INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM - Part 01

INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM

1. An unpardonable cruel manipulation: Just a few months before DAG’s liquidation, during the CPG Central Committee 5th Plenum, held on January 30th and 31st, the CPG decided to: “Recognize the Macedonian people’s right to self-determination”. Why? And why at a time when the war was full blown and intense? Was it because the CPG “cared” for the Macedonian people or because it wanted them to become even more engaged until a critical situation was reached? And how do you suppose the “other side”, the Greek government side, felt about that when it found out that the Macedonians were now fighting for “self-determination”? As you can see, this was only a ploy to “intensify” the war on both sides! And as it turned out, this “offer” lasted only until DAG was liquidated! After that it was business as usual…

2. The Second NOF Congress was held on February 3, 1949, during which the new NOF program principles were introduced in which it was proclaimed: “That Macedonia will be unified and the Macedonian people will live in a single independent Macedonian state.” This, as it turned out, was a drastic attempt, a last political maneuver on the part of the CPG to keep the Macedonians in the war. We already know how the Greek government and the West, Britain and the Unites States in particular, felt about splitting Greek occupied Macedonia from Greece. Now let us have a look at how the USSR felt about this, i.e. about creating a Macedonian state that was to include Greek occupied Macedonia:

3. March 7, 1949. The CPG Central Committee issued a statement denying any decisions being made during the 5th CPG Plenum

regarding the Macedonian Question and regarding NOF’s programming principles outlined at the 2nd NOF Congress on February 3, 1949.

4. On March 25, 1949 the NOF leadership reversed direction and condemned the slogan “Free and independent Macedonia within the Congress of a Balkan Federation”, because it was deemed to be damaging to the Greek and especially to the Macedonian movement. A NOF Congress was held the same day regarding the Aegean part of Macedonia. (See “General Markos” by Dragan Kliakich.)

5. On March 27, 1949 a founding assembly was convened with 136 CPG Communists and with 2nd Congress delegates attending, during which time it was unanimously decided to form an “Aegean Macedonian Communist Organization” (KOEM), a separate organization but part of the CPG.

What was this all about? The communists insisted that they did not “manipulate” us yet the CPG was offering us “concessions” that made no sense. Why offer us all these things right before DAG was liquidated and in the middle of the last heated battles before that terrible war ended? Why create a communist party for the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia when the Greek communists had accepted the thesis: “One state – one party.” And most important of all when the Macedonian people needed the CPG to negotiate ending the war, it was nowhere to be found… and all those promises it made… they too were nowhere to be found! And finally when the entire situation had all the signs of tragedy, CPG politicians still thought they had not committed any immoral acts against the Macedonian people. Their only concern all along was to “convince” us that the CPG somehow had “magical powers” to unite us and for us to believe that the CPG was going to bring us together as a people. Creating KOEM was a tactic with aims at turning the Macedonian National Question into a treasonous act! Why treasonous? Because we Macedonians were played by all sides, by both the CPG and the CPY. If the Greeks, with a clear goal, were to get the Macedonians to commit treason by wanting to split from Greece, then there would be no question of what their true aims were, which would be interpreted as treason by the Greeks. If the Macedonian in Greek occupied Macedonia were to form their own

communist party, then they would be committing treason against Yugoslavia by wanting to form their own state instead of struggling for a united Macedonia in a Yugoslav Federation. This is why the Macedonians who participated in the Greek Civil War were labeled: instrumental traitors and criminals who worked against Yugoslavia and its leadership. The Greek stand towards the Macedonians is well known and needs no comment!

Historian Kiriazovski is recognized by the Macedonian public mostly for his famous book: “Народноослободителниот фронт (НОФ) и другите организации на Македонците од Егејска Македонија (1945-1949)” (“National Liberation Front (NOF) and other Aegean Macedonian Organizations (1945-1949)”.)

Here is what he said about his own book: “The most important point is oriented around NOF as the central leader of the Macedonian National Liberation Movement, which I insist is authentically documented in my work and brings out the most complex events and arguments.”

