THE NATIONAL COUNCIL SENDS ITS GREETINGS TO THE MACEDONIAN AND THRACIAN PEOPLE

THE NATIONAL COUNCIL SENDS ITS GREETINGS TO THE MACEDONIAN AND THRACIAN PEOPLE

Listening with excitement to the reports given by the national councilors from Macedonia and Thrace exposing the suffering of the Macedonian and Thracian people under the double slavery of the Germans and the Bulgarians

THE NATIONAL COUNCIL HAS DECIDED to salute and, with admiration, honour the Macedonian and Thracian people for their contribution to the national liberation struggle of the nation

And is PROGRAMMING the Greek character of Macedonia and Western Thrace, which represent an undeniable part of Greece

AND CALLS FOR the Macedonian and Thracian people to continue their national struggle under the leadership of PEEA until the final victory and the final break-up of fascism.

Seconded by Korishadis at the third meeting today, May 16, 1944.

N. Grigoriadis President

K. Karageorgis Secretary

(See: St’armata, st’armata, Chronicle of the National Resistance 1940-1945, P.L.E. Edition, Publishing House Controlled by the CPG Central Committee, 2nd Edition 1967, p. 328, Aegean Macedonia in the national liberation war 1944-1945, Volume I, AM 1971 edition, p. 117, document No. 104.)

There were also Macedonians among the National Council delegates. Included among them were Risto Turturev from Voden

Region, Kiro Piliaev from Lerin Region and Mihail Keramidzhiev from Kostur Region. Keramidzhiev was the only SNOF representative. But when he went before the tribune to remind the delegates that there were non-Greeks (Macedonians), besides the Greeks living in this part of Macedonia, who were now fighting together with the Greek people against the occupiers and whose equality in the new Greece needed to be recognized and guaranteed by this body, Keramidzhiev was prevented from speaking. CPG Politburo member Ianis Zevgos told Keramidzhiev that there were too many EAM delegates who would not appreciate his comments and this would damage the Party and its politics.

And so, for the National Council of “the People’s Democratic Greece”, there were no Macedonian people, only Greek people living in this part (Greek occupied) of Macedonia. And so the Greek character of Macedonia was proclaimed… It is unclear whether, accidentally or deliberately, this only applied to the Greek part of Macedonia or to Western Thrace as well. This same claim was made by “Rizospastis”, the CPG organ, almost a year ago, which told the world that after the population exchanges Macedonia became as Greek as Attica Region...

13. Fighter determination

So, according to “Glasnik”, the Party, under pressure from developing events, decided to abandon its old tactics of ignoring the Macedonian people’s revolutionary struggle. It decided to do this not because it wanted to lead the struggle and not because it wanted to organize and develop it… Well, if one was to take a national organization away from its national ideological content and from its national liberation movement, as was done with the Macedonian liberation movement, then nothing will remain. If a person cannot see why they are fighting… well, they will not fight...” (Glasnik, INI Skopje, number 3/68, p. 111.)

So, the Macedonian communists and other patriots were obliged to fight against the influence of the Germans and Bulgarians… politically disarmed. The occupiers used the shortage of food and the hunger they themselves caused, as a means to spread their political influence on the hungry. They did this by providing them

with free corn and other foods. As a result the lists in the Bulgarian club in Solun grew long with the names of Macedonians and Greeks.

However, the Macedonian communists and other patriots fought stubbornly. They were the sons of the Macedonian nation and were recognized as such as they worked hard in their native villages and among their native people. Their influence worked...

The occupiers were forced to look for new ways to deflect the rural Macedonians from the influence of the Macedonian communists and other patriots. With help from the Kostur bishop and from other quislings, they organized a number of Greek fascist gangs, led by the likes of Kolaras, Kirtsidikis and others, who started attacking the Macedonian villages and killing unarmed and unprotected people.

