“ABECEDAR” – A PRIMER PUBLISHED TO MISLEAD EUROPE

“ABECEDAR” – A PRIMER PUBLISHED TO MISLEAD EUROPE

The 1925 primer written for Macedonian children never made it to the schools

In 1925, under pressure from the League of Nations, Athens officially recognized the Macedonian identity living in Greece. As a result the Greeks published the famous “Abecedar” a primer for teaching the Macedonian children their mother tongue. Unfortunately Athens had no intention of releasing this book in the schools. It became obvious later that this was only a trick and one of the many dirty games that Athens played in order to mislead the international organization that Greece respected the rights of its ethnic minorities, an obligation that Greece undertook in 1920 with the signing of the Sevres Agreement in France.

Let us follow the chronology of how the first Macedonian primer was conceived and then published again two years ago by the Macedonians in Aegean Macedonia and promoted in Solun.

As the story goes, in 1924, during a formal UN conference held in Geneva, a meeting was held between Hristo Kalfov, Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Nikolaos Politis, Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs. During this meeting an agreement was reached and signed requiring Greece and Bulgaria to provide equal rights to their minorities. In other words, the agreement required that Greece treat the “Bulgarian” (meaning Macedonian) minority living in Greece equally as Bulgaria treated the Greek minority in Bulgaria. This was done even though Sofia had no right to speak for the Macedonian minority living in Greece and to protect it in international agreements. This agreement however was viewed as important by the League of Nations. The Bulgarian Parliament ratified it immediately but Greece did not. The Greek Parliament refused to confirm it.

In February 1925, during a meeting, a member of the British Parliament - Lower House who believed that a great injustice had been committed against the minorities in Greece, asked if the British Government was going to undertake some measure at the League of Nations to prompt Greece to ratify the agreement with Bulgaria. A month later British Minister Austin Chamberlain made a request to the League of Nations Council to ask Greece what the status of the agreement with Bulgaria was in relation to satisfying the rights of the Slavic people, (he called the Macedonian minority Slavic) and what kind of necessary measures did Greece need to undertake towards the education and creed of that minority.

As requested Minister Chamberlain did pose the question to the Council and Greece found itself under great pressure to act, at least on paper. It had to do something for the rights of the Macedonian people. At the June 1925 League of Nations Council conference the Greek representative reported that “measures had already been undertaken and will be taken by the Greek Government as soon as, first, money was allocated by the federal budget for the support of the schools for the Slavic minority. Second, according to article 9 of the Agreement for protecting the minorities, the Greek government will prepare a special program for opening new public schools for the Slavic minority. Third, the Greek government will select and hire the necessary personnel to write and publish the school books and will pay for them. And fourth, the Greek government will allow the people to choose their own teachers and priests.”

Wanting to show Europe that Greece had “honest intentions” the Athens government published a Macedonian primer called “Abecedar” using Latin letters and based it on the Lerin - Bilola dialect. Several copies were sent to the League of Nations head office in Geneva. And, as it turned out, it ended with that. Greece did nothing to accomplish what it had promised the international community. Aside from the Greek hypocrisy regarding the primer, the book itself captured the use of the Macedonian language in everyday life, at home, in the market, in the streets, etc. But this was nothing new. According to Ivan Katardziev, the Macedonian language had been in use in Greece before. By using Greek letters many stories were written in the Macedonian language before the “abecedar” was published. This included Gianelli’s Dictionary

dating from the 16th century and Daniloviot Cetirijazicntk (Danilovs four language dictionary) written in the 19th century. The Macedonian language was also used in court documents.”

After the primer was published, the League of Nations often sent representatives to Greece to check on its progress but Athens always found different sly and tricky ways to fool them and every time managed to persuade them that the Slavic minority was doing well and enjoyed its rights. Papadopulos, a teacher who was in charge of receiving the International Commission representatives in Voden, said it was difficult to persuade them and he had to use ‘great skills’ to prove to them that the minorities in Aegean Macedonia ‘enjoyed’ their rights. One day, he said when he had to organize a presentation for the visiting International in one of the schools, he lied to the students. He told them that the Greek Minister of Education was going to pass through Voden and that they all had to hold a Greek flag in their hand and sing Greek patriotic songs. This is what he said, “I suggested to the students that if they were asked on the street or at the train station if they knew any other language other than Greek, they should say ‘no’. This was proof for the International Commission that everyone in Voden spoke only Greek and that there was no need for the school system to teach the students any other language. This was also a great success for Greece…” This was done every time the International Commission visited Greece; be it formally or covertly. There were also cases where these representatives acted like they did not notice the ‘transparent slyness’ of their hosts.

According to Katardziev, “As usual, Greece used a double standard when it came to delivering what it promised. It always evaded its obligations when it came do delivering rights for the Macedonian people living on its territory. While skirting its international obligation, Greece did everything in its power to speed up the process of Hellenizing and assimilating the Macedonian people. Greece had two plans, an internal plan which provided funds and freedom to its federal bodies as well as to every organization responsible for Hellenizing and assimilating the Macedonian people. And an external plan through which it constantly insisted that it always fulfilled all its minority obligations.”

After Greece went through the motion of signing the agreement with Bulgaria and after convincing the world that it had delivered on its promises on minority rights based on the Greek-Bulgarian convention it signed on the voluntarily population exchange, Greece declared that there were no more “Slavs” (Macedonians) left, and that they had all immigrated to Bulgaria. Greece claimed that 101,000 Slavs left its territory and went to Bulgaria and 52,881 Greeks moved to Greece from Bulgaria, which was not true because the number of Macedonians exiled to Bulgaria was three times smaller. The actual number was 32,232.

Even though the “Abecedar” primer never reached the Macedonian children it did cause stormy reactions in the neighbouring countries, especially in Sofia. This is what Liubomir Miletik, a Bulgarian professor, said, “For some political reason the Greek government decide to call the Bulgarians in Macedonia ‘Slavs’ and not Bulgarians, by their proper name. Where did these ‘Slavs’ come from? The Greek Government used that name so that Greece could treat the Bulgarians there like some new, undefined nationality, without a literary language and without a literary tradition.”

According to Professor Ivan Simanov the “Abecedar” primer, with its language and written word, was an attempt by Greece to distance the Slavic speaking population in Macedonia from Bulgarian danger. He blames the Greek Government for publishing the primer saying that the primer would come back to Greece like a boomerang. This is what he said, “Greece wants to create a new, special literary language, in order to distance its Slavic subjects from Bulgarian influence, risking that it will feed Macedonian separatism inside its own borders which will be much more dangerous for Greece…”

The Government of Royal Yugoslavia reacted in a similar way, as was evident by a telegram in possession of an Italian ambassador. The ambassador met with his associates in Rome and told them that he had just received disturbing information from the Royal Yugoslav government regarding how the Greek authorities treat the Macedonians. According to the ambassador, the Royal Yugoslav government was troubled because the Greek authorities were treating the Macedonians badly. According to the telegram, “The

Macedonians in Greece speak the Serbian language and are expressing their ethnicity as Serbian. The Royal Yugoslav government will explore similar measures that can be used toward the citizens in the Royal Yugoslavia who speak the Greek language.”