CENTRAL COMMITTEE UNION OF COMMUNISTS IN MACEDONIA

CENTRAL COMMITTEE UNION OF COMMUNISTS IN MACEDONIA

Received on 19. IV 1976.

Signature: Unreadable

6) I sent the following text to the editorial board of “Nova Makedonija” under the title “IT’S MORE THAN NECESSARY… IT’S NICE…!”

There was an article written by Nikola Shalvarinov and Sotir Andonovski, published on Saturday February 19, 1983, which refers to events in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia that took place during the national liberation war against the fascist occupation. The article was entitled “A HEATED DEBATE AT THE POZDIVISHTA MEETING”. In the same Saturday issue you also published a letter sent to you by Angel Radev, which also refers to events in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia that took place

during the national liberation war against the fascist occupation. The letter was entitled “THE YOUNG PEOPLE NEED TO BECOME FAMILIAR”.

Both of these articles were published as part of a series of articles dealing with the “struggle of the Macedonian People in the Aegean (Greek occupied) Part of Macedonia”. They were also part of the cultural and educational plan prepared by Dr. Risto Kiriazovski, which were recently published in “NOVA MAKEDONIJA”.

In addition to the above, there were also other articles, written by Tashko Mamurovski and Dr. Risto Kiriazovski, published in the latest issues of the renowned history magazines “GLASNIK” and “ISTORIA” which also relate to the history of the Macedonian national liberation movement in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia and the CPG and Greek attitude towards it. Glasnik has also published a significant part of Lazar Lazarov’s contribution under the title “REGARDING THE QUESTION OF THE REALIZATION OF THE MACEDONIAN NATIONAL RIGHTS IN AEGEAN AND PIRIN MACEDONIA RAISED AT THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE IN 1946”.

In more recent times we have been witness to the publishing of several interesting books such as “THE GREEK COLONIZATION OF AEGEAN MACEDONIA (1912-1940)” by MA Stojan Kiselinovski, “DOCUMENTS ABOUT THE MACEDONIAN PEOPLE’S STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE AND NATIONAL RIGHTS” in two volumes, published by the University of Skopje, “DOCUMENTS ON CPG POLICIES TOWARDS THE MACEDONIAN NATIONAL QUESTION (1918-1974)”, published by the Macedonian Archives, etc.

It is with great pleasure that we can conclude that the ice has been broken by the SKM VIII Congress and that the river of information about Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia and the struggles of the Macedonian people outside the territory of the Republic of Macedonia has started to flow. It is a joyous event that gives us hope that the awkward situation we have been in will be overcome when:

a) Those in Zagreb, who prepare the encyclopedias, stop obscuring the information on Greek occupied and Bulgarian occupied (Aegean and Pirin) Macedonia. Unfortunately what has already been published with remain on library shelves as long as those books last, shaping the “knowledge” of many generations to come. (Taken from Boris Nonevski’s famous protests.)

b) The children in Macedonia begin to learn about our struggle in Greek occupied Macedonia. Based on what we found out in one of the high schools here in Skopje, it appears that students are not taught anything about our struggle. The students in this particular high school, and it would appear in all our schools, know nothing about the existence of the Macedonian struggle in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. If this continues it will mean that there is political initiative to cause diversion, i.e. to conceal the truth.

Obviously, this river of information about the Macedonians in Greek occupied and Bulgarian occupied Macedonia must run continuously and nonstop. It’s more than necessary… it’s nice…!

Let us go back to the above-mentioned articles published in “NOVA MAKEDONIJA” (to join them to the river of information on Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia).

Nikola Shalvarinov and Sotir Andonovski, among other things, wrote the following: “We would like to take this opportunity to present you with this article only as a motive to point out that even when facts are presented, without being interpreted in relation to the then situations and conflicts, the ignorant reader could get the wrong idea about the whole truth…” This was also true when course books for Macedonian teachers and primers and workbooks for children were prepared (in Greek occupied Macedonia). On one occasion, “because Cyrillic letters were not available, the text was written on a matrix with plain pencil and then the letters were poked with a needle. One hundred and fifty copied of the primer were made this way.”