In the same book on page 338 there is a quote taken from “Nova Makedonka”, April 1, 1948, which says: “Today NOF and AFZH have historical importance and urge the Macedonian people to join the ranks of DAG en masse, because their freedom and life can only be guaranteed by an armed struggle!”

But here is a question: “How could NOF and AFZH, when they were inviting the Macedonian people to join the armed struggle, be a “factor” of anything when it was well known that at that time they had neither political nor military power!?”

Kiriazovski was also known for his strong defense of his books. He vigorously defended his own books from authors who thought differently. He disqualified all those who questioned him and sought to discredit them by equating them to Yugoslavia’s enemies. He vigorously argued that: “Macedonian history is the height of its own task” (Here is an excerpt of such an attack: “Denes” Magazine, January 14, 1999.)

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, it also had 5 county, 10 district, 3 city and 32 regional leaderships with 120 professional staff belonging to NOF, NOMS and AFZH. On 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.)

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.

There were always these twisted traps set for Macedonians, through which they had to tread carefully. If you belonged to an armed village band in 1944, protecting your family and village and you were against the CPG, you were labeled “autonomist”. If you were politically neutral and did not want to get involved in NOF and AFZH politics after they were formed in Skopje in 1945, you were labeled a Grkoman (Grekophile) who worked against the Unification of Macedonia and did not trust Tito. If you were against the Organization “Ilinden”, formed in 1950 outside of Macedonia, you were labeled “Tito’s agent”.

This is how history has judged our people! This is an insult to the fighters who fought to preserve our Macedonian language, culture and traditions and to safeguard our people and protect them from harm. This is an insult to the people who gave their all to the CPG including their trust and lives and, in the end after DAG’s defeat, the CPG labeled them “Tito’s agents” and 11 of them were sent to the Siberian camps to pay for their sins! This is how Macedonians are rewarded by the Greeks…. When will we learn?

It actually makes me sick when I think about it, when deep down I realize how much we have suffered because of what we have done for the sake of “ideology” and for foreign interests. I truly want to vomit when I realize that we were manipulated in doing this, not only for foreign interests but for what we did against our own interests! To realize that we were actually led into a bloody war by our enemies… To realize that there was no Macedonian factor involved at all and that our leaders were just pawns… To realize that we were not only servants of foreign interests, but we worked against our own interests… To realize that we did this without

knowing and by placing our trust in those who always, since 1913, wanted to do us harm… It is a shocking revelation… On top of that to have our history written for us in which we are further insulted, especially those who fought and lost their lives, that somehow they were the bad guys, the traitors, the culprits, the criminals. This is an insult to me personally because I am a veteran of that dreaded war! I was a simple soldier who obeyed his orders and did what I was asked… who served my commanders to the best of my ability! I was recruited into this war by them; I was given orders by them; why do I now deserve to be called a traitor and not be allowed to go back to my home, to my birthplace? It was an insult to me when people criticized Dr. Stoian Kiselinov, a reviewer of my book, and told him to: “Dissociate himself from my book and alleviate the pain I have caused for the veterans of that war.” And these people call themselves “the guardians of the history of the Aegeans?!” In some of their commentaries they ask: “How could I be so offensive to my comrades?” only because I questioned our mainstream historiography! And more:

“According to S. Kochov, the current Macedonian historiography is servile, biased and submissive to Belgrade’s line of daily politics... Who motivated Kochov to want to answer the question of who is to blame for the Greek Civil War and who is guilty of the severe consequences that befell the Macedonian people?

...Mr. S. Kochov argues that the Greek Civil War was neither a revolution nor a continuation of the famous Ilinden Uprising and that the Organization NOF enslaved the Macedonian people from Aegean Macedonia and surrendered them to the CPG and the CPY, where they served the CPG and CPY’s alien anti-Macedonian interests.

