PART TWO - Macedonians in the Greek Civil War - Part 01

PART TWO - Macedonians in the Greek Civil War

CHAPTER FIVE – Systematic persecution of the Macedonian people

1. Situation of the Macedonian people under Greek rule

In order to understand the situation of the Macedonian people in the Greek Civil War, it is important to know, in general terms, the situation of the people inside the borders of Greece.

Ethnically, the Macedonian nation, its culture, customs, language, etc., are not only unique, they are also foreign to Greece. For these reasons, from the moment the Greek bourgeoisie extended its authority over Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia, it adopted a policy of extermination to permanently get rid of the Macedonian identity and to change Greek occupied Macedonia’s ethnological composition in its favour. It used every tool in its possession including the Patriarchate schools in Macedonia to get what it wanted. So, here is where we need to be looking for explanations regarding the measures of extermination used against the Macedonian people and for the entire anti-Macedonian Greek bourgeoisie policy towards Macedonia.

During the course of the Balkan Wars the Greek army invaded, occupied and ravaged Central Macedonia forcing tens of thousands of Macedonians to abandon their homes and flee to neighbouring countries.

After the First World War and the Greco-Turkish War of 1920/1922, Greece took more steps in the services of its basic purpose: to exterminate the Macedonian people. In November 1919 a Convention was signed between Greece and Bulgaria calling for “voluntary emigration of Bulgarians from Greece”. In other words, anyone who did not “feel” Greek was asked (forced) to leave Greek occupied Macedonia. Those who left and were forced to leave were not Bulgarians but Macedonians affiliated with the Exarchate (Bulgarian sponsored) Church. The Macedonian people, whose centuries old ancestral lands Greece occupied and annexed for itself, were treated like squatters and driven out of their homes as if they

were some sort of vermin. This Convention was implemented several times in order to maximize the Macedonian exodus from Greek occupied Macedonia. As a consequence of these conventions and the military actions during the Balkan Wars and the First World War, around 95,000 Macedonians were evicted from Greece and sent to Bulgaria.

On January 30, 1923, after the Greek army was defeated in Asia Minor by the Turks, the Lausanne Convention was signed between Turkey and Greece which resulted in 538,000 Christian Turkish colonists and settlers being settled in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. This was in addition to the 100,000 or so colonists and settlers Greece had deposited in Greek occupied Macedonia during and between the wars. This brought the total number of foreign settlers and colonists deposited in Greek occupied Macedonia to 638,000 people. (This is according to an unpublished paper entitled “Migration movements in Aegean Macedonia from the Balkans to World War II” by Todor Simovski, fellow of the Institute of National History - Skopje). These numbers were also verified by other studies conducted on population movements in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia.

It was well-known internationally what Greece had done to the ethnological composition in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia and that it was done to Greece’s advantage, yet no one said or did anything about it. This led the Greek bourgeoisie to continue with its actions to exterminate the Macedonian identity by any means possible, including denationalization. Ever since Greece set foot on Macedonian soil it has refused to recognize the Macedonian ethnicity, language and culture as unique and separate from the others in the region. Everything Macedonian has been treated as an anomaly. As a result, the Macedonian people have been denied their rights, tortured, tormented, downgraded, severely exploited and persecuted.

But the Macedonian torment did not end there. The Greek bourgeoisie took further action to erase every Macedonian vestige. In November 1926 Greece passed a law to change all Macedonian toponyms to Greek. This included changing the Macedonian name of every village, town, city, mountain, river, lake, etc. to Greek. This

law was published in the official Greek government gazette “Efimeris tis kiverniseos” number 332, on November 21, 1926. The Greek names that replaced the Macedonian ones were published in number 346 of the same newspaper. (See book “Around the question of the Macedonian minority in Greece” by Lazar Moisov, Skopje, 1954, p. 231.)

In 1929, when Elefteros Venizelos was head the Greek government, Greece passed the law “on measures for security of social order to protect the freedom of citizens” (Idionimon). That law was actually the same as the Yugoslav law for protecting the Yugoslav state. Under this law anyone who was considering self-determination for anywhere other than Greece was labeled a traitor and dealt with in that respect. In fact this law was directed against the Communist Party of Greece and against the Macedonian people who wanted to be recognized as Macedonians.

