CHAPTER TWO - CHANGING THE ETHNIC COMPOSITION OF THE POPULATION IN GREEK OCCUP

CHAPTER TWO - CHANGING THE ETHNIC COMPOSITION OF THE POPULATION IN GREEK OCCUPIED MACEDONIA (1913-1928)

After the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) and especially after the “Great War” (1914-1918), significant territorial, ethnic and economic changes were made in the Balkans. The small but ambitious Greek kingdom seems to have accomplished its territorial expansion and “historical ideals” and there was nothing in its way but to “rise to the Byzantine throne which was vacant since 1453”. (Dourmoussis E, La verité sur un drama historique, La catastrophe de Smyrne, September 1922, Paris, 1928, p. 13.)

Being a victor in the Balkan Wars, the Greek state significantly expanded its political borders to the north. By receiving Greek occupied Macedonia (34,356 km²) following the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest, the Greek political borders were extended past what was originally assumed to be Greek historical borders. The vast majority of the population living in Greek occupied Macedonia was Macedonian or of non-Greek origin. Out of the total of 1,052,227 inhabitants that lived in Greek occupied Macedonia after 1913, the non-Greek population, which spoke a non-Greek language and was of non-Greek culture and traditions, was 77.50%, while the so-called Greek population by origin and language was only 22.50% of the total population.

With the signing of the Neuilly Convention, the Greek state expanded its political borders even further. This Convention was concluded between Bulgaria, Greece, and the other victorious powers in Neuilly in 1919. This time the Greek kingdom acquired the western part of Thrace (between the Mesta and Maritsa Rivers), with a mixed population. According to the languages spoken by families, after the Great War, there were 74,000 Turks, 65,000 Bulgarians, 56,000 Greeks and about 195,000 Hellenized inhabitants living in Western Thrace. (Jacques Ancel, Peuples et Nations des Balkans, Paris, 1930, p. 183.)

With the acquisition of Western Thrace, the non-Greek population living in Greece increased significantly. Immediately after the Paris

Peace Accord, there were 954,482 non-Greeks (by origin, language and cultural traditions) living in Greece.

Following the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest and the 1919 Neuilly Convention, the Greek state ceased to be nationally homogeneous (one state with one nation). This resulted in an unresolved national issue. The non-Greek population that lived in that territory until 1913, in its own traditional ethnic and historical lands, was openly challenged by the Greek occupiers. Since its inception, the Greek state had been indisputably exercising the principle of “one state, one people”, which left no room for non-Greeks to live in Greece.

By putting this principle into practice, immediately after 1913, the Greek bourgeoisie began to implement a policy of creating one state with one nation, one language and the will to enlarge the Greek state until it occupied two continents and five seas. In other words, after the Balkan Wars and after World War I, the Greek bourgeoisie sought to bring back the Byzantine State in the Balkans through a fictitious idea called the “Megali Idea” or Greater Greece. To achieve this, the Greek government created a special ministry for Northern Greece with which it began to implement expulsion policies, expelling the non-Greek Macedonian population. It then began to occupy Macedonia by importing settlers and colonists from Asia Minor and other places. The colonists were settled in Greek occupied Macedonia and began to replace the traditional Macedonian ethnic and historical population. This policy of expelling Macedonians and colonizing Macedonia with non-Macedonians was carried out during favourable conditions in the early 20th century. Included in these conditions were the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) with the signing of the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest, the First World War (1914-1918) with the signing of the Paris Peace Accord (1919) and the Greek-Turkish War (1920-1922) with the signing of the 1923 Lausanne Peace Treaty.

1. THE BALKAN WARS AND THE FIRST POPULATION EXPULSION IN GREEK OCCUPIED MACEDONIA

The first large population expulsion in Greek occupied Macedonia took place during the First Balkan War when the Greek army occupied parts of southwestern Macedonia that included Kozhani, Kostur and Lerin and parts of central Macedonia that included Solun. In parallel with its military operations, the Greek army launched a war campaign against the Turkish and other Muslim populations living in Greek occupied Macedonia. Almost all the Turkish villages were burned down with aims at terrorizing and killing the Muslim population. A large number of frantic Turkish families sought protection in Solun and eventually left for Turkey, never to return. In the Praveshka district, for example, where 20,000 Turkish people lived, one to twenty people were killed in each village. This forced the Turks and other Muslims to leave Macedonia. (Anketa na Balkanig, Aoklag na Karnachevata comisia po vopnit pres 1912-1913, Sofia, 1914, p. 3.)

During the First Balkan War the entire Macedonian population experienced strong political, economic and psychological pressure from the Greek army. In the Kostur Region, for example, the Greeks advised the Macedonian people to declare themselves Greek and to accept the Greek language because otherwise “...life was not going to be easy”. (Documents relatifs oux actions antibulgares des pouvoir Serbes et grecs en Macedonine ou coure de l'anne 1912-1913, Sofia, p. 257.) At the same time Macedonian properties were plundered and schools, archives, books, etc., were burned down. (Ibid. p. 24.)

During the Second Balkan War, the dimensions of this Greek genocidal policy grew and became very anti-Macedonian in character. According to M. Markezinis: “Having full knowledge of the significance of this new war we go into, a war that was going to resolve the fate of the nation, we entered with greater hatred and fanaticism...” (M. Markezinis, Politiki istoria tis neoteras Elados, Athina, 1968, vol. 3, p. 272). There were peasants with low intellectual levels among the Greek soldiers who circled sketches of Greek soldiers eating the heads of their opponents. Such behaviour showed that the Greek army was without military dignity and deprived of morality. Everything that was Macedonian was destroyed with rare cruelty. The Macedonian people, whom the Greek soldiers called Bulgarians, were seen as nothing more than animals. The crimes committed by the Greek soldiers were unbelievable. They burned down cities and villages, publicly and collectively raped women and girls, committed mass murders… According to a Carnegie Commission report: “Many mothers lost children because they had to leave one behind in order to save another…” (Anketa na Balkanig, page 26.) Crimes committed by the Greek army were also revealed in the letters and journals, written by Greek soldiers who had fallen into the hands of the Bulgarian army. Here is what was written in one of those letters: “We burned the villages and killed people as we were ordered. What we have done is indescribable…” “It has been a slaughterhouse and the Lord knows where we’re going with this...” read another letter. (Ibid., p. 32.) During the two Balkan Wars, the Greek army burned down 160 populated places, destroyed blossoming towns, including Kukush, and forced 16,000 Macedonians to seek salvation in Bulgaria. The Greek army did not commit these crimes because of military necessity, it committed them to simply realize a specific pre-drawn policy and that was to remove the Macedonian population out of Greek occupied Macedonia. This is what was written in one of the Carnegie Commission reports: “There is no doubt that a 140-kilometre area, inhabited by Bulgarians (Macedonians), was purposely and completely destroyed and almost all the villages were burned down. And it can not be said that this was done because of some military necessity. The Greeks were more numerous than their enemies…” (In comparison to Alsace and Lorraine, Erdey (or Transylvania), the Carpathian Ukraine, Voivodina, Korushka, Kosovo, Istria, South Tyrol, Western Thrace, Bessarabia and North Bukovina, Shlionsk and Pomorie). And even though the Greek military inflicted unbelievable terror on the Macedonian people during the two Balkan wars, a large majority of the Macedonian population stayed at home and continued to live as the most compact and largest population in Greek occupied Macedonia.