THROUGH SIBERIA TO - CATARZA

THROUGH SIBERIA TO - CATARZA

(This was demanded by the Communists of Greece, implemented by the Communists of the USSR, and made the Athens government extremely happy.)

This is why history should not be silenced, for it will then know how to avenge us.

* * *

While the DAG fighters were resting in the Bureli camp in Albania from October 2 to 7, 1949, the CPG made a public announcement condemning 11 of the NOF, AFZH and NOMS leaders. The CPG publicly accused these people of being foreign spies and traitors to the revolution. As a result, without being charged, they were all sent to detention camps in Siberia. Why? The rest of the DAG fighters, including myself (Stoian Kochov), were left floundering as exiles for a few more years, some forever, adhering to the CPG slogan: “Me to oplo parapoda!” (FORWARD WITH RIFLE IN HAND.)

CPG MANIPULATING THE MACEDONIANS IN EXILE

The CPG not only manipulated the Macedonian civilian adults and DAG fighters, but also manipulated the exiled Macedonian children. The CPG did this for one ideological purpose - to turn the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia against the Macedonian people from the Republic of Macedonia. (See: September 12, 1951, minutes from the Slavo-Macedonian CPG membership Conference whose conclusions were approved by the CPG Central Committee Politburo.)

Note: A few months earlier a Conference was held during which 72 Slavo-Macedonians and members of the CPG discussed: “The movement of the Slavo-Macedonians after their departure from Vicho and Gramos and their tasks beyond that” and came to some conclusions. These conclusions were approved by the CPG Central Committee Politburo.

The Conference selected a temporary body to do the work for the Slavo-Macedonians, which consisted of 21 regular and 9 candidate members. This body decided that the conclusions reached during the Conference would remain in force. The same body undertook the compilation and elaboration of the status and program for the “ILINDEN” organization.

Conclusion 1: “...guarantee the fighting unity of Greeks and Slavo-Macedonians for the liberation of Greece from the American and English occupation. Form a general front against the Tito fascist gang in Belgrade, which politically, economically, and socially oppresses the Macedonian people in Vardar Macedonia...” (There was no end to the CPG cruelty here. While it calls the Macedonian people from the Republic of Macedonia “Macedonian” it calls the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia “Slavo-Macedonian”, even though ethically and nationally they are the same people.)

Conclusion 2: “...NOF was founded in April 1945 under Tito’s initiative and largely failed to fulfill the Slavo-Macedonian people’s desires. NOF was founded by Tito and Kolishevski from Tito’s

adventurous elements hostile to Greece’s democratic movement. The founding and governing core of NOF was made up of Tito’s agents Mitrevski, Keramitdzhiev, Goche and Rakovski, with the sole purpose of serving the interests of the Tito clique in Aegean Macedonia. Their aim was to split and break our national liberation movement from within. They exploited the Slavo-Macedonians in the interest of Belgrade’s gang which had nationalist aspirations to annex Aegean Macedonia for Tito. It should be noted here that the English, before December 1944, preferred to have Tito take Solun instead of ELAS...”

Conclusion 8: “...The children’s education regarding the struggle should be based on politics, as outlined in our party’s letter from Comrade Zahariadis to the children at the ‘Paparigas’ boarding house...” The Slavo-Macedonian children will continue their education together with the Greek children in the ranks of EPON. The Slavo-Macedonian women will struggle side by side with the Greek women. The Conference also proposed the liquidation of KOEM and the Slavo-Macedonian communists become members of the CPG...

Were the children ever free from this hellish ideological propaganda? NO! Here is what was said on page 12 of the monthly magazine “Makedonche” no. 8, in August 1952:

TO THE CENTRAL COUNCIL OF THE ILINDEN ORGANIZATION

Our dear comrades,

With sincere pioneer greetings, we the united pioneers welcome you Greek and Macedonian children from the “Beloianis” children’s home in the People’s Republic of Hungary.

We are delighted to welcome the Congress of our newborn “ILINDEN” organization. In the spirit of honesty we will do our best to fulfill the tasks assigned to us by our national organization. Brotherhood and unity will stay forever with us. United with our brethren the Greek children, we will invest our energies in educating

ourselves and become capable of liberating our homeland and building tomorrow’s People’s Republic of Greece.

With the end of the school year and with help from our teachers, we have begun to fulfill the slogan “No student shall remain in the same grade”. We promised to do our best to move to a higher grade with high marks.

For the pioneering committee of the boarding house ‘Belogiannis; May 20, 1952, Tanas Biolichkin, Kosta Ristoski, Ristosia Nashulovska, Ioto Georgovski

This sad finale shows us how the NOF and AFZH political tragedy ended and how the communists took their revenge on us. Unfortunately, more than half a century later, it is difficult to ask the question who owns this responsibility and is it still possible to remain silent. Someone led our people to the slaughter house and managed to live peacefully and without a conscience ever since and, worst of all, they were applauded and rewarded by the CPG and CPM/CPY. That is the real problem here. And here is why. With the formation of NOF by the CPY and later controlled by the CPG, it was yet another great confirmation that foreigners were the real leaders of the Macedonian national movements. People recruited from the bosoms of propaganda proved to serve their own personal interests instead of those of the people and often and unconsciously they themselves became victims of serving the interests of foreigners.