When German educated, retired General Ioanis Metaxas came to power in Greece in 1936 he was dissatisfied by the existing measures taken against the Macedonian people, so he passed a law banning the Macedonian language outright and sent anyone who spoke it into exile.

This was a nightmare for the Macedonian adults who did not speak Greek. They were forced to take evening classes in newly opened schools for adults. The long term plan behind this act was to systematically suppress the Macedonian language and to completely remove it from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. The Greek rulers went as far as to erase the Macedonian writing from everything, including the headstones on the graves in Macedonian cemeteries. They were unwilling to even leave the dead in peace. “They removed the Cyrillic writing from crosses and dug up the bones from the graves and burned them...” (Lazo Mojsov in his book “Question of the Macedonian minority in Greece” - Skopje 1954 p. 235-236, quoting Englishman W. Hill, a traveler who visited Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia in 1928. On the attitude of the Greek authorities towards the Macedonian people Hill wrote the following: “The Greeks not only persecute the living Slavs who they first called “Bulgarian” and later “Slavophones”, but also torment the dead Slavs whose graves were scattered all over Macedonia. The

Greeks refuse to leave the dead in peace. They torment them even in the grave: they delete the Slavic inscriptions from the crosses and remove their bones from the graves and burn them.”)

The kind of Greek measures taken left the Macedonian nation in economic distress and culturally and nationally backwards. Macedonian children were brought up, more or less, in the Greek spirit and were taught to speak only Greek in which they saw no future. This resulted in a mass migration abroad.

As a result of the above-mentioned discriminatory steps and measures taken by the Greek authorities against the Macedonian people in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia, during the three decades spanning from the Balkan Wars to World War II, the Macedonian people fought, endured and survived. They managed to safeguard and preserve their Macedonian identity in Central and Eastern Macedonia and on a massive scale in Demir Hisar, Enidzhevardar, Gumenitsa, Voden, Lerin and Kostur Regions. They not only preserved their way of life but managed to preserve their national identity and culture. The Macedonian people had been under Ottoman rule for five centuries and had never experienced such torment as they had under Greek rule. The Greeks proved to be more barbarian than the Ottomans. Life was harsh under Ottoman slavery but the Macedonian people were free to speak their language and follow their own Christian religion and traditions. The only things Macedonians were (are) allowed to do under Greek rule was (is) serve in the Greek army, fight on all war fronts, die for Greece, serve the Greek ruling class and pay taxes.

After the Balkan wars, after Macedonia was invaded, occupied and partitioned, the struggle for Macedonian national freedom became far more complex and difficult. As a result of this, the Macedonian national liberation movement was placed in Balkan frames. After the First World War, when Russia entered the international scene by winning the Great October Revolution, the labour movement grew and became a decisive factor in the national-liberation movements of all oppressed national and colonial peoples. The national liberation movement in partitioned Macedonia then became an integral part of the working class struggle and the poor peasantry.

Because of Macedonia’s partition, the Macedonian people’s national liberation movement, the level of social development in Macedonia and the development of the labour movement in the Balkans became closely linked with the wider labour movement.

The nationally oppressed and exploited workers and peasants, as well as the broader masses in Macedonia who had experience with Balkan bourgeoisie policies and practices could not ally themselves with any other social force other than the working class. This was a general feature in all three parts of divided Macedonia – the Macedonian people orientated themselves towards the labour movements and began to organize in the communist parties.

No political party in Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, or Greece, except for the communist parties and the 3rd International, had given any consideration to the needs of the Macedonian people. Here you will find an explanation for VMRO’s (United) attitude towards the 3rd International and the Communist parties in the Balkans. But as it is well-known, the promises made during the 3rd International and by the Balkan communist parties never fully materialized. Newly created conditions were consistently introduced all throughout the national liberation war. The only promise made and kept was that of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia under Tito’s leadership. The Republic of Macedonia was constituted as part of the Yugoslav Federation. This was a result of the Macedonian people’s participation in the national revolution.

