PERSONALITIES - Part 01

PERSONALITIES

The fascist occupation of Greece (1941-1944) followed by the so-called Greek Civil War (1945-1949) were the most decisive revolutionary and critical periods in the history of the newly expanded Greek state. The first people who found themselves leading the people’s revolution at this critical juncture were Georgios Siantos and Nikos Zahariadis. CPG Secretary General Siantos led the war against the occupiers with ELAS and CPG Secretary General Zahariadis led the Greek Civil War with DAG. The people’s revolution was broken both times and its armed forces ELAS and DAG were destroyed.

Analyzing the war against the occupiers, the 3rd CPG Conference, held in 1950, concluded that: “…Georgios Siantos was responsible for betraying the revolution...” By then Siantos was already dead but was posthumously tried anyway, found to be a traitor and convicted.

Analyzing the so-called Greek Civil War, the CPG Central Committee 6th Extended Plenum, held in March 1956, during a general party conference, concluded that:

Zahariadis, with his so-called “Greek Axis” policy, justified the English presence in Greece, considering it necessary in order to “safeguard the Greek position and the Greek borders in the north…” By doing this Zahariadis weakened the resistance movement and undermined DAG’s victory, which led to its defeat and, in general, caused the revolution to fail.

Zahariadis was publicly condemned and removed from the CPG leadership. Later, during a CPG Central Committee Conference, held in February 1953, he was removed from the books.

Of course, when we take all this into account, and all these people who in some way or another climbed to the top Party leadership, it is easier to understand the true essence of their policies, conducted through the CPG and in the name of the CPG.

Who was Siantos?

Georgios Siantos was born in Karditsa, Thessaly in 1890. His parents were farmers. After graduating from primary school Siantos took on a job as a tobacco worker. He later served in the Greek infantry as a sergeant both during the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 and in World War I. In 1916 he joined Eleftherios Venizelos’s liberal party. Siantos also became involved in the labour movement and, soon after his demobilization in 1920, was elected president of the tobacco workers trade union in Karditsa. In 1922, Siantos was elected Secretary General of the Greek Confederacy of Tobacco Workers, while, during the same period, he took membership with the Socialist Labour Party of Greece, forerunner to the CPG. In 1927 Siantos became a member of the Party politburo central committee. During the Party’s internal ideological struggle of 1929-1931, as a leading member of the “left faction” Siantos was called to Moscow, where he accepted the Comintern’s caution for unity in the CPG. After his return to Greece, Siantos participated in the administration of General Confederation of Greek Workers, and in 1934 he was re-elected in the Party central committee and politburo.

In 1936 Siantos was elected member of the Greek Parliament, but after the declaration of the 4th of August Regime he was arrested for Communist-related activities. He was imprisoned in Anafi, but he managed to escape. A year late, in 1939, he was re-arrested and served time in prison in Corfu, from where he again escaped in 1941.The same year CPG General Secretary Nikolaos Zahariadis was transferred by the Germans to the Dachau concentration camp, Siantos took over leadership of the Party as acting Secretary General. During the German occupation Siantos led the Communist-dominated Greek National Liberation Army (ELAS), and also played an important role in the establishment of the Political Committee of National Liberation in 1944. The same year representatives from all political parties and resistance groups came together at a conference in Lebanon, seeking an agreement about a government of national unity. According to another agreement signed in Caserta, Italy in September 1944, all resistance forces in Greece were placed under the command of a British officer, General Ronald Scobie.

On May 20, 1947, Siantos had a heart attack and died. Zahariadis, however, claimed that the intelligence service liquidated him because he was one of their agents and they feared that he was going to be discovered. They killed him to stop him from talking…

Three years later, during the Third CPG Conference, while analyzing Siantos’s policies during the fascist occupation, it was decided and declared that: “Georgios Siantos was a traitor who betrayed the revolution...”

Later, on April 3, 1973, Dimitrios Vlantas, a DAG general and member of the CPG Central Committee Politburo, said: “Siantos was a traitor from a long time ago. He was a traitor at least since 1932 when I was secretary of the Communist Youth of Macedonia and a member of the CPG District Committee. One day, the secretary of the District Committee asked me to find a house to hold a secret meeting. For such things I used the house of a businessman in Solun. He was my trusted contact. I asked him if we could bring seven people to a meeting. ‘Do you know them?’ he asked. ‘I know them,’ I replied. We started to assemble and, at one point, I saw the businessman making hand gestures for me to go to the kitchen. He looked angry and then said: ‘Comrade did you bring comrades or traitors here?’ ‘What traitors are you talking about?’ I asked. ‘That one there!’ he said while pointing at Siantos who I did not know at the time. ‘They call him Georgios Siantos,’ he said. “We served together in the same unit. Even then he was a spy – an informant,’ he concluded.”

