REPORT - Part 03

“In order for Pavle Rakovski to attach himself to the importance and to... conceal the real motives for his return from DAG to NOF, stated that this was done in order to repair... the famous electrified situation that caused a wave of ‘desertion’ of Macedonian fighters from the ranks of DAG because of the suspensions of the above-mentioned NOF leaders. Rakovski argued that his influence was supposedly so strong that at the time when the Macedonians were revolting, because of the suspension of the above-mentioned leaders, they were also deserting. For that reason Nikos Zahariadis was

forced to bring Rakovski back to the NOF leadership...” I believe here they were talking about the February 1949 situation when Zahariadis, during the NOF II Plenum, proposed that the NOF three-member secretariat, composed of Kotsopoulos, Koichis and Vera, be expanded to five members to include Mitrevski and myself… (64)

I will try to clarify things:

It was March 1947. A group of NOF and AFZH activists were traveling towards Preval in Prespa not from the side of the river Bistritsa where the hill was long and quite steep, but from the Prespa plateau, where the uphill was flatter and easier to navigate. We were traveling straight up on foot and away from the road. When we arrived at Preval I passed out and fell unconscious. My comrades brought me back to consciousness by rubbing my face, neck and chest with snow...

On June 20, 1949, the KOEM resolution was adopted. I was again suspended from the NOF secretariat and sent to the Gramos front as an ordinary fighter. During the night of June 21 and 22, I left Prespa with a small group of fighters and set off for Gramos. Mincho Fotev was part of the same group. He was on his way to Gramos and, as a representative of KOEM-NOF, was expected to visit a number of units in Gramos. Along the way Fotev gave me his horse to ride and we alternately walked together. I happened to be riding the horse through a dangerous part of the road near “Helona” locality. Like everyone else, I too began to climb up the hill but not on top of the horse, it was too dangerous, on foot, running uphill, holding the horse by the reins. But soon I got very tired so I lay down and watched the flashing bullets flying over the horse and getting lost somewhere above us. The enemy was attempting to close off this passage because it led to the border with Albania (an escape route)... When I got to the top of the hill, I said to Fotev: “I had to sit down and rest because I almost fainted…!”

Fotev said: “I saw you…!”

This was the only necessary introduction. But here is the main thing I want to say:

As I mentioned earlier, when, in April 1948, the Macedonian central NOF agitation and propaganda department was stripped of its Macedonian staff and replaced with Grkomans (Greek-Supremacists), I found myself at DAG Headquarters for Central and Western Macedonia, located in the village of Pevkofito, where I was appointed member of the Kamarila. A month to a month and a half later, after nothing had happened except for boredom and anticipation… I sat down and wrote a letter to DAG General Dimitrios Vlantas, then member of the CPG Central Committee Politburo. This same letter was taken out of context when it was published in Volume V of the edition “Aegean Macedonia in the National Liberation War”. In the letter I wrote that because I had heart problems and was prone to fainting spells, I didn’t think I would do well as a fighter with a rifle in my hand. There was danger that I would disappoint my fellow fighters and I would fail in my mission as a leading activist in the Macedonian national liberation movement. I begged Vlantas not to do this to me…

I was prepared to carry the rifle as well as be given the chance to work on the side of the Headquarters newspaper intended for Macedonian fighters, published in the Macedonian language, which would have enabled me to “shoot at the enemy with all the guns of the Macedonian fighters…”

Vlantas did not reply and neither did he take me back to NOF...

As I said, this letter was published… The first part of the letter, where I speak about my weakness and my BEGGING, it appears, was not touched at all... But the second part, in which I made my request, was redone... According to what was published, they claim that “Rakovski, in order to avoid the rifle, asked to ‘edit a single column’… But they avoided to mention the one thing that angered, and perhaps frightened, the Greek “patriot” Vlandas, what I said about “convincing the entire Macedonian army” which, at the time was a majority, through the Macedonian language side of the newspaper, to fight with all its might, which prompted Vlandas to expel me...

But things were different than what they seemed. Here is a sequence of events:

When Vlantas expelled me (Rakovski) I was not an official, but a simple editor, after which time I continued to work on the Macedonian publications under the supervision of Kotsopoulos but only for a short time. After I had a few unpleasant run-ins with him I left.

