ATTITUDE OF THE SOVIET UNION ON THE ISSUE OF CREATING A MACEDONIAN STATE, MARC

ATTITUDE OF THE SOVIET UNION ON THE ISSUE OF CREATING A MACEDONIAN STATE, MARCH 1949

On March 8, 1949, Soviet Ambassador to Greece Chernishov telephoned Moscow to report that the Greek reactionaries were using unprecedented aggressive and active propaganda against the Communist Party and against the partisan movement (DAG). The reaction was in regards to the “Macedonian Question” about which a decision was made during the CPG Central Committee 5th Plenum and during the Macedonian National Liberation Front 2nd Congress. The main thrust of this propaganda was aimed at the Communist Party and at the DAG partisans, who allegedly wanted to break the sovereignty of Greece. The reason for this was the “unification of Macedonia”… This propaganda gave Athens reasons and opportunity to conduct recruitments, transfer government troops and place the military on high alert in the areas controlled by the partisans. The Greek people have special sensitivity to the issue of Greece’s sovereignty and integrity. The same concern is found in people living in the cities who are supporters of the Communists and of DAG. The Macedonian National Liberation Front (NOF) is expected to convene a Congress, scheduled to take place on March 10, 1949, in the free territories held by DAG. Regarding this, the government press of the Anglo-American League has declared, with provocative measures, that the aim of the Congress is to split Greek Macedonia and create a common state with Bulgarian and Yugoslav Macedonia and, as such the Communist Party of Greece “has committed treachery against Greek Macedonia.”

According to the information Chernishov received from Moscow, the Congress organizers were told that such intent was imprudent and that the Congress should not focus on this question, and not even on the future of the Macedonian people within a Balkan Federation. It was recommended that the delegates turn their attention to the population in Greek Macedonia and orient it in the direction of combating the Monarcho-Fascist society in Greece and to fight to create a free and democratic Greece.

This means that after World War II, when people believed that the war was over and that the bloodshed had ended, we Macedonians suffered genocide and paid a high price for fighting to support a communist ideology which was not willing to support our cause. In other words, we fought defending an ideology which worked against out interests…

In February 1953 talks took place in Ankara between Greece, Yugoslavia and Turkey with aims at forming a tripartite Balkan Pact of Friendship.

In August 1954 the tripartite pact was amended, signed in Bled, Yugoslavia and put into effect as a military alliance between the three signatories.

The 1953 the Balkan Pact was put in place in support of Yugoslavia because of threats directed against it by communist countries. The pact did not last long. In 1961 the three countries agreed that the Balkan pact was dead in the water.

Unfortunately the signing of the Balkan pact had undesirable consequences for the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia because, in order to placate Greece, Yugoslavia dissolved the “Association of Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia” and shut down the newspaper “Voice of the Aegeans”. But that was not all!

While, after World War II, the suffering and abuse ended worldwide and all blames were set aside, the Macedonian people continued to

be ignored and even blamed of “wrongdoing” for having a desire to be Macedonians. A practice that has continued to this day!

Going back to the question, which historian Kiriazovski later confirmed: “Was there a strong Macedonian national liberation movement in Greek occupied Macedonia led by NOF that was outside and independent of the CPG and under the influence of the CPY-CPM…? Pavle Rakovski, a NOF veteran, had also talked about this in his book “The CPG and the Macedonians”, 1990, on page 107, for which Rakovski was ostracized until his death. Here is what Rakovski wrote: “At the beginning of April 1945 the Political Commission ceased to exist. It was replaced on April 23, 1945 by the newly constituted Bureau of NOF, created by the CPM Central Committee. The new Bureau of NOF for Aegean Macedonia consisted of five appointed members, appointed without a conference and without elections.

I was one of those appointed members. Our activities were led by CPM/CPY Central Committee representatives up until November 1946 when NOF was given to the CPG…”

Two months after NOF was created, the CPG leadership passed a resolution through their CPG Central Committee 12th Plenum, held on June 1945, in which they expressed their Greek position by declaring that their northern border was unsafe and threatened. They also added that: “Preserving the territorial integrity of the state is a first task of every Greek patriot!” (See: “To KKE apto 1931-1952”, p. 210.) They also went on to say that “England, as a ‘great friend’ of Greece”, i.e. the military and political presence of the British in Greece was declared as “necessary and needed in order to ensure the Greek positions and Greek border to the north”.

So, now it is becoming clear that the rhythm of global indoctrination had been accepted and that there was no turning back. This was the time when our misery began and we lost a historic chance to achieve national rights in Greece, defined by international criteria in the framework of international law. Also please note that all this was perpetrated by outsiders, no doubt to create the conditions that we would not only lose the chance to achieve our rights but also be completely exterminated from Greek occupied Macedonia.