The Communist Party of Bulgaria (CPB (k)) leadership had remained undecided on the Macedonian national question. This was similar to the other communist parties which supported the 3rd International position. During the national liberation wars in the Balkans, and after seizing power at home, the CPB (k) never did find the strength to remain loyal to the Macedonian revolutionary positions, apparently being forcefully influenced by strong Bulgarian nationalism. There was only one exception made and that was during the time when Bulgaria was led by the great Giorgi Dimitrov. As a true revolutionary, even during the course of the war, Dimitrov was able to perceive the enormous cataclysmic role of the National Revolution, carried out by the Yugoslav people fighting for social and political development in the Balkans. The solution to the

Macedonian national question in Yugoslavia was a fundamental part of a new Yugoslavia. The constitution developed for the Federal Republic of Macedonia was the basis for new relations between the Balkan peoples, relations based on democratic and equitable principles for all Balkan nations. Included among these nations were the Macedonian people who previously were placed at a disadvantage by the Balkan dynasties and by the Balkan bourgeoisie. More information on this great Balkan event, generated by the victory of the people’s revolution in Yugoslavia, can be found in the 1947 Bled Agreement. The Bled Agreement brought about a new era of inter-Balkan ethnic relations, enthusiastically welcomed by the Balkan nations. Unfortunately in the years that followed, especially after the Cominform Resolution and after Giorgi Dimitrov’s death, the CPB (k) leadership changed its position on the Macedonian national question, reverting back to the old days when it was strongly influenced by Bulgarian nationalist pressures. The old Bulgarian attitude which negated the existence of Macedonians was brought back and all gains the Macedonian people had made in Bulgarian occupied Macedonia were lost. The old bourgeois historiography, which denies the existence of the Macedonian nation, was brought back, the Macedonian people in Pirin Macedonia became unrecognized and the CPB (k) abandoned the Bled Agreement. Because of this all reliable paths to lasting cooperation and friendship between the South Slavic people and the other Balkan nations were abandoned. The Macedonian people, particularly those living in Greek occupied Macedonia, were very disappointed at the Bulgarian leadership’s attitude and policies. The Bulgarian withdrawal from the Bled Agreement and their change in attitude towards the Macedonians in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia led to the heavy fighting in Greece. The Macedonians in Greece fought for their rights in armed conflicts both during World War II and during the Greek Civil War and received nothing for their sacrifices. In the years during the Greek Civil War the CPB (k), for some time, had different views on the Macedonian Question. Listed below are the CPB (k) views, as expressed in the August 1946 CPB (k) Central Committee 10th Plenum:

“1. The Bulgarian Workers’ Party (communists) feels that the basic part of the Macedonian people has been organized around the state and nationally within the SFRY as the People’s Republic of

Macedonia. The unification of the rest of the Macedonian people remains to be done on the basis of the Macedonian People’s Republic and within the framework of SFR Yugoslavia.

2. The Bulgarian Workers’ Party (communists) feels that the preparation for the necessary conditions for a union, namely the acquisition of the Pirin end to PR Macedonia, above all, is a matter for the Macedonian people and a general task for the Fatherland Front of Bulgaria and for the Federative Republic of Yugoslavia.

3. The Bulgarian Workers’ Party (Communists) deems it necessary, in the period up to the accession of the Pirin part of Macedonia to the People’s Republic of Macedonia, to systematically work on the cultural cohesion of the Macedonian population from that region with the population of the People’s Republic of Macedonia. Work needs to be done to popularize the environment, the Macedonian language and Macedonian literature. The history of the Macedonian people must be taught as it is taught in Macedonia, to facilitate the boundary between Macedonia in Yugoslavia and the Pirin part of Macedonia with wide mutual communion between the Macedonian populations from one end of the country to the other. In general, measures must be taken in line with cultural autonomy, in order to contribute to the development of the national consciousness in the Macedonian population, which would facilitate the unification with the basic part of the Macedonian people in the People’s Republic of Macedonia.

4. The CPB (k) feels that the merger between the Pirin part of Macedonia and the People’s Republic of Macedonia should be based on a federal agreement between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. This would determine the exact acquisition boundary of the Pirin end, taking into account the country and general interests of the Macedonian people as well as providing the right to those residents in Pirin Macedonia who want to co-opt from their Bulgarian citizenship. The return of the Western Bulgarian provinces, which are now under Yugoslavia, can then be settled with that Agreement.

5. The CPB (k) feels that it is in the interest of the Macedonian people, as well as in the interests of Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, that the acquisition of Pirin Macedonia to the People’s Republic of

Macedonia be done in a way that there is no customs or border between Macedonia and Bulgaria, in the same way that there is no customs or border between the People’s Republic of Macedonia and other SFRY republics. The acquisition of Pirin Macedonia need not only not impede the economic and cultural ties between the Pirin part of Macedonia and Bulgaria, but rather further and strengthen ties between the People’s Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria.

