MORE DEVELOPMENT OF EVENTS IN 1948

MORE DEVELOPMENT OF EVENTS IN 1948

On June 1, 1948, the CPG Central Committee Politburo issued an order suspending NOF Main Board President Mihailo Keramitdzhiev and NOF Main Board Secretary Paskal Mitrevski for infighting and causing faction-ism in NOF.

This was a typical CPG act: It used “the syndrome of informants” at its maximum to devastate the Macedonian people.

August 28, 1948 - The CPG Central Committee Politburo has a session with the following agenda:

a / Discuss Political and Military Issues and Decrees regarding the Gramos Struggle termed “Epic of the North Pind”.

b / Introduce the new Military Council which will consist of:

1. Nikos Zahariadis - President and DAG Supreme Commander. 2. Georgios Vonditsios - Head of Military Battles. 3. Vasilis Bardzhiotas - Political Commissar of Headquarters. 4. Michos Vlandas - Responsible for Military Resources. 5. Leonidas Stringos – Responsible for State Administration.

c / Reorganize the Headquarters by districts and create military divisions. Promote DAG Military Officers.

Attachment - Order (August 27, 1948)

Bearing in mind the newly created situation on December 23, 1947 and the proposal of the Democratic Army of Greece General Staff we resolve to:

1. Dismiss and reorganize the Headquarters and establish divisions.

2. The divisions shall be designated as follows;

Division Location

I Thessaly II Rumeli III Peloponnesus IV Epirus IX Macedonia X Macedonia XI Macedonia

August 27, 1948 Provisional Democratic Government Headquarters General Markos DAG President and Minister of Armed Forces

November 15, 1948 - The CPG Central Committee Politburo decided to suspend and exclude General Markos from his position as DAG Commander-in-Chief and as member of the CPG Central Committee.

November 23, 1948 - DAG General Headquarters issued an order, but only for Vicho Region, to mobilize all men and women between the ages of 17 and 35. This included the men who were left behind to build fortifications and those who were ill. Virtually every Macedonian from the Kostur and Lerin Regions was mobilized with this order. This mobilization also involved NOF’s entire professional staff and thus left the Macedonian villages desolate. Following this DAG total mobilization of 50% of the Macedonian population in Greek occupied Macedonia, which numbered from 270,000 to 300,000 Macedonians, participated in DAG. According to Macedonian historiography around 15,000 to 17,000 Macedonian fighters were active participants in DAG, the rest were Greeks who came from a population of six million. In other words, only a small percentage of Greeks participated in DAG. According to Greek official data DAG consisted of 25-30,000 fighters, which means that there were no more than 20,000 Greek fighters in DAG. Sadly the mobilizations broke up Macedonian families and Macedonian fighters found themselves in various DAG units even in the depths of Greece. Again sadly the vast majority of Macedonians were newly mobilized, untrained and unable to fight because they not only lacked knowledge of complex military operations but fought against a well-equipped and trained army. The Macedonian fighters

were subjected to unbearable conditions, but most of all they lacked the minimum knowledge in handling weapons. As a result they were all butchered in vicious battles against a superior opponent.

DEVELOPMENT OF EVENTS IN 1949

Mobilizing Macedonians outside the Greek borders: February 9, 1949

(Is this not an act contrary to international human rights?)

At the request of Porfirogenis, member of the CPG Politburo, a CPG delegation was admitted to Skopje and a meeting was held with NOF representatives during which the CPG delegation demanding that NOF recruit some 300 new DAG fighters from the refugees who had fled Greek occupied Macedonia and were now living in Yugoslavia. Their demands were rejected.

Zahariadis’s first optimistic scenario: “The Macedonian people will be granted self-determination.” So, did Zahariadis offer the Macedonian people a vision for an independent Macedonia?

HOW EMPTY PROMISES BECAME PART OF THE WAR

On January 30-31, 1949, the CPG Central Committee held its 5th Plenum during which it dropped the slogan “Independent and united Macedonia within a Balkan Federation”. On February 3, 1949, the NOF Central Council plenary was convened and new NOF principles were proclaimed for the future of the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia.

BROKEN PROMISES

On March 7, 1949, the CPG Central Committee issued a statement denying the CPG’s decision on the Macedonian question decided during the 5th Plenum and during the NOF 3rd Plenary held on February 3, 1949. In other words, history is telling us that promises made in times of war are not always meant to be kept.

Zahariadis’s second optimistic scenario: “Create a communist party for the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia.”

(MANIPULATING THE MACEDONIAN PEOPLE WITH THEIR OWN HISTORY)

On March 27, 1949, a constituent meeting of 163 Communists, delegates of the NOF 4th Congress, was convened, where it was unanimously decided to form a Communist Party for the Macedonian people from Aegean Macedonia, which would be a separate organization and part of the CPG and would be called KOEM. It was said by some people that this event was the brightest point in the CPG’s care for the Macedonian people. But we will let history tell how truly bright it was and has remained...

Now let us have a look at what our mainstream historiography has to say about this event: “The creation of KOEM was a tactic with the ultimate goal of making the Macedonian national question an integral part of the anti-Yugoslav Informburo campaign, causing all spiritual and political ties between the Macedonians from Vardar and Aegean Macedonia to be severed. This was a deliberate act by the CPG to disorientate the national liberation movement of the Aegean Macedonians and to include the Macedonian factor in the alleged reasons for DAG’s defeat.” (See: Vecher Newspaper -“Historical Truth is Not Daily Politics”. July 2, 1989, by Dr. Risto Kiriazovski.)

Is it difficult to accept that we Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia became the object of vengeance between CPG and CPY ideological views and between Greek and Yugoslav state policies?

On April 4, 1949, an Agreement was signed in Washington for the formation of NATO by the governments of the United States, Britain, France, Canada, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Iceland, Denmark and Norway.

This was a significant agreement that put Western European states under American control.

In addition to signing the Agreement, the governments of all signatory states approved military service agreements with the United States, which set out the conditions for US assistance to these states and the appropriate arming of military formations.

With the creation of NATO a US-led international regrouping was formed which opened the door for the “Truman Doctrine” and the “Marshall Plan”.

Forming NATO had a profound effect on the overall Greek government position in the Greek Civil War.