A little later Mitrevski was returned from DAG. And:

On Zahariadis’s recommendation, during the NOF Central Council II Plenum, we were both re-appointed members of the NOF Central Council (then - Presidency).

We know about Mitrevski. Zahariadis publicly called him a “palikari” at least one time in the army, which roughly translates to “heroic” or “brave”. But in my case (Rakovski), according to “Istoria”, like Mitrevski I too was rewarded with an appointment to the most trusted position in the NOF leadership, even though I was a “coward” in the army…!

Clearly my accusers have it in for me... They continue:

“Pavle Rakovski stated that on the 1st NOF Plenum held on August 1948, he, among other NOF leaders, was removed, which is not true. According to the publication “Nepokoren” an organ of NOF, which announced the decision to suspend Mihail Keramidzhiev (NOF president), and Paskal Mitrevski (NOF secretary), delivering a massive blow to the organization, Pavle Rakovski provocatively published an article in which he praised the CPG and its leader Nikos Zahariadis of being the most consistent friend, protector and ally of the Macedonian people…!” (65)

Some would say this is a classic example of absence of benevolence. It is well-known among the NOF leadership structure, those who are still alive, that I was removed from NOF during the NOF 1st Congress on Mitrevski’s objection and there is no reason to claim anything else...

Regarding the so-called “provocative” article, this is what happened: The article was published on the occasion of the 30th jubilee since

the founding of the CPG. It was published in “Nepokoren” number 17 in December 1948; five months after the NOF Central Council I Plenum took place!

As is well-known, our Greek “patriots” at the top CPG and DAG leadership consistently defied the Macedonian reality even after the People’s Republic of Macedonia emerged as a national state of the Macedonian people in the Yugoslav federation. They defied the Macedonian reality even with the existence of a strong Macedonian national Movement in Greek occupied Macedonia. Our Greek comrades at the top of the CPG and DAG planned and carried out a general offensive against the Macedonian national ideal and physically destroyed a huge percentage of its active bearers, “the Macedonian nationalists” and Macedonian patriots.

It was under these conditions that I edited the articles for “Nepokoren”, defying Zahariadis’s chauvinistic anti-Macedonian policy and the anti-Macedonian attitudes of all those around and behind him. In the “Nepokoren” article I wrote about the Macedonian people, I referred to them as SPECIAL PEOPLE, INDEPENDENT PEOPLE, NON-GREEK PEOPLE, a nation that enjoys or should enjoy full equality with the Greek people, which is struggling and should be struggling organized under its own NOF, AFZH and NOMS MACEDONIAN NATIONAL organizations, as it must, and therefore, should have its own MACEDONIAN, and not Greek, newspapers and magazines.

Here is the title of the article: THE GREEK COMMUNIST PARTY (CPG) - ORGANIZER, LEADER AND GUIDE OF THE NATIONAL STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL AND NATIONAL FREEDOM.

Here are the sub-titles in the article: “CPG - CHAMPION OF SOCIAL AND NATIONAL FREEDOM”, “NIKOS ZAHARIADIS”, “CPG - DEFENDER OF THE MACEDONIAN PEOPLE IN GREECE”, “CPG - ASSISTING OUR PEOPLE”, “CPG SHOWS THE WAY TO SALVATION”, “CPG POLICY – A PRINCIPALED POLICY…”

Unfortunately those in “Istoria” call this “glorification”… Their bias and non-objectivity does not allow them to see it for what it is… “Not glorification”… This was an article written on the occasion of the CPG’s 30th anniversary and expressed how we the Macedonians perceived, expected and demanded from the Party and its leadership...

With what I did, of course, I did not please Zahariadis and our Greek friends at the top of the CPG and DAG leaderships, and soon I was booted out. Once again I was suspended from the secretariat and sent to the Gramos front to fight as an ordinary DAG fighter. After that I was sent to prison under accusations that I was a dangerous and active “Macedonian nationalist”… This will be further discussed later…

These were the facts...

