO leadership will consist of five members. 2) The MAO organ will be called “Red Star” and will be published in the Macedonian language, as will be a newsletter in the newspaper. 3) MAO will act in the city and in its district; and 4) MAO will receive its guidance and directives from the CPG District Committee.

Thanks to the MAO, Bulgarian and German propaganda in Voden failed to achieve its objectives of winning over the Macedonian people or arming a single Macedonian before 1943 and during first half of 1944. This, however, was not true with the Greek population. Many Greek villagers, especially those from the flatlands, began to massively arm themselves on the side of the Germans... (Todor Simovski, Nova Makedonija, December 26, 1971.)

Unfortunately MAO’s rapid growth and influence on the Macedonian people deterred the Greek leaders and in the summer of 1943 they dissolved MAO and abolished the “Red Star”.

The CPG, it appears, was not completely satisfied with just dissolving MAO and abolishing the “Red Star”. It also went after Pando Dzhikata from the village Chegan, Voden Region. Pando was one of MAO’s leaders and during MAO’s existence, among other things, he had written an article published in the “Red Star” that had Macedonian national content about Ilinden and the road that the Macedonian people should follow. There was also another serious reason for his capture and that was because Pando maintained close ties and close contact with the Partisans from Vardar (Republic of)

Macedonia. And this had been going on for a long time. The CPG captured Pando in mid-October 1943, following an order from the CPG supreme leadership. A special delegate was specifically dispatched to capture him on the spot and soon afterwards they had him executed... (Nova Makedonija, December 26, 1971.)

About the murder of other Macedonian cadres from the village Chegan;

There were other active communists from Chegan who suffered the same fate as Pando. Included among them were Krste Mingov, responsible for the organization National Solidarity, Kosta Popstoikov, responsible for supplying the Partisans, and Lazo Duichev, in charge of EPON the youth organization. They were chosen as delegates and dispatched to ELAS headquarters in Kaimakchalan to protest Pando’s arrest and seek his release. But they too were captured and taken to ELAS 16th Regiment Headquarters in Katsufliani in late October 1943, and executed... (Nova Makedonija, December 26, 1971.)

In the above-referenced article Todor Simovski also talks about the murder of other communists including Dimitar Leskata and Gale Popov. All these Macedonians who the CPG murdered were guilty of one and only one thing; “They were guilty of being Macedonian and felt more Macedonian than the CPG could allow to exist in the Macedonian battalion...”

Further on in the article, Simovski also talks about the “repulsive murder of the patriotic Macedonians from the city Gumendzhe...” etc. ... (Nova Makedonija, January 9, 1972.)

From everything that was said above we can see that the CPG, during Siantos’s time, even before Zahariadis took it over, had implemented policies of physical extermination of the most conscious, most resistant and revolutionary elements of the Macedonian population.

Let us now return to Zahariadis.

6. A happy coincidence

While the Macedonian battalions were fighting uneven battles and being decimated in the Greek south during the summer of 1947, because of a treacherous Greek policy, a telegram signed by Zahariadis was received at the NOF Central Council headquarters. The full composition of NOF, which included the central secretariat (Keramidzhiev, Rakovski, Nikolova), the NOF regional bureau instructor (Mitrevski), the NOMS president (Fotev) and the entire staff of the NOF agitation and propaganda department, were ordered to leave immediately in order to attend a meeting with Zahariadis at DAG headquarters in Epirus, located somewhere above the village Likorahi. There was a pre-determined route that they were to follow which would take them through the villages Prekopana, Kostarazi, Pesiak, the church on the hill, etc., to Gramos and from there to the village Likorahi.

As it happened all the people had gathered together for a meeting which had just ended and together they were immediately sent off on their way. Around 1 to 2 past midnight the group, consisting of about fifteen people, arrived in the village Pesiak and decided to take a break.