Can we now disclose the question: “Who activated the ‘Macedonian syndrome’ for our (self) destruction?” Can we now find an answer to the question: “How and why were the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia manipulated and sacrificed in the Greek Civil War (1945-1949)?” What was the period from the formation of NOF, on April 23, 1945, until NOF was given to the CPG in October 1946, or as the historian Kiriazovski wrote: “In line with an agreement made between Tito and Zahariadis, in October 1946, for NOF to be passed on to the CPG.” Was NOF sent to the local scene by the CPY and CPM so that the Greek government could justify the violence against the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia after World War II? Like I said before, Greece wanted to create “legal conditions” in order to exterminate its “Macedonian menace”. So, with Yugoslav help, it concocted the scenario where: “A bunch of bandits picked up guns and were going to split up its territory and as such Greece had no other choice but to fight in order to protect itself!”

Is this not institutionalized racism?

But as Macedonians, and with our past experiences with the Greeks, we should have known better than to place our trust in strangers and foreigners. It has always been our tradition to respect strangers… but to trust them with our lives? I guess we were never taught to “respect strangers but always look after the interests of our own people first!” We also can’t dismiss the idea that strangers came to us offering us the gifts we always wanted and in our excitement we forgot that these gifts were offered by Greeks, the same people that came to our country with promises to liberate us from the Ottomans! But instead of being liberated, we were occupied and subjugated and our country was divided and annexed by them. And ever since then, they wanted to get rid of us so that they could have a Macedonia without Macedonians to remind them that they had stolen Macedonia from us! Now we are called a “minority” in our own ancestral homeland! How can we, the owners and caretakers of Macedonia, be a minority and the settlers and colonists placed there just yesterday, in historical terms, be a “majority”? This is like saying “a bunch of uninvited guests came to my house and because

they number more than my family, my house belongs to them?” What legal system will support that idea?

The truth needs to be known first, before we can look at the reality of the situation. The Macedonian people cannot be a minority on their own ancestral lands; they are a nation! And like Kiriazovski said, in a statement he made for the magazine “Vecher” on July 1, 1989: “One day, like it or not, the people will learn the whole truth about their own history.” So, there is still hope for us Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia.

Despite the fact that there are denials of our existence, propagated mostly by our neighbours, the same culprits that invaded, occupied and portioned our country in 1912, 1913, it is a well known fact that Macedonians do exist and want their Macedonia united and independent and, at various times depending on the circumstances, will do anything to achieve that. This has been a historical Macedonian desire, a primordial force and also a weakness exploited by strangers and foreigners to make us do things that we later regret. At the same time, Macedonians have been fooled enough times not to trust just anyone to come to their rescue. The last time Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria came to our rescue, we ended up not only losing our country to them but our country was portioned into three and later into four pieces. So it was important for our enemies to invent NOF, provide it with an agenda and a lot of false promises, which they never intended to deliver, and unleash it on our people. The Macedonian people would never have trusted Zahariadis to lead them without the Macedonians of NOF urging them to do so. The NOF leadership would not have trusted Zahariadis if he created NOF. So, NOF had to be created in the Republic of Macedonia with Yugoslav promises that Yugoslavia would support an initiative for a “United and Independent Macedonia”. If Greece didn’t then surely Yugoslavia would support such an initiative. After all Yugoslavia did support the creation of the Republic of Macedonia? Why not a united Macedonia? So, NOF and the Macedonian people were sold on the idea that Yugoslavia was behind them all the way!

I want to mention one more thing here before we continue. Had Zahariadis, the communists or even NOF, initially declared this

initiative “a struggle to bring socialism in Greece” no Macedonian, or very few Macedonians, would have joined the cause. As far as the Macedonians were concerned, this struggle had to be about the “Macedonian Question”? But then why bring “communism” into a situation in the world where “spheres of influence” had already been decided? This was done for the eyes of the world! The world had to be kept behind a veil of lies! This was not a Greek Civil War as we so often and so casually refer to it to this day! It was a slaughter and total exile of the Macedonian people from their ancestral home… It was genocide. But did the international press or western history call it for what it was… even one time? The outside world had to be kept in the dark, from knowing that the Macedonians believed they were fighting for their own independence! Why is that? Because to the outside world it had to appear to be about “communism” and the communists had to be driven out of Greece because the Great Powers had agreed that Greece would remain under Western and non-communist influence! Had the world known that this was a tragic exercise to get rid of the Macedonian people from their indigenous homeland, some people in the world would perhaps have reacted differently and may have shown some sympathy towards the Macedonians. The architects of the war certainly did not want that!

Then, when NOF arrived in Greek occupied Macedonia and declared its intentions to the people, the vast majority still refused to leave their homes and go to the mountains to fight. And then came the “white terror” instigated by the Greek Right to give the people incentive and motivation to arm and defend themselves. As a result many had had enough of the Greeks and joined the struggle that NOF had planned. And we all know how that turned out… when the Macedonian people picked up guns and fought back!