This is also what Vlantas said: “Siantos was always a provocateur and, in my opinion, an intelligence service agent. This is how he managed to play his part - to suppress the national resistance movement during the occupation and then, during the December events...”

If Siantos was working for the “Asphalia” (Greek intelligence service) and was put in the ranks of the CPG (he was certainly neither the first nor the last), then it is important to note the following:

The CPG was damaged from the inside by the people the Metaxas fascist dictatorship managed to plant. The Metaxas dictatorship arrested many of the CPG leaders and activists and sent them to jail. It is well-known that many CPG activists were imprisoned by the Asphalia and held at various prisons and camps. Imprisoned among them were also several hundred plants who worked for the Asphalia. Then, when the Germans arrived, these activists were handed over to the Gestapo. In the meantime the Asphalia allowed a certain number to “escape”. The most significant among them was Siantos who was then put in charge of the CPG during the fascist occupation, that is, during the national liberation struggle.

During this decisively critical and revolutionary time, all these people, i.e. the Asphalia, its bosses, the ministers, and the prime minister of the Greek government in exile, were all appointed, maintained and their activities financed by the English government. And, of course, they all worked to serve English interests in Greece.

For as long as Siantos was an agent of the Asphalia he and those around him made sure that all CPG-EAM policies, more or less, directly or indirectly, served English interests in Greece.

Here are some characteristic moments that the reader may find interesting:

First, the CPG Central Committee, during its 6th Plenum, held in July 1941, called on all the Greek people, their parties and organizations, to rise up in a national front against the occupiers. The CPG then separately set the following task only for the Party and for each communist: “To organize the popular uprising forces for the national and social liberation of Greece…”

It was all normal, nicely formulated and well-suited for the historical moment. However, in the work done, the most important and revolutionary task of all was to organize the popular uprising for the national and social liberation of Greece… However this was not done. The actual uprising for the social liberation was not promoted but diluted as a secondary task and was carried out only systematically to undermine the occupier (strikes and demonstrations), but be harmless to English interests in Greece. In

other words the struggle for the social liberation of Greece was completely and publicly abandoned...

Second, the EAM Coalition, i.e. the political left headed by the CPG leadership, succeeded in achieving wide national unity among the Greek people, the kind that never existed before. Never in their long history have the Greek people been united like this. Of the approximately eight million Greeks, over 70% of the voters who participated in the elections voted for EAM candidates (CPG) and elected members of the National Council...

Given its popularity and strong position among the Greek people, why then did the CPG persistently and systematically propagate the need for “national unity” with its arch enemy the Greek government in exile which was formed, maintained and funded by the English? Why did the CPG persistently try to raise the English creation’s authority and popularity among the people...?

Third, by mid-1943, an all people’s partisan war was already in progress on the ground. The ELAS partisan units, led mainly by the communists, were growing more numerous by the day...

So, why was there a need to put ELAS under English control and not under the control of the neighbouring peoples’ revolutionary alliance? According to Sarafis: “ELAS was placed under ‘allied military command’ headed by the English General Staff for the Middle East. All operations undertaken by ELAS were under the orders of English General Staff…” All orders from Supreme Headquarters were given by English officers and delivered to each headquarters also by English officers. So ELAS units carried out their operations in accordance with orders given by English officers and English command. This is what Intelligence Service agent Christopher Montague Wunthouse (Chris), then deputy chief and head of the British military mission, competently and authoritatively said:

“If there were no British officers in the resistance movement in Greece, the history of not only Greece but also of Europe would have gone in a completely different direction... The presence of the British military mission in Greece prevented the Communists in

1943-1944 from placing Greece under their absolute control. If the communists had taken power when the Germans withdrew from Greece in September 1944, it would have been very difficult for us to seize it away from them in the eyes of the world...”

Siantos’s maneuver to place ELAS under English control was of historical significance because it prevented it from joining the national revolutionary alliance in the Balkans.

Fourth, with the Treaty of Lebanon in May 1944, the CPG, EAM and ELAS voluntarily and formally renounced any attempts to seize power in Greece. At the same time they recognized the English-created Greek government in exile as the “legitimate government of Greece” and as the “government of national unity”.