When an elderly Macedonian man heard us speaking Macedonian he came out of his house and told us that an armed enemy unit visited his village four days ago and every night after that it came back around midnight and took up positions on the hills above the village. Even tonight the soldiers are there, said the old man and pointed at their position with his hand...

This was a happy coincidence for us because if we had continued on the road we would have fallen into their hands...

7. The Greek model of “supremacy”

This failure to behead the Macedonian national liberation movement obviously influenced Zahariadis to do it differently.

His alternate plan was put in place during the 1st NOF Congress held in January 1948, and during the 1st NOF Central Council Plenum

held in August 1948, when the CPG prepared and carried out the removal of the immediate NOF leadership. Rakovski was removed during the 1st Congress and Keramdzhiev and Mitrevski were removed during the 1st NOF Central Committee Plenum. A “new leadership” was selected to replace them which consisted of people who in the past were known NOF opponents.

Gradually the entire NOF top leadership was replaced and taken over by people who were loyal to the Greek cause. Eventually NOF was taken away from the Macedonian people and put in the hands of the “Slavophones” who had no national features and no aspiration and who just happened to live in the lands of the Greek state, as Zahariadis described them during CPG Central Committee 2nd Plenum.

And as far as I am aware, this was the first time the CPG top leadership publicly raised its “supremacist” head regarding the Macedonian question and exposed its support for the “Megali idea” (the Greek model of supremacy).

The agitation and propaganda department was also liquidated with an open and direct blow. It received orders to disband and its members to go to various DAG units and fight at the front as ordinary fighters.

I protested this with a letter addressed to Vasilis Bardzhotas, then member of the CPG Central Committee Politburo, but nothing was done…

I too was “mobilized” into the army...

8. Dissolving KUG

The cultural and artistic group KUG, formed by the agitation and propaganda department, which had recruited girls 14 to 16 years old to sing, dance, act, perform, etc., all dressed in folk costumes, was also dissolved. This group had performed for the fighters and for the people everywhere. One time it performed an opera in the church of the village Zhelevo, Lerin Region, which was representative of the struggle.

KUG’s performances for the fighters and the Macedonian villagers were representative of an extraordinary manifestation of the folk culture of the Macedonian nation which, while in the fire of breaking its bonds of slavery, was rebuilding its liberation struggle, which gave the Macedonian people profound pleasure, optimism and determination...

KUG also played a huge role in the mobilization of people in the struggle. It not only inspired people to join en masse but on top of that it boosted the morale of the already mobilized Macedonian people.

It was natural and logical to have more KUG groups in the revolution, at least one per district but Zahariadis not only dismissed the idea but demobilized the only group we had and sent Foti Ilkovski, its artistic director and agitation and propaganda associate, to the army to fight as a common fighter. The girls became an integral part of the Greek KUG called “The Ioanidis Group”, and as all Macedonians here (in Greek occupied Macedonia) they became an integral part of the Greek people, just like Macedonia itself for the CPG was an “inseparable” part of the Greek homeland. All this was done in the spirit of the CPG line taken during the 1935 CPG 6th Congress and during the February 1946, CPG 2nd Plenum...

9. Disbanding the Orchestra

Kar-Timio, or simply Timio, was a popular and enthusiastic folk musician who, with his comrades, formed a Macedonian folk brass band. Macedonian folk melodies roared everywhere where this band appeared which most often played very popular songs including “A, bre, Makedonche! Kade se spremash… Borba te cheka” (Oh Macedonian! Where are you preparing... Fighting awaits you...) reworked in a triumphal march.

This orchestra was first incorporated into the 18th DAG Brigade, under the watchful eye of the infamous Tasios Gusiopoulos-Makis, then, under orders, it was placed directly under DAG Headquarters and eventually it was dissolved...

This naturally insulted and embittered Timio who later was shot and killed.

