II - MIGRATORY MOVEMENTS IN AEGEAN (GREEK OCCUPIED) MACEDONIA DURING THE FIRST

II - MIGRATORY MOVEMENTS IN AEGEAN (GREEK OCCUPIED) MACEDONIA DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR

This process of migration from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia and the initiated process of colonising it with emigrants from the Caucasus and other areas was interrupted as a result of the newly-established situation, the withdrawal of Serbian troops from the territory of Vardar (Serbian occupied) Macedonia and its occupation, as well as that of Eastern Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia by the Bulgarians, and the deployment of Allied troops on the territory of Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. (14)

Despite this, and owing precisely to the newly-created situation in the course of the war, there came about a new wave of Macedonian emigration in three directions. Dissatisfied with the Serbian, and later with the Bulgarian, occupation, some of the Macedonians living on this territory made an escape to Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia where, having been “taken care” of by the Greek authorities, they were settled in the border areas of Lerin (Florina), Sorovič, Ostrovo, Voden (Edessa), Meglen, Enidže Vardar, Gumendže, Bojmica and Kukuš (Kilkis). (15)

Later on the majority of the Macedonian emigrants from Vardar (Serbian occupied) Macedonia, especially after the second withdrawal of the Allied troops from Bitola, (16) came into the custody of the Serbian civilian and military authorities, who often complained about the anti-Serb and anti-Slavic policy of the Greeks, who did their best to create difficulties for the Serbian authorities concerning the welfare of these emigrants. (17)

There were reverse emigration movements from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia in the direction of the Bulgarian-occupied territories, mainly to avoid recruitment into the Greek army. (18)

According to official statistical data, in the course of the First World War, 14,000 persons from Vardar (Serbian occupied) Macedonia escaped to Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. (19) (This figure refers to persons who did not return after the war.)

About 41,000 escaped to Bulgaria, half of them from the Aegean (Greek occupied) part of Macedonia. (20) Segmented according to age, the emigrants arrived in Bulgaria depending on circumstances: in 1915 - 3,759; in 1916 - 6,713; in 1917 - 2,376; in 1918 - 13,454 and in 1919 - 14,785 refugees. (21) The number of emigrants was much higher, but a good many of them returned to their birth-places once the situation had been normalised. This emigration, especially in 1916, consisted of villagers and townspeople who, in the autumn of 1916, were forcibly withdrawn into the interior from towns and villages located on the very front line, among whom were the inhabitants of Dojran and Gevgelija. (22)

Of the above-mentioned emigrants in Bulgaria, who comprised 41,000, 5,500 were located in Plovdiv and its environs, while the rest were settled in other towns and districts in Bulgaria. (23)

The First World War ended favourably for Greece. Its territory expanded to Thrace which, in accordance with the Bucharest Peace Treaty, had been assigned to Bulgaria.

Macedonians from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia suffered new losses due to these enforced migrations. On the other hand, on the territory of Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia a new emigration, with pro-Greek feelings, of about 100,000 persons, was settled. (24) However, the situation in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia still remained unfavourable to Greece. The larger part of the population was not Greek and the majority still consisted of Macedonians, Turks and other nationalities. Apart from that, a number of the colonised population in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia were Macedonians from Pirin (Bulgarian occupied) and Vardar (Serbian occupied) Macedonia who, although patriarchists, were by no means “suitable” to the Greeks. (25)

III - MIGRATORY MOVEMENTS IN AEGEAN (GREEK OCCUPIED) MACEDONIA (1919-1940)

1. Migration of Macedonians to Bulgaria and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

It has already been pointed out that in the course of the Balkan Wars and the First World War around 50,000 Macedonians emigrated from the territory of Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. (26) This enforced emigration of Macedonians did not achieve the results expected by the Greek authorities since in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia, in view of the natural population increase, there still remained about 270,000 to 300,000 Macedonians.

Taking this fact into account, the Greeks, in accord with the Allies, imposed a separate convention on Bulgaria based on article 56 clause 2 of the Neuilly Peace Treaty. (27) The convention regulated the “voluntary” exchange of population between Bulgaria and Greece. This deliberate imposition had the purpose of enacting the forcible migration of Macedonians from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia to Bulgaria. The defeated Bulgaria did not resist for it wanted to dispose of the Greek population living in Bulgaria, especially in Plovdiv and its surroundings and the towns and villages in the Black Sea region.