But there was more…

They also agreed that ELAS could not be the national army of Greece and that a national army would be required in the near future. This responsibility was left to the Greek government in exile and to the English General Staff for the Middle East... And so was the fate of ELAS. They decided to disband ELAS.

“The Treaty of Lebanon not only did not help and did not strengthen national unity, but helped the English imperialists and domestic capitalist oligarchy to re-establish the old fascist regime and prevent the people from deciding their own destiny…”

Fifth, the Treaty of Caserta, signed in September 1944, paved the way for an English military invasion of Athens and other Greek territories abandoned by the Germans. This was not done to chase the Germans out but simply to occupy Greek territory, especially Athens. According to an official German document found in the archives published in Greece, there was an agreement between Churchill and Hitler to allow German troops to freely withdraw from Greece. This is what was published in the Athens newspaper “Ta Nea”: “The British fox achieved two purposes: Strengthened the German forces against the Russians and occupied Greece unhindered.”

Naturally the English invaded Athens and other important strategic positions in Greece to prevent ELAS from taking them...

To further influence events in Greece, British General Skobi was proclaimed Supreme Commander of the Greek Armed Forces.

This meant that ELAS too was subordinated to him and to the English, and ELAS units had to act strictly under Skobi’s orders. In other words the English now controlled every aspect of ELAS.

This is what was said in the celebrated and well-known thesis compiled for the CPG’s 40th anniversary adopted during the CPG Central Committee 9th Plenum, held in August 1958: “The Treaty of Caserta placed the Greek Armed Forces under English command and in General Skobi’s hands. The English decided to exclude ELAS from participating in the liberation of major cities, and important strategic regions such as Athens, Central and Eastern Macedonia, Epirus, etc. The most important strategic zones were given to the fascist organizations the likes of EDES, PAO, etc...”

Sixth, the provoked military clash in Athens in December 1944, was a well-staged ground for disarmament and disbanding, i.e. liquidating ELAS. Undoubtedly Siantos and Partsalidis had a lot to do with this. With their signatures on the Varkiza Agreement (February 12, 1945), all ELAS units, all throughout Greece, except for some reserve units stationed in Athens, were disarmed and liquidated. The ELAS reserve units in Athens were attacked and defeated by the combined English and domestic reactionary forces.

“Georgios Siantos and Mitsos Partsalidis, the CPG Central Committee Politburo representatives who signed the Varkiza Agreement violated the requirement for the general unconditional amnesty given to all ELAS fighters and democratic forces by the Politburo. (This amnesty was given in order to protect the ELAS fighters and democratic forces in general, from English and domestic reactionary persecution). The Varkiza Agreement only called for the surrender of weapons. It seems that Siantos and Partsalidis deviated and were arbitrary on the question of the general and unconditional amnesty. They agreed to ‘unconditionally’ disarm the resistance movement, i.e. unconditional capitulation with no

amnesty. On the one hand, this created opportunities for the English to restore the Monarcho-Fascists in power and to completely break down the people’s democratic forces in Greece, and on the other hand, constituted a serious obstacle to a rapid political and organizational consolidation of the people’s democratic forces…”

Seventh, when we take into consideration that with the numerous strikes and demonstrations in the larger cities and across Greece, of the millions of people mobilized, 90 percent were categorically hostile to the occupiers and were ready for an armed uprising. Clearly, under these conditions, there were plenty of opportunities to create a huge revolutionary army that would have inflicted heavy blows on the occupying forces like it was done in Yugoslavia, China, Cuba, Vietnam etc. With an army like this, given its economic exhaustion, England would not have dared do what it did especially in a prolonged and dangerous revolution.

But, what can we say? “The mountain bore... a mole”. Thanks to Siantos’s CPG leadership and to the EAM coalition’s policies, only a small number of people, a few tens of thousands, out of the millions who were ready to join the revolution, were recruited into ELAS...

According to Sarafis: “ELAS forces at the time of the liberation numbered 48,940 soldiers, of whom 5,240 were officers...” These numbers do not include the ELAS forces in Athens or on the islands Samos, Mitilini and Crete. According to Hutas: “ELAS forces numbered 80,000 fighters”. Similar information was also given by E. Fotiadis and K. Tsolakas...

ELAS was quickly brought under English control so that it could be destroyed… This was yet another atrocity committed by the CPG…

Who was Zahariadis?