The CPB (k) is calling on all party members, mostly on the members of the Pirin part of Macedonia, to act and, in a practical manner, implement this Party directive. They are urged to deal with the Macedonian question by persistently urging the Macedonian emigrants in Bulgaria to cooperate in strengthening the fraternal Macedonian republic as well as in preparing for the reunion between the Macedonian population in the Pirin part of Macedonia with that in the People’s Republic of Macedonia, based on the alliance between the Fatherland Front of Bulgaria and FPR Yugoslavia.” (Taken from the book “Pirin Macedonia in the struggle for national liberation”, p. 302 to 304, by Dimitar Mitrev, Skopje, 1950.)

The Macedonian people in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia were a consistent ally of the working class in Greece and supported its struggle for justice, social order, democracy and national ideals. The CPG leadership however could not always find consistent force in its political action to organize and mobilize the Macedonian forces, apparently fearing the ruling bourgeois ideology and the nationalist and chauvinist ideas of a “Greater Greece” fanatically preached and instilled in Greece by the bourgeoisie.

The CPG and the labour movement had strong support in Macedonia from the Macedonian people who shared the fate of that movement.

By the mid-thirties, more accurately by 1935, the CPG position towards the Macedonian National Question was the same as the position of the other Balkan Parties and the 3rd International, i.e. a united and independent Macedonia and Thrace.

This is what was said during the CPG Central Committee 6th Plenum in January 1934 regarding “…the situation in Greece and the tasks

of the party…”: “...national self-determination for the oppressed Macedonians and Thracians, full national equality for the Jews”. (P. 347 from the CPG edition - 1918 to 1958 selected documents, November 1958.)

In the 1934 CPG Central Committee 5th Congress activities resolution report entitled “Revolutionary successes in the struggle against fascism and the war”, which was unanimously accepted by the Congress, it was stated that:

“The support and assistance provided to the national minority revolutionary organizations, even to the smallest national minorities in bourgeois-feudal Greece, to strengthen their internal organizational positions in the right to recognition and self-determination up to succession, despite the daily struggle on all issues including economic oppression, will allow them to gain confidence in the CPG and turn the oppressed minorities into allies of the proletariat in the expected revolution in our country. The CPG should strongly advocate for the suppression of Greek megalo-nationalism and the manifestations in its ranks and in the internationalist education of the Greeks workers and farmers” (p. 363, Forty years of CPG, 1918 to 1958).

This is what was then said in the decision of the 1935 CPG Central Committee 3rd Plenum, held in April 1935:

“After the March coup d’etat, our Party, in place of the motto “United and independent Macedonia and Thrace”, stressed the motto “Full equality for minorities”. This change in the motto with respect to the national minorities in our country does not mean negation of the Marxist Leninist principle of national minority self-determination. The replacement of the old motto “United and independent Macedonia and Thrace” entails the amendment of the national composition in the Greek part of Macedonia in close connection with the change in conditions in which the revolutionary movement in the Balkans is developing today, especially in our country. Our main task is to continue the antifascist struggle and the fight against the war” (p. 426-427, Forty years of CPG, 1918 to 1958).

After the Congress underlined the CPG’s responsibilities for helping the minorities to struggle, in the same section at the end of the report the following was written: “Our party will not cease to emphasize that finally and definitely the Macedonian Question will be resolved with our fraternal victory when Soviet power comes to the Balkans, which will terminate all dishonest agreements on exchange of population and will take all practical measures to liquidate imperialist injustices. Only then will the Macedonian people find their full national establishment”. (P. 426-427, Forty years of CPG, 1918 to 1958.) (In fact, the customization of the ethnological composition could not be replaced by economic principles and economic national targets.)

The CPG leadership, during the time of the National Liberation War in the Balkans, forgot about its revolutionary commitments and made many blunders in its political activities and organizational measures. This was during the Second World War, during the Greek Civil War and later. Taking into consideration that the labour movement was not immune to its own deformations and degenerations, the CPG leadership should have taken every measure to ensure that such things never happened, especially since the Party took the fate of the people in its hands. All this is now left for us to verify as was written in the Plenum and Congress Resolution paragraphs. Both the Bulgarian and Greek leaderships failed in this regard because they were both trapped in their own contradiction.

