A LETTER FROM RISTO BURNAZOV

A LETTER FROM RISTO BURNAZOV

Dear Stoian,

I decided to print your article entitled “One-way Ticket” because I found it easier to read. I found your story about this part of our history (history of the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia) precise and clear. What you presented here, at least for me, are very important historical events which you support with facts and documents. The article is comprehensive and makes good reading. It provides a good understanding of the events that took place. You have done wonders in capturing the events and actions in your history article entitled “Struggles of the Macedonian generations under Greece through foreign ideologies”, where you present the contributions, opinions and views of certain important historical and political figures, who pervaded the narrative opus of our historical knowledge, as you yourself have done. I find them especially interesting and important because rarely has any historian, so accurately and in detail, presented clearly and documented events in continuity and informed us about our ordeals and suffering. It is clear to me that your knowledge and determination to unearth historical facts, above all, is due to your personal participation in ELAS and DAG as a fighter and participant in those events. Your work is of particular importance to all of us and, beyond, to the demystification of certain superficial ideologies with which we have become entrenched in some blurry truth with a vague connection to historical authenticity.

You earned your praise for revealing the historical truth which I very much appreciate and consider it to be the work of a committed and persistent patriot. And now I will add my own remarks:

I found the 24 page article entitled “One-way Ticket” to be stylistically constructed and clear in its content and sentences. It is easy to read. The editorially refined sentences allowed me as a reader to summarize my thoughts, attitudes and clarifications expressed.

However, the editorial comments in the article “Struggles of the Macedonian generations under Greece through foreign ideologies”

lacks editorial control and the text contains errors. Sometimes the text comes out vague and confusing.

But to be sure, for me, it is still important that the true history of the struggle of the Macedonians in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia be put on paper. The technical flaws are not as significant and noticeable as compared to the worth of exposing the manipulations, betrayals, mysteries and inconsistencies that led all fronts to a United or partially United Macedonia, and to the detriment of the Macedonian people.

The Macedonian people in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia, that is the Macedonian people under Greece, participated in all wars and battles since a part of Macedonia was annexed by Greece. In fact all Macedonian people in all parts of Macedonia participated in the armies of the neighbouring countries. During the wars they fought in the front lines for the countries that had occupied them. This means that they fought for foreign interests and they knew that, which, in itself, was an injustice to their own people. As a result they felt completely betrayed and humiliated, especially when their sacrifices were not only not recognized but completely ignored and they themselves were abused and made to suffer. This has been our fate!

And now, in 2018, we are experiencing a dark, unprecedented and incomprehensible madness brought upon us by these same foreigners through unscrupulous, corrupt politicians and traitors who want to erase the Macedonian state, the Macedonian people and everything that is Macedonian:

- Our nationality, - Our identity, - Our history, - Our culture, - Our independence.

How do we endure this treasury brought upon us by Zoran Zaev, Nikola Dimitrov, Sekerinska and their vassals - supporters of this great outrageous act - plotters of the shameful agreements with Greece and Bulgaria - for the destruction of MACEDONISM?

This reminds me of the proverb: “He who does not love and respect himself will be used many times over by strangers!”

Best regards, Risto Burnazov Boston, August 2 (Ilinden) 2018

While important research is conducted on migration issues worldwide, our migrations over the years have been ignored and our people have been compelled to remain silent… because it was and apparently still is politically correct. While papers of new studies are emerging in the world today, revealing the cruelest and most complex elements of projected persecution, ours sadly remain hidden. It seems the science of this subject for us has remained deaf for over half a century. No one seems to care, as if nothing happened to the 28,000 children exiled from Greek occupied Macedonia during the Greek Civil War. No one seems to care that these children have been deprived of their parents, their homes and their rights and who, to this day, still have no right to return home. The exiling of our children during the Greek Civil War, for us Macedonians, was one of the most tragic and serious problems in Macedonian history. Why? Because this has not happened even in the cruelest Balkan wars – to have innocent children ripped out of their families and homes and sent to oblivion for the sake of politics… It is unimaginable! While these deprived Macedonian children were given a one-way ticket out of their native hearths, and left to roam the world and never return, the Greek children were allowed to return. How fair is that? Sadly this cruel act was extended to their Macedonian fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, grandparents… And yet with unprecedented brutality, even today in this so-called modern civilization, these people are still prevented from returning to their native land, to their ancestral historic roots. It would not have been so ironic if both Macedonians and Greeks were allowed to return.

The main purpose for tackling the Macedonian child refugee issue is to present as realistic a view as possible of the historical truth and political thought of the so-called “ΠΕ∆ΟΜΑΖΟΜΑ” (the collection of children) or simply the “kidnapping” of children carried out by

the two warring parties: the Greek regime in Athens, on one hand, and the Provisional Democratic Government of Greece (CPG and DAG) on the other, who fought each other in the 1945 to 1949 so-called Greek Civil War.

The conflicts between these warring parties were purely class struggle and ideology (but not very clear, precisely in light of the views held by the CPG (Vafiadis and Zahariadis) and the CPM/CPY). In other words, while the Communists allegedly fought for socialism, that is, for the global project and for the socialization of the Balkans, the Greek government fought for the status quo.