For this purpose compensation for their real estate was planned and guaranteed and as early as 20 September 1920 a special commission was appointed known as the Joint Greek and Bulgarian Commission of the Council of the League of Nations. There were two foreigners in this commission; Colonel A.C. Corfe from New Zealand and Major Mariel de Roover from Belgium; (28) the former was its President, the latter its Vice-president. There were also a Bulgarian and a Greek on the commission. The commission’s role was to perform inspection and to facilitate the migration and compensation for the emigrants’ estates. The convention itself proved superfluous in practice, just as the establishing of this commission did. In the period of three years from the commission’s appointment and of its functioning it was realised that neither the Macedonians nor the Thracians living within the framework of the Greek state, nor the

Greeks who had lived in Bulgaria, had any intention of voluntarily abandoning their homes.

In the period from 1919 to the autumn of 1923, utilising the services of the Joint Greek and Bulgarian Commission, scarcely eight hundred persons were moved in either direction, of whom the Macedonians were less than one third - in fact, not more than 250 persons. (29)

However, another factor was of significant consequence to the Macedonians, and not only to them, concerning the change of the ethnic composition in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. This was the war of 1919-22 between Greece and Turkey.

The “Megali Idea” (Greater Greece) aspirations of the Greek oligarchic clique towards Asia Minor, particularly its coastal parts which it considered as its own as a “historic right” emanating allegedly from the one-time Byzantine Empire, the successor to which it claimed to be, led Greece into a war with the much stronger Turkey. This war, which lasted from 1919 to 1922, and in which many Macedonians from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia who had been mobilised into the Greek army were killed, ended with Greece’s complete defeat. Turkey made use of its victory and imposed the Lausanne Convention on Greece. This entailed the enforced migration of all Christians from the Turkish state to Greece and also of all Moslems from Greece to Turkey. Exception was made only in the case of the Moslem population from Western Thrace and the Christian population in Constantinople due to the long-term plans of both countries. (30) In practice, as early as the course of the military operations in 1922 the Turks forcibly expelled the Greek population from Asia Minor’s coast who, in the course of 1923 and 1924, had to move to Greece in their entirety with the enforcement of this convention. Greece was in an utterly unfavourable situation because it was not only militarily defeated and economically weakened, but had to abandon all its “Megali Idea” (Greater Greece) plans for Asia Minor. Yet it availed itself of this opportunity and a large part of this Greek emigration from Turkey, amounting to 1,230,000 persons, moved primarily to Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. This enabled Greece to fundamentally change the ethnic composition of this territory. Thus,

more than 640,000 imigrants were settled in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia, (31) while in the meantime, on the stipulation of the convention, more than 300,000 Turks and other Moslems, 40,000 of whom were Macedonian Moslems from the same territory, emigrated to Turkey. (32)

In this way the situation was exploited for the enforced emigration of Macedonians too. On the pretext of facing difficulties in the matter of accommodating the refugees, Macedonian households were forced to receive one or more refugee families. (33) This phenomenon was most frequent in the border regions, with the aim of rendering the life of the Macedonians unbearable. This enforced accommodation was accompanied by the expropriation of fields, goods and furniture. Physical terror and other kinds of pressure did not fail to be applied. Apart from this, in the whole of Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia, armed units were set up which, on the excuse of pursuing guerillas, terrorised the Macedonian families, conducted mass arrests, and even individual and mass slaughter.(34) Among the mass slaughters mention should be made that of nineteen Macedonian villagers from the villages of Trlis, Karakoy and Lovčen who, after being bound, were slaughtered on 27 July 1924, (35) and the mass arrest of citizens and villagers from Lerin (Florina) and its surroundings in November 1925, when the majority of them were sentenced to death and shot, while the rest were sentenced to many years’ imprisonment. (36)

The numerous terrorist activities of these armed units, and all the other violent methods employed by the Greek authorities, compelled a large number of Macedonians to emigrate to Bulgaria and a smaller number to Vardar (Serbian occupied) Macedonia, at that time in the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, especially to the regions of Bitola, Gevgelija and Strumica.

According to the available official statistical data, between 1923 and 1928, 33,000 Macedonians emigrated to Bulgaria under such circumstances, while approximately 10,000 Macedonians moved to the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. (37)

These Macedonians were forced to emigrate because they found themselves in unbearable circumstances, consistently terrorised and

provoked by the Greek authorities and by armed groups. Naturally, they sought the only way out in flight and migration, thinking thus to avoid the gallows, physical and psychological harassment, and to set themselves free from the nightmare they found themselves in, looking for relative peace through emigrating. (38)

2. Resettlement of Macedonian Emigrants in Bulgaria

Not entering into the procedure of the emigration of this body of Macedonian emigrants who were virtually stripped to the skin before they emigrated, (39) we will simply give a brief survey of how they were resettled in Bulgaria in the early years.