All this reminded me of what a man once said to me about another situation which has similarities to ours. He said: “Buddha in nowhere more revered than in Burma.” Similarly, the CPG is nowhere more revered than in Greek occupied Macedonia. But now some people are doing this with the CPY… A person, in all honesty, could say: “The hell with ‘historical science’ if Macedonia’s place in history is determined by ideological criteria and in the interest of strangers…”

Let us suppose that we accept the informburo resolution that, according to Dr. Kiriazovski, NOF AFZH and all of us DAG fighters are “historically guilty” of wrongdoing. If we are guilty of wrongdoing then those who “ordered” us to do wrongdoing should also be guilty of wrongdoing. Why aren’t our leaders and those behind the scenes who initiated and managed this war not guilty of wrong doing? Why are we the only culprits?

On July 16, 1949 the AFZH Executive Board passed a resolution to activate the Macedonian women and mobilize them to defend the Vicho front. This was in response to the “Pirsos” strategic plan developed and implemented by US General Van Fleet’s staff in preparation for the liquidation of the guerillas in Greece. And it is well known what happened to the Macedonian women after that, when they were shoved in the trenches to defend the frontline. Their patriotism, love for their homeland, for their fathers, husbands and brothers, drew them into this terrible war which, unbeknown to them, was waged for the benefit of strangers and against their own interests. And in the end they too faced the same humiliation… being labeled “traitors” and “wrongdoers”… and worse than that, they too were driven out of their homes and homeland and torn away from their families…

HOW AND WHY DID THE HIGH HOPES DISAPPEAR?

7. On August 30, 1949, DAG General Headquarters announced that DAG units were withdrawing and leaving Greece, because they had completed their intended task. And that is how the Greek Civil War ended. Hegel said: “That which failed - failed for a reason.” Our historiography said: “Despite defeat and heavy consequences, the fight that the Greek and Macedonian people led from 1946 to 1949 was equitable and national; it was a continuation of the struggle against the triple occupation and against the English intervention in 1944.” (See the book “NOF and other Macedonian organizations in Aegean Macedonia 1945-1949” by Dr. Kiriazovski, page 384.)

When we were driven out of our homeland, the CPG, during its Central Committee 6th Plenum held on October 9, 1949, decided to disband all Macedonian organizations: NOF, AFZH, NOMS and

KOEM and on February 19, 1951 proposed to form a new organization called “Ilinden”. The reason given for dissolving NOF, AFZH and NOMS was because these organizations were managed by Tito’s agents and by traitors. The new “Ilinden” organization was created in order to combat “Tito’s agents”.

In his speech, which he made during the 6th Plenum, Nikos Zahariadis said the following: “... And here we need to openly say that, if provocateur Tito’s role was known in 1946 the CPG would not have taken a resolution to take up arms and enter the War. It would have been assigned to another time and by a different method of struggle...” (See “I trihroni epope tu DAG, 1946-1949”, p. 422.)

Then, on June 4, 1956, a decision was made to disband “Ilinden” because the organization was regarded as sectarian, adventurous and harmful. This certainly was done to normalize relations between the SKJ and the CPG when in May 1956 the CPG Central Committee adopted a special resolution.

It is time that we open our eyes and once and for all take a good look at who played with our fate! It is time that we attribute our suffering to those who put us in harm’s way, those who sent our leaders to the camps of Siberia for ideological reasons and for foreign interests. These people had no respect for humanity let alone for us Macedonians who they used to do their bidding and then discarded us in the ideological waste basket. They used our weaknesses, especially our revolutionary tradition as a people, when they summoned us to take part in a war, with many promises such as Macedonian unity, freedom and a Macedonian state to call our own. And what did we get in return for our loyalty and dedication? We were banished from our homeland and abandoned in the world with no chance of ever returning home. But the others, the Greeks, those who led us, those who fought along side of us; they were all allowed to return to their homes! No matter what they say, the facts speak for themselves! Even though we did exactly the same thing, the Greeks were allowed to return back to their homes in Greece but not the Macedonians! This was an act committed against a nation and not just against a faction or for the sake of ideology… an act of genocide! Was it our fault? No! Because we neither initiated this war nor led it! We were simple soldiers who, blindly mind you,

followed orders! We may be at fault for being “blind followers” but the wrongdoing we are being accused of is not our fault! The Greek Civil War was a concoction created by outsiders to legally get rid of the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia. Conditions were created, like the establishment of NOF and AFZH in Skopje, the “White Terror” unleashed in Greek occupied Macedonia by the “Right”, etc., in order to get the Macedonian people to pick up guns, to arm themselves for their protection. But then when those guns were picked up, people were manipulated to say and do a lot of things. Even though those “things” were impossible to achieve, the fact that we had guns in our hands gave the Greek government and those standing behind it the reason to “legally” defend themselves and to eliminate the danger by eliminating us all!

