K. K. E. – ΑΝΑΚΟΙΝΩΣΗ

K. K. E. – ΑΝΑΚΟΙΝΩΣΗ

(The CPG Central Committee statement, which denies its call for a unified Macedonia, can be found in a Greek document located in the State Archives.)

What was Zahariadis trying to do? Did he want to evaluate what we wanted and our maturity regarding our “national question” after three years of struggling? For the period from April 23, 1945 to October 1946, while NOF and AFZH were under CPY control their activities were unclear to the CPG and the Greek Communists. A while later Zahariadis, responding to criticism, confirmed that what he had done had a dual purpose:

1. To massively attract all Macedonians into the struggle.

2. To neutralize separatist activities smouldering in those NOF and AFZH Macedonian leaders who had earlier fled to Yugoslavia and who were calling on the Macedonian fighters to desert DAG and stop the Macedonian’s from bleeding in this war.

How did Kolishevski and other CPM and CPY leaders react to this, since they were responsible for handing over and subordinating NOF to the CPG?

CPM’s Central Committee 2nd Plenum was held in Skopje on April 19 and 20, 1949. See “Borba” published March 6, 1949. The CPM leadership strongly condemned the Greek communist call for a “United Macedonia” within a Balkan Federation because such a call, according to them, was “imperialistic”, initiated by their “critics” who campaigned against Yugoslavia. They said that such a call “was initiated by the notorious Informburo in order to break up the unity of the Macedonian and other Yugoslav peoples, to separate the Republic of Macedonia from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and to compromise socialist Yugoslavia”.

Lazar Moisov, in his book “Bugarska Radnichka Partia (komunisti) i Makedosko pitanie”, Belgrad, Borba, 1948, p. 288-290 wrote: “To raise the Macedonian unification question outside of Yugoslavia’s borders was a provocation against the Macedonian people’s independence and interests.”

Meaning, all CPY/CPM doings that in 1945 pushed the Macedonian people into the Greek Civil War, in which Kolishevski, Tsvetko Uzunov, Miho Marinko and others were involved, were all simply forgotten…

But now that Zahariadis decided to play his game and got the Macedonian people’s attention, all those responsible for organizing NOF and the other Macedonian organizations and for sending them to Greece a year before the Civil War was started were now in fact the strongest opposing voices. Now they were the ones complaining that such an issue would cause “ethnic cleansing, secession and other genocidal activities in all neighbouring Balkan countries”. Lastly, the Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia were the only ones who experienced genocide.

Meaning, Yugoslavia (CPM/CPY) like Greece (CPG) was against any revision of borders and strictly fought for the preservation of its own position in accordance with the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest. (57)

A CPG delegation led by Miltiadis Porfirogenis, CPG Central Committee Member and Minister of Justice in the Provisional Democratic government of Greece, was received in Belgrade by A. Rankovich. Regarding the formation of a Macedonian state within a Balkan federation, Rankovich said: “...such an act was directed against the integrity of Yugoslavia.” See: “Borba” published April 27, 1949.

But the question is: What did the CPM/CPY intend to do with NOF and AFZH after they formed these organizations in Skopje on April 23, 1945 and dispatched them to Greek occupied Macedonia to organize the Macedonian people for an uprising!? Is there any information that would point to a deal made between Stalin and Tito? I.e. to do everything possible in order to maintain socialist systems in the Eastern European countries after World War II! After the Yalta agreement even Yugoslavia became unsure with 50% Western influence and 50 % Eastern.

There are analysts who speculated that there was a plan to Soviet-ize the Balkans and that is why Yugoslavia was encouraging the Macedonians to participate. But these speculations were denied by Stalin himself and later by Tito. But there was the possibility of having lit a fire in someone else’s backyard. After all was it not Stalin who said “fight partisan style, not very violently, slowly but do interfere in capitalist affairs…” Tito initially supported the same position and that is why he wanted to lure the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia and maximized their involvement in a new conflict. And when this new conflict did start, “Tito handed over the Macedonians to the Greeks with absolutely no guarantees as to what was going to eventually happen to them under Greek control…”

In the clash between the CPY and CPG i.e. during the anti-Yugoslav campaign waged by the Informburo, the CPG leadership did attempt to include the Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia into their conflict.