When NOF was passed on from the CPM/CPY to the CPG and placed under the CPG leadership, NOF’s connection to the CPM/CPY was completely cut and NOF became isolated. After that we received no information on life and the progress made in the People’s Republic of Macedonia and we had nothing about that to print in “Nepokoren”. But it was more than that... Before “unity” was established, persecution of Macedonians, anti-Macedonian acts, and political crimes against the Macedonian people were on the rise and escalating.

THIS WAS A REAL WAR AGAINST THE MACEDONIANS...

And again it turned out that the Macedonian spirit could be destroyed by, more or less, “neutralizing” its most important carriers. Grafted on top of NOF was a “new (non-Macedonian) leadership”, but it was unable to feed from the juices of its base, unable to be the carrier of the Macedonian people’s national ideals and demands and to stand on a Macedonian foundation… so it dried up. Namely, it remained isolated, helpless and superfluous. The Macedonian foundation did not accept the foreign body attached to it… and rejected it...

But that did not stop the Party leaders from taking things over in quite a spectacular way to accommodate the “Slavophone Macedonians”, according to the expression coined during the CPG Central Committee VIII Plenum held in 1942, or the “Slavophone Macedonian population” coined during the CPG Central Committee II Plenum held in 1946, by allowing the Greek newspaper “Levterotis”, organ of DAG Headquarters in Kaimakchalan, to begin publishing in the Macedonian language under the title “Osloboditel”.

A special printing machine was obtained for printing Macedonian newsletters and, of course, using Macedonian letters.

They found a young man from Lerin Region in the ranks of DAG, who worked with a printing press and they, of course, found me and returned me from the army to edit the newspaper, but under the watchful eye of a censor, who was none other than Kotsopoulos himself. In addition to “Levterotis”, “Nepokoren”, “Nova Makedonka” and the informative newspaper “Bilten” were resurrected and published in the crippled so-called Macedonian language spoken by Zahariadis’s disciples…

The three central Macedonian newspapers, the third being “Bilten” which Zahariadis invented and “generously” added to the others, began to print in a three times larger format and multiple times, namely: each separately, and in two thousand copies.

The network of correspondents in the DAG units and Macedonian villages was renewed and expanded.

And so was the network of those responsible for receiving and group reading the Macedonian press in the DAG units, DAG hospitals and Macedonian villages…

But even with all this, the situation did not change. The Greeks could not get the desired results they were expecting, especially after they decapitated NOF of its Macedonian leaders. For the Macedonians the struggle became pointless and meaningless. But this is perhaps what Zahariadis really wanted; to cause the famous wave of mass desertions in the Macedonians fighters and to deliver a

heavy blow against DAG. He managed to extinguish the enthusiasm all the way down to the field organizations that had been stripped of their Macedonian cadres. All activities in the Macedonian villages stopped; and the movement sank into a deep but eloquent silence...

Dangerous tension began to build up in a daunting atmosphere of anticipation. The people did not know what to make of it and were afraid something terrible was going to happen. This was indeed a heavy blow against the uprising in “Northern Greece”, which the CPG Central Committee, during its January 1949 V Plenum, referred to as “Macedonia”.

This was the end of the first phase of the broad offensive against the Macedonian ideal and against its bearers the Macedonian cadres and their Macedonian organizations. Like the open frontal attacks carried out before “unity” was established these attacks were also carried out internally against NOF and were directed solely against the frontline Macedonian activists. And as I mentioned earlier, the famous Greek chauvinistic thesis came to the fore: “There is no Macedonian nation, but only ‘Slavophones’ living in Greek (occupied) Macedonia, in the lands of the Greek state…” (CPG Central Committee II Plenum Resolution, February 1946.) The Greek explanation given for the existence of a Macedonian movement in Greece was that there was no Macedonian national movement, but only some “adventurous elements” sowing seeds of confusion in the “Slavophone” villages. If they were removed, that is if they were isolated, order and peace could be brought everywhere! They tried to “isolate” the “adventurers”, “traitors” and “Ohrana agents” from the people by vilifying the Macedonian “rebellion” leaders through the abundant party press in Macedonia, as well as through the EAM and ELAS press. But without success! Anyone looking through the archives will not fail to find hypocrisy during this entire open frontal attack period. The official Greek explanation for everything that was happening hypocritically came down to some sort of “adventurous element” among certain Macedonian cadres being the reason for the “problems” and eventually for the “split”! At the same time these same Greeks officially kept silent about the rights of the Macedonian people. This robbed them of the most elementary rights to organize a struggle for freedom, during this historic moment, and to lead it on their own

under their own name as an independent non-Greek nation. The CPG and DAG top leaders persistently keep silent on this because, hypocritically, according to them “Macedonia was Attica, and no Macedonian Question existed for Greece...”