The CPG entered World War II, the occupation and the re-tailoring of the Balkans with the motto: “Full equality for national minorities.” The struggle against the occupiers and for national liberation became the main preoccupation of all communist parties in the occupied Balkan countries. As a result, objective conditions were modified and new tasks set. Conditions in Macedonia were also modified and tailored with unstable but rigid boundaries. This was due to the general occupation of the Balkans by the Germans and their allies, Fascist Italy and Nazi Bulgaria. There was no consistent policy between the three occupiers regarding Macedonia, and at best there were contradictions in their policies. Despite the fact that Greece capitulated and left a part of Macedonia to the Bulgarians, it still had aspirations towards Macedonia. The national liberation movement as it began to develop refused to recognize set

boundaries and border lines. And for political and organizational reasons, revisions to the Macedonian National Question had to be made to include the newly created conditions. Here one would assume that a mutual agreement between the leaderships of all interested Communist parties would have been reached. Or at least each Communist party would have separately taken “the correct position” regarding the Macedonian National Question. But, as is well-known, that was not the case! A mutual agreement could not be reached because the communist leaders were not ready to accept the revolutionary needs of the Macedonian people. We are now well aware of the disputes on the matter between the CPY and CPB (k) leaderships that took place since 1941. The CPG leadership took advantage of these disputes and exploited them to the extreme. This certainly demonstrates that there was absolutely no willingness to properly address the Macedonian National Question, not even under the new conditions. This naturally gave the CPG leadership fertile ground to develop the Macedonian people’s struggle “in a mutual way”, from the beginning to the end of the National Liberation, even after the war was lost and after the counter-revolutionaries came to power in Greece. That is why the Macedonian people’s struggle in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia was never allowed to gain its revolutionary momentum, was never allowed to be led independently and gain its own expression. That is why the Macedonian people could not achieve their revolutionary objectives.

The CPG leadership used the authority of the Communist Party, the leadership of the National Liberation Struggle and the disciplined Party membership to systematically work on the Macedonian factor in order to prohibit it from growing and from becoming an independent Macedonian entity. In other words, the CPG worked very hard to prohibit the Macedonian people from taking their destiny into their own hands. The CPG consistently opposed the formation of a Macedonian People’s Liberation Organization. It opposed the formation of separate Macedonian partisan units and refused to appoint Macedonian leaders. With this in mind, one can see how difficult life was made for the Macedonian fighters from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. But despite the difficulties, many attempts were made to affirm the Macedonian people’s struggle in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. The CPG was all for success and for such an affirmation but under maximum unity of

will and action. This was demanded of the Macedonian communists from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. Both sides were also well aware that success could hardly be achieved if all organizations did not work as a single unit, a fact that the CPG leadership exploited to serve its own needs. In the fall of 1943 SNOF (Slavo-Macedonian National Liberation Front) and SNOB (Slavo-Macedonian People’s Liberation Army) were created under pressure. But no sooner had these organizations been created than they were stifled and, shortly afterwards, shut down. The reason given was because EAM and PEEA program principles and agreements made with the Greek government in exile would not allow it. The communists say that it was the Greek government that did not want to recognize the existence and rights of the Macedonian people but the question is “what did the CPG do to defend those rights?” What did the CPG do to defend the rights of the Macedonian people? Did it help the Macedonians to form their own forces in order to defend their rights? No! The outcome of this policy was to deprive themselves of receiving any help from the Macedonian people during the clashes in Athens in December 1944 and afterwards - a factor that was not negligible then or later.

The objective conditions created during World War II were such that they came before a nation once in a generation. After the Ilinden Uprising failed in 1903, the objective conditions created during World War II put the Macedonian people on the agenda, not only for the liberation of Vardar (Serbian occupied) Macedonia, but for the liberation and unification of all of Macedonia. If that did not happen then we need to look for reasons in the subjective factors. The issue, we can say, was dealt in a way that required many victims; through an armed uprising and through the shortest and most revolutionary way.

