SECRETS OF THE SOUTH FOR THE SOUTH MACEDONIANS - IT'S TIME TO SAY FAREWELL - Part 02

With the fighters from Kostur Region in Karaorman switching from the ranks of ELAS to the ranks of the new NOB units in Vardar Macedonia, there was a clash in tactics between the two Communist Parties. The CPG demanded that the CPY return the “deserters” so that they could be “punished”.

The CPY, on the other hand, considered the group’s switch of allegiance a personal choice. The only way these fighters would return to the ranks of ELAS was if the CPG would allow them to form separate Macedonian ELAS units in Voden, Kostur and Lerin Regions. See: “Macedonians under Greece, the struggle against fascism 1940-1944”, p. 168.

Dobrivoe Radosavlevich - Orce, Petre Bogdanovski - Kochko and others Delegates from NOV and POJ Supreme Headquarters

participated in the talks with CPG and ELAS which took place in Voden Region in the village Rodivo on July 7, 1944 and in the village of Pozdivishta Kostur Region on Ilinden in 1944. The purpose of these talks was to further strengthen the bonds of cooperation and solidarity between the partisan units in Yugoslavia and those in Greece.

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Following an order from the CPG Central Committee Politburo, the CPG Bureau for Macedonia tasked ELAS Command to create, within its composition, separate Macedonian units in Voden, Lerin and Kostur Regions. Under CPG General Secretary G. Siantos’s orders the Voden Macedonian Battalion was formed in the village Rodivo, Voden Region, on June 16, 1944, and the Kostur and Lerin Macedonian Battalions were formed on August 2, 1944, in the village Pozdivishta in Kostur Region.

The defectors were then ordered to be transfer from Karaorman to Koreshtata, Kostur Region.

Here is what Naum Peiov wrote: “... The Kostur Battalion decided (or perhaps was ordered?) to leave Karaorman and go to Kostur Region during the last days of July 1944. The Battalion was to go directly to the village Pozdivishta-Koreshtata (the author too returned with this Battalion). But instead of going directly to Pozdivishta, the Battalion decided to pass through the villages in Prespa and after that visited the villages V’mbel, Kosinets and D’mbeni where it held rallies calling on the people to join the fighting against the fascist occupiers.

Waiting for the Battalion’s arrival in the village Pozdivishta were Petre Bogdanovski-Kocho, representative of NOV and POJ-Yugoslavia Headquarters and Renos Mihaleas, ELAS representative of IX Division. The reorganization was discussed in detail and agreements were reached with the Greek representatives about the formation a new Lerin-Kostur battalion. The announcement was made on August 2, 1944 (Ilinden) in the village Pozdivishta followed by a big rally. In the spirit of the agreement between the

CPY, the CPG, POJ and ELAS, the Macedonian people were invited to join the ranks of this all Macedonian battalion.

Even though the ranks of this new battalion were Macedonian and even though there were plenty of qualified Macedonian and loyal communists in the Karaorman unit to lead this new battalion, its leadership was entrusted to Kozmas Amindas, a Hellenized Arvanitis (Albanian). Aminda’s command was shared with Ilia Dimovski - Gotse. The rest of the leading Macedonians were demoted.”

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Immediately after their creation, the Macedonian battalions received orders to seek and destroy all armed bands, armed by the enemy. On August 21, 1944 the Kostur Battalion attacked several armed village bands and managed to disarm them without much effort. When these bands found out that the Battalions were Macedonian many surrendered without a fight and some band members requested to join the Battalions. By the end of August about 300 band members from Kostur Region alone had joined the Lerin-Kostur Macedonian battalion and considered themselves fighters of the Macedonian army. After this many band members voluntarily surrendered their arms and joined the Battalions in unprecedented numbers.

After that threats followed…

During and after these campaigns, some of these former Macedonian band members were accused of working with the enemy and were constantly threatened by extreme Greeks with threats like: “We will destroy you; we will kill you, you filthy Bulgarians, Ilinden dogs, because you want Kostur and its villages to join Bulgaria.”

The former band members had accusations of their own which went something like this: “You are nothing more than thieves, you filthy Greek dogs. You come from our people but you destroyed everything of ours, our church, our language, our names, our place names, our dances, our songs… You took all these things from us and made them Greek. The people will curse you and God will

punish you... We are who we are and we will remain the guardians of our centuries old heritage.”

The moderate Macedonian communists in ELAS belonging to the CPG had some advice of their own for the band members: “Although we are all communists not all of the Greeks here are killers and hangmen like those of the old days. Come with us, join us. We are a Macedonian army and we fight with the Greeks for a better common future for the sake of both the Macedonian and Greek people.

Our fate should be tied to this native, centuries old Macedonian hearth because this is where our share of Macedonia is, this is how Macedonia was divided in 1913. Here and now we are together with the Greeks and we should solve our problems together because we Macedonians have spilled a lot of blood for the interests of the Greek state; we fought together during the Greco-Turkish War, we fought together at the Albanian front, we fought together against fascism during World War II etc. Greece is bound to respect us Macedonians because our brothers and fathers gave their lives as soldiers of the Greek army.”

And the people said: “He who does not love and respect what is his will be used by others and by strangers many times and for as long as he is useful!”

Even though the Macedonian battalions did very well in performing their tasks, the CPG Central Committee and EAM, on August 2 and 3, 1944, made a request to the Soviet government, through the Soviet military mission in Greece, to accept the Lebanon Agreement and the cabinet ministries offered by the National Unity government led by Papandreou. With this move, the Greek Party leadership renounced their pretensions to gain power by force. After that the Macedonian battalions became an obstacle to the implementation of this policy, as the civil parties that created the government did not recognize the Macedonian Nation and movement in Greece. ELAS Headquarters and the CPG then decided to disband the Macedonian battalions and deploy its fighters in the deep south of Greece as part of the ELAS units stationed there. And as such no Macedonian Military formations and no political Macedonian organizations

would exist. This news upset the Macedonians and created panic. There were various rumours floating around that by doing this the “Greeks wanted to liquidate the Macedonians”.

In short, the Macedonians were lied to and used to disarm and destroy the village bands. And the promised cooperation turned out to be a ruse.

* * *

The confusion as to what was going on began after the group of fighters left Greek occupied Macedonia and joined Tito’s army. The group began to be influenced by the politics of the CPY. The group of fighters who remained in Greek occupied Macedonia began to be influenced by the CPG which in turn labeled its compatriots “deserters” and therefore “traitors”. This “split” created a paradox among the Macedonian people which has lasted to this day. Interestingly, both groups saw themselves as “patriots” and the others as “traitors”. Those who left for Yugoslavia were seen as traitors because they “fled like cowards” and left the people at home “unprotected”. Those who remained home were seen as “Greko-phils” and “traitors” by those who left because they fought on the side of the enemy, the Greeks. The best at analyzing this phenomenon were those who fled to Yugoslavia and, while they saw themselves as “patriots”, they saw everyone else as traitors, including the organizations SNOF, NOF, AFZH, NOMS, KOEM and Ilinden and the overall Macedonian movement in Greek occupied Macedonia. These people saw themselves as patriots by profession, who wanted to be rewarded for every cheer they uttered. Anyone who did not cheer for them was a traitor.

This proved that the people who allowed “ideology” to divide them, were prone to open themselves to quarreling and fighting. These double standards within a single Macedonians nation ultimately led to different visions, different desires and different situations. This ultimately led people to question “who is right and who is wrong”, a situation that further divided the Macedonian people and was easily exploitable by those who wanted to harm the Macedonian cause and the Macedonian nation.