During the course of the struggle, the Greek leaders tried and physically removed a large number of Macedonian activists from within NOF, especially those believed to be “nationalists” and “dangerous” for the Greek cause. But that did not give them the desired results they were expecting, “peace and order” between the Macedonian people on the ground and on the front. In fact the opposite happened. An arduous and painful situation began to develop and, as I mentioned earlier, “the new Greek-imposed NOF leadership” became completely helpless and superfluous.

The Greek Party leadership eventually admitted to itself what it already knew, and that was that this was not an “artificial mess” allegedly sown by “adventurous elements” in the peaceful Slavophone villages, but a full-fledged movement whose bearers were the Macedonian people themselves. This was a unique and real MACEDONIAN NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT…

The actions taken by the Greek chauvinists from the top Party leadership were very typical and well-distinguished. The Greeks were well-aware that the Macedonian people themselves were the bearers of the original Macedonian national liberation movement and the same Greeks never paused or stopped their anti-Macedonian campaign at any time during the course of the struggle and beyond…

Let us track the events:

So, to turn things around, that is to do something to change the conditions of ultimate tension and uncertainty, our friends in the top CPG Greek leadership, during their CPG Central Committee V Plenum, held January 1949, decided to resolutely turn the clock back and take the position and terminology taken during the CPG Third Extraordinary Congress in 1924. Namely, the Macedonian people here in this part of Macedonia were once again recognized as an “oppressed” people who were part of another nation, with

appropriate rights to self-determination up to secession from the Greek state.

The text reads as follows:

“The Macedonian people in Northern Greece gave their all to the struggle and are fighting heroically and, as such, should be admired for their self-sacrifices. There should be no doubt that, as a result of DAG’s victory and the people’s revolution, the Macedonian people will achieve their complete national establishment as they wish, for having shed their blood today…!” (66)

But, as we well know, since its founding in November 1918, the CPG’s program did not have a single word about any Macedonians and their democratic rights in the Greek state. The Macedonian people were always viewed by the CPG as Greek people!

As we also know, the position and terminology the CPG adopted during its CPG 1924 Congress was agreed to in the presence of Comintern and Balkan Communist Federation representatives. This was agreed to, but only formally, to please these international forums. What the CPG in fact did, was adopt an element of the declarative CPG political line accepted only for external needs and was never applied internally. In the spirit of this new CPG attitude and as its practical application on the ground, the CPG leadership, as mentioned before, to do its part agreed to allow MRO (United) to exist in Greek occupied Macedonia as a representative of the Macedonian minority in Greece. But instead of supporting the immediate creation of MRO (United) as a minority organization of the Macedonian people, the CPG, through its Party press, initiated a verbal war between those CPG factions who were FOR recognizing the Macedonian people as a separate non-Greek people, and those who were AGAINST such a recognition, the likes of Kordatos and Apostolidis, who at that time were the first CPG Central Committee secretaries, as well as others. This “verbal war” gave the impression that the CPG was seriously working on solving the Macedonian National Question. But, as we know, this was not true. In fact both the “for” and “against” factions were equally afraid and in fact did everything in their power to avoid the appearance of a Macedonian national liberation movement. But in spite of all their effort, the