During World War II and during the national liberation struggles in the Balkans, spanning from 1941 to 1945, the Macedonian people became aware that this was an historic moment for them to do something for their national cause. This, unfortunately, during 1941 and 1942, brought them into direct collision with the CPG. The first open conflict took place after the dissolution of SNOF and SNOB in Kostur Region when a Macedonian partisan battalion left for Yugoslavia in May 1944. This conflict was quickly resolved through

mutual agreement between Dobrivoje Radosavljevich, Supreme Headquarters delegate at the Headquarters in Macedonia, and ELAS Headquarters. Under this agreement, reached in July 1944, the above mentioned Macedonian battalion was allowed to return to the ranks of ELAS with the right to mobilize and form new Macedonian military units. Soon afterwards, in October 1944, a new rift between the Macedonians and the CPG and ELAS leaderships began to develop. This time the above mentioned partisan battalion plus a Macedonian partisan battalion from Voden and a detachment from Lerin withdrew from Greek occupied Macedonia and crossed over into free Macedonia (Republic of Macedonia). These units were well utilized in Yugoslavia to form the First Aegean Shock Brigade in November 1944 (later disbanded after Germany was defeated in May 1945). In addition to the formation of this brigade, a Conference was convened in Bitola which included delegates from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia, during which a political body of 29 members was elected headed by a political committee of 10 members. Included in the political committee were Gorgi Atanasov, Mihail Keramitchiev, Paskal Mitrevski, Todor Nikolov, Naum Peiov, Lazar Poplazarov, Giorgi Turudzhov, Pavle Rakovski, Dzhodzho Urdov and Naum Shupurkov.

The requirements put forth by this committee consisted mainly of the right to recognition and self-determination for the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia. The CPG leadership unfortunately was not prepared to accept such requirements; it was not even willing to listen to such talk. And because of that the CPG and ELAS forcefully resisted all attempts to carry out this task. They did this while ousting the occupiers and during the resistance against the British after the German occupiers were ousted.

When the December events erupted in Greece (December 1944), the First Aegean Shock Brigade was ready to return and help out. The only condition it made for its participation was to be allowed to mobilize new forces. The CPG leadership unfortunately refused the offer. Looking at the situation in hindsight, even if the Brigade was allowed to return and had participated in the Athens events, it would not have made any difference. To gain ground the liberation movement needed a different strategy and different tactics, as we

have seen in the analysis of the December events and the Varkiza agreement.

In the new situation created after the December collisions and after the Varkiza Agreement was signed, which called for disarming ELAS and allowing the bourgeoisie to expand their power by allowing the bourgeois government in Athens to extend its rule throughout the whole territory of Greece, the Macedonian people were expecting a face to face confrontation with an armed enemy. After extending its authority throughout the territory of Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia, the government in Athens began a campaign of mass terror against the Macedonian people. This started the first mass exodus of civilians leaving their homes in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia and taking residence in the neighbouring democratic countries. It also started a new wave of resistance among the progressive Macedonians.

2. Terror in 1945-1946

For the Macedonian people from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia history, it seems, was repeating itself every time they needed to face welcoming the Greek government and the Greek army into their country. After the Varkiza Agreement was signed in the spring of 1945, the Greek government expanded its authority in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia and unleashed extreme pressure against the unarmed Macedonian population. It is important at this point to mention that initially the Greek government, just after the Varkiza Agreement was signed, did not have enough forces to establish its authority in the entire country. To achieve this it had to resort to drastic measures. In Greek occupied Macedonia it began to mobilize the people who collaborated with the German, Italian and Bulgarian occupiers. As a result it recruited the troops belonging to Kolaras, Papadopoulos, Anton Chaush and other well-known traitors who were more than willing to rob, terrorize and murder Macedonians. It was a truly evil campaign with which future historians will have to deal. It was also a skillful maneuver on the part of the Greek bourgeoisie to create much hatred between the Greek and Macedonian people in order for the Greek element to take a foothold in Greek occupied Macedonia.

Here is what first hand witnesses had to say about this tragedy, perpetrated all across Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. (The information that follows was taken from the author’s personal archives. These are the author’s personal notes or notes made from statements made to him by his companions. The author collected this information from the war refugees in order to register the terror the Greek authorities perpetrated against the Macedonian population in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. Some of the statements made were used by the United Nations Inquiry Commission for their investigations when the Commission was doing surveys in the Balkans during the Greek Civil War. But once again we need to emphasize that all the suffering that took place in Greek occupied Macedonia at the hands of the Monarcho-Fascists, after World War II, cannot be measured just by these statements or just by the statements made by the Commission.)

