WORLD PRESS ECHOES REGARDING THE REFUGEE CHILDREN IN BELA TSRKVA

WORLD PRESS ECHOES REGARDING THE REFUGEE CHILDREN IN BELA TSRKVA

We will digress for a moment from the activities in the Bela Tsrkva homes and focus our attention on the effort made to fight against the Informburo, its fierce propaganda campaign and against pressure from Greece against the Yugoslav authorities to have the refugee children returned. The Yugoslav authorities tried hard to sway public opinion in many ways, primarily in the Eastern European countries, and to show them that the refugee children from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia in Yugoslavia were well-received, well placed in children’s homes and well looked after. They were

progressing well, were learning and were happy in spite of being separated from their parents. A good example and proof of that was the following.

With the approval of the Yugoslav Red Cross, on August 10 and 11, 1948, the refugee children from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia placed in the homes in Bela Tsrkva were visited by Handler Mair, a correspondent from the newspaper “New York Times”, by Omer Biggart, a correspondent from the newspaper “New York Herald Tribune”, by Ozgord Karuterst a correspondent from the news agency AP International, by correspondents from the Daily Worker Associated Press and by correspondents from other newspapers.

The journalists - correspondents published various articles regarding their visit with the refugee children in the children’s homes in Bela Tsrkva.

On Sunday, April 11, 1948 the “New York Times” newspaper had published an article entitled “Greek girls refute report of stealing children”. The article was subtitled “The group from Macedonia says they fled to Yugoslavia to avoid the air strikes”.

On April 8, 1948, regarding Bela Tsrkva in Yugoslavia, the newspaper “New York Times” specifically had said:

“The girls from Greek (occupied) Macedonia who arrived in Yugoslavia on April 4, with a group of about 240 children, told us today about their march through the mountains over the border. They denied that they had been abducted by Greek partisans and were expelled from their land, but that they fled to avoid the air strikes.”

With permission from the Yugoslav government, two American and one British correspondent went by car to Bela Tsrkva, to a village in Banat, where the Yugoslav Red Cross had temporarily placed several groups of children from Greek (occupied) Macedonia. The group who these correspondents visited was one part of the 5,000 children from Greek (occupied) Macedonia who was reported to have crossed the Yugoslav border at the beginning of this month.

Due to bad road conditions and because of the short time they had to do their visit, the journalists were only able to visit one group of about 240 children housed in a renovated building that was formerly used as a children’s nursery. Another group of about 290 children, ages 3 to 17, was located about 3 miles from Bela Tsrkva. Most of these children were ages 5 to 7. A small group of girls, ages 13 to 17, was dropped off in the Republic of Macedonia by their parents, left there to be cared for by the Yugoslav authorities.

In continued texts it was highlighted that:

THE YUGOSLAVS DRESSED THIS GROUP

“The Yugoslav Red Cross had put clothes on this group. Every child was given a pair of new shoes… some were large but wearable shoes… They were dressed with pants, sweaters, scarves and hats… both new and old… and in good condition. The children were thin but also in good condition.

The older girls seemed to be in better condition and were happier. We asked them questions in the presence of 60-year-old Dimitrios Georgiadis, their Greek teacher, through an interpreter.

The Yugoslav authorities even gave us a person who spoke English. He addressed a Yugoslav Macedonian who then translated the questions into Greek for Georgiadis and the girls. Their answers were translated into Serbo-Croatian and into English.

This is their story according to statements made by Georgiadis and the girls:

‘This entire group came from the villages Trigono, Andartiko, Agios Germanos, Lemos, Pisoderi and other villages in the vicinity of Florina. Some of these villages were occupied by Greek government troops. Day and night the villages were bombed and leveled to the ground, some were bulldozed.

One part of the population fled to the mountains. Before their escape they entrusted their children to the elders in the family. Some

children were handed over to the people who came to the border. This group was led by Dimitriadis, a peasant who has his own country.

The children walked at night from village to village through the mountains to avoid being bombed by the airplanes. The local population of some villages fed and housed them but the children also passed through villages that had no people.

The march to the border lasted 8 days. The group crossed the border near Prilep (it should say Bitola) where they were gathered by Yugoslav guards and taken to the nearest village where the Yugoslav Red Cross took care of them. The parents who followed their children remained in Yugoslav Macedonia, while their children were taken by train to Bela Tsrkva.’

The Girls from Greek (occupied) Macedonia said that they were satisfied with the treatment they received from the Yugoslav Red Cross and seem to be happy to be outside of the war zone. They said that the aerial bombings caused many casualties and there was great fear from the Greek government troops who ruthlessly dealt with people suspected of helping the partisans and their sympathizers.”