Macedonian people began to organize such a movement. And then, a decade later, when the CPG was criticized and heavily pressured from the outside, it had no choice but to prepare for the creation of MRO (United). And yet again, the whole thing was masterfully reduced to only a few formal and futile meetings, held before and after the CPG V Congress in March 1934, during which K. Vermitis, delegate of Western Macedonia, skillfully and precisely timed asking the question: “Does a Macedonian National Question exist for the Party…?” This supposedly was a question for the Party’s basic organizations… In other words, it was a survey of the Party’s organizations to supposedly solicit opinions. Naturally this, along with all the other delay tactics, stifled the MRO (United) which was formed soon after the CPG V Congress, and left it on paper and without any political clout. The stillborn MRO (United) Central Council did nothing and, of course, nothing remained of it. Andrea Chipov and the other leaders tried to activate MRO (United), but the CPG would not allow them. They even acquired a printing press with which they intended to print a Macedonian newspaper and other material in the Macedonian language, but the Greeks banned them and seized their printing machinery. They tried to import Macedonian publications from abroad such as the newspapers “Balkanska Federatsia” and “Makedonsko Delo”, which the Greek leaders seemed to tolerate at first, but soon they banned them too. On top of that, the Greek police captured and liquidated on the spot, Georgi Kontselchev from Voden, the man who imported and delivered the newspapers in Solun.

As we mentioned earlier, in addition to the above, the CPG, during its CPG Central Committee III Plenum, held about a year after the CPG V Congress, instead of offering the Macedonian people the right to self-determination and secession, adopted a new stand which was “full equality for the minorities”. Before that, these were the words the CPG used during its IV Congress held in December 1936, to convey this message:

“Such a change does not mean abandoning the Marxist-Leninist principle of self-determination of nations... The population in the Greek part of Macedonia today is Greek in its majority, and the Marxist-Leninist principle, or old slogan (party line), for self-

determination, under the present conditions, needs to be replaced…” (67)

It is not difficult to see that Zahariadis and company have clearly committed brutal injustices against the Macedonian people through the CPG and in the name of the CPG. In fact they have flipped and flopped and turned one hundred and eighty degrees when it suited them, directly negating the rights of the Macedonian people.

I. The CPG never gave up on the self-determination principle for occupied and oppressed peoples and for their separation from the oppressive nation. But the rights of the indigenous people were negated only because of the Turkish Christian colonists from Asia Minor, deposited in Greek occupied Macedonia in the early 1920’s, who the CPG now recognize as a majority. The rights to self-determination for the indigenous people, i.e. the Macedonians, were trumped in favour of and to the benefit of the colonists, who the CPG considered to be the majority on traditional Macedonian lands acquired by the Greeks through imperialist means.

II. Even though this part of Macedonia was invaded, occupied and annexed by Greece in 1912, 1913, by force and by imperial means, land that never belonged to Greece, the Macedonian people were treated like they were forever part of the Greek people and their Greek homeland. This, of course, was done by force, coercion and oppression. Even though it is historically clear that this land belongs to the Macedonian people, the Macedonians have no right to be Macedonians, speak their Macedonian language and practice their Macedonian culture and traditions and, according to all Greek factions, including the CPG, have no right to self-determination.

III. Even though it is well-known that Macedonia existed as a whole during and prior to the Ottoman occupation and the Macedonian people’s homeland represented an ethnic whole that was occupied not only by Greece but also by Serbia, Bulgaria and Albania, the CPG leadership still ignored these facts and defiantly denied the existence of the Macedonian nation. This means that the CPG was working along and had actually accepted the famous imperialist thesis and policy of the Balkan bourgeoisie: “That Macedonia is a geographical point, or space, to which its neighbours have the right

to fill with any national content except for Macedonians”. And that is exactly what the Greeks were doing which was acceptable to the CPG.

IV. As we already mentioned earlier, the CPG was quick to condemn the imperialist policies of the domestic bourgeoisie, proclaiming that they had annexed part of Macedonia as an inalienable part of the Greek homeland and through persecution and eviction of Macedonians and Muslims and importation of Turkish Christian colonists, artificially altered the national composition of the population in favour of the Greek ethnic element. However, the CPG itself hypocritically adopted this very same domestic bourgeoisie and imperialistic policy. It later explained itself that it had to do this, supposedly in the “interests of the labour movement and the revolution in Greece” when in fact there was an easier and more believable explanation. Zahariadis and company did this for “Greek national (Greater Greece) interests…”

The question that arises from this is:

Were Zahariadis and company honest during the CPG Central Committee V Plenum held in January 1949, when they offered the Macedonian people the “rights to self-determination up to secession from the Greek state…?”