When a large number of Macedonian families were assembled for the purpose of emigration and when they were finally ready to set out and had received all the necessary documents, there then began new tribulations, disillusionments and sufferings for them. (40)

Arriving with great hardship at the railway station where they were compelled to board freight cars reserved for them for their transfer to Bulgaria, they frequently had to wait there for days and sometimes even for weeks. And when, eventually, the train would start off with its heavy load, in effect intended for deportation, it took them to the other side of the border where, according to their expectations, there would be an end to their troubles. (41)

Here, however, there began fresh sufferings for the Macedonian emigrants, and these sufferings were in no way less than their previous ones. In fact they turned out to be much harsher and more unbearable as they were accompanied by the agony of a lack of any prospect of security in the future.

These are some typical reports from Bulgarians responsible for their reception and accommodation: D. Dinev, a member of the National Committee, in his report of 11 August 1924 writes, among other things, the following regarding the manner in which the refugees arrived and the assistance that was offered them:

“... The refugee families arrived in Svilengrad at about 1.00 to 1.30 after midnight. Here they were detained, disinfected and vaccinated

and then further detained for between three and ten days in a camp in the open air. The hard-done-by refugees, having reached a point of painful despair, hear no gentle words from anybody. Here they are broiled in the hot summer sun and exposed to the wind and the rain. They are not permitted to move into the quarantine huts, not even the sick or the nursing mothers.” (42)

The refugees’ troubles did not end with their release from quarantine at the railway station where they were “unloaded” or with their transportation to and resettlement in various districts of Bulgaria. This can be seen from the many letters and from the official reports of those responsible for their resettlement.

Thus in one such report of 11 July 1924 among other things it is written:

“… At several points between Burgas and Mesimvria we encountered groups of despairing refugees of whose condition I can only say that they resembled anything except human beings.” (43)

It becomes clear that the Bulgarian authorities met the needs of the refugee families only very scantily and that in such a situation, worn out from what had gone before, the latter very easily fell victim to various diseases. This is the reason for the statement made by Dr. Talev, who informed the Ministry of the Interior and the National Committee by telegram on 25 June 1924 that: “… In the Bulgarian administrative region I have concluded that all the refugees have contracted malaria … Their difficult journey and their hunger have exhausted the refugees and it is indeed a sad situation when we see the fatal cases of malaria.” (44)

An even more outspoken comment on the lack of concern over the resettlement of the refugees occurs in the report of the Annual General Meeting of the National Committee of the Macedonian Philanthropic Associations held in Sofia from 31 January to 2 February 1926.

The report contains the following concerning the refugee question:

“The refugees arrive naked, starving, maltreated and worn out. They had had the hope that here in free Bulgaria, there would be an end to their dark bondage and to their physical and moral sufferings, that here they would be greeted and received in a brotherly fashion and that they would at least temporarily find support and a place to settle down. Alas and alack for them! Immediately upon their arrival at Svilengrad station they were met by the official authorities in a manner which at once cooled that modest hope that they had had on leaving their own homes, only to replace it with complete despair in the face of the dreadful Bulgarian reality… In place of brotherly sympathy, an utter lack of concern, a complete lack of care on all sides on the part of the relevant authorities and, in places, from the local population which led to the paradox of the refugees being treated as internees in Lovečko, or being called “eskimos and barbarians” as was the case with the village headman of Mesemvria in his letter to the district administrator in the city of Burgas.” Further on it states the truth that “… the fatal fellow-traveller of the deprivations, despair and hunger was not behind-hand with his rich harvest. From 20% in the Plovdiv district this reached 80% in the Rusen district.” (45)

That high mortality among the refugees is borne witness to in many official documents as well as in the work of Andre Wurfbain, who on p. 106 of his book states: “... Housed temporarily in schools, railway stations, huts or tents, they all the more easily fell prey to all sorts of diseases as they were already weakened by their earlier deprivations. Because of the lack of available workable land, many of the refugees were sent to the marshy surroundings of Burgas, a fertile area which had become virtually unbearable because of the malaria which had laid it waste. And thus the mortality among that group became truly terrible. In two years 65% of the refugees resettled in the surroundings of Burgas had died.” (46)

A similar picture of the situation of the refugees in Bulgaria is given by Lucien Cramer in the Revue internationale de la Croix Rouge no. 83 of November 1925, where he writes: “When we saw the wretched state of the refugees in Bulgaria we thought that we were in one of the circles of Dante’s Inferno. This is a real European scandal which cannot be put up with.” (47) On the occasion of their visit to the refugee camps the delegates from the International

Labour Bureau of the League of Nations, Proctor and Tiksye, stated: “This is dreadful! We are overwhelmed to such a degree that we can neither eat nor sleep peacefully as a result of the fearful scenes that we have seen in the refugee camps.” (48)

Only certain fragments of the true picture are presented here of the situation confronting the Macedonian refugees in Bulgaria as a result of the megalomaniac plans and aspirations of Greece and of Bulgaria, which cost the Macedonian people so much.