People find it difficult to believe that after being accused for so many years of being “wrongdoers” we have done nothing wrong! No more wrong than the Greeks have done who fought along side of us… The only wrong we did was that we did not have the foresight to prevent our own tragedy… to stem the genocide. But, unfortunately, all that is now history…

The question now is whether those who have been critical of my book have learned anything from it because there are people who prefer silence over speaking out. Yugoslavia no longer exists and we can no longer hide behind the concept of “keeping silent” for the sake of Yugoslav- Greek relations… especially when this silence is detrimental to the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia, whose suffering has gone unnoticed for so many years.

Historiography is one of the most susceptible subjects to politicization and when it is politicized and manipulated it results in historical deviations.

We the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia have endured the Greek Civil War, which lasted from 1945 to 1949, but have yet to develop scientific criteria and an objective historical value system. We have yet to show the necessary courage to deal with these vital, unresolved national issues. We are reaching a critical moment when such an assessment is necessary and needs to

be initiated. No one is saying it will be easy but disclosure is necessary and answers are needed. Look at what happened to me after I published my book “(Self) Sacrifice of the Macedonians under Greece”. But I did not give up. I was even publicly criticized by Dr. Risto Kiriazovski himself. On July 1, 1989 he published an article in “Vecher” magazine in which, among other things, he said: “Historical truth is not daily politics... Some people with old merits should not be allowed to hide our history. One day, like it or not, these people will have to learn the whole truth about our tragedy. And our duty is to work, free from the influence of daily political interests and to process solid rich archival materials, which we will have at our disposal...”

Surely it would have been admirable if Dr. Kiriazovski did as he said. I would have been grateful to him had he shown some interest in what I had to say in my book. I too have a duty to tell the truth, as a sufferer and participant in the Greek Civil War, as a DAG fighter who was there and fought in the first group, with more than 300 other Macedonians, sent to the depths of Greece, to Epirus, south of Mount Olympus. It was strange that some hundreds of kilometres south of Macedonia these people, these so-called Greeks, did not recognize our centuries old language when we spoke Macedonian amongst ourselves. They seemed like they knew nothing about us. Could it be because since 1913, when 51% of our Macedonia was occupied and annexed by Greece, Greek governments kept our existence a secret? Yes that is true! But then why didn’t the CPG inform the people in Epirus, tell them that we were Macedonians and spoke our own Macedonian language? When was the CPG going to inform the Greek people of our existence? NEVER!... as it turned out. For the CPG as is for all Greeks… we never existed… not then and not now!

Let’s see what other interesting things Dr. Kirazovski had to say… In his book “NOF and other Macedonian organizations in Aegean Macedonia 1945-1949”, on page 212 he wrote: “The leadership of NOF, despite past bad experiences, different phenomena of insincerity and opportunism on the part of the CPG leadership, took the international position and sincerely intended to assist in the development of the Greek movement. It agreed that three quarters of the Macedonian partisans should be sent to fight in the ranks of

DAG south of Olympus, in all parts of Greece. Furthermore, in order to strengthen the Greek youth movement it agreed to disband NOMS, the Macedonian youth organization, and its members were advised to join the Greek youth organization EPON...” Does this really need comment? If NOF was a “factor” in the daily politics and military affairs, as Kiriazovski claims it was, why then did it surrender itself to the Greeks! Where in the world has a revolutionary organization, with any clout, surrendered to its alleged “allies” (true enemies as it turned out)? And Kiriazovski wants ME to give up writing?