During the 2nd NOF Congress the Macedonian people returned to the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest

March 25 and 26, 1949. The 2nd NOF Congress was held in the village P’pli in Prespa Region, with over 700 delegates and guests attending. The greater number of delegates were members of DAG.

The Congress was opened by Evdokia Nikolovna – Vera, who among other things said: “Today we are holding NOF’s Second Congress, during which we will proclaim the new programming principles of our organization. The Macedonian people, who have sustained hundreds of casualties, with their victory, tomorrow will alone be able to determine what they want. This Congress is held at the most crucial time because the Macedonian people are already involved in a struggle against the Monarcho-Fascists...”

Attending the Congress on behalf of the CPG Central Committee, Nikos Zahariadis said: “NOF’s Second Congress is being held at a difficult but decisive moment. I heard Glizburg speak in Athens last night and he said that the situation in early 1949 was very critical, like never before... Because of that, all measures undertaken during this Congress must be such that they contribute to your people so that the struggle is even greater and that we together make every effort to win this year. From this aspect, your Congress is a military Congress and must convince your people to maximize their contribution. We need to mobilize all your forces in Macedonia, all your assets and use every opportunity to achieve victory. Your Congress is a Congress of unity of the Macedonian people.

... Now I will pass the question to those who nurture the need for unity among your people. He who deserts the struggle and spreads rumours that ‘the Greeks will betray you’ is betraying his own people.”

Note: All this about which Zahariadis spoke in front of the Macedonian people was a never before seen manipulation and hypocrisy purposely perpetrated against the Macedonians, a small nation of people, against whom this great fraud was perpetrated, which pushed them deeper into this insane and disastrous war. At this point in time Zahariadis was well aware of the real situation and status of the war, yet he continued to push the Macedonian people into it and destroy them to the last one. And to think that NOF was part of this and totally oblivious of what was happening, simply boggles the mind! Was there no one in NOF that knew that Stalin had already instructed Zahariadis to stop the war and was due to go to Moscow for discussions on April 10, 1949? Why then did both the CPG and NOF keep pushing the Macedonian people to fight?

But in order to follow development with regards to NOF, we need to examine the Macedonian leadership’s approach to solving the Macedonian question. In other words, what was NOF’s role in this and how would NOF have solved the Macedonian question?

I have to be honest here and admit that NOF’s leadership was completely clueless as to what was happening or, like Zahariadis, it did not care at all about the Macedonian people or both! As responsible leaders of the Macedonian people, should the NOF leadership bear responsibility for what happened to the people? Yes it should! For one, it obeyed Zahariadis’s orders trustingly and without question. It involved the Macedonian people en masse in an alien and ideological war. NOF had no exit strategy to exit the war or safeguard strategy to save the people and safely return them to their homes! So who should we blame for this? Zahariadis and Markos, settlers from Asia Minor, for looking after their own interests? The Greek government for looking after its interests? Who should be blamed for this other than those who were directly responsible for us?

There is an old saying that goes something like this: “Don’t bother attempting to divide the Macedonian people intentionally, just throw a controversy at them and they will nicely divide themselves.”

The Informburo Resolution or conflict that arose between the Soviet (KPSS) and Yugoslav (CPY) Communist Parties in June 1948 was an excellent example of how to divide the Macedonian people. Although this conflict had nothing to do with the Macedonians, it had an extremely negative impact on the ranks of NOF and AFZH. All of a sudden there was new political stratification, new political rhetoric, new realignment problems, new opposition and new victims. Unfortunately no one bothered to tell the DAG fighters, who now found themselves outside beyond Macedonia’s ethnic borders, about these games being played. So after NOF was dissolved, both the CPY and the CPG began to manipulate the fighters as they wished.