The Macedonian people in Eastern Greek occupied Macedonia were the first Macedonians to suffer and face this new tragedy. The perpetrators that acted in this region were Andon Chaush’s bands, which originally acted in the service of the Germans and were now more than able to immediately undertake the work in their new role.

“A unit belonging to the Greek government army, led by Captain Koukatis from the village Alistrati, arrived during the night on April 18, 1945 and surrounded the village Zrnovo in Drama Region”, wrote Kosta Kundakov from the same village. “At dawn the unit began to attack the houses by firing with automatic weapons to intimidate and frighten the population. Many people were beaten that day, both men and women. Two villagers were also killed. They were Dimitar Bogoev and Pando Sulov, 65 years of age.”

After the April 18, 1945 incident in Drnovo, a delegation of villagers decided to pay a visit to the English military authorities stationed in the region. When they arrived the officer in charge, with a smile on his face, told them: “Well, so you are Bulgarians eh? You must leave this place!” But when they left, when they abandoned their place of birth and indigenous homes they still had to pay blood tax. When they returned home they informed the people of what had transpired. To save their skins many loaded what little they had on their carts, and along with many women from the village Zrnovo,

left for the Bulgarian border. Most of the men had already fled on foot and crossed the Bulgarian border over the mountains. While fleeing from their homes, the villagers Katerina Bozhova and Iana Savova ran into an armed unit. The unit soldiers took everything the women had, their horses, their belongings including the clothing they were wearing. The naked women were then stabbed with knives and left there to lie on the road, where they later died.

At about the same time the village Starchishte suffered the same fate. In addition to the village being robbed and pillaged, the entire village population was terribly mistreated. The villagers Georgi Kirov, Vancho Imirov and Dimitar Zaginov were killed.

“One night during the month of April 1945, Greek government troops killed my 95-year-old father,” says Velik Giorgi Pecharov from the village Plevna, Drama Region. “That evening the troops searched the entire village and took everything they found. They burned three houses and wounded Iani Bozhinov’s wife.”

Refugee Dimitar Bogdanov told a similar story about the village Prosachani in Drama Region and so did refugee Magda Ivanova about the village Gorentsi. Old man Dimitar described his torment as follows: “I, an old man, was sitting at my home without interfering in anything. After the Varkiza agreement and after the partisans surrendered their weapons, government forces began to torment us, all Macedonians, demanding that we hand over guns, ammunition, bombs... One night in April 1945, the Burandari came to the village and broke into my house (the Greek government troops were called Burantari, after the infamous Athens commander Burandas who was well-known for the raids he conducted and the atrocities he committed against the population during the occupation). After they broke in they grabbed me and one of them put his hand over my mouth so that I would not yell. Then they beat me while dragging me on the ground. They stole 243,000 Leva from me and then took me and locked me in the barn. In the meantime they grabbed my 70 year-old wife and harassed her to give them more money. But there was nothing left to give. Because of that they stabbed both of her hands with their knives. In the meantime, while some of them were beating us the others were looting our house. In

the end, before they left, they were yelling ‘get out of here or we will kill you’.”

Similar tragedies were experienced all over Macedonia and precisely because of that people began to leave their homes en masse in the spring of 1945. Thousands of villagers deserted their homes in order to escape the terror, fearing that they would be killed.

The situation in Kukush and Solun Regions was no better. The Macedonian population was targeted everywhere, especially where it was compact. The attacks and terror were the strongest where the Macedonian population was compact. The Greeks had cleansed Kukush and Solun Regions in 1913, now they were turning their attention to other regions.

The refugees in the Barovitsa area in Gumenidzhe Region suffered the same tragic white terror and a similar fate as the rest of the Macedonian people in Greek hands. After the Varkiza Agreement was signed and ELAS disarmed, government troops and the English began to arrest people and put them in prison. The prison in Ber, which at that time had 50-60 collaborators serving their sentences, was taken over by the Greek government. Mitso Duiamov from the village Barovitsa was also serving his sentence in that prison. Control of the Ber prison was given to the English in March 1945. Soon afterwards the prisoners were freed and then armed. In June 1945 Mitso Duiamov appeared near his home, leading an armed detachment. No sooner had the detachment arrived than it began to roam around the region looting and pillaging villages and killing people, just like it had during the occupation. Maria Aidova from the village Barovitsa, who in the fall of 1946 was forced to flee to Yugoslavia, told another tragic story. This was the heartbreaking and tragic story of the tormented mothers whose sons, nine boys, were killed by the government troops. To avoid being tormented many of the men from the villages worked in their fields during the day and hid in the forest at night. Among them were young people who were members of the Organization and participants in the struggle against the occupiers. These people also hid in the forest to escape the fury of the new invader. Among the many people hiding in the forest were a number of young boys. But one day in November 1945, these boys were betrayed by someone who gave