But what really happened?! Did something really terrible happen? Let us have a look at what Dragan Kliakich had to say. On pages 128 and 129 in his book “General Markos”, Zagreb, 1979, Dragan Kliakich featured a number of photographs among which was a photograph of the ill-fated NOF leadership. From left to right - top: Tashko Hadzhianev, the headless corpse of Pavle Rakovski, Hristo Kolentsev and Lazar Poplazarov. From left to right - bottom: Cholakov Lambro, Paskal Mitrevski and Urania Iurukova. The photograph was taken in Almaty, USSR, in 1955.

There is need for history to reveal who “cut off” Pavle Rakovski’s head! The photograph is witness to this horror. It reminded me of what Lazar Pop –Traikov, Ilinden revolutionary and great poet, once said when he was asked about us Macedonians. He said: “It was easier for strangers to recognize us if we cut off our own heads.” It also reminded me of an intellectual debate recorded in Yugoslavia and used in the movie “Igmanskiot Marsh”. Kocha Popovich, leader of that historic march, who belonged to the top Party leadership, was not in the film. The head of the famous march was not shown in the movie! As is confirmed so far, we the “Aegean” Macedonians have also behaved badly against each other. We have shown lack of trust - fighters for their comrades in arms. We have allowed this whole “ideological activism” business to get between us and for what? Do we even know why? But then, in those days, if you were an “ideological activist” you had the authority to say: “Shut your mouth and eat the bread you are given!”

One of the most brutal examples of how Kiriazovski and others like him destroyed the fate of many prominent Macedonian fighters, for

purely political reasons, was given back in 1976. Then, I read a confidential review which I believe was written by Dr. Kiriazovski, because it was written in his style of writing and with his intentions and political views. In the review, marked “Sk.4 686 inv.br.1419/76 archive of INI”, he wrote: “Pavle Rakovski’s effort is of no benefit to us because the text he wrote contains provocative claims against the Yugoslav leadership; I recommend that his work not be published or given wider readership. (November 15, 1976)” Curious indeed!

Many of Rakovski’s articles, which had important historical significance, along with his personal destiny, found themselves in oblivion…

Pavle Rakovski was an author and a top scholar but was faced with many “judgments” in life after he returned to the Republic of Macedonia from the Siberian prison camps. Instead of receiving a warm welcome, he received nothing, not even a grave after he died. He devoted his life to the Macedonian cause and to the defense of Macedonia. He was a member of the top NOF leadership. He wrote the first Macedonian alphabet for his Region, consisting of 24 letters, with which the “proclamation of the Macedonian people in Pella Prefecture” was written. He also wrote many songs and even a march for the Voden battalion. But after his return he was anathematized and rehabilitated for 30 years, right up to his death.

Pavle Rakovski (along with many others) suffered terrible treatment in the “internal prison”. And what is an “internal prison”? Internal prison is when the government and other authorities create an atmosphere of permanent fear in a person. A person is then afraid of expressing themselves, afraid of making a mistake, afraid of being humiliated, even afraid of their own shadow! It is a condition of the soul, a state of mind and of feelings.

When a person finds no meaning in life, he or she starts looking for death. Being imprisoned in an “internal prison” is much more than just lying in a dark, damp, moldy cell.

Now about my book: “(Self) Sacrifice of the Macedonians under Greece” 1994. My attempts to “think differently”, to think outside of

the usual totalitarian prescribed methodology were not interpreted by Dr. Kiriazovski as a way of contributing to the promotion of freedom of intellectual thought, as I had intended. He and his kind saw my book as an attack against their totalitarian ideology that has always played the role of “master of the truth”! So to counter my attempts, he wrote a 41 page report (with premeditated attempts to vilify me) and instead of publishing it, he distributed it among the “guards” of Aegean Macedonian history and instructed them to rewrite the entire passage and send it to the newspaper “Nova Makedonija” for publishing in the column under “letters to the editor”. This was Kiriazovski’s traditional method of responding to the “free thinkers” of our society. Some accepted blame. Some did not! As time has shown, not all people who can read and write are necessarily literate. They are just not illiterate. Real literacy needs a lot more work and effort!