10. Two phases of the same policy

All of these acts, and many other similar ones that were committed by the CPG against patriotic Macedonians, towards the end of 1948 were done in the name of the revolution but their real intentions were not easy to hide. While this “policy was being realized” the Macedonian people began to lose their enthusiasm for their struggle because it was becoming obvious to them that it was a futile and meaningless effort, especially after the top NOF leadership was removed and replaced with people that were anti-Macedonian. Almost all activity in the Macedonian villages came to a grinding halt and a wave of hundreds of Macedonian fighters, including prominent ones, began to desert. A tense and dangerous situation was created during which the “new NOF leadership” remained completely isolated and superficial...

In other words, this great Greek chauvinistic policy that Zahariadis undertook in the name of the revolution was aimed against the revolution and worked against the Macedonian national ideal, against the Macedonian cadres and activists and against the Macedonian people in general.

Like the open, frontal external attacks the CPG was waging against NOF before “unity” was established, these attacks were waged from within NOF and directed exclusively against the most patriotic Macedonian activists. In fact, these were two phases of the same chauvinist policy stemming from the famous Greek chauvinistic thesis as follows:

“There is no Macedonian nation, but only ‘Slavophones’ living in Greek Macedonia in the lands of the Greek state.” “There is no Macedonian national movement, but only some ‘adventurous elements’ that sow ‘discord’ in the peaceful ‘Slavophone’ villages.” “If they are neutralized or ‘isolated’, i.e. ‘removed’, there will be order and peace everywhere...”

And this is exactly how the CPG acted during the first phase.

This was evident by their publication in the CPG press, as well as in the EAM and ELAS presses. The CPG tried to “isolate” the Macedonian leaders of the rebellion by vilifying them claiming that they are “adventurers”, “traitors”, “secessionists”, etc.

One cannot help but notice that the entire open frontal struggle waged during the external or first phase is hypocritically hinged on some certain Macedonian “adventurous elements” being the cause for “secession” while persistently being silent on the real reason, which is the CPG not recognizing the Macedonian people’s legitimate right to organize themselves and fight for their own freedom.

What it failed to do during the first phase the CPG succeeded doing during the second phase. By infiltrating NOF, the CPG managed to physically “remove” a large part of the “dangerous nationalists” and replace them with people loyal to the Greek cause. But where was their “peace and order”? It was nowhere to be found. A tense and dangerous situation developed, during which, as I mentioned earlier, “the new leadership” remained completely helpless and redundant.

The Greek chauvinists were finally forced to admit that this was not the work of some sort of artificial act, allegedly sprinkled among the villagers by word of mouth by a few adventurous elements. They had to recognize that this was a genuine Macedonian national liberation movement.

But Zahariadis did not end his malicious campaign; he just took it in a different direction.

11. A malicious maneuver

First, during the CPG Central Committee 5th Plenum, held on January 30-31, 1949, Zahariadis decisively returned the CPG position and terminology back to where it had been in 1924, as was set at the CPG 3rd Congress.

In other words, Zahariadis decided to recognize the Macedonian people here, in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia, as they were

recognized back to a point in time when they were seen as a servile part of another nation, with appropriate rights to self-determination until secession from Greece. “There should be no doubt, according to the relevant resolution, that as a result of DAG’s victory and the people’s revolution, the Macedonian people will fully achieve their national rights the way they want them...” (CPG 1931-1952, p. 195. Dimokratikos Stratos, number 2, 1949)

A few days later, during the NOF Central Council 2nd Plenum, held on February 3-4, 1949, which Zahariadis personally led, he proposed a resolution which was then adopted by raising a hand. Among other things, the Resolution said:

“The 2nd Plenum has decided to convene the 2nd NOF Congress to be held in March 1949... The Second NOF Congress will proclaim the new NOF programming principles that represent the century-long aspiration of our people. The Second Congress will declare the unification of the Macedonian people in a single independent Macedonian state within the Balkan People’s Democratic Federation...” (Nepokoren, February 15, 1949)

The CPG adopted this position exactly when the People’s democratic Republic of Bulgaria began to deny the national existence of the Macedonian people. This was the time when, in the spirit of the Informburo Resolution, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and others ran a hostile campaign against the CPY and Yugoslavia. This was also the time when DAG was treacherously set up to be defeated by its opponent supported by the Anglo-American military machine. But the Party itself did not have its own general position on this issue.

