SITUATION OF THE MACEDONIAN FIGHTERS AT THE END OF THE WAR

SITUATION OF THE MACEDONIAN FIGHTERS AT THE END OF THE WAR

Nineteen forty nine was a year of vicious fighting and burning emotions. Only the misguided and ordinary mobilized peasants remained in the DAG units. Most of our NOF leaders fled without even saying good bye to us... The liquidation of DAG entered a dramatic stage and the deadly trap for the Macedonians was set… It was then a matter of time before the Macedonians were made homeless and wanderers of the world.

It is true that all politics are dirty, but then there are dirtier politics, vicious and horrible politics. Those were the politics of those people who called upon the Macedonian people to rise and fight in a revolution that had no turning back. I do not know if history has even seen a similar example made of a nation.

UNWANTED, PAINFUL TRUTHS - COMMUNIST CAMPS FOR FUTURE MORTALS

However, not everyone remained silent. They knew the death camps were created for them. The closer the Greek Civil War was coming to an end the more the Albanians were forced to take account of their own involvement in Greek activities. This could have compromised Albania and exposed it to dangers of being attacked by NATO. Because of this, on May 5, 1949 Mehmet Shehu, Albanian Minister of the Interior, gave orders to disband the camp near the Greek-Albanian border, where Greek citizens sentenced to death by the Democratic Army courts were kept.

Most of the prisoners held in these camps were Macedonians accused of being agents of Yugoslavia and working for the Yugoslav intelligence Services: OZNA, KOS and judgments were carried out on the spot.

Similar camps also existed in Prespa. The prisoners here were almost entirely old people who publicly condemned NOF, AFZH and DAG for what they had done to their children. They were all mothers, fathers and wives of soldiers who currently served in DAG or who had already perished. They were the parents of two or three children mobilized into DAG. They were supporters of DAG and the war effort and now they sat in jail while their properties and crops were neglected, unattended and rotting in the fields.

So what happened and WHO KILLED THE SPIRIT OF THESE PEOPLE TO WANT TO DEFECT EN MASSE?!

When a person has deep thoughts he or she tends to be honest and virtuous. People like that show determination and loyalty. But in our case our people followed Kolishevski’s message who told them: “...

to fight honestly and have faith in the CPG” and to stay with the Macedonian fighters whom they mobilized…

But the question is why does Evdokia Foteva - Vera, even over 55 years later, clings to the same delusional ideas that lead us into spiritual desolation? What and whose national interests does this serve? Maybe we are somewhat confused as to who we served and for what purpose we were dying, but there should be no doubt that it is time to finally clearly and openly look into the eyes of the horrible ideological subjugation in that war, at least from people like Vera, who have given us many relevant arguments about the Greek Civil War.

Official historiography has been written to take into account the reprisals against Macedonian fighters in DAG units and about the affairs of Macedonian fighters in Gramos and Vicho, about whom it said: The Security Services and DAG’s Court Service worked hard at eliminating all Macedonians who agitate in favour of Yugoslavia. Many Macedonians were arrested on July 5, 1949 and judgments were passed by DAG’s Court. After that it was the “Buf” and “African” affair, the “isolation camps for Macedonians in Vicho Region”, “the Kajmakchalan Squad” and many others. People were convicted of “deserting” and according to their testimonies they deserted because “they had no faith in the CPG’s decision making process and mistrusted the CPG Central Committee’s actions towards the Macedonian fighters...”

The CPG and DAG General Headquarters, on the other hand, were accusing Macedonians of being directed by various intelligence services and by three diversionary centres. The first was operated by the CPM and personally guided by Kolishevski. The second was controlled by OZNA and the third was controlled by group II of the Yugoslav General Headquarters.

Convinced of this, the CPG and DAG General Headquarters decided to send a high-level delegation to Skopje. The delegation arrived in Skopje on February 8, 1949 and had its first meeting at 11 am the same day. Lazo Kolishevski and Tsvetko Uzunovski attended on behalf of the CPM and Miltiadis Porfirogeros and Nikos Georgiadis

attended on behalf of the CPG, while Pascal Mitrevski served as translator.

The following points were made on behalf of the CPG Central Committee:

1. Hostility is developing in the ranks of the Macedonian element, which is working against the joint struggle between the Greek and the Macedonian people...

2. Along with the Macedonians, there are also Greek refugees now located in Yugoslavia. This is creating an unfriendly situation…

3. At the centre of this propaganda against our movement is a group of Macedonians, cadres, who left Greece under NOF’s direction and are now working against CPG and DAG interests, urging Macedonian fighters to desert the fighting units etc.

After returning to Greece from Belgrade on April 7, 1949, P. Rosos went to DAG General Headquarters and conveyed to the leaders what he had learned from the so-called Macedonian NOF and AFZH “deserters” who were now living in Skopje; who had earlier fled to Yugoslavia to avoid persecution from the Greek authorities. Among other things Rosos said that they had told him to tell the Macedonian fighters “to not be fools and fight and die for DAG’s benefit…” For more information see Kiriazovski 1995.