The material written by Kiriazovski was archived on April 8, 1994 under the title “Memoirs” no. SK. 1118, in the INI Department of Documentation.

An intelligent person may ask “what motivated him to do that?”; for a so-called historian to wish that my book “(Self) Sacrifice” be declared “un-academic” because it was written by a laymen. Are the books written by an organized group of “scientists”, working in support of Marxist theories and state interests, any better at telling the truth about the experience of the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia than me? What motivated him indeed! And who exactly was in that organized group of scientists?

A large number of these people were on Gogol’s list of “Dead Souls” and this reminded me of what Bielinski wrote after reading the “Dead Souls” by Gogol: “Lord, why is our truth so depressing, miserable and sad”?! It is understandable that all these articles were promoted as “a well-known model” of our past, with predetermined and premeditated thinking and with a narrow intellectual horizon. “What did they actually protect?” When asked, one said: “Our well-written history; the history of the Aegeans…”

I am convinced that history, as a social science, must be a function of society and of free thought. And some day when that happens we

will know what we are seeking to know, - the truth. There has always been fear of history... History is true only when it is full of authentic facts and only authentic facts can remove the veil of darkness. We will know the truth when all those historical events that we experienced, pave the way into the future – with giant steps backwards.

If we follow Kiriazovski’s idea that books, especially books about our history, should not be written by laymen, does that mean that laymen cannot even write about their own experiences and that no one should be allowed to know anything more about the tragic Macedonian experience in Greek occupied Macedonia except what government sponsored institutions want us to know? Should we believe, even those of us who know better and have experienced tragedy for ourselves, that: “NOF’s First Congress was the brightest moment in Macedonian history after Ilinden?” Should we believe that we have experienced “historical victory”, that we received “historical justice” and other such bright “historical” moments when in fact we received “genocide”? The facts speak for themselves and they say that we experienced no such things. It is inhuman and disrespectful that our tragedy is still being abused for political purposes and personal gains. Should we not know that after our so-called “Brotherly reunion of 1946” was ordered, NOF took the role of a confused child, when “others” began to tell it what to do which, for us Macedonians, meant the beginning of the end?

We need to know the truth about what happened to us during that horrible war before we can move forward, before we can begin to heal from our wounds. We cannot continue to carry this weight of responsibility and bear the guilt of this horrid war based on what we are told and without knowing the whole truth!

To give some clarity to my point I will cite a comment made by Slobodan Chasule, which goes something like this: “…How many times and how often have the sins of Jesus’ crucifixion been thrown before our eyes? If we dare say something then we risk being castigated with nasty words and accused of blasphemy!” Well, it seems that the same applies to the history of the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia. It seems that the authorities do not want us to “rock the boat”, to bring attention to “problems of the

past” that might affect “national and state” interests!? Ironically we are also made to believe that these issues must remain hidden for our own good because they are more important than the Macedonian people themselves. If exposed, the Macedonian people may disappear altogether!

Are they afraid that the “Macedonian soul” has no capacity to endure if exposed to the truth? That somehow we will explode and self-destruct if we find out that our “infallible” and “wise” Macedonian leadership, the “elite of the elite”, the vanguard of our people, the holy trinity of our order was not only “human and fallible” but was also a pawn in a deadly game that committed unspeakable horrors against us?

Well, let us Macedonians worry about that! If we endured unspeakable horrors and survived then surely we can endure knowing the truth about ourselves now. But, I think that this is not the real problem that worries those who don’t want us to know our own history and who kept us silent for more than half a century?!

Let’s face it, those camps in Siberia were not built just for us Macedonians and occupied only by us Macedonians... There was something greater going on from the top of Siberia to the bottom of the Balkans… control of the people was the same everywhere… with minor differences… But let us concentrate on our own problems.