Shalvarinov and Andonovski then asked:

“Why did the committee spend so much effort to make Cyrillic letters when the Macedonian people in Vardar (Republic of) Macedonia could have given them valuable help if they had asked for it…? Was it wrong to ask for cooperation from free Macedonia for such a significant national endeavour…?”

The Greek leaders from the CPG, EAM and ELAS, unfortunately, did not do that, neither did they allow the Macedonian people themselves to ask for help. All this was pointed out by Shalvarinov and Andonovski - the teaching courses, the Macedonian schools, the books… all the things that took place at a time when the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia could have used help from the Macedonian people in the Republic of Macedonia in order to realize their Macedonian national rights. But everything, even the toughest things, had to be done the hard way. The Greeks only allowed these things to take place, not to help them, but to deceive the Macedonians...

However, the true aim of the Greek leaders would only become clear later when the Macedonian people found themselves in East European countries. There the Greeks would persistently try to impose another alphabet, grammar and literary language on them, different from their own, especially created for the “Slavophone” Greeks. And that is exactly what happened…

This attempt was made by the CPG and in the name of the CPG, i.e. split the Macedonian people linguistically and culturally to prove to the world that the Macedonians in Greece were a different people than those across the border living in the Republic of Macedonia. It was not enough that the Macedonian people were split by territory, politically and economically, achieved by the neighbouring monarchies through the Balkan wars, and now they had to be split culturally and linguistically. What this means, I think, is very clear and does not need any further comment.

With a certain tone of protest, well-justified in my opinion, Shalvarinov and Andonovski highlighted certain practices where information could be distorted. Most recently this information was disseminated to the Yugoslav public through newspapers, books and magazines. One such example was an article written about Markos

published in “Duga” which had distortions about many things. It was symptomatic, for example, for journalist Kliakich (Markos’s biographer), in a journalistic manner, to completely and unconsciously sensationalize things that took place in the Greek and Macedonian national liberation movements in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. His writing style, however, introduced anxiety in Macedonia and especially in the Macedonian people from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia...

It was no sin, of course, for journalist Kliakich to write things... in a journalistic way. What came out of all this is that Kliakich may have been altogether “misinformed”… But, irrespective of that, we must recognize who were and who were not our friends. Undoubtedly, our friends were those Greeks who sympathized with the Macedonian national liberation movement. The Greek CPG and ELAS official who allowed the formation of our Macedonian ELAS Lerin-Kostur Battalion on August 2, 1944, on ILINDEN, was undoubtedly our friend. The Greek “patriots”, who sharply criticized him for “forming an entire battalion when his orders were to form a single unit”, were not our friends!

Those who declared that this battalion was a threat to the Greek state and ordered its transfer to the Greek south, in other words to face disaster (and indeed it was attacked but without success), were not our friends.

Those who ordered a “total destruction” of the Macedonian partisans in ELAS, especially in Lerin, Kostur, and Voden Regions, were not our friends.

Those who spread and deployed the elite ELAS divisions here and there in Macedonia along the northern border in order to prevent a possible communist invasion from the north, in other words the same divisions that could have prevented the English troops from invading Greece, are not our friends.

Those who ordered the dissolution of the Macedonian national anti-fascist organizations MAO (Macedonian anti-fascist organization) in Voden and SNOF (Slavo-Macedonian People’s Liberation Front) in

Kostur and Lerin Regions, only because they grew rapidly and turned into dynamic revolutionary organizations, are not our friends.

Those who, after “unity” was established in November 1946, ordered the NOF Macedonian battalions to go to southern Greece and fight there, leaving only the Greek DAG units to fight in Macedonia (Markos), were not our friends.

Those who in southern Greece liquidated the Macedonian battalions, as an organized military force, were not our friends.

Note: the Macedonian NOF battalions could not be liquidated in Macedonia, so to make their liquidation easier, the Greeks sent them to southern Greece. There the Macedonian commanders were removed and replaced with Greek commanders. Of course, there were protests and resistance, but those who protested were heavily penalized. One of those protesters was shot to death. He was a personal friend of mine from the village Tsakoni, Meglen Region. And besides being killed, there was a NOF directive for him to be disciplined at DAG command.