Accordingly, this position was taken quite independently and outside of the Balkan reality and, of course, it was absurd and not true. Here Zahariadis was publicly speculating playing on emotions and on centuries-old Macedonian aspirations with a specific goal in mind. This position, or resolution, was also published in DAG’s organ “Pros ti niki”, number 12, on March 27, 1949 and even more spectacularly announced through the radio program “Free Greece”. Thus, given the current situation in the Balkans, the announcement caused vivid public interest and a sharp reaction from the Athens

government. (Naum Peiov, Macedonians and the Greek Civil War, p. 160.) Because of this, or perhaps because of someone else’s complaint, Zahariadis called me in, gave me an article and told me to publish it in the next issue of “Nepokoren” as well as in “Pros ti niki” issue number 23, on March 10, 1949. In this article Zahariadis denied that such a resolution was ever made during NOF’s 2nd Plenum and that this was an enemy fabrication. Among other things, this is what was specifically said:

“There are rumours that the 2nd NOF Congress is expected to declare the creation of a single Macedonian state, and that this state will then join Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece, or the Balkan Communist or Democratic Federation. Our enemies always choose to say what they think is better for them.

The truth, however, is different. The 2nd NOF Congress is a military congress, a congress for further strengthening and not breaking our unity. This is a congress that will organize our victory... To expel the foreigners, destroy the Monarcho-fascist killers and ensure a free and independent life for our people’s democracy.

That is the goal of our congress. No hostile slander and splintering can deviate us from this goal…” (Ibid., p. 161.)

During the same plenum Zahariadis also “proposed” that the NOF Central Council executive be expanded from three to five members, and that the two new members be Rakovski and Mitrevski.

During the NOF 2nd Congress, held on March 25-26, 1949, attended by an invited delegation of Macedonians, members of Macedonian organizations from Pirin (Bulgarian occupied) Macedonia, the CPG laid out the newly established right to self-determination to secession from Greece. Not knowing that this was another one of Zahariadis’s malicious maneuvers and despite the mistrust I had for him, I presented the abstract on the topic “NOF’s ideological foundations” with some vigour. Sounding loud and somewhat victorious, in part, this is what I said:

“And now, we here, hundreds of representatives of the Macedonian people... proclaim to the entire world our new basic benefit - the

right to our self-determination, the right to organize our Macedonian national and state life, the way we want to...” (From the brochure: “NOF’s ideological foundations”, NOF edition 1949, p. 24.)

And in its declaration, the Congress proclaimed the following:

“The seven hundred NOF delegates who take part in the work of the Second NOF Congress, expressing the will of the entire Macedonian people from Aegean Macedonia

Proclaim

The Macedonian people, with their struggle and their sacrifices, today demonstrate their decision to struggle for their national liberation and the realization of their free life, the way they themselves want it...” (Pros ti niki, March 31, 1949)

And one more thing: The next day, March 27, 1949, Zahariadis formed a separate Macedonian communist organization in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia and called it KOEM (Communist Organization of Aegean Macedonia). This was done for the first time since the CPG was established in 1918.

Obviously Zahariadis did all this to show sincerity and to remove all suspicions from the anti-Macedonian acts he and his Central Committee had committed against the Macedonian movement and people. He wanted the Macedonian people to remain in DAG’s ranks, the small rebel army which he himself insisted remain small, and to become cannon fodder for the opponent’s mighty war machine. Even though DAG was already bleeding profusely, instead on negotiating a peace deal, Zahariadis preferred his small rebel army to fight on, at the front, so that it could be milled one hundred percent, to the last man, in an absolutely uneven battle, under a single catastrophic disaster.