Let us talk about the conclusive judgment of my book delivered by Dr. Kiriazovski, who at one point said: “I do not see how I can be responsible and I do not appreciate Kochov’s attacks regarding Macedonian politics, political thinking, the ‘political silence on Aegean Macedonia’, inconsistent and uncomfortable policies, ‘de-homogenization of the Macedonian national consciousness’ and so on”. Kiriazovski also did not want to address or sufficiently evaluate my claims that the Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia, living in the Republic of Macedonia at that time, were treated like second-class citizens; by deliberately being placed in ghettos and so on… At the end he concluded that my work, my book, does not inform, but misinforms and he could not recommend it to readers

who want to learn history… of the Macedonian people. In other words, he rejected my work without being asked to evaluate it.

But, in spite of what he said about my book, Kiriazovski was not convinced that the approach he had taken was the only one because at one point he said: “It does not mean that everything is always explained as it should be. Some conclusions and assessments may require being re-assessed. Countries with venerable scientific traditions continue to study their national history and regularly perform adjustments as they unearth new information.” Like I said, Kiriazovski may have been critical of my work but left the door open for change, recognizing that the world may not be exactly as we “want” it to be today!

From what I have said above a picture is starting to form; that our history has not yet been written the way it should be and that the analysis I have done for my book “(Self) Sacrifice”, I believe, will add to the knowledge and perhaps clarify a few of the outstanding issues from the Greek Civil War. …Even if my views are diametrically opposed to those of our current historiography. For me, knowing the truth is far more important than supporting the politics of the day…

Today, more than a half century later, if we had to choose what to call that war, would we call it “an ideological war” or “a national liberation of the Macedonian people”? Please allow me to also add that; this was not exclusively a Macedonian war; it was a Greek war with Macedonian involvement. It was exclusively led by Greeks who fought for their own interests and not for ours. And it was well known worldwide that it was a Greek ideological war where the Greek communists were fighting to turn Greece from a capitalist to a communist state. Ironically, as far as western history is concerned, no Macedonians took part in that war… Why? Simply because, according to Western know how, Macedonians don’t exist in Greece! Informed people would see this war for what it was; an ideological war! That is why I do what I must; investigate the matter in the name of historical truth because, unfortunately for us Macedonians, this Greek Civil War, for more than half a century now, has been a historical burden. What happened to us during that war was not entirely our fault and we Macedonians should not bear

the entire historical guilt for it. Our burden today should be to get to the truth, learn from it, learn from our mistakes and make sure we don’t repeat them. We were not at fault!

In short here is why:

1. As I said earlier, the Greek Civil War was not the work of the Macedonian nation living in Greek occupied Macedonia! The Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia were violently pushed into it by strangers, by use of malevolent propaganda. The propaganda was designed to anger the occupied Macedonian people so that they would rise like a storm to liberate themselves and do it in the tradition and spirit of previous national - revolutionary struggles, believing that it was their duty to fight for their freedom and for their Macedonia. That is why Macedonian fighters, fighting for DAG, showed such remarkable courage, determination and great heroism. This was confirmed by the Greeks themselves.

In other words, the Macedonian people were lied to. They were misled into believing that they were fighting for the Macedonian cause!

2. The Macedonian people had no national strategy of their own because they did not start or lead the Greek Civil War. They did not even have the insight to understand that Macedonia was divided by an international border placed there by the two camps of the Great Powers after World War II. Our organizations NOF and AFZH were not created by the people in Greek occupied Macedonia. They were created and managed first by the CPY, which had different interests than the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia, and later by the CPG which also had different interests than those of us Macedonians. So, in a nutshell, NOF and AFZH were not “some Macedonian military - political factors in history” of which our current historiography is trying to convince us; they were simple organizations whose goals were set by outsiders designed to serve outside political interests. But the worst thing about all this is that the blame for what happened was put on the Macedonian people and, for more than half a century, silence was forced upon them so that they could not get to the truth… We were led to believe that the CPY gave us the tools and the assistance to lead this war and the

CPG pointed us in the right direction for success, but somehow we screwed up! Therefore everything that happened was our fault!

Did our NOF and AFZH leadership blindly follow CPY and CPG directives? In hind site, it would appear so! Why? Now that is the one million dollar question!