the authorities their location. One night they were surrounded by the Monarch-Fascist army and all murdered.

Here is what Giorgi Evangelos Kehaiov from the village Barovitsa had to say about his own experience and about the experience of some of his fellow villagers: “After the Varkiza agreement, after guarantees were given that everyone would live freely, we, the participants in the resistance movement, were brutally persecuted. Every time we heard troops we ran away to escape their terror. In the summer of 1946 my cousin Giorgi Tantov, a participant of the struggle against the occupiers, was on route to the market in Gumendzhe when they killed him for no reason. The same day, the same government militia who killed my cousin came to our village and, after causing some mischief, left for the mountains to hunt down partisans. When they couldn’t find any partisans they caught two boys who were looking after their pigs not far from the village. After killing them they beheaded the boys and brought their heads back to the village. The boys were 14 year old Iovan and 20 year old Peno. While in the village, the militiamen called the entire village to assemble at the village church. When everyone had arrived the militiamen took the heads in their hands and threatened the entire village with similar violence. Then, like wild savages, the militiamen threw themselves against the peaceful villagers and beat them. After experiencing the terror many villagers left the village and crossed the border into Yugoslavia.”

Maria Betula from the village Karpi in Gumenidzhe Region, a mother of 4 children, said that she, along with other villagers, was forced to flee her village because she could not endure the terror perpetrated by the Monarcho-Fascists. When the Monarcho-Fascist government troops came to the village for the first time, they arrested her along with many others including her youngest child. But after a week of torment they released her and her child. When the government soldiers came to the village the second time, they arrested her father-in-law Giorgi Betov and her mother-in-law Velika. Both in-laws were sent to the Greek island interment camps. The Betov home was pillaged and then razed to the ground.

Here is the tragic story of 12 year-old refugee Prodi Petar Ristov from the village Kupa, Gumenidzhe Region, as he and his four

younger brothers and sisters experienced it. One night in October 1946 a government unit decided to visit the village Kupa. Each time such a unit arrived in Kupa it “visited” the home of young Prodi, frightening him to reveal the whereabouts of his father. But this time the culprits acted more forcefully. They arrested Masa, his mother, and took her to the schoolyard. Sad, her children went to her and cried begging the authorities to let her go, but they were ignored. Not only did the culprits ignore the cries of her children but they beat their mother to near death in front of them. Several days later Masa died. In the meantime the government unit burned down several houses including the home of the five children, forcing them to leave and turning them into refugees.

Murov Dionysus Atanasov from the village Breslovtsi, Karadzovo Region, has also written an account of the plight of his villagers and how his brother was crippled from being severely beaten.

Andonia Lucheva from the village Lugontsi, Gumenidzhe Region, stated that the government troops raided her village many times from the spring of 1945 to the fall of 1946, when the village, along other villages, was completely burned down and the residents were forced to flee to Yugoslavia. During one raid the culprits were firing machine guns at the villagers to frighten them into leaving, wounding young Hristofor Balchov. The same day all the villagers were rounded up, men, women and girls, and with machine guns aimed at them they were questioned about the partisans.

Refugees from the village Tsrna Reka, Gumenidzhe Region, while crossing the border, unanimously declared that: “They were running away from their birthplace, houses and properties to avoid the savage terror inflicted on them by the Monarcho-Fascists.” Iovan Bechov declared that: “I had no choice but to leave my birthplace and my property because I could not endure the Monarcho-Fascist terror. They were looking for my son but I knew if I told them where he was they would intern him and send him to the desolate Greek islands. So they continued to terrorize me and my friend. When they threatened to intern me I decided it was time for me to run.” Vangel Zharov from the same village fled because the government detachment, which was after his son, was unable to find him and threatened to arrest him. His son was a participant in the resistance