Nikos Zahariadis was born on April 27, 1903 in Edirne, Eastern Thrace. His father was employed as a clerk at “Razim”, a French commercial tobacco company based in Constantinople. From 1911 to 1912 Nikos Zahariadis lived and attended school in the “Ibin Paiko” settlement in Skopje, where his father worked as a representative of the “Razim” Company. In 1913 he moved to Solun. In 1922 and 1923 he worked as a sailor, a job which took him to the Soviet Union where he became a member of the Communist Party. In 1924, with the exchange of populations between Turkey and Greece, Zahariadis’s family was moved to Greece. In 1924 he visited the famous Communist University of Eastern European nations, KUTVE in Moscow.

When the Germans occupied Greece the Asfalia surrendered Zahariadis to the Gestapo. But, even though he was imprisoned in the infamous Dachau prison, Zahariadis was well looked after. Namely, he did his time at the prison headquarters where it was clean, warm and cozy. He was also fed well. Here he “worked” as an interpreter. While Zahariadis, a very important communist, enjoyed his time in prison the Gestapo and the SS furiously looked for ordinary communists among the captured soldiers on the fronts and among the occupied and enslaved nations, and, as soon as they were found, they immediately shot them. They even shot communist sympathizers...

When the war was over, Zahariadis found himself in London, a guest of the English intelligence service. After spending two or three weeks in England, on May 29, 1945, Zahariadis was flown from England to Greece on a special British military aircraft, wearing a British military uniform. The English delivered him to Athens. The Siantos CPG leadership welcomed him back and immediately gave him his old position - CPG Secretary General, the function he served during the war...

All of these things, however, can’t mean that Zahariadis was not one of those capable agents of international anti-Communism, entrenched in the leadership of the Communist movement in various countries of the world.

History of diplomacy says: There are no eternal friends and enemies in politics, there are only interests.

It is precisely because of these modern Great Power interests that England has included Greece in its affairs. And that is why the English were in Greece and did what they wanted for their own benefit and no one bothered them. If Zahariadis was indeed an international anti-communist and in charge of the CPG, then the CPG, more or less, directly or indirectly, served English interests in Greece. This means that the CPG, more or less, directly or indirectly, undermined the democratic forces and robbed the people of their victory in the revolution in Greece.

As we now know, the CPG Central Committee, during its 6th Extended Plenum, a general party conference held in March 1956, looked at Zahariadis’s policies and publicly condemned him and removed him from the CPG leadership for what he had done. After that he persistently, but without success, tried to return to Greece and land in the hands of the “enemy” - the junta, that is, the domestic reactionaries and their English and Americans patrons. He even went on a hunger strike, but died alone in 1973, in the USSR, completely abandoned and despised.

Let us now have a look at some of the more important and distinctive moments that resulted from Zahariadis’s policies...

After the Varkiza Agreement was signed on February 12, 1945, and after ELAS was disbanded, the government of “national unity”, spending English money and relying on English tanks, began a cruel and open campaign against the democratic forces: To disorganize them and, ultimately, to break them. This was the main goal of the English in Greece.

Helping the local reactionaries to break up the liberation forces, along with exploiting the country and people was an old, well-known, English colonial policy.

A strange and incredible phenomenon, known as a “unilateral civil war”, was unleashed to physically liquidate a large number of

people who fought in the people’s revolution, including a large number of members and middle cadres belonging to ELAS, EAM, and the CPG.

With the dissolution of ELAS, the democratic forces were disarmed, but not disorganized and crushed. As a result the English were not in a hurry to enforce the Lebanon Agreement, i.e. to create a “non-partisan national army” with a partial or general mobilization. It was still too early for that. For the time being, it also meant that the political left CPG-EAM would be arming itself all over again. To defend against that the English used the various pro-fascist elements and political right-wingers who assisted the occupiers such as the Tagmata Asfalias, the Higes, the Paogides, and so on. The English used these relatively small groups to pacify the massive and well-organized democratic forces.

The English, through the Siantos and Zahariadis CPG-EAM leaderships, achieved miraculous and incredible success in Greece. Namely, on the one hand the CPG-EAM leaderships sent telegrams to the heads of the major powers - the Soviet Union, America and England, “protesting over the terrorist orgy in Greece”, and on the other capitulated to England by allowing ELAS to be disarmed and liquidated. (One of the first protest telegrams sent by the EAM Central Committee, among other things, said: “In the four months since the signing of the Varkiza Agreement, 500 fighters from the national resistance were killed, and more than 30,000 were imprisoned. There are about 150 terrorist gangs and more than 20,000 unlawful armed terrorists killing and terrorizing the democratic population...” Further on, the telegram demanded that “the Yalta decision be applied in Greece with help from the Allied Commission...”