What need did Zahariadis and company have in 1949, to bring back the CPG’s 1924 position and terminology…?

Let the facts speak for themselves!

Only a few months later, on June 20, 1949, a document came out criticizing the 1924 attitude and terminology, no doubt written by Zahariadis himself, and imposed on KOEM to adopt it as its resolution. (68) A few months later, in October 1949, during the CPG Central Committee VI Plenum, this position and its terminology were abolished.

Of course, the conclusion was that Zahariadis and company did not really know exactly what they wanted. As it turned out this was not “a principled stand” on the Macedonian National Question, but only

a tactical maneuver that had a specific goal. Here’s what it was all about:

As early as October 23, 1948, DAG Supreme Military Council, headed by Zahariadis, ORDERED a general mobilization to be carried out which was out to include the mobilization of all remaining women and girls in the Macedonian villages in the liberated border zone. This was to include all women who were not mobilized because they were building trenches and bunkers or were left behind because they were ill. In other words, this order included the mobilization of practically every single Macedonian woman that existed in Lerin and Kostur Regions. This was well-explained in General Markos’s biography compiled by Dragan Kliakich (p.250).

Everything that was done by the CPG in Greece was in fact done for one and only one reason; to involve the Macedonian people en masse in a revolution that would bring about their demise. There is no doubt that Zahariadis was involved in a conspiracy to drive the Macedonian people out of Greek occupied Macedonia in a legal and legitimate manner. There is no doubt that this was his goal from the start, from when he was brought to Greece by the English to “legally cleanse” Greece of its Macedonian and communist menace. And how better than to have the Macedonians pick up guns and fight against the Greeks for the sovereignty of Greek occupied Macedonia. What the Macedonian people did not know was that this was a ploy to have them pick up guns so that Greece would have no choice but to fight back to “save itself”. And that is exactly what happened… The rest are details of who did what to whom…

Zahariadis’s demonstrative parade of recognizing the right of the Macedonian people to self-determination and secession from the Greek state was another act of demagogy, a tactical maneuver that exerted enormous psychological, moral and political pressure, which was ABSOLUTELY NEEDED to succeed in MOBILIZING the entire Macedonian population in his quest to destroy it.

And, as is well-known, the CPG and DAG leaders succeeded in achieving their objective. “All the Macedonian people in Lerin and Kostur Region were mobilized!” (Markos) In this way, in fact, all Macedonian families were broken up. Men and women, girls and

boys, were scattered in various DAG units, while the Macedonian children were sent over the border… The native hearths were abandoned and the Macedonian villages were left empty and desolate!

In other words, the fate of the entire Macedonian population INVOLVED in this way was tied with the fate of the DAG units. And as we now know, after Markos was removed from DAG command, the DAG units had their fate sealed. In other words, Zahariadis had them converted from hit and run partisan style fighters to frontal soldiers, a sitting target for the enemy to play target practice, sitting motionless under the target of an enormous military machine, to be indiscriminately slaughtered…

We can’t deny what happened and we can’t say that the end did not justify the means, but the reality is what it is, irrespective of what we would like to believe. Zahariadis and company took every measure possible to make sure that it not only liquidated and drove the Macedonian people out of their ancestral hearth, but made sure that DAG was robbed of its victory. Not only did Zahariadis not secure an equitable surrender but boasted that DAG was going to be victorious, even after it was destroyed, and no such thing was necessary. It should have been obvious to everyone on which side Zahariadis stood, the very moment he declared that England was “a great friend” to Greece and that England was going to do everything in its power to satisfy Greece’s national needs, including guaranteeing its positions on its northern borders. In other words, Greek occupied Macedonia would never be able to separate from Greece. At the same time England, and later the United States, paid for DAG’s defeat and the CPG’s downfall.