After being under the leadership of the CPY for nearly two years, then after being passed on to the CPG without completely severing its ties to the CPY, the NOF leadership became divided and began to take sides in two opposing camps. One camp was influenced by the formation of the Macedonian state within Yugoslavia and continued to maintain its connection to Yugoslavia, believing that Yugoslavia would bring salvation to the Macedonian people and solve the Macedonian question in Greek occupied Macedonia just as it had for the People’s Republic of Macedonia in Yugoslavia. The leadership of NOF that joined the other camp was well aware of the CPY and CPG agreements. It was well aware of the Yugoslav directives which subordinated NOF to the CPG. For those reasons and for opportunistic reasons, this camp became loyal and obedient to the CPG. This is why this NOF camp also defended the notion of equality within a democratic Greek state. This part of NOF, even though it belonged to the opposite camp, had not completely severed its ties with the CPY, which meant that despite the 1946 agreement between the CPY and CPG, the CPG did not have full control over NOF. Because Yugoslavia was a very important factor in DAG leading the struggle in Greece, the CPG did not take radical measures to completely cut off ties between NOF and Yugoslavia and repress all influence exerted by the People’s Republic of Macedonia on the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia. After the KPSS and CPY collided, however, this course was completely changed. Shortly after the Inforbiroto (58) Resolution and the NOF Central Council 1st Plenum, held on August 8, 1948, Zahariadis suspended the main leadership of NOF and AFZH. And thus, this is how things were done in the eternal Balkans. Now the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia became preoccupied in a dramatic schism, while at the same time struggling to fight in an alien war for alien interests.

After that, NOF and AFZH become “fictitious” organizations completely depleted of responsibility and were only there to serve Zahariadis’s interests and to be used as scapegoats for Zahariadis’s ambitious blunders.

Second (intentionally) optimistic scenario: create a Communist Party for the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia.

For the purpose of furthering his own ambitions, whatever they may have been, Zahariadis orchestrated the creation of a “Communist Party” for the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia. This party, even though completely dependent on the CPG, was named “KOEM” (Communist Party of the Aegean Macedonians).

One of KOEM’s main goals was to prevent “relationships” from developing between the Macedonians in the Republic of Macedonia and those in Greek occupied Macedonia. In addition to creating “KOEM” and suspending all relations between the Macedonians, to make sure such relationships never developed again, Zahariadis instilled hatred in the Macedonians in one camp for the Macedonians in the other camp. Zahariadis made sure that the Macedonian National Question became an integral part of the Informburo’s anti-Yugoslav campaign in order to suspend and reverse all spiritual and political relations in existence between the Macedonians in the Republic of Macedonia and those in Greek occupied Macedonia. As a result, the Macedonian struggle for national and social freedom disoriented nationwide. Then Zahariadis eventually blamed NOF for DAG’s defeat.

Is it difficult to comprehend how, we the Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia could become pawns in the ideological collision course between the CPY and the CPG and in the politics of Yugoslavia and Greece with such lasting consequences.

April 4, 1949. An agreement was signed in Washington to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) which would consist of the U.S., UK, France, Canada, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, Iceland, Denmark and Norway.

April 12, 1949. A directive was sent from Stalin to Zahariadis ordering him to end the armed struggle in Greece. Stalin came to this conclusion because of serious U.S. involvement in Greece, the creation of NATO and because socialist Yugoslavia was excluded from the main socialist camp, even though DAG heavily relied on Yugoslav support. And for precisely these reasons, Zahariadis, when he visited Moscow, agreed to withdraw DAG from the armed struggle at the end of May 1949 as Stalin suggested.

April 22, 1949. Zahariadis instructed the CPG Central Committee Politburo to postpone the withdrawal of DAG and ordered DAG to be supplemented with 13 to 15 year old Macedonian children, to be recruited from the Homes in the Eastern European Countries where they had been sent the year before. Most of these children were from the Kostur and Lerin Region villages. I am a witness to this myself. I became aware of this when I met my cousin Mitre Novachkov who then was almost 14 years old and who had just arrived in Malimadi with a group of 13 to 14 year old children who were sent to Romania the year before. Almost all of these children were killed in the battles fought at the Malimadi front line in Rundzel Mountain. .

May 5, 1949. Fitzroy MacLean, British Military Mission Chief, met with Tito in Belgrade. McLean, directed by the British Government, asked Tito to stop helping DAG (∆ΣΕ) and in exchange Yugoslavia would receive western economic aid.