On top of capitulating to the English the EAM and CPG leaderships called on the people to endure and resist passively. Namely, they called on the people “to endure... in humility and discipline”. Here we are simply forced to point out that:

With this, objectively and substantially, in fact, the CPG-EAM leaderships facilitated the English and the Greek government’s

murderous attacks which helped the English strengthen their position and power in Greece...

Here we are going to quote some details from the information referring to Greece from March 8 to December 5, 1944, from the two volumes “1944 - κρισιµη χρονια”, by Gianis Andricopoulos, which make use of the texts from 300 unpublished documents from Winston Churchill’s personal archives (released with the approval of the British government).

On p. 94, of the second volume, Andricopoulos wrote about Georgios Papandreou’s preparations to return to Athens, right after the Germans left Greece. Georgios Papandreou at the time was Prime Minister of the Greek government in exile. Papandreou at the time was deeply concerned about the situation in Greece and constantly sent telegrams to the Greek king in London, seeking urgent assistance from the English. In one of these telegrams (borrowed from Papandreou’s memoirs), sent on September 14, 1944, Papandreou said:

“When our government arrives in Athens without its own forces or without allied military forces, I will become a prisoner of the EAM... Therefore I ask of you to find a few necessary allied soldiers, at any cost… I will consider this a national debt…”

On September 18, 1944, Georgios Papandreou telephoned London and, among other things, said: “London, you are my only hope!”

Just to be clear now, Papandreou, the English appointed Greek Prime Minister was concerned and afraid to return to Athens, among the Greek people, because he had absolutely no support at home and humbly begged foreigners to help him? Did he not know that Greece fell under English influence and that England had made sure that Papandreou would find an ally in the CPG-EAM leadership which would welcome him and hand over Athens to him...?

The Macedonian political organization “People’s Liberation Front” (NOF) was founded in April 1945 in the Republic of Macedonia. Also, heavily armed units formed from the Macedonian fighters who

fled Greece (former ELAS fighters) were acting on the mountain massifs of Vicho, Kaimakchalan and Paiak Mountains...

All these events were influenced by the founding of ASNOM and by the creation of the People’s Republic of Macedonia, a nation state of the Macedonian people within democratic federal Yugoslavia. This was an inevitable echo and reflection of a joyful historical event...

The people from Zahariadis’s CPG leadership reacted as follows:

Just two months after NOF was founded, the CPG Central Committee, during its Twelfth Plenum, vigorously declared that:

“The CPG is resolutely opposed to all territorial claims against Greece made by anyone. The preservation of the territorial integrity of the Greek state is the first task of every Greek patriot...”

The CPG Central Committee Politburo, during its September 12, 1951, meeting confirmed that the Party at the time allegedly feared that: Through NOF, i.e. with NOF’s help, “Tito was going to join Aegean Macedonia to Yugoslavia...” Before that, during the CPG Central Committee 6th Plenum, held in October 1949, Zahariadis’s CPG leadership openly spoke of Tito having some “military plans against Greek Macedonia…” on the basis of NOF, i.e. of the Macedonian people’s democratic liberation movement.

This is how the famous “Greek territorial integrity”, an event of fundamental importance, came into being:

A scenario was created so that the Greeks would believe that the Greek territorial integrity at Greece’s northern borders was weak and declared unreliable and would be threatened without English presence and support. Hence, England was declared a “great friend” of Greece in the CPG plenum resolution.

The document, in part, read as follows:

“The plenum proclaims that with England and Russia, two of our great friends being near us, and with their presence and support

Greece will have peaceful development, brotherly bargaining and democratic cooperation with its northern Balkan democracies...”

Here, as one can see, Russia comes after England. Even so, this was done for propaganda purposes only. Secretary General Zahariadis, in his plenary meeting opening address, specifically said that England’s presence in Greece was indispensable:

“In order to ensure our positions and our borders in the north...”

After that, to the end of the Greek Civil War the CPG was in “democratic co-operation and reconciliation” with the English on the inner plane, parallel with suppression of the Macedonian People’s liberation movement.

This basically was the general Party line followed by the CPG leadership, led by Nikos Zahariadis.

