KING CONSTANTINE’S TELEGRAM - Part 04

The real reason why Tito refused to allow armed Macedonian fighters to enter Yugoslav territory was because of his tiff with Stalin. Stalin threatened that he would take the People’s Republic of Macedonia away from him and would create an independent Macedonian state with it. And indeed he would have done that, but because of fear of retaliation with atomic bombs from the English and Americans he decided not to. Stalin was very angry with Tito and would have done anything to “eliminate him” but Tito knew how to play the diplomatic game and had one foot in the East and the other in the West. He kept the balance of power by playing on both sides.

After DAG was defeated the entire Macedonian population that aided the war effort, fighters and civilians, were convinced by the communists to leave their homes and flee to Albania. They would have preferred to go to Yugoslavia but the Greek-Yugoslav border was closed, at least that’s what the people were told. After they crossed into Albania the Greek government closed the border behind them. All the fighters were sent to the Soviet Union, but when I asked why no one knew. The reason the DAG fighters were sent to the Soviet Union was because, as I said before, Stalin had plans to arm them and send them back to carve out the People’s Republic of Macedonia from the Yugoslav federation and to create an independent Macedonian state. But, like I said before, Stalin changed his mind because Tito was playing on both sides and could have asked for English and American help. Stalin did not want to risk starting a new war with the west just to teach Tito a lesson. So he left it at that.

A few years later the vast majority of the Macedonian partisan fighters who were sent to the Soviet Union, not being welcome to return to their homes in Greece, decided to go to the People’s Republic of Macedonia. But instead of being welcomed as heroes they were treated as criminals. Just as they entered the Republic of Macedonia they were all sent to jail where they were interrogated, and, among the many questions asked was the question: “Are you for Tito or for Stalin?” Of course the former fighters as well as the civilians had no idea why they were even asked such a question, but God help those who said “I am for Stalin”. They were immediately

sent to special camps and remained there until they died. Tito was still afraid of Stalin. Seeing all these former Macedonian fighters coming to Yugoslavia, with whom Stalin had threatened him, must have given Tito shivers…

All the Macedonians who were expelled from their homeland or had left their ancestral homes without permission from the Greek government, including the war refugees who fled to save themselves, were not allowed to return to Greece, not even to visit their families or attend funerals.

In early 1948 as the so-called Greek Civil War began to escalate and move north into the northern part of Greek occupied Macedonia, the Macedonian villages were exposed to constant violence and aerial bombardments by English and American aircraft. So a program was started to supposedly save the Macedonian children by sending them outside of the country until the conflict ended. Over 28,000 children were collected and sent over the border mostly into Yugoslavia from where they were distributed to various Eastern European countries willing to take them. These children too were not allowed to return to Greece.