In all this we also need to examine the role of NOF and AFZH, the Macedonian organizations, which faithfully served the Communist Party of Greece as was recommended by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. The CPG, through NOF and AFZH’s dedication and commendable attachment to the communist party, made full use of these Macedonian organizations in organizing and mobilizing the Macedonian people in the war effort during the Greek Civil War. Then, after DAG was defeated, NOF and AFZH along with their comrade-in-arms had to leave their native homes in Greek occupied Macedonia and go to the socialist republics and the USSR. Thousands of Macedonian DAG fighters and many Macedonians, members of the CPG, were given a one-way ticket out and sent to roam the world. At the same time, Greeks who committed the same sins: struggled to bring socialism to Greece, even the biggest Greek Communists, were allowed to return to their homes. This is a fact, everything else is speculation…

The question that needs to be asked here is: What consequences did the formation of NOF and AFZH have on the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia? We know for a fact that the creation of a Macedonian state as part of the Yugoslav federation had greatly influenced the Macedonians living in Greek occupied Macedonia. We also know that the CPY/CPM leaderships opposed the CPG’s attitude and practice towards the Macedonian question. So, in essence, the Macedonian people were offered two options; one, the right to self-determination, and two, continue to follow the Greek Communists position on the Macedonian question, recognize the Macedonian people as a minority with rights within the Greek state.

Thus, the Macedonian people were divided into two camps: one with the CPG and the other with the CPM / CPY. These were not options born out of the Macedonian people, they were options offered by outsiders and had ultimate strategic goals: to get the Macedonian people committed and then to recruit and deploy them as they pleased.

NOF, AFZH and NOMS were formed under a CPM/CPY initiative outside and independent of the CPG. When they were formed, NOF, AFZH and NOMS contradicted the CPG position on the Macedonian question and the kind of struggle taking place. This caused division in the Macedonian national liberation movement in Greek occupied Macedonia with irreconcilable and tragic consequences. Disagreements, clashes, suspicions, and prejudices were so sharp that they continued even after the so-called CPG-NOF unification in November 1946. But, contrary to what our historiography calls it, this was not a voluntary unification of two partners. The truth is: The CPG ordered the unification through its Bureau of Macedonia. It was an unconditional unification between the CPG and all military units formed by NOF without any concessions in favour of NOF. Markos Vafiadis, then Commander of General Staff, took advantage of this situation in the second half of September 1946 and forced the following conditions on NOF:

1 - Unconditionally disband all Macedonian units and have the NOF fighters join the CPG units.

2 - The CPG reserves the right to choose its own “commanders” in its military headquarters in whom it has full confidence.

This is how NOF came to be under CPG leadership. The conditions imposed on it were never eliminated, that is, they were employed all throughout the Greek Civil War and beyond… to this day. NOF was never independent. It was never a political or military factor the way our mainstream history has portrayed it. This is a fact.

This, of course, was deliberately done by the CPM/CPY and as a result, the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia paid for it dearly. They contracted the “Macedonian syndrome” which, a

long time ago, Bishop Caravangelis had described as the “suicide syndrome”.

We need to ask the question: Did NOF, AFZH and NOMS call on the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia to join these organizations and struggle to achieve their aspirations which were contrary to Greek national interests, which the CPG, EAM and ELAS were protecting? Yes they did! Then why did NOF, AFZH and NOMS become obedient and servile to the CPG after 1946 to 1949? What concessions did the CPG make to put these organizations under its control? And, what national goals did these organizations have when they surrendered to the CPG? (See: Assessments made by CPG Secretary General Nikos Zahariadis after DAG’s liquidation.)

The most tragic thing about this is that NOF, AFZH and NOMS took no responsibility for leading the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia from April 1945, when these organizations were formed by the CPM/CPY, to the fall of 1946 when they were surrendered to the CPG.

Should we Macedonians forget our real history and accept the blame for supposedly having lost the revolution like we have been taught by our Macedonian mainstream history for over half a century? Should those who needed to speak in the last half century still remain silent and those who were supposed to be silent still speak? Should we conform to what we have been taught and allow the truth to slowly die? It is well-known that the past never dies completely. More than half a century has passed and yet those who were expected to speak are still silent and those who were expected to remain silent are still speaking!

It would appear that fueling historical calamities benefits only those who still want to create “small” and “big” Macedonians.

In other words, we will continue to commit great historical injustice against the Macedonian people for as long as we remain silent and not cry out and tell the world that we have been victimized and that malicious and genocidal acts have been committed against us by strangers. People have seen and know exactly what happened but

those acts will be ignored for as long as we Macedonians remain silent.

It is a painful fact that during the time when NOF and AFZH were totally obedient to the communist parties, to a point of slavery, we placed things on trust “in search of lost time”. But, after careful consideration, many things have been revealed including the disappearance of a large branch of the great Macedonian tree not to mention that we lost more than 50% of our ethnic Macedonia. So, if we are to look internally at the Macedonian nation we will find one great historical catastrophe.

Even half a century later, we still find lies claiming that the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia were never manipulated nor sacrificed during the Greek Civil War. We find that everything that was done by foreigners was in good faith. Sadly this puts us in a position of eternal confrontation with constant flashbacks from the past in all spheres of our lives, even within our own Macedonian people.