Those who proclaimed NOF to be a “traitorous, disloyal and counter-revolutionary” organization, and persecuted and harassed the Macedonian activists, Macedonian fighters and Macedonian people in general, were not our friends.

Those who forced the Macedonian people, after being exiled from their homeland, to declare themselves “Slavophone” Greeks with Greek names, to the host country authorities, were not our friends.

Those self-appointed architects of the Macedonian people’s destiny, who were prepared to deny the Macedonian people their Macedonian culture by forbidding them to use their own oral and written Macedonian language and imposing on them some forged concoction created by the “Opouloses” suitable to Greek taste, were not our friends.

The Greek “patriots” in the CPG leadership were not our friends.

Those who have taken the lives of the many Macedonians who were at the forefront of the Macedonian national liberation movement, either openly murdered or executed by hidden snipers, were not our friends. Their numbers were no less that the Palestinians killed by the Jews. Yesterday a statement made by Arafat was delivered on television. Arafat, among other things, said that sooner or later the Palestinians will win and will have their own state with Jerusalem as their capital. It is impossible to even imagine Palestinians in their own capital welcoming and honouring Sharon, a Jew. It would look monstrous. But this, unfortunately, is happening to us here and now. Many of the famous Greek “patriots” who were our most dangerous enemies and enemies of the Macedonian national liberation movement in Greek occupied Macedonia, are allowed to come here, and are here in the Republic of Macedonia, staying with us for long periods of time. On top of that we welcome them with open arms, accept them and honour them as our friends... Where is our dignity, our Macedonian pride and principles...? People here say “it is just politics”. But how can we shake the hand of someone who wants to destroy us? How can we welcome a person into our home who claims that we Macedonians don’t exist? Excuse me but this is not just politics...

Shalvarinov and Andonovski are quite right when they say that information peddled as the “truth” to the Yugoslav public (with Marko’s book and the article published in “Duga”) brings disorder to Macedonia and especially to Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia.

At this point I would like to point out that not all things were right in the articles written by some of these authors. Namely, they are not right to treat the suffering of people as simply “journalistic” stories, particularly those people from Greek occupied Macedonia who were falsely accused of being “Tito’s agents” and sent to prison to serve severe prison sentences. From my personal experience, I can assure them that the two years and eight months I spent in isolation, in a square box in solitary confinement, and then the time I spent in forced labour camps under guard at the Beria-Stalin camps was a bitter and terrible experience, and must not be taken lightly. It is very difficult to talk about it and emotionally draining...

Now let us move on to another article that appeared in the same Saturday edition in “NOVA MAKEDONIJA”. This was a letter written by Comrade Angel Radev in which, with a tone of protest, he talks about “missing information” in the series of articles written by Dr. Risto Kiriazovski. Kiriazovski has talked about the western part of Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia, about places like Kostur, Lerin and Voden Regions but has said nothing about the eastern part, about places like Drama, Seres, Kavala, Kukush, etc…

And rightly so, Comrade Radev should be asking a historian why there is no information on the eastern region and what historians are doing to come up with such information. He adds that extensive articles should be written “about the Macedonian people’s lives, the work they did and action they took before, during and after the war. These articles should contain a lot more information, especially about the eastern part of Greek occupied Macedonia, than simply a cultural and educational plan…”

The history of the Macedonian people from the Aegean (Greek occupied) part of Macedonia, as well as other parts of Macedonia, writes Comrade Radev, is full of long-term torment, humiliation and plundering from the various occupiers... More about this should be written in our history books in order to preserve it for our future generations especially for those in Greek occupied Macedonia who have been completely isolated by the Greek state!

That’s what Comrade Radev is asking for.

Obviously, a normal Macedonian can’t think and feel differently. It is a joint request by all Macedonian people: Our youth must also be acquainted with the Macedonian people’s struggle outside of the territory of the Republic of Macedonia or Yugoslavia. We all say: It’s more than just necessary…!

Pavle Rakovski Resenska 6/1-4, Skopje