The resettlement of Macedonian refugees in the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes took place relatively smoothly, not only because their migration and resettlement took place under relatively normal conditions, but also because their number was comparatively small. Despite all this, more than once the then Southern Star, which was published in Bitola, the Belgrade newspaper Politika and other Yugoslav newspapers as well as the Avala newsagency registered the deviations and the nature of the terror which the Greek authorities had exercised on the Macedonians. (49)

3. Emigration of Macedonians to Overseas Countries

The fact should be mentioned that between the two World Wars there was emigration from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia to countries overseas for the same poltical reasons. In relation to this emigration it is considered necessary to state briefly the motives and the earlier process of emigration in order to obtain a clearer insight into what was to follow.

The tradition of Macedonians, especially from backward areas, of going abroad as migrant workers is very old but it was most pronounced in the 18th and 19th centuries. Most of the Macedonian migrant workers were in Constantinople, Anatolia, Egypt, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and the countries of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Macedonian migrant workers were known as craftsmen, labourers and small businessmen. They were particularly distinguished in these trades: masonry, milling, baking, pastry-making, sawing, inn-keeping, brick – and tile-making, etc. Most of these migrant workers had their families in the villages to which they returned from time to

time for a visit, to build houses and to buy land. More rarely, they took their families with them to the towns and cities where they worked: Constantinople, Sofia, Bucharest, Belgrade, Alexandria, Cairo, etc.

The tradition of going further, at the outset to the countries of Western Europe, dates from recent times, whereas the tradition of going overseas started chiefly with the increased terror from the Ottoman authorities, i.e. from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries Macedonian emigrated mostly to America immediately after the Ilinden Uprising when dozens of villages in Macedonia were burnt and destroyed by the Ottoman army and the irregular forces.

The emigration to countries overseas increased after the Balkan Wars, especially from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia, and the reasons for this were mainly political. In fact, as previously mentioned, the Greek authorities facilitated this emigration, which was particularly pronounced in the first years after the Balkan Wars. However, owing to the First World War, in which by force of circumstance Greece was also involved, the emigration of Macedonians from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia was rapidly reduced. It gained impetus once more after the end of the War and particularly after the end of the war between Greece and Turkey and with the strong flow of Greek emigration from Asia Minor to Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. This time there was a new wave of emigration, mostly to Canada and Australia. The flow of Macedonian emigrants to these countries increased especially after the establishment of the Metaxas dictatorship on 4 August 1936 when the terror towards the Macedonians was increased and even the use of the Macedonian language in Macedonian homes was banned and the number of Macedonians imprisoned or deported drastically increased because of their national feelings. This process of emigration from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia to overseas countries lasted until the Second World War, in fact up to the declaration of war between Greece and Italy on 28 October 1940.

* * *

It can be concluded from the above-stated that the Lausanne Convention of 23 July 1923, i.e. the forced emigration of Christian population from Turkey to Greece and the recent emigration of Macedonians to Bulgaria and partly to Vardar (Serbian occupied) Macedonia which existed within the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, fundamentally changed the ethnic structure of Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. These forced measures of decolonisation and colonisation achieved the desired effects for the Greek grande idée (Greater Greece) policy.

It should be said that, despite the enforced migrations and emigrations of Macedonians in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia during the period from 1912 to 1940 which reached the number of about 90,000, (50) the number of Macedonians still remained very high. Taking into account the natural increase of the Macedonians, whose average rate of increase for the period from 1928 to 1940 was 24%, (51) their number in 1940 was the same as in the period before the Balkan Wars, i.e. between 300,000 and 320,000. In many typical regions where no Greeks had lived before, such as those of Voden (Edessa), Enidže Vardar, Gumendža, Kukuš (Kilkis) and Valoviš, as a consequence of this policy the number of Greek inhabitants increased and in some of these areas the Macedonians became a minority. However, in the districts of Voden (Edessa), Lerin (Florina) and Kostur (Kastoria) the percentage of the Macedonian population remained relatively high, varying from 55% in Voden (Edessa) to 85% in Lerin (Florina). (52)

This situation continued to worry the Greek authorities as all the measures of enforced emigration and assimilation taken so far had not completely achieved the desired effects, although it is a fact that the ethnic composition of Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia was drastically altered as a consequence of the Balkan Wars, the First World War and the Graeco-Turkish War of 1919-22 and the ensuing conventions as well as of the denationalizatory and assimilatory policy and the great colonisation of the Greek state. As a consequence of the colonisatory policy and of natural increase, and in spite of the previously-mentioned turbulences, Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia’s population was marked by constant growth. From 1,084,022 inhabitants in 1920, the population increased to

1,410,884 in 1928 and in 1940 it reached 1,752,091 inhabitants which resulted in the first place from the natural increase in which the Macedonian people had a vital share. (53)