After Zahariadis drove DAG to the ground in August 1949, he made sure that everyone, including the old and frail, left Greek occupied Macedonia and crossed the border to Albania. Once out of the country, the Greeks closed the border and refused to allow anyone back in. 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. (69)

After Zahariadis and the CPG leadership was done pushing the Macedonian people out of their ancestral lands, the Greek army and authorities did the rest; bombing and burning down the Macedonian villages until they were destroyed and devoid of their Macedonian population. The empty villages were then repopulated with “loyal Greek” colonists from Epirus and southern Greece.

This was yet another great if not THE GREATEST FAR REACHING ETHNIC CLEANSING ACTION by the Greek side against the Macedonian population and against the Macedonian national liberation movement and, unfortunately, it was done through the CPG and on behalf of the CPG.

This was a MASSIVE ETHNIC CLEANSING ACT perpetrated by the Greeks against the very core of Macedonian patriotism. Anyone who did not see themselves as a “Slavophone Greek” and dared to declare themselves a Macedonian, and by doing so, according to our “Greek patriots”, not only endangered the “Greek character” of Macedonia, but also “Greek national interests” in Macedonia, fell victim to this MASSIVE ETHNIC CLEANSING ACT.

This was yet the most inhuman act the CPG leadership perpetrated against the Macedonian people in its practices since its inception. It was during this historical moment, when the Macedonian people finally found a way to rise above slavery, when the CPG falsely and traitorously wormed its way into the Macedonian hearts by pretending that it cared for them and committed the most serious crimes against them... The Greeks obviously saw NOF’s appearance in April 1945 as a signal of danger because, two months later, during the CPG Central Committee XII Plenum, it directly reacted to its presence by “firmly opposing any territorial claim from any side against Greece. The preservation of the Greek state territorial integrity was the first and highest priority task of every ‘Greek patriot’…!” (70) As can be seen from official CPG Central Committee Politburo documents, the Greek side feared that “Tito was going to annex Aegean Macedonia”, (71) through NOF, or with the help of the movement started by NOF. The CPG openly discussed “Tito’s warring plans against Greek Macedonia!” (72)

These Greek fears from Tito and Yugoslavia annexing Greek occupied Macedonian were fuelled by many activities that included the withdrawal of the Macedonian battalions to Yugoslavia, the formation of the Aegean shock brigade under a Yugoslav military flag with intentions of forming new units, the formation of the Political Commission for Aegean Macedonia, the founding of NOF by the CPM/CPY, and so on… This certainly must have agitated the Greeks and seems to have been the basis of the increase in Greek criminal behaviour against the Macedonians... (73)

Here is another unpleasant thing that happened to me.

Here are some more accusations made against me through the pages of “Istoria” (2/81), by the editorial board: “In order to compromise Aianovski and to present him as a ‘careerist’, Pavle Rakovski claims that, by CPG leadership insistence, Aianovski was not appointed to the organization’s secretariat at the 1st NOF Congress in January, 1948. Further to that, Rakovski claims that in 1948 Aianovski transferred to the People’s Republic of Macedonia as an alleged career move. In order to put an end to the speculation about Aianovski’s alleged “desertion” or his “abandonment of the movement”... we are obliged to present some undeniable facts. The new NOF Secretary Vangel Koichev was appointed during the NOF Central Council I Plenum in August 1948, who then, through a letter, informed the CPG Central Committee Politburo that the NOF Executive Board had decided, in addition to Mihail Keramidzhiev, to send Ilia Dimovski-Goche to Yugoslavia in order to recruit fighters for DAG. According to the same letter, Goche suggested that Vangel Aianovski-Oche be sent with him to assist him, to which NOF’s Executive Board agreed. Despite Aianovski’s disagreements with the Informburo, this proves that Aianovski was sent to the Republic of Macedonia to recruit Macedonian fighters for DAG, and denies Rakovski’s claim that Aianovski ‘voluntarily abandoned the movement’…” (74)

This is what Keramidzhiev said during a meeting in Skopje sometime at the beginning of February 1949: “As you are all familiar with the CPG Central Committee decision, I came here on October 12, 1948, for two reasons: a) To get medical help for

myself, and, b) as Comrade Goche’s first assistant in finding new forces and forming Macedonian units...” (75)

Based on the NOF Executive Council’s decision to send Ilia Dimovski-Goche to Yugoslavia to recruit fighters for DAG, in addition to Mihail Keramidzhiev, it follows that the two men were sent across the border at approximately the same time.