This was a classic historic example with us Macedonians who were seduced by foreign propaganda and politics to die for foreign interests in the name of Macedon-ism. Our primordial passion was flamed and we turned a blind eye and deaf ear to everything…

Every Macedonian person who was exiled from their homeland has asked the questions “How could this have happened to us?” “How could our own people lead us to this quagmire?”, “Who was responsible for our genocide?”, “Will the truth ever come out?”, “Why do Macedonian institutions treat our history as the ‘History of the Aegeans’ and not as part of our national history?”…

And the question everyone wants to ask is “Was it really necessary to fight for so many years, lose so many people, destroy our homeland and exterminate our Macedonian nation?” What were our Macedonian leaders who led this conflict thinking?

More importantly, the question to ask is “Could we Macedonians have achieved better results had we not become involved in this war?”

Overview: CHRONOLOGY OF IMPORTANT EVENTS IN 1949

Date

30-31.01.1949

09.02.1949

07.03.1949

Description of events or documents

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.

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. The demand was not granted.

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.

27.03.1949

16.06.1949

10-14.08.1949

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...

The Executive Board of the Macedonian Women Assembly of Aegean Macedonia (AFZH) adopted a resolution to activate Macedonian women to defend the Vicho front.

Fierce battles were fought on Mount Vicho from August 10 to 14, 1949, between DAG on one side and the Greek government army on the other. The Greek government army was led by General Van Fleet and consisted of 60,000 troops organized in 6 divisions, 200 tanks and armoured cars and about 100 aircraft of all types. DAG was led by Michos Vlandas and consisted of 9,863 fighters and 40 cannons. DAG was defeated during the night of August 13 and 14, 1949, with massive losses of 1,859 dead, wounded, missing and captured. The government army bore only 256 dead and 1,336 wounded. DAG units withdrew from the Vicho battlefield and during August 15 and 16, 1949, fled over the border into Albania. The DAG fighters regrouped there and in the following days 6,000 were

sent to continue the fighting in Gramos. It was during this time that the CPG coined the slogan “Gramos will become the tomb for the Monarcho-Fascists - the Greek government army.”

24-29.08.1949

30.08.1949

07.10.1949

From August 24 to 29, 1949, fierce fighting ensued as the Government army launched a new offensive during the night of August 29 to 30, 1949, for the final conquest of Gramos and for the final liquidation of DAG. Again led by General Van Fleet, this time the Greek government army was three times larger than when it had attacked Vicho. During the fighting in Gramos DAG was led by General Georgios Vontisios-Gousias with about 12,500 fighters (6,000 were transferred from Vicho). The last battles took place on August 29 and 30, 1949, after which all DAG units withdrew to Albania. DAG losses amounted to 922 dead, 944 captured and 650 wounded. About 400 to 450 DAG fighters surrendered voluntarily to the enemy. The Greek government army bore only 243 dead and 1,452 wounded.

During the fiercest fighting on Gramos, DAG Headquarters ordered all DAG units to withdraw because “they had completed their task”. So this opens the question: “What kind of task were they completing?” At this point the battle ended with DAG losing the war and with all remaining DAG fighters fleeing to Albania.

While the DAG fighters were resting in the Bureli camp in Albania from October 2 to 7, 1949, the CPG made a public announcement condemning 11 of the NOF,

AFZH and NOMS leaders. The CPG publicly accused these people of being foreign spies and traitors to the revolution. As a result, without being charged, they were all sent to detention camps in Siberia. Why? The rest of the DAG fighters, including myself (Stoian Kochov), were left floundering as exiles for a few more years, some forever, adhering to the CPG slogan: “Me to oplo parapoda!” (FORWARD WITH RIFLE IN HAND.)

16.09.1950

05.11.1988

Ioanis Sofianopoulos, then leader of the left-liberal party in Greece and former Greek foreign minister, in a debate in the Greek parliament, held in September 1950, (See: “Demokratikos Tifos”, 16/9/1950) admitted that “...There is a Macedonian minority in Greece, but that under international law that minority does not exist and cannot claim any protection because it has not been loyal to the state in which it lives…” (He was referring to the massive Macedonian participation in the Greek Civil War fighting against the Greek government.)

CPG Secretary-General Harilaos Florakis told a journalist of the “Mesimvrini” newspaper in Solun that: “On this occasion, I would like to say that for us, for our Party, there is no ‘Macedonian minority’ in Greece nor is there a ‘Macedonian Question’, it does not exist!” (See: Georgi I. Mintzi 1991/141 and “Vecer”, November 5, 1988, p. 9.) These were the last words of our former comrades who returned to Greece because they were “Greeks by birth”.

* * *

The question here is: “Can we Macedonians realistically call this so-called “Greek Civil War” a Macedonian revolution and a continuation of the glorious Ilinden Uprising?”

In the end, in place of an epilogue, we will compose facts and arguments which will clearly show the final outcome of events the Macedonian warrior faced through the history of DAG and how this warrior experienced genocide.

Perhaps all of this that we Macedonians have experienced can be summed up by the Latin saying: “At certain times, there are situations where a lot of national energy is wasted from which the nation benefited very little!”