IV - ENFORCED RENAMING OF INHABITED PLACES, TOPONYMS AND MICRO-TOPONYMS IN AEG

IV - ENFORCED RENAMING OF INHABITED PLACES, TOPONYMS AND MICRO-TOPONYMS IN AEGEAN (GREEK OCCUPIED) MACEDONIA

It is a fact that, under certain historical circumstances, beginning from the 6th century numerous Slavonic tribes which had inhabited the northern parts of the Balkan Peninsula, suppressed by other related or foreign tribes, headed southwards and inundated all of mainland Greece including the Peloponnese and, unfamiliar with its ancient name, they called it More, or Sea, (Morea) since this peninsula is surrounded by the sea. These tribes, known as Ezerci and Milinzi, overran the Peloponnese, whereas the Berziti and Veligosti Slavonic tribes settled in Aetoliokarania, Attica, Boeotia and to the north of these regions. The newly-captured territory, of which the Slavonic tribes became absolute masters, having settled it divided it into municipalities and districts and built new settlements (villages and towns) on the sites of the ancient ones, giving them Slavonic names. As they were not familiar with the old toponomy of the places they conquered and settled, all the geographical features (mountains, rivers, lakes, ridges, hills, plains and the like) acquired new, Slavonic, names and, until recently, were known as such both in the country and to the world and some of them have retained these names even today, only slightly altered due to their Greek suffixes.

Thus at one time the famous and the main mountains of the Peloponnese, such as Helicon, Parnon, Chronios and Kimina, acquired Slavonic names - Zagora, Helmo (H’lm) and Malevo -while the rivers Pamisos, Piros and Helicon were renamed Pirnatsa, Kamenitsa and Burbutseva. Certain districts in Greece were also renamed, such as Suvdela, Melinzi, Opština, Župa, etc.

A new, Slavonic settlement called Varsova was built in the vicinity of the Sparta ruines and over the ancient ruins of Mycenae the Slavonic village of Horvati appeared. Even the resounding, allegedly Greek names Mani - Maniates, Mistra and Tsakonia -Tsakones were without doubt of Slavonic origin. It is possible on the basis of old topographical maps and the official population censuses in Greece since the establishment of the Greek state up to the present only in this part of Greece - the Morea, Aetoliokirania and Attica - to quote hundreds of villages, towns, cities and other localities which, until yesterday, had sonorous Slavonic names that would make all Slavonic countries envious.

Apart from the Slavonic names, later - especially in the 14th century - others were added such as Albanians, Vlachs, Ottomans, etc. so that in the newly-created Greek state the names of a large number of inhabited places and their surrounding toponyms were not Greek but predominantly Slavonic or of other origin.

As early as its establishment as a state in 1830, official Greece faced inconveniences in referring to these numerous, non-Greek - in the first place Slavonic - names on its state territory, for which reason foreign scholars, and not only they, registered all this carefully and published it abroad with their comments, going as far as to claim that present-day Greeks have no or, if any, only a very loose connection with thle ancient Greeks and in fact represent an entirely new race stemming from the mingling with the Slavonic, Vlach, Albanian with the colonised population from Asia Minor which predominantly contained Hellenised Hittites and Phrygians who, not without reason, had been forcibly expelled from Byzantium from the 10th century onwards.

In addition to the voluminous historical factography, foreign scholars referred to the toponyms which seriously confirmed their statements.

Faced with this problematic issue, gradually and quietly the Greek state changed the names, especially of the larger towns with mainly Slavonic names, and these acquired new, sonorous classical Greek names such as the one-time capital of the Slavs in the Morea (the Peloponnese), Tropolitsa, which was renamed Tripolis, the town of Mistra which became Sparti, Voštitsa - Egion, Salona - Amphissa, Pisati - Pyrgos, Gortina - Kartagena, Dragomesti - Astakos, Zeituni or Zituni - Lamia, etc.

With the annexation of Thessaly by Greece in 1897, Greece faced this problem even more, and not only because of the numerous Slavonic names of the inhabited places and the other toponyms.

In the opinion of the Greek state the problem of toponym-renaming could be solved more efficiently by setting up a special commission which would explore this problem systematically and would turn urgently to toponym-renaming, insisting primarily on assigning classical Greek names.

There were also other reasons for this intention. In fact Greece had aspirations towards Macedonia where not only the toponyms but also the absolute majority of the population was Macedonian or Turkish while the Greek minority represented only slightly more than 10% of the total population in this area.

For the above purpose, the Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs, N. Levidis, on 8 March 1909 personally submitted an elaborate statement to the Greek King George I which emphasised the necessity of establishing an official commission with the task of working out a special plan for re-naming inhabited places and other toponyms of non-Greek origin.

On the basis of this statement, on 31 May 1909, a Decree was issued, published in the Gazette No. 125 of 8 June 1909, concerning the establishment of a state commission for exploring toponyms and discovering their historical origin.

According to paragraph 8 of this Decree the administrative and other state authorities were responsible without objection for supplying the commission with the necessary information and offering assitance to facilitate its task.

Matters became more complex for Greece with the fact that; as a result of the Balkan Wars and the First World War and the ensuing peace agreements, it expanded northwards, adopting new territories, among which were part of Epirus, the Aegean (Greek occupied) part of Macedonia and Western Thrace, where the number of the Greek population represented an absolute minority compared the the local Macedonian, Turkish and other population.

Apart from this, almost all the toponyms in these newly-adopted territories, especially in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia, even in the areas where a compact Greek population lived (Greben,

Kožani, Naselitsa and Katerina) and the names of the inhabited places were absolutely Slavonic, which indisputably testified to their origin, while where the majority population was Turkish the toponyms were Turkish. It was becoming fully evident that Greece had entered, i.e. adopted, territory which neither ethnically, geographically nor historically belonged to it.

Greece decided to pursue the designed scheme for toponomy alteration primarily in the Aegean (Greek occupied) part of Macedonia, whereas in the rest of the country it was to be done gradually.

Thus, immediately after the Bucharest Peace Treaty (August 1913) a census of the population in the newly-adopted lands was carried out whereby it was established that 1,160,477 inhabitants lived in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia and in 1917 an Act was passed, known as No. l051, Article 6 of which determined the establishment and the management of the urban and rural municipalities.

On 10 October 1919 a circular letter was issued containing detailed instructions on the urgent need to apply the toponyms and the manner in which this design was to be implemented by the Toponym Commission of Greece. In the introduction to this circular letter it says:

The Toponym Commission of Greece, whose highly significant assignment is the rejection of all Turkophonic names (the word Slavonic is avoided. Author’s note) of villages and municipalities which contaminate and brutalise the face of our beautiful country and leave space for unfavourable conclusions about the Greek nation which unfriendly peoples use against us, by means of a Decree of the Ministry of Internal Affairs has decided to reinforce its endeavours to replace foreign names with Greek ones. Today’s toponyms (it says further on in the instructions) have not been selected by chance. They have their reasons, their life, their history together with the surrounding landscape, the inhabitants, the history … some of them are Turkish or Slavonic and it is intended that they be replaced.

Almost immediately after the issuing of the circular letter by the competent Toponym Commission, the Ministry of Internal Affairs published a special brochure, entitled Advice on the Alteration of Municipality and Village Names, in Athens in 1920. At the same time in the newly-formed districts in the Aegean (Greek occupied) part of Macedonia special sub-commissions were set up with the task of studying the problem on the spot and of proposing new names for the villages and towns in their districts.

In the spirit of the same circular letter, in 1922, as No. 426, a more detailed instruction from the Toponym Commission was issued and intensified and active work was undertaken in that direction in Greece. However, due to the Graeco-Turkish War (1919-22) and the still undefined peace agreement with Turkey, as well as the great migration of population from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia to Turkey and the reverse. More than 300,000 Turks and other Moslem people, were expelled to Turkey while in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia settled were approximately 640,000 colonist refugees from Asia Minor and other places. There was also the forced expulsion of 33,000 Macedonians to Bulgaria by means of the so-called “voluntary” emigration enacted according to Article 56 of the Neuilly Peace Treaty. As a result the process of the accelerated renaming of inhabited places and other toponyms in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia and in the other parts of Greece was slowed down.

For these reasons, from 1918 to 1925 only 76 inhabited places in the Aegean (Greek occupied) part of Macedonia were renamed at the following rate: 1918 - 1 settlement, 1919 - 2, 1920 - 5, 1921 - 4, 1922 - 18, 1923 - 18, 1924 - 5 and 1925 - 26. Many inhabited places in the districts of Lerin (Florina), Kostur (Kastoria), Voden (Edessa), Kukuš (Kilkis) and Solun (Salonica) were affected.

However, although all the commissions for the renaming of inhabited places and other toponyms worked at full speed on the basis of the legal acts of the time, and not only in the Aegean (Greek occupied) part of Macedonia but in the other parts of Greece too, a need was felt to pass a more complete act on the basis of which all renaming was to be carried out in the future. Such a Decree was indeed passed on 17 September 1926, published in the

administrative Gazette No. 332 of 21 September 1926, entitled “On Renaming Villages, Towns and Cities”.

Among other things, the following was stated in the Decree:

Article 1. On the proposal of the Toponym Commission of Greece, it is allowed that foreign or distasteful names of villages, towns and cities be replaced. Their renaming shall be performed according to a Decree issued by the Internal Affairs Ministry.

Article 2. By decision of the local district superintendent, located in each district, a competent commission may be established to study the renaming of villages, towns and cities.

Article 3. The Commission shall compile a list for the renaming of villages, towns and cities with a brief explanation of the reasons for the selection of the proposed new names. The list shall be submitted to the Internal Affairs Ministry which shall forward it to the Toponym Commission of Greece for its judgement.

Article 4. The Toponym Commission of Greece, within 15 days of receiving the proposed renamings, shall express its opinion on them and inform the Internal Affairs Ministry which, on that basis, shall issue the necessary Decree of approval of the proposed renamings.

Article 5. The renaming approval Decree shall be sent to the competent district superintendent and to all Ministries and railway directorates. It shall be their duty to issue the necessary Acts on renaming and alterations...

Article 7. a) After the renaming of settlements a list shall be published with the new names. b) Once these lists have been published, the use of the old names shall be absolutely prohibited.

From that moment onwards all the acts for renaming inhabited places and other toponyms were to be based on this order and from September 1926 to the middle of November 1927 945 settlements were renamed in the Aegean (Greek occupied) part of Macedonia.

Despite this accelerated activity’s being extended to the other parts of Greece, and despite the warning by the competent bodies about strict compliance with and application of these acts on the part of the citizens and the competent authorities, this was in practice impossible because the people and the authorities faced difficulties in finding their way amidst the great and sudden changes. On the other hand, since the acts on toponym renaming did not specify the sanctions against offenders using the old names, on 13 November 1927 a new legal order was passed, published in the administrative Gazette No. 287 of 13 November 1927. The legal order was thereby transformed into Act No. 3342 of 12 December 1927 (Administrative Gazette No. 303/17 December 1927). In fact the sanctions the courts were to employ against offenders were extended and specified as well as the need for the measures undertaken by the authorities being imposed at all costs, i.e. the new names were to come into use and everything relating to the past was to be forgotten.

Here are certain articles from the new legal order, the Act referring to the sanctions and other measures in the implementation of the new and the obliteration of the old:

Article 5. The changes of the seal and the name of a municipality in compliance with its new name are compulsory and any use of the old name by the president of the municipality or municipal councillors in the municipal council’s minutes or correspondence shall be a disciplinary offence punishable by the District Superintendent with a fine of from 50 to 200 drachmas and in certain cases the offenders may be suspended by the ruling of the District Superintendent.

Article 6. The renamed municipalities and villages are ordered to place signs in the central area and along main roads at the entry to the village or municipality. The new name of the settlement is to be written on the sign. Failure to do so or a removal of the sign shall be punishable according to Article 429 of the Penal Law.

Article 7. Clause 2. Once the new names have been announced, the use of the old names by public authorities or bodies in official correspondence or in the correspondence of associations,

corporations, cooperatives and other corporate bodies is absolutely prohibited.

Clause 3. Violation of this ban is a penal offence punishable by a fine of 100 drachmas or up to ten days’ detention.

Clause 4. Applications by individuals or corporate bodies submitted to public services may be disregarded if the applicant’s already renamed place of residence, town or village, is not mentioned.

Clause 5. A witness, prosecutor or other person examined in court using as a place of residence or birth the old name of a town or village that has already been renamed according to the findings of the court may be punished according to Clause 3 of this Article.

In accordance with these legal orders, decrees and other regulations, the competent district toponym-renaming commissions and the Primary Commission of the Council of Ministers in Greece from 1918 to the end of 1928 in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia alone renamed 1,497 inhabited places.

Although the majority of inhabited places had been renamed by 1928, the Greek state continued to work in that direction while at the same time extending its activity throughout the whole of Greece, improving the system and passing new acts and instructions for that purpose. On 13 March 1929 a new act was passed containing detailed instructions and obligations to carry on with the task of renaming toponyms.

By virtue of this act and the preceding acts and instructions, and supplemented by Act No. 6,429 of 18 June 1935 and Act No. 1,418 of 22 November 1938, from the beginning of 1929 to April 1941, 39 more settlements were renamed in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia.

Endeavouring to invent new names, the authorised commissions paid special attention to the possibility of renaming as many towns and villages as possible with old classical names from Macedonia. Thus Krste Misirkov’s birth-place, Postol, was renamed Pella, Rupista in the Kostur (Kastoria) region was renamed Argos

Orestikon, Banitsa in the Lerin (Florina) region was renamed Vevi, Libanovo in the Katerina region was renamed Eginion, S’botsko in the Meglen region became Aridea, Vrtikop in the Voden (Edessa) region was renamed Skidra, Larigovo in the Larigovo region became Arnea, while Kazandži Mahala, the birth-place of Aristotle (Alexander the Great’s teacher), in the same region, was renamed Stagira. The one-time smallholders’ settlements of Barbeš and Kutleš in the Ber district were renamed Vergina. These settlements were in fact built on the site of the first Macedonian capital Ege, where the tombs of the ancient Macedonian kings were found as well as the sunburst associated with Macedonia’s national flag which aroused a great deal of trouble and slander on the part of the Greek state. In the same spirit the village Ostrovo in Voden (Edessa) district was renamed Arnissa, the village Sehovo in Gumendži district became Idomeni although the site of this ancient Macedonian town has been established with certainty further to the north near today’s village Miletkovo, the village Elevis in the Lerin (Florina) region which as early as 1926 was renamed Laka has recently been again renamed Levea, the name of a famous ancient Macedonian city, the village of Malatria in the Katerina district has been renaimed Dion, etc.

The Macedonian kings, especially Philip II and his wife Olympia, have not been forgotten. Thus the village of Seliani in the Kavala area was renamed Philipi and the River Rakita in the Kailari district has been renaimed Olympias. Most of Philip II’s and Alexander the Great’s generals, such as Ptolemey, Philotas, Klitos, Amindas, Andigon and others, acquired their own towns and villages. Thus the Turkish town Kailari was renamed Ptolemais and the former Turkish villages Caldžilari and Haiderli in the same district were renamed Philotas and Klitos. The small town Sorovič in the Lerin (Florina) district was renamed Amindeon, while the village Kosiler in the same district was renamed Antigonos, etc.

Much later, in fact after the Second World War and the Greek Civil War, owing to the current Macedonian national question it was not until 1953 that Alexander the Great acquired a town of his own. In that year the large settlement of Gida in the Ber district was renamed Alexandria and as such, from being a rural municipality, it acquired the status of an urban municipality.

Many Macedonian villages were renamed with the names of the leaders of Greek andart (armed bandit) companies who wreaked havoc in Macedonia in 1904 and thereafter. Thus the village of Statitsa in the Kostur (Kastoria) district was renamed Melas, the village Vladovo in the Voden (Edessa) district became Agras, the village Palior in the Kailari district became Phuphas, the village Crneševo in the Meglen district became Garaphion, the village Šlopintsi in the Gumendža district was renamed Doganis, etc.

In its attempt to discover ancient and classical names in the field for the various settlements, the so-called expert commissions made many mistakes at the expense of the Greek cause as a result of insufficient knowledge. Thus the village with the name Tsakoni, in Kostur (Kastoria) Region and the other with the same name in Meglen Region, retained their original name thanks to the fact that some of the members of the commission, teachers originating from the Morea (the Peloponnese), thought that Tsakoni was a pure Greek name connected with the tribe that still lives in Morea known as Tsakoni. Although these teachers correctly linked the names of the two villages with the Tsakoni tribe in Morea, they disregarded, or did not know, that this tribe, which had not long been Hellenized, was of purely Slavonic origin, so that by good fortune these villages have retained their original Slavonic names. This has been the case with other villages as well. A similar error was made in the case of the village Salamurovo, located near the River Galik and administratively belonging to Kukuš (Kilkis) Region. Though its former name was most probably of Turkish origin the “special” commission members, linking it with the name of the River Galik, renamed it Galikos, unaware that the name of the River Galik is of purely Slavonic origin. This form of name is known to exist in other places including Galitsia district in Poland, and many places in Macedonia. One need only recall, apart from the River Galik and Mt. Galichitsa, which divides the lakes Ohrid and Prespa, we have the village Galichnik in Tikveš Region, the village Galishta in Kostur (Kastoria) Region and the village Galichani in Prilep Region, all bearing a variant of the same name.

One of the more interesting cases refers to the two large Macedonian villages Gorno and Dolno Poroi on the southern slopes of Mt.

Belasitsa. They have retained their original names up to the present time since some “scholarly” person, not knowing the real origin and meaning of the name, associated it with Heraclitus’ panta rei (everything flows) and drew the conclusion that the name Poroi was of classical Greek origin, forgetting, or not knowing, that while it was from the same Indo-European root, it had a different meaning. In Greek, for example, the noun rema (meaning stream or small river) is derived from the verb reo-rei, while the Slavs have derived the noun reka (river) from the same root. In Greek a river is called potami or potamos, while the Slavs have used the same root with a slightly different meaning as in pot (sweat), potop (flood), etc. Thanks to this “knowledge” on the part of the Greek experts, i.e. their misunderstanding, these two villages have retained their old names with only the Gorno (Upper) and Dolno (Lower) parts were replaced by Ano and Kato. Interesting is also the case of the village Dislap in the Naselits area. It, most probably at the proposal of the villagers, was renamed Dragasia on account of its proximity to Mt. Dragos and in thus “avoiding” its first Slavonic name, it acquired a new, again Slavonic name, only with a Greek suffix.

Not only were the names of towns and villages affected, but also all the geographical concepts, such as mountans, rivers, lakes, etc.

In the administrative division of Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia into districts and areas, a great number of places acquired ancient classical names. Thus Katerini district and area were renamed Pieria, Ber district and area became Imatia, Voden (Edessa) district and area became Pella, Naselich area became Voion, the Kailari area was renamed Eordea, the Gumendži area became Peonia, the Valoviš area was renamed Sindiki, Zihnen area became Philida, Nigrid area became Visaltia, Larigovo area became Arnea, Praviš area became Pangeron, while Sarisaban area became Nestos.

Some towns and larger settlements of Turkish origin, such as Enidže Vardar, Lerin, Kukuš, Drama and Doiran were merely trimmed with Greek overtones. The same thing happened to certain towns and larger settlements of Macedonian Slavonic origin such as Gumendže, Kufalovo, Kožani, Greben, Čotili, etc.

It should not be forgotten and should always be kept in mind that this enforced renaming of inhabited places, toponyms and microtoponyms, was accompanied by the forced changing of the Macedonian people’s names and surnames. Most of them were completely depersonalised and could not be recognised, but a certain number of them acquired only Greek suffixes and their roots could easily be detected - that these names were of Slavonic origin. Thus Božinov/ski became Mpozinis, Petrov/ski became Petridis, Gušev/ski became Gusidis, Bogdanov/ski became Mpogdanis, Želikov became Zalkis, etc.

Regardless of all these oversights, the virtually complete renaming of settlements and all other toponyms and microtoponyms in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia and of personal names and surnames, which was accompanied by all the other forms of denationalization and assimilation, had the aim of depersonalising the original ethnic features of Macedonia and of proving that since time immemorial Macedonia has been and has remained a purely Greek province.