FIRST AFZH CONGRESS

FIRST AFZH CONGRESS

On April 29, 1948, AFZH held its 1st Congress near the village Besfina in Prespa, Greek occupied Macedonia, in an open space because of the threat of the Greek Monarcho-Fascist aviation bombing the villages. More than 420 delegates participated in the Congress from all the districts in Greek occupied Macedonia, including women DAG fighters and guests from all the organizations and parties participating in the Greek Civil War. Evdokia Baleva-Vera chaired the Congress.

Among other things the following was said in a speech: “... Today’s Congress finds the Macedonian woman with a clear national consciousness. It finds her as an officer and DAG fighter and as a hero who fights on an equal footing with men in the battle lines of all auxiliary sectors...”

TWO CONCEPTIONS OF DAG’S STRATEGIC WARFARE

On August 25, 1948, at the insistence of Zahariadis, by secret decision of the CPG Central Committee Politburo, General Markos was removed from his position as Commander-in-Chief of DAG and expelled from the Politburo.

The official announcement of Markos’ removal from his position came early on August 28, 1948, when Radio Free Greece reported that the “CPG Extraordinary Plenum, taking into account that for several months comrades Hrisa Hadzhivasiliou and Markos Vafiadis had been seriously ill and were unable to carry out the serious tasks assigned to them by the CPG Central Committee, unanimously decided to release them from their Party duties…”

The day later, on the same radio, General Markos’ open letter addressed to the “Greek people, to DAG and to all comrades” was read in which he confirmed that due to his poor health he was forced to resign from his position as Provisional Democratic Government President and Commander of DAG.

In early September 1948, General Markos arrived in Moscow from the Tirana airport on an Ilyushin air plane.

After Markos was removed there was an urgent need to replace him. On August 27, 1948, Zahariadis explained that he had come up with the idea of creating a Military Council (VVS), which would manage all DAG military formations.

The summit opened with playing the national anthem and Zahariadis himself read the agenda which was followed by loud applause and shouts: “Long live the great Stalin!” and “Long live our faithful leader Zahariadis!”

THE FOLLOWING WERE DECIDED AT THE SUMMIT

a/ Zahariadis was appointed President of the High Military Council who now became Commander-in-Chief of all DAG forces in Greece;

b/ GUSIAS was appointed head of DAG military operations;

c/ GUSIAS was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel General, and BARGIOTAS, VLANDAS, IPSILANTIS AND PALIOLOGU were promoted to Major General;

d/ IOANIDIS replaced Markos as President of the Provisional Government.

The above is yet another fact that the Greeks led the Greek Civil War, not NOF and AFZH. The entire Macedonian population was mobilized to fight in the Greek Civil War yet there was not a single high ranking Macedonian in the top leadership. But then we have the NOF and AFZH leaders telling us that we will realize our dreams and continued to push us even harder to fight the war. And we the sun-loving Macedonian sons and patriots believed them. We were willing to sacrifice our lives in order to continue our centuries long struggle for an independent Macedonia because we believed that one day our dream would come true. And that is how the strangers were able to make us (self) sacrifice ourselves for their interests.

We have seen and have survived many things; upheavals, dramas, etc., but none of our top leaders want to admit the truth. The Foreign Office in Belgrade, March 4, 1949, enounced:

On August 20, Zahariadis asked his commander Markos to go on medical leave in Moscow.

The former Yugoslav ambassador to Prague assured the British ambassador in Belgrade, Sir Charles Peake, that “Markos preferred Tito’s type of communism to the Cominform variant,” while Vebler, Yugoslavia’s deputy foreign minister, in a conversation with British Secretary of State McLean, pointed out that the removal of Marcos was “a case of Titoism”. However, it seems that the only real reason for Markos’ removal was his disagreement with Zahariadis over DAG’s strategy and tactics, that is, his advocacy of guerrilla warfare. All interpretations linking Markos to “Titoism” are unfounded because, as Sfikas said “not only did Markos agree with the CPG’s negative point of view of Tito, but if he was a “Titoist”,

his trip to Moscow in September 1948 would have probably been a journey to eternity.”

PEDOMAZOMA - A VIOLENT CHILD COLLECTION PROGRAM WITH POLITICAL INTENT TO DESTABILIZE THE MACEDONIAN HOME...

Who directed the fate of the Macedonian people in Greece that led to their genocide?

It was an unprecedented act for NOF to have collected the Macedonian children and to have surrendered them to the CPG and DAG. It should be openly said that NOF was nothing more than an instrument of the CPG. NOF no longer represented anything. After surrendering the children, NOF also left the parents of those children at the CPG’s disposal.

While important research is conducted on migration issues worldwide, our migrations over the years have been ignored and our people have been compelled to remain silent… because it was and apparently still is politically correct. While papers of new studies are emerging in the world today, revealing the cruelest and most complex elements of projected persecution, ours sadly remain hidden. It seems the science of this subject for us has remained deaf for over half a century. No one seems to care, as if nothing happened to the 28,000 children exiled from Greek occupied Macedonia during the Greek Civil War. No one seems to care that these children have been deprived of their parents, their homes and their rights and who, to this day, still have no right to return home.

The problem with the Macedonian children taken away during the Greek Civil War for us Macedonians is one of the most serious problems in Macedonian history. Why? Because it did not happen even during the cruelest Balkan wars… innocent children were not taken and exiled with political intentions. Our Macedonian children were kidnapped and sent away from their homeland with a one-way ticket…The Greeks were given a return ticket. After the Greek Civil War ended the Greeks returned to their homes but the Macedonian children were left out to roam around the world. This also happened with their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, grandfathers and

grandmothers. The Greek authorities have demonstrated unprecedented brutality, especially since they call themselves the cradle of modern civilization, doing everything in their power to prevent the Macedonian people’s return to their birthplace, to their ancestral roots. It would not have been so ironic if both the Macedonian and Greek people were given a return ticket since both people participated equally in the same war.

The main goal of this research is to arrive at realistic views of the historical truth and the political intention of the so-called “Pedomazoma”. 20

Тhe gathering of children, carried out by the two warring parties: the Government of the Athenian regime in Athens, 21 and the Provisional Democratic Government of Greece (CPG and DAG) in the mountains, who fought each other in the Greek Civil War 1945-1949.

By taking this approach did we solve the Macedonian Question?!

20 According to UNSCOB - A/754 - 1948, the action taken by the Greek government and by Queen Frederica to collect the children and isolated some of the villages was done in order to cut DAG off from its resources, food products and future manpower and to make it impossible for DAG to mobilize more soldiers. This policy proved to be successful and gave the government the opportunity for greater control in certain regions of Greece. Also in the same document it was said that the action taken by the CPG to remove 28,000 children from Greece was done in order to secure its manpower and military resources. In March 1949, UNSCOB launched numerous petitions demanding that DAG refrain from sending children to the battlefields. In 1948, when the children were collected, the CPG probably expected that the war would continue for several years and many of the children who were taken away would have to return to fight in Greece.

21 On July 2, 1948, the Greek Parliament accepted the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan envisaged economic assistance, confronting and solving all economic problems, especially the industry and economic development of Greece. However, a good part of the funds (out of 300 million dollars, about 190 million was for the armed forces) that were allocated to Greece, in accordance with the Marshall Plan, were used for military purposes, that is, for DAG’s liquidation and for placing Greece under complete American control. This plan was implemented in Greece at the height of the Greek Civil War. But, as it turned out the funds allocated by the “Truman Doctrine” were not enough to decisively confront DAG.