May 29, 1949. Aiming to prove that no Macedonians existed in Greece and to disorient and draw the Macedonians out of DAG, the Greek government in Athens issued the following confidential orders: “Be informed that, pursuant to an order issued by a competent authority, in future all inhabitants of Northern Greece whose mother tongue is the well-known idiom, will be called ‘Slavophones’. Calling them any other name, such as ‘Slavo-Macedonians’, ‘Bulgarians’, etc. is prohibited.”

Everyone was reminded to pay attention and stop treating the Slavo-phones as Slavs.

June 20, 1949. The KOEM (Communist Organization of Aegean Macedonia) leadership under Zahariadis’s direction accepted and signed a resolution, which confirmed the allegations against Yugoslavia and against the organizations NOF and AFZH. Among other things the resolution said:

“NOF and AFZH are organizations for agents. They functioned in Aegean Macedonia but had roots in three foreign agencies; in OZNA, in the JNA Intelligence service and in Kolishevski’s circle. They were all working with the same goal in mind; to undermine and topple the CPG, especially NOF which was working from inside the Party to promote Yugoslav policies whose main objective was the acquisition of Aegean Macedonia for Yugoslavia.”

Many charges were leveled against almost all members of NOF and AFZH on top of which personal and moral insults were hurled. But aside from all that, for each NOF or AFZH member who was successful in building on the collective consciousness, three things stood out for them:

1). Ideological background CPY or CPG, 2). A guaranteed leadership position, and 3). Enjoying Party status privileges.

But for the thousands of fighters who served in the ranks of DAG, who gave their lives fighting in the Greek Civil War and who lost or became separated from their families, there was nothing. They became the living wanderers of the world! They became the lost souls who lost their homes, their history and their happiness. Even today, their suffering is never mentioned and their services are not appreciated, not by the CPY/CPM in the Republic of Macedonia and not by the CPG in Greece. In fact, their contribution and services have been completely erased from history by the CPG, whose membership today claims that Macedonians never existed in Greece.

With the formation of NATO, Western European countries placed their forces under the framework and control of the Pentagon in the United States.

The governments of all signatory states, in parallel with the signed document that made them members of the alliance, also separately signed agreements with the U.S. military in order to receive U.S. assistance to arm their military formations.

Thus the creation of NATO realigned the western world Internationally, under the leadership of the United States not only militarily but also economically and politically, which gave rise to the “Truman Doctrine” and the “Marshall Plan”.

The establishment of NATO strongly affected the overall Greek position in the Greek Civil War.

KPSS (Soviet) proposals to the CPG to stop the war

As mentioned earlier, on April 12, 1949 Stalin personally informed Zahariadis to end the war and gave him his reasons. Stalin also told Zahariadis that there was a good possibility that the Greek government army would attack Albania to stop DAG and that in turn would draw in NATO. Because of its ideological differences with Yugoslavia, the USSR would be unable to provide assistance.

But then on May 4, 1949, suddenly, the Soviet leadership notified Zahariadis that DAG’s withdrawal was temporarily suspended and that DAG should continue to fight.

With all these facts before us how can we even pretend that this war was a Macedonian revolution? How can we believe that the Macedonians were political and military factors in the Greek Civil War? How can we believe that the Macedonians were in command of DAG where there was not a single Macedonian high ranking officer among them? The only thing we can believe is that NOF was very successful in mobilizing more than 15,000 Macedonian fighters from the peasant population who proved themselves to be worthy of the name “fighters”, even though they were led astray!

On June 24, 1949 DAG’s Security Services requested approval from the CPG Central Committee Politburo to organize an isolation camp (59) in order to jail “proven” supporters and agents of the Athens regime and of Yugoslavia. This measure was designed to frustrate alleged agents and their hostile activities against the CPG and DAG.

Should we even waste our words to describe the manipulation of strangers and those amongst us who would even think that such activities existed in the very same people who were ready and willing to give their lives in this war? Did our NOF and AFZH spiritual leaders suddenly forget what they had brought us here to do and were now willing participants in this manipulation? If not they, then who should have worried about the fate of us Macedonians? Was Party affiliation to the CPY or to the CPG more important than the fate of the Macedonian nation which they condemned to fight in this war? Summary of events that further explain the general situation in Greek occupied Macedonia

July 28-29, 1949. The Informburo Resolution adopted during the CPG Central Committee 4th Plenum was the topic of discussion. The Plenum decided to accept the Informburo Resolution and summarized it under a separate document entitled: “CPG Central Committee 5th Plenum Resolution regarding the Communist and Working Parties and the situation with the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.” However, because of what was said in the resolution “specifically by the CPG and its position towards Yugoslavia” the Plenum decided to keep the Resolution “internal and not release it to the world”.