But the Macedonian people were not the only target in this affair. This affair had three targets! While the Macedonians were told they were fighting for a united and independent Macedonia and the world was told that it was a fight to oust the communists out of Greece, the Greek people were told that both the communists and the Macedonians were planning to rip parts of Northern Greece apart, (Greek occupied Macedonia to be more specific) and give it to the Yugoslavs in the north. This made the Greeks boiling mad and created the conditions for an all out war which today we all call the

Greek Civil War, and we are still struggling to understand what it was about!

Naturally the Macedonian people failed to create a united Macedonia, the communists failed to turn Greece into a socialist country and no part of Greece was torn up! And why is that? Because it was never part of the plan! This was only propaganda designed to instigate the war. None of these things were intended to happen. And those, outside of the architects of this disaster, who knew about it and voiced their suspicions never lived to tell! They were immediately labeled as traitors and disappeared without a trace. The rest, those who had their suspicions, kept their mouths shut… some for more than half a century!

Things seldom “just happen by accident”, they are usually planned. The permanent eviction of the Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia was planned! If the Macedonians who participated in that war were “just communists” like all the other people, why then were they not allowed to return home together with the Greek communists. They were not allowed to return, not because they were communists but because they were Macedonians. Case and point: the Macedonian refugee children from the Greek civil war, some of whom were only two years old when they left, they too were not allowed to return! Why? Because they were communists?! Two year old communists?! They were not allowed to return because they were not “Greeks by birth!” So, what were they then? How can a Christian Turk born in Asia Minor be a Greek by birth and a Macedonian who was born in Greece not be a Greek by birth?

Here is what the CPG newspaper “Laiki Foni” (People’s Voice) in an article entitled “Again for the Sudetenland”, among other things, said: “... A group of Members of Parliament raised questions in parliament about the ‘Slavo-Macedonians’ and demanded nothing more or less, than to make a decision to expel them from Greece.” Those same members of parliament and leaders of the CPG later courted the Macedonian people by spreading propaganda and telling them that they were bringing measures for rights and freedoms for the Macedonian people…

According to a “Nova Makedonija” article, Dr. Risto Kiriazovski’s work: “Народноослободителниот фронт (НОФ) и другите организации на Македонците од Егејска Македонија (1945-1949)” (National Liberation Front (NOF) and other organizations of Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia (1945-1949)” was promoted on October 22, 1985 at 12 o’clock in the Institute for National History in Skopje. The title of the article was: “In the traditions of the previous National-revolutionary struggles.”

In the article Kiriazovski expressed his “stellar” moments of false ideology when he said: “The existence of specific organisms in the Macedonian issue could not have been explained without NOF’s ability to organize the struggle of the Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia…” In his book Kiriazovski speaks about NOF’s overall activity, but in his comparative review he only dwells on NOF’s development and political objectives in which he identifies two periods of development:

The first period ranged from April 23rd, 1945 to November 21st, 1946 when NOF acted independently of the CPG. He said nothing about the CPY/CPM’s involvement.

The second period ranged from November 21st, 1946 when NOF was under the leadership of the CPG until April 2nd, 1952 when it was formally disbanded by the CPG.

About the first period he said: “According to incomplete data, in early 1946, NOF, in addition to having its main leadership, also had 5 county, 10 district, 3 city and 32 regional leaderships with 120 professional staff belonging to NOF, NOMS and AFZH. In the territory of Aegean Macedonia 220 villages were organized (half of these were destroyed during the Greek Civil War - m.z.), working under the leadership of more than 170 village and town organizations. Its membership consisted of 4784 Macedonian and Vlach members of NOF, 4823 young men and women members of NOMS and 2201 Macedonian and Vlach women members of AFZH.” (See page 129.)

About the armed situation during that period he said: “In August there were about 100 armed fighters in Vicho and about 500 NOF

partisans in central and western Aegean Macedonia, 200 of whom were deployed in Kajmakchalan, 85 in Paiko, 130 in Vicho and 85 in Gramos. The Macedonian partisans were organized into groups of 10-15 and in squads of 40-50 fighters. The larger military formation was in Pella Prefecture consisting of a battalion.” (See page 143.)

In an article entitled “The situation in Aegean Macedonia”, written by Vania Kralevich, published in “Borba” on 09.03.1946, the author has provided data on the results of the terror instigated by Greek authorities after World War II, which aimed at eradicating the Macedonian population in Greek occupied Macedonia: From Varkiza (12.02.1945) until July 1946, 20,000 Macedonians were forced to seek shelter across the border, 22,458 were jailed, 21,202 were convicted, 225 were killed, 1,309 found refuge in the mountains…

According to the emergency measures act of July 6, 1947, there were 200 thousand democratic citizens accused of crimes against the state, of whom 80 thousand were Macedonians.