But, sometime during the first ten days of September 1948, Vangel Aianovski and Slavianka, while in Voden Region, received an invitation or a directive to go to Prespa for a meeting. But, probably because of difficulties caused by the enemy, after leaving Kaimakchalan, Vangel and Slavianka ended up in Bitola instead of going to Prespa. The fact that Aianovski did not go back to Prespa shows that he intended to leave the movement. Besides Slavianka, he also took with him Mirka, AFZH secretary for Voden Region, and Zora AFZH organizing secretary for Voden Region who also left the movement. Here is what was said about that in a document written by Vera.

“Dear Comrade Slavianka. All the AFZH leaders from Lerin and Kostur Region, who have gathered at a meeting, have decided that our organization (AFZH) needs to prepare for the All-Greek 1st Conference for Women and for the NOF 2nd Congress. Besides this, we here at the meeting have condemned the course of action taken by the AFZH leaders Slavianka V. AFZH Secretary, Mirka AFZH Secretary for Voden Region, and Zora AFZH organizing secretary for Voden Region, who left the organization and found themselves in Yugoslavia. How and why they did this is unknown to us (AFZH), therefore we cannot make our final decision without talking to you. During our meeting it was decided to send you this letter and invite you to return to our AFZH Central Council headquarters between January 25 and 30 (1949)...

January 13, 1949 Vera, Secretary” (76)

But apart from this letter, sent in the name of AFZH and those present at the meeting, Vera also sent another letter from herself in

which she used harsher words. Here is what Slavianka said about that at a meeting in Skopje:

“I received a letter from Comrade Vera in which she calls me a deserter…!” (77)

Here is what Vangel Aianovski said in his book “Aegean Storms”: “The real Macedonian cadres, fiercely defamed and persecuted, were forced to leave the movement and cross into the People’s Republic of Macedonia...” (p. 339). The fact is Aianovski and Slavianka were the only ones from the top leadership to arbitrarily abandon the movement…

Most probably Aianovski and Slavianka would have been formally charged with deserting but they found a way to avoid it. They were assigned to Goche and Keramidzhiev to assist them with their tasks and their defection was swept under the rug. Everything else that was said here was done to muddy the water, and had nothing to do with “Aianovski and Slavianka’s arbitrary abandoning of their posts”...

NOF’s Central Council II plenum was held only three days after the CPG Central Committee’s V Plenum (February 3, 1949). The NOF resolution adopted sounded like the speech Zahariadis gave, which sounded like the resolution adopted during the CPG Central Committee V Plenum. During NOF’s II plenum it was also decided to convene the II NOF Congress in March 1949. Here is what Zahariadis said: “The Macedonian people’s National Question should be affirmed at the Congress. The Macedonian people with their participation in today’s struggle have begun to create an independent Macedonian state within the Balkan Federation!” (78) According to the adopted resolution: “The Second NOF Congress will be a Congress that will proclaim NOF’s new program principles that represent the centuries-old desire of our people. It will proclaim the unification of Macedonia in a single independent Macedonian state within the framework of the Balkan people’s democratic Federation. Our people have earned this with their many years of dedication to the bloody struggle. NOF’s II Congress will proclaim the Macedonian people’s national uprising... it will turn its attention especially to the enslaved Macedonian population in the cities Lerin,

Kostur, Voden, Gumendzhe, Seres, Drama and others...” In other words, this was the plan for TOTAL MOBILIZATION and CLEANSING of the “Macedonian patriots” on the ground! (79)

Accordingly, at Zahariadis’s persistence, the NOF II Plenum made its proclamation and asked the Macedonian people to renounce the existence of the People’s Republic of Macedonia, something that existed and that they already had, and to begin to chase something in the wind, something which they did not have and which did not exist… This, obviously, was also an attack on the constitutional order and against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the People’s Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Recognizing that he had solved his problem, Zahariadis called me into his office, gave me the following text, and ordered me to immediately publish it in the NOF newspaper “Nepokoren”. Here is what he wrote: