CHAPTER FOUR - Truths and controversies about the Greek Civil War (1945-1949) - Part 02

against the Greek government they became a target of extermination. Because now they left Greece with no choice but to fight back in order to save its integrity. This was the long-term plan all along. To get the Macedonians involved in the disastrous war, the Greek communists told them all sorts of lies that ranged from “fighting to re-unite Macedonia”, “fighting to create an independent Republic of Macedonia within Greece”, “fighting for their rights as equals in Greece”, to “fighting for their survival”. In the meantime the Greek government was telling the Greek people that the Macedonians were “foreign Slav bandits” fighting to break away and steal their Macedonia and attach it to Yugoslavia. The rest of the world, particularly the western world, was told that this was a “Civil War” between the terrible communists who wanted to install socialism in Greece and the democratic Greek people who just wanted to live free and happy in a western democracy.

Unfortunately none of the above turned out to be true. As events have shown and as it turned out in the end, “this war” was nothing more than a legal means to destroy communism and to exterminate the Macedonian population in Greek occupied Macedonia. This long period of uncertainty that involved the entire spectrum of the Macedonian population, including infants and children, was an exhaustive, brutal and permanent violent act against the Macedonian people which forever scarred them and left them in limbo, drifting around the world while their Macedonia rested in desolation devoid of its indigenous population. This war gave Greece and its patrons what they had always wanted, a Macedonia without Macedonians. I will say it again. The “Greek Civil War” was not a grass roots war between “Greeks” fighting “Greeks” for social and political change, it was a war of “extermination” during which “genocide” was perpetrated against the Macedonian population in Greek occupied Macedonia under the watchful eye of the world. To cover it up, we have been told that “Macedonians do not exist…”

If our ancestors throughout history were tormented to no end, they were bent but never broken. They survived six centuries of Ottoman slavery, a century of foreign propaganda but were only bent and never broken. We, on the other hand, after less than half a decade in the Greek Civil War, were not only broken, we had lost everything… We lost our ancestral hearth, the very thing that

defined us as Macedonians. This was no coincidence; this was a perpetrated act by some very powerful people. But that was not the end of our torment… Our history had been written for us telling us that somehow we were guilty of all the crimes committed against us… It was our fault for experiencing genocide… for our eviction from our homes… for our isolation…. for being turned into drifters roaming the world! It is no coincidence that today we struggle to find our place in the world as Macedonians and are finding it difficult to name our tiny country Macedonia. Nothing is a coincidence…

It was no coincidence that we struggled in the services of the CPY, in the services of the CPG, in leaving our homes to escape death… It was no coincidence that we were not allowed to return… These were deliberate political acts, committed under the watchful eye of the world, and to this day this perpetrated genocide has been kept a secret. Those magnificent Generals, the likes of the incompetent Gusias, Markos and Vlandas, did not fight all those battles to conquer Lerin, Voden, Sobotsko, Negosh, Vicho and Gramos for us. They did not fight to liberate them so that they could give them back to us. They fought to “get rid” of us so that they could make Greece “pure”, populated by 100% pure Greeks!

Today every DAG fighter should be asking himself or herself the following questions:

1. What communist party in the world would perpetrate genocide against its own members who died for its objectives?

2. What general would abandon his army if the very soldiers who fought for him were considered heroes?

3. Why is the CPG, even today, afraid of telling the truth about the civil war, about DAG’s history the way it was and about that one undeniable fact that the Macedonian identity existed and still exists to this day in Greece?

What is most tragic is that the people who called themselves “DAG warriors”, the people who were mobilized in DAG by NOF and fought in the war, were driven out of their homeland and left out

there to roam the world. Upon their return, not to their homes in Greek occupied Macedonia, but to their homeland in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, the NOF leaders, with the exception of the top leaders who were sent to Siberia, were welcomed back with honours. The fighters, meanwhile, and the thousands of refugees, including children, elderly, and the sick and wounded, were left to roam the world in the various camps, as “Greek political immigrants”, waiting for the end of their lives. Why did the Republic of Macedonia not take every Macedonian from Greek occupied Macedonia and place them in the villages in the western part of the Republic and let them build new lives there? These Macedonians were used to living in villages. They were hardworking people and would have greatly contributed to the Macedonian and Yugoslavian economy. Unfortunately that was not done! It was not done because, even in the Republic of Macedonia, the Macedonian people’s destiny was in foreign hands. Because of this, even today, more than six decades later, we still have Macedonian people roaming the world, left there to be punished for the supposed “sins” they committed against Greece and the Greeks, our occupiers, during the “so-called” Greek Civil War… This information needs to come out and become public knowledge so that today we and future generations can know the truth and avoid making the same mistakes.

Stoian Kochov has invested his lifetime telling our story, the true story of what happened in Greek occupied Macedonia, as experienced by Macedonians who lived through it. As a DAG fighter and permanent refugee, Stoian has done his best to let us know, to inform us, of what happened to our people in Greece… and what happened was no accident, it was perpetrated against us to serve some “higher Great Power purpose”... But what happened to us was not an act of God, but an act of man and when man tries to wipe out an entire race of people for his own purposes, it is called “GENOCIDE”. Stoian has done his best to present us with the evidence we need to make up our own minds about the depths of our tragedy in Greece. Stoian, through the various books he has written, has presented us with the “other side” of history, the dark side, hidden from us for over half a century.

“In May 1945, like great messengers, the Macedonian organizations NOF and AFZH, had almost completely encompassed the entire Macedonian population,” said Suvogorski.

He stopped talking for a moment and looked over his shoulder at Petre Magdin, feeling like that door behind him had opened. Suvogorski then continued:

“Daily politics had invaded the people’s lives, so much so that the Macedonian people’s existence was linked exclusively to the CPG through NOF and AFZH, for which they would have given their lives...

Unfortunately everything was very blurry in those days and everything that was said and done, especially by the CPM/CPY and by the CPG, was done for political reasons that did not serve Macedonian interests in Greek occupied Macedonia.

The whole process was well-managed, strong and senseless propaganda initiated by the CPM/CPY and managed by NOF, telling the Macedonian people what they wanted to hear and then shaping their destiny, especially during a period when they were most vulnerable.

It is incredible how they were able to manipulate people to drop everything at home, join the partisan units and be ready to fight and give their lives for NOF and AFZH… To sacrifice themselves for something they hardly understood… propagated through slogans like: “All to arms and everything for victory and freedom!” that made no sense to most villagers. It takes a trusting people to commit to such a leap of faith!

This behaviour, unfortunately, was normal for the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia from 1945 to August 1949, when we Macedonians were driven out of our homes and experienced genocide…” concluded Suvogorski.

Suvogorski then turned his attention to his audience and began to shout: “It was madness; I tell you… madness, madness! We did this! We were responsible for doing this to our own people… We were the ideological activists who got them involved…”

Suvogorski paused for a moment, composed himself and continued: “At the same time we were motivating our people to go out and fight, the Greek government undertook unprecedented acts of terrorism against us. It tormented and murdered the Macedonian people, basically the same people… the same villagers we were trying to motivate to fight. We wanted them to fight for the Macedonian cause and the Greeks punished them for feeling Macedonian. If the NOF activists could not convince them to fight, the Greek government did with its terror tactics. The Macedonian people, these villagers began to join the struggle en masse. For people who were completely unaware of politics, politics became a profession for these villagers… We then became the “fishermen of souls” hooking and reeling them in, making sacrifices out of them. We took away their spirits… These were people who were closely tied to the land… and we forced them into oblivion. Thousands of Macedonians left their large indigenous spirit behind and became endless wanderers… and it was our fault… because we listened to strangers and outsiders… without thinking for ourselves. We listened to the lies of the same people who invaded, occupied, partitioned and annexed our Macedonia and we believed them. Why? I don’t know why! Perhaps because they knew our weaknesses and used them against us…?

Did we Macedonians, during this period of time, while we were heavily influenced by the CPM/CPY, not know who the Greeks were and what they had done to us in the past? Of course we did! Why then did we surrender to the CPG and allow it and the Greek government to take all those actions against us… that led to our genocide?

More specifically, why did NOF and AFZH, while still being under the influence of the CPM/CPY in 1945-1946, by their actions, slowly open the door to our persecution and genocidal activities, forcing our people to leave their homes and join DAG in order to sacrifice themselves for an unattainable cause? There is only one

answer to all these questions that actually makes sense; they did this to drive us out of our homeland… They did this because they wanted “a Macedonian without Macedonians”. And the only way to achieve this was to “get rid” of us in a nice and legal way…”

Suvogorski, looking red in the face, paused for a moment to take a deep breath and continued: “And now, 60 years later, our official historians think they know all the facts and have clear answers …that the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia did what?”

Looking visibly upset, Suvogorski again paused for a moment to compose himself, and in a calm tone of voice said: “And what did Kolishevski say? Kolishevski said: ‘Now go down there… and listen to the CPG’...”

Suvogorski paused again. He was overcome with emotion. He looked around at everyone, one by one, and then calmly continued: “Kolishevski told us that ‘We are a part of a Democratic Federal Yugoslavia and everything that comes between us and some other state can be resolved but only through Marshal Tito’s government.’ Those were Kolishevski’s words. Tsvetko Uzunov spoke after Kolishevski.

Uzunov said: ‘It was the CPM/CPY who organized the plans for Aegean Macedonia’ but he did not tell us what their purpose was. He did not tell us why the CPM/CPY, led by Tito, wanted us Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia to take weapons in our hands and start a war in Greece?

NOF and AFZH were created in Skopje especially for that purpose… Not too long after that we received two bitter rivals: the CPG and the Greek government which steadfastly defended Greece’s sovereignty,” concluded Suvogorski.

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Verbalism in place of historical analysis

Even though the book “P. S. G. in Aegean Macedonia (1945-1949)” has presented much historical information in an organized fashion, it has also opened many unsubstantiated historical events and has created many provocations. These unsubstantiated historical events need to be carefully opened and patiently, systematically and chronologically examined. This needs to be done in order to add credibility to our written history, to the history of the “Aegeans”. Otherwise our history will remain underrepresented and unexplained.