It was by no accident that Zahariadis, this late in the war, carried out a wide mobilization which included all remaining Macedonian women and minors. This was his plan all along, a necessary move to create a necessary psychological and political ambience.

And he succeeded.

His mobilization was successfully carried out so much so that nothing, except some wild bear, was left in the villages.

12. This was a policy of the Greek bourgeoisie

Given that this act of granting the Macedonian people “the right to self-determination to secession from Greece” was not a principle CPG policy, but only a malicious maneuver, confirms in general that what Zahariadis did, both before and after the 5th Plenum, was a criminal act. Then, a few months later, he changed his mind and abolished the right to self-determination to secession. Zahariadis did this during the CPG Central Committee 6th Plenum held in October 1949, when he abolished “the right to self-determination to secession of the enslaved people in their own homeland”, proclaiming that “the Macedonian people, here in Aegean Macedonia, were a minority living in the Greek homeland…” (CPG 1931-1952, p. 205.)

By this act, i.e. robbing the Macedonian people of the right to self-determination to secession, Zahariadis set the stage for a new, great open offensive against the Macedonian people’s democratic rights, that is, he began a new series of political crimes against the Macedonian people.

In other words, Zahariadis masterfully planned and carried out another far-reaching act of genocide against the Macedonian people. He did this because our Macedonian existence here in Greek (occupied) Macedonia, in some way, is an ever-present danger to, as he himself put it, “our positions and our borders to the north…”

With the commitments and resolutions he made during the CPG Central Committee 5th Plenum, the NOF Central Council 2nd Plenum, the NOF 2nd Congress and by establishing KOEM and appointing one NOF representative in DAG main headquarters and one NOF representative in the provisional democratic government, Zahariadis put a lot of psychological and political pressure on the Macedonian people to support the struggle. As we know, Zahariadis did not do this to strengthen the Macedonian struggle but rather to

carry out a massive mobilization for the sole purpose of emptying the Macedonian villages in the liberated territory near the border and to have the Macedonian people and DAG liquidated, fighting en masse at the fronts.

I don’t think you can find enough reasoning to conclude that Zahariadis took all these steps to just provide reserves for DAG in order to bring it victory, as is often claimed. If Zahariadis really thought about what was best for DAG and how DAG could have been victorious, he would not have declared “England”, DAG’s worst enemy, as Greece’s “great friend”.

The least Zahariadis could have done is object to English interference in Greek internal affairs. He would have tried to put a stop to all outside interference rather than propagate and justify England’s presence in Greece. He would have objected to England financing and organizing DAG’s enemy, the reactionaries.

He would not have said that “our position and borders to the north were uncertain without English support…” He would not have stirred Greek patriotic sentiments by claiming that Greece was in danger from the north…

Zahariadis would not have restricted DAG’s growth when the time was right and would not have allowed the enemy to move the people from the villages to the cities and thus cutoff DAG from its reserves and supplies.

Zahariadis would not have worked against the Macedonian liberation movement. The Macedonian liberation movement was Zahariadis’s natural ally, provider of reserves for DAG and supporter in every respect.

He would not have helped his opponent passively, actively, openly and in secret lay low when he was weak and needed time to gain strength.

And finally, Zahariadis would not have allowed his opponent to destroy DAG, by forcing DAG’s core forces to remain stationary in

fronts so that the enemy military machine - artillery, tanks, aviation, etc., could pummel them to pulp...

Bearing all this in mind, as well as all the political crimes that followed, one cannot help but wonder what was the point of all these moves, what was the point of this war, other than to exterminate the Macedonian people in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia? What other important reason could there have been to justify all this bloodshed and suffering…?

This, of course, was always the aim of the Greek bourgeoisie which, this time, was carried out through the CPG...