On top of the Greek fascist gangs who targeted the Macedonian villages there were also ELAS activist groups, like the one led by Sevtelos, who were doing the same and whose attitude towards the Macedonian people was no different than that of Kolaras or Kirtsidakis. Sevtelos was responsible for organizing and carrying out mass tortures like the one in the village Sarakinovo, Meglen Region, while searching for weapons in the homes of unarmed villagers. These fierce attacks carried out by the Greek fascist gangs and by other various servants of the fascists was a real danger for the Macedonian villagers. As a result many of the villagers lowered their resistance and the occupiers, little by little, began to achieve their aims. By 1943 there were several village counter-bands operating in Kostur Region which were armed with German weapons. These kinds of counter-bands were also established in the villages in Sorovich, Kailari and Lerin Regions. In the summer of 1944, the counter-band unit in the city Voden numbered about 700 fighters… But the fact remains that these villagers, even though they were armed by the Bulgarians with German weapons, were waiting for the Red Army to come and save them from the Greek danger.

The Germans for their part gave the Macedonian villagers weapons in order prevent the development of the Macedonian national liberation movement which was struggling to drive them out of the

territory. Macedonia was an important strategic point for the occupiers and they tried their best to weaken the resistance there...

14 SNOF, its founding and dissolution

But, despite the appearance of these counter-bands, the Macedonian communists and other patriots continued to have contact with the villages, which needs to be emphasized, and began to change the situation radically and very quickly. So, it was not long before the counter-bands either abandoned the German weapons or turned them against the Germans and Bulgarians.

A wide Macedonian mass movement began to develop.

This put a lot of pressure on the CPG from the bottom and forced the Party leadership to agree to establish the Slavo-Macedonian People’s Liberation Front (SNOF) in Lerin and Kostur Regions. This was done towards the end of 1943.

And as I already mentioned earlier, independent of and contrary to the CPG’s intention to exploit the situation based on its experience with VMRO (United), SNOF turned out to be a huge and real revolutionary force. The Macedonian people’s liberation struggle began to gain perspective with clear ideological and political content. The Macedonian people began to join the SNOF units en masse… which were part of ELAS but distinctly Macedonian. Even former members of the counter-band units, being directed by SNOF, joined ELAS.

What helped the Macedonian communists achieve this…? And what were the factors that caused this radical change…?

There was an entire series of factors, both internal and external. The external factors were the successes and victories the red army was having over the fascist armies in Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad. Closer to home were the magnificent victories the Yugoslav people were having with their liberation struggle. There were also the constant and extensive contacts between the Macedonians in the Greek (occupied) part of Macedonia and those in the Serbian part of Macedonia. The imposed and artificial borders that divided

Macedonia and separated the Macedonian people since 1913 were eliminated during the fascist occupation and the Macedonian people were able to cross them. As a result the Macedonian people sought to create a common liberation struggle, whose direct course in 1943 was, among other things, the creation of the People’s Republic of Macedonia.

The extraordinary developments in the liberation struggle in Vardar Macedonia, twinned with the other Yugoslav people’s struggles… the emergence and influence of the People’s Republic of Macedonia… were factors that had a huge influence on the Macedonian people in the Greek (occupied) part of Macedonia which prompted them to organize and mobilize. In other words, the broader part of the Macedonian masses became well aware that “they were not alone…!”

The inevitable Macedonian national liberation movement in this part of (Greek occupied) Macedonia erupted and became unstoppable.

This is why the Macedonian communists and other patriots had such great success in suppressing the German and Bulgarian influence and in organizing and developing the Macedonian national liberation movement.

However, this course of events the Macedonians took in (Greek occupied) Macedonia hardened the fundamental contradiction between the Great Greek chauvinist interests of the Greek state in (Greek occupied) Macedonia on the one hand, and the Macedonian people’s national liberation movement on the other.

This forced the CPG to act. In striving at all costs to prevent the affirmation of the Macedonian national liberation movement, the CPG leadership began to openly attack SNOF. The CPG did this because there was no other party capable of doing it under the circumstances. The CPG proclaimed that SNOF was a “crypto-fascist and autonomist” organization and called for its disbandment. The CPG did this even though SNOF defeated the autonomist movement and its military forces. Six months after its formation, in May, 1944, SNOF was disbanded.