3. The Macedonian people did not create, but were more than willing to accept, NOF, AFZH and NOMS as their own organizations because the people leading them were Macedonians and naturally they had no reason to mistrust them. The Macedonian people trusted the NOF, AFZH and NOMS leadership and followed their direction implicitly and without question. This naturally opened the door for manipulation and, as we later found out, with fatal historical consequences. These organizations were needed because both the CPY and CPG were well aware that the Macedonian people would never accept or follow foreign organizations. So, the only way to get them to do what they wanted them to do was to create Macedonian organizations and work on their desires and weaknesses. The Macedonian people already had a historical desire to be free and to live in their own free Macedonian state. Then, after Macedonia was occupied and partitioned in 1913, the new desire was to have their state re-united! The Macedonian people were told what they wanted to hear, and not by foreigners and strangers but by their own people, so they were naturally prepared to follow them… Unbeknown to them they were being led into a trap!

The moment the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia began to believe they were fighting for their freedom and picked up guns to do it with, was the moment they sealed their fate. The Macedonians declared that they were arming themselves to fight for their freedom and for a free, united and independent Macedonia. The Greek interpretation of that was “a bunch of Slav bandits had picked up guns with aims at fracturing a part of Greece and giving it to Yugoslavia”! Naturally Greece declared that it had no choice but to fight back in order to protect its integrity and people. It was not only a moral but also a legal thing to do in order to protect itself. So Greece did what was required of it, it eliminated the “Slav threat” by committing a “legal genocide” against the Macedonian people!

In order to understand how this could have happened; i.e. the Macedonian people being set up for a fall, we would have to analyze the rise and fall of the Macedonian organizations. As mentioned earlier, the Macedonian organizations were needed to convince the Macedonian people that “it was the right time” to stand up and fight for liberty and that it should be done initially under CPY guidance and later under CPG direction. The plan was to get as many Macedonians involved in the war effort as possible and by any means possible. But as soon as the ranks of the so-called liberation movement began to swell up with Macedonians, the organizations leading them began to lose their influence. This was by no accident or loss of popularity; it was intentionally done by the CPY and the CPG.

On November 21, 1946, with the creation of the so-called “unity” between Macedonians and Greeks, all Macedonian organizations came under the authority of the CPG. In other words, the CPY abandoned them to the CPG. The CPG then slowly stripped them of all their powers, however little they had. After that the Macedonians did whatever the CPG wanted them to do and in the end they lost everything, including their ancestral homes… Why did things turn out this way? Was it purely by accident or was this planned right from the start? Let me put it this way! The Greeks, since 1913, wanted to get rid of the Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia! If this was not planned from the start, which I believe it was, the war gave the Greeks the opportunity to get rid of the Macedonians in a legal way, once and for all!

The fact that the Greek Civil War was started by Greeks and then led strictly by Greeks means that it was a Greek controlled war. The fact that the Greek Civil War was started after World War II had ended and the world was already divided into spheres of influence, with an international border separating Greece from Yugoslavia, means that the Macedonians had no chance of re-uniting their Macedonia. In other words, the Macedonians were deceived into joining that war, being told that they would be fighting to re-unite Macedonia when in fact it was not possible to do that under those circumstances! So, if the Macedonians were not fighting for Macedonian interests then for whose interests were they fighting?

No matter how we twist and turn this problem, we always arrive at the same conclusion: if the Macedonians were not fighting for their own interests then they were fighting for someone else’s interests! But in order to understand who that “someone else” was, we need to examine the end game; what happened at the end of the war?! At the end of the war the Macedonian people were kicked out of their ancestral homes; they were exiled from Greek occupied Macedonia. Greek occupied Macedonia, however, still remained in Greek hands but with less Macedonians living in it, exactly what the Greeks had always wanted since 1913! So, in essence, as it turned out, all Macedonian efforts and sacrifices went into helping Greece get rid of as many Macedonians as possible from Greek occupied Macedonia. And thus the title of my book “(Self) Sacrifice of the Macedonians under Greece”.