DIRECTOR - Part 01

DIRECTOR Alexander Alexiev (S.R.) (Publisher)

“U me pisis, kan me pisis…!” is an old Greek saying which means “You did not convince me even if you convinced me!” It refers to people who don’t want to understand... They told me: “You should have been protesting then, not today”. It was widely known and they should have known this: The Greek side did a lot of things against the Macedonians and “then” when we, the Macedonian national liberation leadership “protested”… we were sentenced to death. It is only a happy coincidence that today we are still alive. We found ourselves in prisons in Siberia under heavy CPG Central Committee allegations because of those protests. But all of this was in the past, and protesting today cannot apply to things that happened “then”… in the past, so I am told.

Today I am protesting! I have to, because instead of publishing my speech in full like I had given it at the Congress, which was published by several newspapers and existed everywhere in the world, and was also given to the Greek delegation, they published a Greek forgery. I am protesting, I have to protest because in our Macedonian historical Archives they are portraying me as an opponent of the Macedonian people… They are portraying me as someone who worked against self-determination for the Macedonian people… They are turning me into an opponent of the then CPG line, which only three months before that, during its V Plenum, adopted the resolution for self-determination for the Macedonian people... Obviously, the fact that I was one of the NOF founders

now being portrayed as a “Grkoman” (loyal to the Greek cause) does not seem to bother the people at the Macedonian Archives...

I will have to agree with them that any correspondence with these people who are not prepared to hear my side of the story would be superfluous...

As I have already mentioned, with the letters he sent from Alma-Ata and from here (Skopje), Mitrevski did his best to betray me to the authorities and to the public with fictional accusations. Just a few days after I came to Skopje I decided to pay him a visit, to look him in the eye… but I made the mistake of telling Aianovski and Keramidzhiev about this beforehand. Perhaps they informed him… or maybe not. I deliberately went to see him around lunch time (1 pm). His wife Olympia answered the door with a mouthful of food and told me that Paskal (Mitrevski) was out. She did not fully open the door or invite me in. She just shut the door and went back inside. I left without seeing him.

Later, after Aianovski published his book “Aegean Storms”, in which he declared to the world that the entire NOF-KOEM leadership was made up of “treacherous” people, I sent Mitrevski one of my articles, through another person, and asked him for his cooperation in dealing with this. He accepted my offer and, along with his wife Olympia, came to see me at my home. We met two or three times after that both in my home and outside in the “Chardak” area. I explained to him that I wrote the article as a means of defending the group from Aianovski’s intentions to disqualify us as good leaders. Aianovski obviously exaggerated a great deal and needed to be corrected. He told the world that our struggle on the dangerous terrain was a betrayal, but his departure (desertion) from the same struggle was done in the interest of our homeland and the Party…!

Mitrevski listened to me carefully and thought about it for a while but was not sure if my arguments sounded convincing enough. At the same time he did not propose anything new or offer anything different... There was also a moment during which he admitted that he had done me a great deal of harm. I agreed with him and told him that I too could have done better but all this was in the past... Now it

was time to act in the present and see what we could do to defend the truth and ourselves.

As I predicted Mitrevski chose to defend the group and accused Aianovski of inventing things and spreading misinformation. Mitrevski’s best defense, as was well-known, was to attack his opponent head on…

I did not hate Mitrevski or the people in his circle. Not only could I not afford to hate anyone but it would be humiliating for me if I did. I always believed that people should be accepted for who they are along with their faults, especially the activists of our Macedonian national liberation movement. They should be respected and should respect one another for their accomplishments. The very fact that, in the course of our Macedonian national liberation movement, they rose up the ranks to become prominent activists and leaders makes them worthy of respect. Those who don’t respect them and have a closed heart about them are their enemies and if they are Macedonians then that makes them “doubtful Macedonian patriots”... In that regard, everyone would be wrong if they thought I hated Aianovski and Kiriazovski. I don’t do things like that in general. I simply see them as my opponents with whom I conduct my polemics in the defense of the truth and myself (such is life). In a sense, I am even grateful for these polemics. If I agreed with all their published materials then I would have no reason to write and a significant part of my texts would not have been written...

I have repeatedly asked Naum Peiov to “do something” in order to overcome the misunderstandings and bad relations between our leading activists from Greek occupied Macedonia. I said to him: “You have been elevated to the top by this development of events. You are currently standing at the highest level. Show some initiative and sort things out between them… follow the Party line…”

He did nothing... I don’t think because he didn’t want to. It would appear it was not up to him…

In my frustration I turned to the chairman of the SKM Central Committee. I wrote him a letter dated April 19, 1976, in which, among other things, I said: “Thirty years have passed and mutual

relations between our activists remain at their lowest… All these people are communists… So what has the Party done to improve their relations? Why is the Party absent in all this…?”

And yet again nothing was done! The Party did not bring the people together and did nothing to bring order.

I don’t believe this was negligence on anyone’s part. I think and I believe that this was part of an already established policy. The same policy used to dissolve the Refugee Main Board and the newspaper “Egeiski Glas” (Aegean Voice). Obviously, with this policy there were attempts, on one hand, to show that political immigrants from Greece do not exist in Yugoslavia, and on the other, to issue passports to refugees that could not be used to travel to neighbouring Greece... to visit places of origin and relatives.

It is difficult to understand why it is necessary for our state and Party leadership to have us Macedonians from Greece scattered everywhere... to argue amongst ourselves… to be disorganized and silent... and without the opportunity to go back to visit our places of birth. And, in general, why was it necessary for us not to be political immigrants when it is widely known that we were political immigrants… forced out at gunpoint to leave our native hearth and take shelter across the border...

There are no refugees from Greece to Yugoslavia?! This was pure distortion of the truth and concealment of reality. If there were no refugees from Greece in Yugoslavia then there can be no such problem between Yugoslavia and Greece. If there were no refugees from Greece in Yugoslavia then, of course, there was no need to negotiate their return to their birthplaces… or to worry about regulating their pensions, compensations and the like.

Yes! The Socialist Republic of Macedonia was a common homeland for all of us Macedonians...

But that’s not right! One time a good friend of mine from Prilep, wondering about what I had said, asked me:

“How can a person feel like a political emigrant in their own homeland?!”

Allow me to explain. Anyone who thinks that MACEDONIA IS THE FATHERLAND OF ALL MACEDONIANS, and that a small part of Macedonia, like the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, is every Macedonian’s homeland, is not right!

Since I already live in Macedonia then why do I have nostalgic pain (sorrow) for my homeland in Lerin Region? Why do Macedonians who left for overseas countries want to return to their places of birth? Why would a person from Lerin Region want to return to Lerin Region and a person from Kumanovo Region want to return to Kumanovo Region? They are both returning to Macedonia… right? The reason is because they want to return to their native place: the person from Lerin wants to return to Lerin, the person from Kumanovo wants to return to Kumanovo, and not the other way around…! I asked my friend how he felt about being in Bitola, a stones throw from neighbouring Prilep? Did he see Bitola as home or as a nice place to visit…?!

More recently I came into contact with one of the highest state institutions in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. At the reception desk I introduced myself as Pavle Rakovski, an immigrant from Aegean Macedonia. I was received promptly, very kindly and I would say warmly. In carrying out my civic duty (for which I don’t think someone should be on a payroll…), I left a long letter describing the unhealthy situations that existed in various sectors of our socio-political life. This is why I went there... They didn’t ask me why I felt like a political immigrant… when at the same time I was a citizen of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia and the SFRY. If they did I would have said: Simply because I refuse to accept the idea of abandoning my place of birth… even though I live in the capital of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. I refused to give up my birthplace and my right to return to where I was born… Because if I did I would feel like a traitor especially for the work I had done for our people and for our Macedonia in general...

I did not write the exact words down and I don’t remember whose words they were, but I believe they were the words of writer Petre

M. Andreevski, recently published in the press which went something like this: “We first began to yell - Solun is ours! Then we left Solun and began to yell - Trieste is ours…! In other words, we gave up on parts of our Macedonia for fear of being labeled nationalists…!”

Perhaps I didn’t quote the words exactly as they were said but you get the idea...

As for me, I can feel and appreciate this Macedonian’s resentment...

It would appear that at that time that policy was directed solely towards us refugees from Greek occupied Macedonia. The policy was designed to prevent us from making demands for our rights as refugees. In other words, we were expected to forget what had happened to us… the persecution… the struggle… the exiling… so that there would be no interference in Greece’s internal affairs. This was done in the name of general Yugoslav interests, in the name of general Balkan interests, in the interest of world peace, in the interest of broad cooperation, rapprochement and friendly relations primarily among the Balkan peoples. In short, the problem of the recognition and liberation of all the Macedonian people was left in the hands of the Balkan people, i.e. the Balkan leaders… When I first heard of this I was reminded of what I had heard before.

In early March 1947 I had a meeting in one of the Kostur Region villages with a Bulgarian delegate. He was a member of the United Nations Inquiry Commission sent to Greece to investigate the war situation. In talking with him about a united Macedonia he said that Bulgaria was not prepared and would never give up Pirin (Bulgarian occupied) Macedonia. It was very painful he said. It would be less painful he said if Bulgaria was to enter into a Federation with Yugoslavia, then the two parts of Macedonia could combine less painfully for Bulgaria... The same was true with Greece and the Greek (occupied) part of Macedonia. No one wants to give up their gains from the imperialist division of Macedonia to please someone else… in this case Yugoslavia. Each one of these countries worked hard to become bigger and stronger..., he said. (104)

The Bulgarian man, whose name I can’t remember, seemed to be a logical thinker. He said to me that the Macedonian people should wait for when the neighbours are forced to agree among themselves and voluntarily allow the Macedonian people to live free and as equals within a Balkan Federation.

I said to him, a strong, well-organized, nationwide Macedonian liberation movement is needed to facilitate that work. I said, as a Macedonian I don’t believe our neighbours will voluntarily renounce their hegemony over us and give up our material treasures… they need to be forced…!

He smiled and, with a confirming movement of his head, agreed with me.

Whoever said “there are no friends or enemies in politics… only interests!” was correct. Interests move the world and create history. In the Balkans the interests of our neighbours were brought together in order to fight against the Ottomans so that they could occupy and annex Macedonian territories. After they did that, yesterday’s allies turned against one another and became enemies only because their interests had shifted. And we all know what happened after that; Macedonia was divided and the Macedonian people became dismembered. This was a terrible blow against the Macedonian national liberation movement and was delivered by our neighbours who turned out to be our most dangerous opponents. In fact, I believe that our neighbours became allies, and with the blessing of their patrons, rushed to invade and occupy Macedonia because they were afraid of us Macedonians forming our own state… In other words, the former enemies became allies in an effort to stop us from becoming independent from the Ottomans… And then, the former allies became enemies again when they had achieved their objective and occupied Macedonia by driving the Ottomans out. They knew that the Ottomans were already thinking of making Macedonia an autonomous Ottoman province. And it would have been only a matter of time before Macedonia would have gained its independence. But our neighbours, and especially their patrons the Great Powers, did not want that. Also, as we know, Bulgaria entered the war (Balkan wars) because it figured it had lost the Macedonians because they were preparing to create their own Macedonian state

independent of Bulgaria… and were not following Bulgarian wishes to join Bulgaria.

The Macedonian national liberation movement in all parts of occupied Macedonia became a natural ally of the worker and communist movements. This is because the Macedonian people, theoretically, believed that their interests coincided with the interests of the democratic struggles in those countries. But in reality, as it turned out, that was not always the case. The CPG leadership, with its two-pronged policy, went as far as calling the Macedonian people “Slavophone Greeks”. In other words the CPG declared that the Macedonian people were Greeks who spoke a Slavic language. On top of that they banned the Macedonian language, banned the Macedonian grammar and the Macedonian literary language, and replaced them with new Greek editions of the alphabet and grammar. They then especially created a literary language for their “Slavophone Greeks”. The state party leadership in Bulgaria, simply and publicly, declared that there were no Macedonians in Macedonia, but only Bulgarians! In Yugoslavia, however, similar trends were successfully prevented. The Macedonian people, who until yesterday were called “Southern Serbs”, took matters into their own hands and managed to remain Macedonians. This was because the basic interests of the revolution and the very existence of the CPY, as a general Yugoslav Communist Party, allowed no space and opportunity to “sin” over the national question of the people in Yugoslavia. This is quite understandable because the CPY was and still generally remains a Yugoslav Party and the bearer of the fundamental interests of all the Yugoslav people.

These gains, however, were not free or easily obtained. The Yugoslav federation was built through a fierce mass struggle with many victims on all sides. And as Gotse Delchev used to say “freedom gained for the Macedonian people will be gained through a hard struggle by the Macedonian people!” On top of that, circumstances in multinational Yugoslavia were more favourable for the Macedonian people living there… where multiple nationalities were welcome.

Over time both Bulgaria and Greece, for mutual interests, used Macedonia and the Macedonian people as coins for personal gains.

Based on known population exchange conventions, Bulgaria allowed Greek expansionists to free themselves from an entire army of about 85,000 of our most rebellious and anti-Greek Macedonians. This was a hard blow and an anti-Macedonian act...

Today we are witnessing something similar. Instead of taking our army of refugees, indisputably the most revolutionary and advanced Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia, and defending its human rights, placing it under our protection and demanding that it be returned in its native place among its living relatives, we are trying to hide it. Instead of helping the Macedonian political refugees, Yugoslavia and the Socialist Republic of Macedonia have being trying to assimilate them by offering them citizenship, allowing them to fight among one another and be disorganized, and without a voice. In other words they are telling us to forget our native places and that the Socialist Republic of Macedonia is now our new home as it is the homeland of all Macedonians. And as I mentioned earlier, quoting a Macedonian patriot: “We gave up the other parts of our homeland for fear of being labeled nationalists!”

According to information obtained from original Party documents, Dr. Risto Kiriazovski reported that when we left Greek occupied Macedonia we left behind 11,000 dead, people killed during the fighting, 46 Macedonian villages destroyed and completely emptied of their inhabitants, 179 Macedonian villages somewhat emptied or with a significantly reduced number of inhabitants... If we were sent back we could have been joined by our relatives, now scattered all over the world, and we could have begun a new life. On top of that the Macedonian national spirit would have been strengthened, and, in the words of our patriot poet: “Makedonsko ime – nema da zagine”! (The Macedonian name - will not perish!)

Instead of sending us back to take our place on our ancestral lands, they have allowed the Greek state to flood our Macedonian villages and towns with Greek colonists, spreading them all over our Macedonia without “restraint” and in the process they have considerably facilitated in the “Hellenization” of our homeland…

Why is Yugoslavia doing this for Greece? What is its obligation? Why does Yugoslavia feel it is its constitutional right and duty to take in Macedonians from all parts of Macedonia and beyond…?

Of course, in spite of everything, there should be no doubt that this was a historical moment which required Yugoslavia to do so, that is, it was part of the policy of the day to take in people belonging to the ethnicities of the Republics, which also applied to us...

Now that I am writing my autobiography, I want to mention that, on various occasions I have addressed these kinds of questions to the editorial offices of our various media outlets, and to some institutions and management bodies. As it turned out, this was about the only type of socio-political activity I could do since I was “removed, ignored or written off” from political, social and academic life. In my letter to the Socialist Republic of Macedonia’s Presidency, mentioned earlier, I describe some unhealthy conditions in our social and political life here in Macedonia. Here is what I wrote:

TO THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF v/k “NOVA MAKEDONIJA” in SKOPJE

In the weekly issue of “NOVA MAKEDONIJA” dated September 18, 1977, in the section “MINI QUIZ”, it is quite misleading to say that the term “Philippi” was derived from the Latin language.

As history has shown, Demosthenes, the Athenian orator and celebrated speaker from mid-4th century BC, protested with his flaming speeches against Philip II of Macedon (father of Alexander the Great), and against the pro-Macedonian politics of some prominent Athenians, including against Eshchines, the other glorified orator. Latin did not exist in Macedonia at that time because the Roman state was limited to the Apennine Peninsula, rather than all around Rome.

It was not the then Romans, but the then City States which named Demosthenes’s speeches against the Macedonian king Philip II, “Philippics”.

Philippic (singular), Philippi (plural). These terms remained known in history, that is, these terms were borrowed from the City States and adopted in other languages. “Philippics” in our language, should mean - sharp, bold criticisms...

Skopje, September 20, 1977, Your regular reader, Pavle Rakovski (Resenska 6, Sk.)