DEALING WITH THE PAST

DEALING WITH THE PAST

War distorts the emotions of every reasonable and normal person. It destroys people’s lives, especially those of children. Children experience wars more painfully than adults. When people are forcefully moved, both children and adults feel unhappy even though the new environment may “provide them with everything they need”. The new environment however does not give them what was left behind in their former surroundings, the intimate atmosphere of their home, the atmosphere and spirit of their birthplace and so on. As they enter the world of a new environment, the Children, quickly or slowly, realize that this is not their world, that they, in this new environment, are only aliens and refugees and deep down feel like they don’t belong. In their new environment they may have what they need in terms of food and shelter but they feel like they lack the love, understanding and emotional compassion they received in their old world. Their memories of their past become more desirable compared to their new experiences in their present world. Sometimes this disturbs them. The truth or even idealized images of their former life seem to collide with their perception of their new reality which sometimes causes mild or severe emotional disorders: restlessness, anxiety, isolation, depression, etc. Some Children, especially those who experienced violence as was the case with various atrocities experienced during the dirty and dreadful Greek Civil War, are unable to adapt. They are constantly in search of themselves and others who had similar experiences and survived.

So, even after half a century later, there is this historical deceit that still lives in our people. In the past 50 years (now over 70) they have witnessed a profound historical stagnation, frankly speaking, total oblivion and evil. But their long wandering and living under various systems, has not dulled their strong desire for different encounters such as the massive meeting they held in Sarai, Skopje in 1988 called the gathering of “Child refugees from Aegean Macedonia”.

But first let us see, half a century later, under what attributes and notions did we legitimize ourselves as political or civic entities, how we raised our voices before the world, and why only we Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia were sent around the world with a one-way ticket in our pockets. Also let us see how and why we lost our native hearth?

1. EXODUS - is this the proper word to describe what happened to our children back then? Surely not! This is why not, because at the time they were only children, not mature adults who could make deliberate decisions to leave their fatherland on their own, which means they were taken. They were forcibly taken by the two warring sides: The Athens Greek government on one side and the Communist regime on the other. They were taken to shelters for political means. These children were not in any kind of conflict of their own and needed an EXODUS. Most importantly, they were not led by their parents or relatives, and therefore the much exploited word “EXODUS” cannot properly describe what happened to them. But we should know, once and for all, that during the Greek Civil War, especially the Macedonian villagers from Lerin, Kostur and Voden Regions had no intention of leaving their homeland and motivating the so-called EXODUS. This was deliberate ethnic cleansing, a long-term process initiated by the Greek state and now continued by the communists using treacherous methods, which had and still have far-reaching implications for the destruction of the Macedonian nation. The actions for grabbing and evicting our Macedonian children were part of the model implemented in 1913, to get rid of the Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia and populate Macedonia with Greeks. In other words, what was done to our children was part of the long-term Greek desire to have a Macedonia without Macedonians.

2. REFUGEES - this term has been invented and exploited considerably by our Macedonian mainstream historiography in order to minimize and obscure the deliberate intentions the foreigners and architects of our demise had towards the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia. I believe that every participant in the Greek Civil War was quite familiar with the communist regime represented by the Provisional Democratic Government and DAG. For example, if someone did something the communists did not like that someone was captured, condemned and shot to death. Deserters were shot to death. The communist regime did despicable things like deliberately take children away from their mothers so that the mothers could be mobilized and work for the war effort making fortifications and fighting at the frontline. Knowing that their children would not be returned if they left the war zone, what could

possible motivate them to become REFUGEES. What happed to them does not belong to the “REFUGEE” category. With the exception of a small number of people, only several families which deliberately fled the war zone and crossed into the Republic of Macedonia, there were no voluntary refugees. These mothers and the rest of the Macedonian civilian population were forced to leave. The communists used scare tactics telling the Macedonian civilians to flee in order to avoid being slaughtered by the Greek government army. As a result every Macedonian village was emptied; every person who could walk, young and old, fled and, in long columns bombed by the Greek government aviation and artillery, crossed over the Albanian border from where there was no return.

And so, what was discussed during the long anticipated so-called “Child Refugee” world gathering meetings half a century later?

The days the “Refugee Children”, now grandfathers and grandmothers, met were filled with memories of their past; of flaming dark feelings, grief, sadness, torment, suffering, unrest, whispers, disappointments, biting of nails, the release of an abundance of hidden emotions and perhaps some hope, characteristic of us Macedonians, that some day things would change for the better.

Half a century later a lot more was expected from these children, who now as adults live in foreign countries and foreign environments. Half a century later we have a decisive understanding that the “children” will never return to their ancestral homeland! Anything more is pure illusion.