Here is another article written by the journalists who visited the children’s homes in Bela Tsrkva, as reported by the Associated Press:

Bela Tsrkva, April 10, 1948,

“In this small village in Banat the Yugoslav Red Cross delivered 240 Greek children who had fled their country and who deny that they were taken by force. Their ages are from 3 to 15 years old. After a week of hiking from their villages in Florina through the mountains they finally arrived at the Yugoslav border and crossed it at night. These children were followed by 5 Greek peasant girls and a number of elderly people.

Over 5,000 refugee children were admitted to Yugoslavia and are cared for by the Red Cross, which has two million members

providing their contribution to help these children who have now turned to the Red Cross to help them out to the end.

The Yugoslav government, which last week strongly protested against allegations that these children were taken by force, as claimed by the Greek ‘Monarcho-fascist army’, and that it is using these children as pawns in the Greek Civil War, has now given approval to the correspondents from the agencies ‘Associated Press’, ‘New York Times’ and the London ‘Daily Worker’ to come and visit these children and to freely ask them questions.

The children said that the only thing that forced them to leave their homes were the daily bombardments of their villages. Many of their brothers and sisters were killed by shelling, by starvation, or by the winter cold. Their relatives are fighting in General Markos’s ranks and some have been slain for doing so.

With their medical examination, upon their arrival, it was determined that these children were undernourished, excessively thin and their clothing was pitiful. As soon as these children heard the sound of an aircraft flying above they all dropped down to the ground and began to scream. Even the appearance of an eagle in the sky had the same effect on them. These children were so exhausted that they fell asleep while playing. Now they are recovering in this Serbian village near the border with Romania, where they are placed in a clean school building. For many this is the first peaceful home that they have ever had.”

On April 12, 1948 the New York Herald Tribune published a report from Vrshats entitled: “Yugoslavia takes good care of the children who escaped from Greece” with the subtitle “The reporter visited a village near the Romanian border and heard statements that refute the Athenian charges of children being kidnapped and himself, as a witness, saw that the children were fed well and were healthy and in great shape.”

Similar reports came out of Bela Tsrkva from reporters, foreign newspapers and other agencies proving that the children were not taken by force from their parents, that they were not taken from

Greece against their will and that they had emigrated to escape the horrors of war.

Sadly, at that time, the Western press had also printed many untruths claiming that the refugee children who had fled from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia were taken by force from their parents and lived in camps in poor conditions and so on.

This first visit of the refugee children by correspondents of foreign newspapers, for the first time, objectively informed the Western public on the true state of these children and about the real reasons why they emigrated.

With the adoption of the Informburo Resolution, in mid-1948, the attitude of the Greek teachers, party leaders and Greek personnel significantly changed not only towards the Macedonian children placed in homes but also towards the overall Yugoslav political system in that country. Despite the extraordinary reception, hosting and accommodation provided to them, the Greeks openly attacked Yugoslavia with lies and fabrications, inciting discord between the Greek and Macedonian children and creating unrest in the homes. The Greeks behaved inappropriately and attacked their hosts for no reason. Unfortunately, despite all that was done, this situation continued, even in 1949, until they were removed.

At the same time the question of learning in the native Macedonian language, in some children’s homes, was resolved with the best possible outcome. The Greek teachers were replaced with Macedonian teachers. In Bela Tsrkva this was done at the beginning of the 1949/50 academic year.

Remaining in the Bela Tsrkva refugee homes were 15 Macedonian “mothers” along with 51 children. The Macedonian mothers were:

Elena Eftova with 10 children, Parashka Panova with 1 child, Kata Milankova with 2 children, Tomania Bozhinovska with 4 children, Dafina Filkova with 3 children, Elena Shulevska with 4 children,

Krsta Tasheva with 4 children, Vasilka Doleva with 1 child, Marika Gorchilova with 3 children, Vasilka Kuleova 2 with children, Vana Kochova with 4 children, Iordana Ianchova with 4 children, Stoia Kizova with 2 children, Nada Spirova with 1 child, and Vasilka Mishovska with 4 children.

At the end of 1949, at the request of the Bela Tsrkva Central Administration for the homes, the Association of Aegean Macedonians in Skopje sent a number of refugees to work in children’s homes. The following were sent to Bela Tsrkva:

Mihailo Atanasov, Lazo Angelovski, Tasho Bozhinov, Blagoia Bulev, Giorgi Donev, Kiro Donev, Vasil Iovanov, Lazo Karaiovanov, Dimitria Petsev, Petar Poshinov, Vane Ranelov and Atanas Reshevsky.