Regarding all this, viewed from a certain angle, and within the familiar political situation in Greece in the past, it can be said that: While a large and well-organized democratic force, headed by the CPG, existed in Greece, England, of course, had a great need for a well-executed propaganda offensive that:

- would diminish any consequences resulting from the open British military intervention against ELAS,

- would strengthen Greek desires to accept the English in their country,

- would provide a comfortable stay and work environment for the English in Greece with as little English military forces and costs as possible.

This was quite understandable and, of course, indisputable. When one considers all this, it is not difficult to see that:

This kind of huge scale and duration propaganda offensive was indeed implemented with great skill by the Zahariadis CPG leadership, and, unfortunately, had a huge effect on the struggle.

Waving the Greek bourgeois invented hatchet known as the “Slavic danger” for Greece, Zahariadis effectively:

- justified the presence of the English as a “national” requirement for Greece’s security,

- suppressed and weakened the people’s resistance, and

- undermined DAG’s victory, which led to the final defeat of the democratic forces… which was England’s goal in Greece all along.

Let us not forget the patriotic “Greek Axis” adopted in June 1945 by Zahariadis and the CPG Central Committee at its 12th Plenum, which called for Greece to turn towards the Mediterranean pole with England at its centre and called England Greece’s “great friend” whose presence in Greece was proclaimed indispensable “to ensure our borders and our positions in the north are secure…” Let us also not forget the actual CPG line adopted which stifled the revolutionary movement and systematically suppressed the popular uprising as well as DAG, and eventually brought about their destruction.

There is also the fact that no Athens bourgeois government ever managed to liquidate so many Macedonian people en masse and destroy so many Macedonian villages as Zahariadis and his comrades did in the defense of the “Greek character” of Macedonia. Naum Peiov identified all these villages by name and region and by the number of inhabitants who remained or disappeared. So, according to a population census from 1951, 46 Macedonian villages completely disappeared, the residents left without leaving a single soul behind. While in another 179 Macedonian villages the population was halved or significantly reduced. Soon after DAG was destroyed, obviously not by chance and not without reason and foundation, the slogan: “We lost the war but that is why we did not lose Macedonia!” was coined... From this slogan alone it should be clear that the real CPG and DAG leadership objective was to safeguard the integrity of Greece at any cost including suppressing and destroying the Macedonian liberation movement. In other words DAG had to “lose the war” so that Greece could keep Macedonia...

Chronology of events leading up, during, and past the terrible decade 1939 to 1949

Note to the reader: Some of the authors from whose books this material was sourced used the old calendar. The reader will also find some duplicate dates for a number of events. I included multiple (maximum two) dates in cases where I could not confirm the proper date.

1914 - First World War began. Bulgaria occupied Macedonia.

1917 - LAW 1051. Greece inaugurated new administrative jurisdictions for governing newly acquired lands in Greek occupied Macedonia.

1918 - End of WW I. The Macedonian territory that is now the Republic of Macedonia became part of Serbia again. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was founded, and is renamed to Yugoslavia in 1929.

1918 – November. The First Socialist Congress in Greece took place during which it was decided to create the Socialist Worker’s Party of Greece. In 1920 this Party became a member of the Third International United Communist Party known as the Comintern, which was formed in 1919. In 1923 the Socialist Worker’s Party of Greece became the Communist Party of Greece or CPG. In regards to the “Macedonian Question”, CPG policies went through several distinctive periods: 1 – Support of a United and Independent Macedonia (1924-1935); 2 – Macedonian equal rights with the Greeks within Greece (1935-1949); (This was the period of time when the Macedonian people were being prepared for their (self) sacrifice drama.) 3. Full equality was granted to the “Slavo-Macedonians” on June 20, 1949 just before DAG (Democratic Army of Greece) was liquidated. Final extermination of the Macedonian people; “Fight for your lives or die!” 4. Full equality was extended for the “Slavo-Macedonians” in October 1949. This was the period when people started returning to their homes.

1919 – November 27. The Treaty of Versailles (Paris) between the Allied and Associated Powers and Bulgaria, and the Protocol and Declaration were signed at Neuilly-sur-Seine. England and France ratified the principles of the August 10, 1913 Bucharest Treaty and endorsed Macedonia’s partition. Greece continued to pursue forced expulsion and denationalization of Macedonians and began colonization by transferring so called “Greeks” into Greek occupied Macedonia. Article 51 of the Treaty of Versailles espouses equality of civil rights, education, language, and religion for all national minorities which Greece violated and ignored. The Neuilly Convention forced exchange of populations during which about 70,000 Macedonians were expelled from Greek occupied Macedonia and sent to Bulgaria and 25,000 so called Greeks were transferred from Bulgaria to Greek occupied Macedonia. The Greek Commission on Toponyms issued instructions for choosing Hellenized names for Macedonian places in Greek occupied Macedonia.

1919 - “IMRO” (Macedonian revolutionary organization) is restored under the leadership of the new Central Committee: Todor Aleksandrov, Aleksandar Protogerov and Petar Chaulev. The primary aim of the organization is to free Macedonia and create an autonomous and independent country within its geographical and ethnic borders.

1920 – The Greek Ministry of Internal Affairs published a booklet entitled “Advice on the change of the names of municipalities and villages” in Greek occupied Macedonia.

1923 – January 30. After the Greek army was defeated in Asia Minor by the Turks, the Lausanne Convention was signed between Turkey and Greece which resulted in 538,000 Christian Turkish colonists and settlers being settled in Greek occupied Macedonia. This was in addition to the 100,000 or so colonists and settlers Greece had deposited in Greek occupied Macedonia during and between the wars. This brought the total number of foreign settlers and colonists deposited in Greek occupied Macedonia to 638,000.

1923 – July 24. Treaty of Lausanne signed by which the Greco-Turkish war came to an end. Greece and Turkey signed a population

exchange agreement through which Greece expelled Macedonian and other Muslims and accepted Christian Turks.

1924 - February. The CPG adopted a resolution in support of a united and independent Macedonia. During its extraordinary Congress, the CPG adopted a truly revolutionary Resolution with regards to the “Macedonian Question”. Among other things the CPG said: “The most recent imperialistic wars and post war conditions in the Balkans not only did not solve, but further complicated the Macedonian and Thracian National Questions. For many years the people in both Macedonia and Thrace have endured aggressive and violent attacks in the neighbouring countries were they have been exterminated in the many years of wars, and when they economically collapsed they were divided between Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece.” “However, Macedonia’s division between Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria further strengthened the Macedonian people’s desire to unite their country, and to create a united and independent Macedonia. The Congress recognized the slogans raised during the 6th and 7th Balkan Communist Federation Conferences calling for ‘a united and independent Macedonia’ and for ‘a united and independent Thrace’ which are fully functional and revolutionary.” Unfortunately this recognition was only in theory to placate the Communist Federation and nothing from it materialized.

1924 - May 6. The “May Manifesto” was signed in Vienna by the members of the Central Committee and by all the fractions of VMRO (IMRO). Their aim was to unite the Macedonian revolutionary forces into a single Macedonian revolutionary front for freedom and unification of the partitioned territories of Macedonia making it an independent and single political unit within its natural geographical and ethnic borders. A few months later the Bulgaro-Vrhovists disassociated themselves from the “May Manifesto”.

1925 - 76 names of Macedonian villages were changed in Greek occupied Macedonia into Greek names, a process that was initiated in 1918 by Greek authorities. The League of Nations put pressures on Greece to extend rights to Macedonian minority.

1925 – The ABECEDAR Primer was printed in Athens for use by Macedonian school children in Greek occupied Macedonia. It was written in the Latin alphabet and reflected the Macedonian language spoken in the Bitola-Lerin district in Western Greek occupied Macedonia. Serbians and Bulgarians protested to the League of Nations (now United Nations). The Primer undermined their claim that Macedonians are Serbs and Bulgarians respectively. Greece countered with a last minute cable to the League declaring that: “the population…..knows neither the Serbian nor the Bulgarian language and speaks nothing but a Macedonian idiom.” Greece “retreated” so as to preserve Balkan alliances. The Primer was destroyed after the League of Nations delegates left Solun. Thereafter, Greece denied the existence of Macedonians. It referred to Macedonians as “Slavophone Greeks”, “Old Bulgarians” and many other appellations but not as Macedonians. The very fact that official Greece did not, either de jure or do facto, see the Macedonians as a Bulgarian minority, but rather as a separate Slav speaking minority, is of particular significance. The Primer, published in the Latin alphabet, was based on the Lerin - Bilola dialect in line with Gianelli’s Dictionary dating from the 16th Century, and the Daniloviot Cetirijazicnik dictionary written in the 19th century, which was yet another book written in the Macedonian vernacular. The Primer was mailed to some regions in Western Greek occupied Macedonia (Kostur, Lerin and Voden), where the school authorities were prepared to give Macedonian children, from the first to the fourth grade of elementary school, instruction in their own mother tongue.

1925 – February. The 6th IMRO Congress took place and a new IMRO Central Committee was formed with members Ivan Mihailov, Aleksandar Protogerov and Georgi Pop Hristov. The IMRO aims remained the same: struggle to unite partitioned Macedonia within its geographical and ethnic borders and to achieve political autonomy.

1925 – October. IMRO (United) is founded in Vienna under the leadership of Dimitar Vlahov, Pavel Satev, Georgi Zankov, Rizo Rizov, Vladimir Pop Timov and Hristo Iankov. Their main objective was to free Macedonia within its geographical and ethic borders and

to create an independent political unit that would become an equal member of a future Balkan Federation.

1926 – January 27. A racist flyer was distributed in Lerin. On this day the organization “Elino-Makedoniki pigmi” (Greeko-Macedonian fist) distributed a flyer in Lerin with the following content: “From today forward we prohibit the use of the Bulgarian dialect spoken in social centers, trade relations, meetings, assemblies, festive gatherings, banquets, weddings, etc. We demand that only Greek be spoken in all the above mentioned instances. We recommend to all political and military authorities, to all public and private employees to not accommodate requests or give out information in a language other than Greek. Parents, teachers, priests, elders and minors, we invite you all to fulfill your patriotic debt; otherwise we will hold you and your subordinates responsible for the offenses you commit. Violators of the ordinance are considered traitors to the motherland and will fall under the terrible blows of our organization which was created to study the situation. The slogan “fatherland above all” means punishing anyone who will not fulfill our orders.

1926 – March. The Macedonian Young People’s Secret Revolutionary Organization (“Makedonska mladinska tajna revolucionerna organizacija” - MMTRO) was founded which had aims to help IMRO in its fight for freedom for the Macedonian people and for the unification of the three parts of Macedonia into one autonomous political unit.

1926 – November 21. A legal Act was issued on the change of Macedonian geographic names into the Greek version. The news was published in the government daily Efimeris tis Kivemiseos No. 322 of November 21, 1926. The same newspaper in its No. 346 published the new, official, Greek names. The names of the people were changed too. First names as well as family names were changed to Greek versions. These Acts are still officially binding to this day. All place names (toponymia) were Hellenized; that is the names of cities, villages, rivers and mountains were discarded and Greek names put in their place. At the same time the Macedonians were forced to change their first and surnames; every Macedonian surname had to end in ‘os’, ‘es’, ‘ou’ or ‘poulos’. The news of these

acts and the new, official Greek names were published in the Greek government daily “Efimeris tis Kiverniseos” no. 322 and 324 of November 21 and 23, 1926.

1927 - Cyrillic letters erased in churches and tombstones. Cyrillic inscriptions (Macedonian alphabet) in churches, tombstones and icons were rewritten or destroyed. Church services in the Macedonian language were outlawed. Macedonians were ordered under duress to abandon all Macedonian names and to adopt Greek names assigned to them by the Greek state.

1928 - Events in Greek occupied Macedonia - In the period from 1928 to 1934, when there seemed to be a movement for better relations between the Balkans countries successive Greek governments of the time appeared a little more elastic in their attitudes towards the Macedonian language. Some even made serious statements in favour of the Macedonians. But in order to see the differences between what Greek politicians said and did regarding the Macedonian Question, we need to emphasize the fact that back in 1926 a law was passed by the Greek Government, as published in the Greek Official Gazette no. 332 of 21. XI. 1926, which entailed the erasure of the Macedonian toponymy and replacing it with a Greek one. In other words, the Greek government passed a law to change the names of all villages, towns, rivers and mountains in Greek occupied Macedonian from Macedonian to Greek. At about the same time in 1926 the Greek government allowed various different Greek nationalist organizations, such as the “Elino - Makedoniki pigmi” (Greco - Macedonian fist) and “EEE” (National Organization of youth), to appear which were openly raising the issue of banning the Macedonian language.

1928 - 1, 497 Macedonian place names changed in Greek occupied Macedonia turned into Greek (since 1926) by LAW 4096, a directive on renaming Macedonian place names prompting English Journalist V. Hild to reveal that “The Greeks do not only persecute living Macedonians but they even persecute dead ones. They do not leave them in peace even in the graves. They erase the Macedonian inscriptions on the headstones, remove the bones and burn them.”

1929 - Legal act issued on protection of public order. During Eleftherios Venizelos’s rule a legal Act was issued “On the protection of public order”. In line with this Act each demand for nationality rights is regarded as high treason. This law is still in force.