Front Matter

Ideological Activism – Macedonians Under Greece

By Stoian Kochov (Translated from Macedonian to English and edited by Risto Stefov)

Ideological Activism – Macedonians Under Greece

May 20, 2015

REMEMBERING: IDEOLOGICAL ACTIVISM -MACEDONIANS UNDER GREECE (1945-1949)

Digging into the past has allowed me to better understand the truth about the genocide committed against the Macedonian people living in Greek occupied Macedonia in the years 1945 to 1949, precisely during the period when the Communist International was active in Greece. Historical studies and research conducted after the genocide inspired me to write about the very activities (attitudes, views, crucial decisions) which were detrimental to our future. These “ideological” activities were ordered “from above” by the Communist Party of Greece (CPG) and by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia/Communist Party of Macedonia (CPY/CPM) and were blindly followed and implemented by the National Liberation Front (NOF) and Anti-Fascists Front for Women (AFZH), to the detriment of the Macedonian people.

It later became obvious that we the Macedonians, as soldiers of the Democratic Army of Greece (DAG), did not have any control of the Macedonian political movement. We were novices and all the knowledge we had was planted into our minds; all the effort and compassion we put into this service was already pre-planned by the ideologues of war - strangers to our kind.

After conducting my own investigation, I was able to confirm that: Our organizations NOF and AFZH were always under the watchful eye of “big brother” who ruthlessly had the organizations under his control. Everything was under his control; perception, attitude, view of the world, importance of action, engagement in achieving certain social and especially political problems, etc. By digging deeper and analyzing details of NOF’s and AFZH’s activities, I was able to provide evidence that Yugoslavia and its ideological movement was in favour of Greece and the Western powers. Yugoslavia was in favour of the division of the spheres of influence, a decision that was made in Yalta and in Crimea from February 4 to 11, 1945, regarding the new post-war settlement of the planet earth.

My research and my results documented in this book aim to answer the following questions:

1. How and why was the “Macedonian syndrome” activated, through ideological activism, in Greek occupied Macedonia after World War II and during the Greek Civil War (1945-1949)?

2. With what kind of strategic objective did we organize NOF and who actually pushed us to take a military option and fight in a war? Was that our strategic goal or was it organized by strangers through ideological activism (Operatives of strategic tasks) with the awareness that, for half a century, we were forced to follow a “comfortable” policy with Greece?

3. Were the Macedonian people living in Greek occupied Macedonia, intellectually, military and political capable, through such a strategic option, of preserving the territorial integrity of Greek occupied Macedonia and the compactness of the Macedonian population after World War II when international state borders, particularly after the international border between Greece and Yugoslavia became a militarized frontier between the Western and Eastern camp?

4. Why did we discard the alternative of not getting involved in the war? Was it because it would have been less glorious not to have fought? Had we chosen that option there was a good chance that today we would still be at home in our own iconic Macedonian space; on our grandfather’s piece of land!

5. The Greek Civil War (1945-1949) spilled a lot of our blood and left our villages and homes burned to the ground. Worse than that, it permanently drove the Macedonian people out from their native lands and left them stranded to roam the world. It ruined our lives as Macedonians.

The Author Skopje, 1995