The BCP and KPSS leaderships were not happy and did not endorse the CPG’s secret policy towards the CPY and vowed not to allow “another Tito” to appear in the Balkans.

In response to this conference, the KOEM, NOF, AFZH and NOMS leaderships, as well as the DAG fighters whose families were in Yugoslavia but still defended the CPG policy, issued a statement saying: “We Macedonians will defend the position and view of Comrade Zahariadis and the CPG leadership taken against Yugoslavia and its leadership, which is leading a treacherous policy and we will fight with the Greek Communists in the struggle led by the CPG and DAG until we free Greece from the Monarcho-Fascists”.

Events in Skopje and the People’s Republic of Macedonia – CPM/CPY manipulations

February 9, 1949. Porfirogenis (CPG and Politburo member) led a CPG delegation to Skopje where he held a meeting with NOF representatives and demanded that they recruit around 300 new fighters for DAG from the Macedonian refugees who had earlier fled to Yugoslavia from Greek occupied Macedonia. His plan, however, was not realized.

On July 20, 1949, Nikos Zahariadis, CPG Central Committee Secretary General, initiated the creation of the Communist Organization for Aegean Macedonia (KOEM). The meeting was held in a cave located between the villages Vineni and Orovo in Prespa Region.

Active participants in KOEM were Nikos Zahariadis, Michos Prtsalidis and other CPG functionaries as well as 45 members and candidate

members from the NOF General Board and from the Macedonian DAG political and military personnel serving in the area of Vicho.

During the meeting, Nikos Zahariadis expressed his views as follows: “... NOF is an agent organization which has hindered the realization of the CPG line and has caused discomfort and harm to the democratic movement in this country. Even though NOF works in Aegean Macedonia, it has agents with roots in three foreign agencies in Yugoslavia. It is associated with OZNA, JA and Kolishevski who controls the first two. All Yugoslav agents work for the Yugoslav Intelligence Services and submit written reports to their agencies... The CPG wants to help you and save you (addressing the Macedonians). Cut all your ties with the CPY and cleanse yourselves from its ideology... There was a time when the Macedonians wanted to split themselves from the CPG. That was the time when Tito wanted to steal Macedonia down to Solun. That was the time when some of you were sent to Greece by the CPY to work for its interests and to clarify questions and accounts for them. Tito wanting to join Macedonia to Yugoslavia was an act of imperialism which needs to be clarified. Since 1945, Tito has sent OZNA agents here who were organized by the 2nd Bureau of JA into three’s.

During those days when Yugoslavia was in the camp of the People’s Republics we tolerated Tito’s agents and looked the other way. But given his open betrayal, we are forced to clarify these matters…”

After Zahariadis spoke he was followed by Michos Partsalidis, CPG Central Committee Politburo member who, among other things, said: “…The unity between the Macedonian and Greek people in Vicho made a remarkable impression on me. Why? How did that happen? It happened because of the kind of struggle the Party is leading, Greeks and Macedonians, communists struggling together. It happened precisely because the Party struggles to help the Macedonian people in their struggle.

It should not be too much trouble to terminate the efforts of such reactionary gangs. Tito’s betrayal has reached advanced levels and now we have reasons to cleanse his agents. It has given us a second chance to review the situation. There should be no comrade among us who will find themselves in a dilemma as to who they will pledge their loyalty; to the Soviet Union or to Yugoslavia. Unfortunately the NOF leadership has not been clear on this. It has a low ideological level…”

In his conclusion Zahariadis asked the participants to make a decision; revolution or counterrevolution. Meaning, pledge their loyalty to Stalin or to Tito. Those who vote for the resolution, he said, are good communists, revolutionaries and internationalists, and those who do not accept the resolution are counter-revolutionaries!

And this is how Macedonian issues were decided during the Greek Civil War; Macedonians sacrificing themselves for Stalin, Tito and Zahariadis in the interest of foreign ideologies and strangers.