SECRETS OF THE SOUTH FOR THE SOUTH MACEDONIANS - IT'S TIME TO SAY FAREWELL - Part 01

SECRETS OF THE SOUTH FOR THE SOUTH MACEDONIANS - IT'S TIME TO SAY FAREWELL

WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR MORE THEN HALF A CENTURY FOR THE MOMENT TO UNCOVER the truth trapped in an eternal secret, but the facts say that in Aegean Macedonia evil did not fall from the sky. So, for 55 years we were told that we should be careful not to speak against those who pushed us into the Greek Civil War, because those same people created the Macedonian state. Or if we accuse and deny those people, we will have denied the Macedonian state as well? Doesn’t this look like a historical setback?

But as painful as the truth may be, it should be told on behalf of future generations who should not be burdened with the heavy ideological burdens of the past.

In my research I want to open up all the questions that until now had no hope of being answered.

If we know the truth of why we suffered the catastrophic defeat, it will help us significantly in learning useful lessons from it.

I am not defending or putting down the actors involved in this tragedy. I am not a lawyer or a court; I am simply trying to understand 5 what truly happened and why, I want to simply know who did this to us and why. My long-term goal is to get to the ROOT OF EVIL, that is, I want to correct our national history -especially for the Macedonians in Greece. Who lured the Macedonians living in Greece into the red ideological waste and why?! What was their motive?

It is important at this point that I mention that for a long time I have not cared much for the work of those historiographers who communicated their truth only when it coincided with that of the government or with the authorities. I just want to say what a terrible, tragic time we lived in, when none of our Macedonian politicians wanted to discuss who brought the evil to Aegean Macedonia. It seems that during communist times when communist ideology dominated, the Party line and false criteria ruled over reason and Macedonian patriotism was stained with cosmopolitanism. During the real hell of the Greek Civil War, the Macedonian NOF and AFZH leaderships should have been known as the LEADERS WITH A POLITICAL STRATEGY THAT DID NOT LOOK PAST THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW. They led the Macedonian people down a blind alley and they themselves ideologically blinded got lost in the weeds of primitiveness. With their ideological blindness they placed the Macedonian villages and people under a chokehold. In that mass psychology, the Macedonians were forced into a regime whose motto was: “No one in Aegean Macedonia where NOF and AFZH ruled had the right to criticize the regime. Those who did were labeled dishonest patriots…” Public space, under this super-ideological atmosphere was losing its purpose. These conditions, imposed on the people, were disastrous for their survival. The war

5 My aim in the long run is to uncover who was influencing the Macedonian people living in Greece after Macedonia was invaded, occupied, partitioned and annexed in 1912, and 1913. Who helped the Macedonian people preserve their centuries old civilization and traditional values and who encouraged them to leave their ethnic space and to experience total genocide.

destroyed the Macedonian family. Families were broken up. Men became members of NOF, women became members of AFZH and the youth became members of NOMS. With that, the family was deprived both from fathers and mothers. The people were maximally engaged in the agitation points for a future created by NOF and AFZH who in turn were directed by the CPY and the CPG.

The people used to say “everything has its time and everyone has their own illusions”. Vera too, as well as her comrades and NOF and AFZH leaders, had their own time and illusions. Everyone has seen and herd many things but many have misunderstood them. The question is how much did the people want to hear and how much did they understand? Those leaders of ours told us many things but how did we interpreted them? Each person interpreted what they heard in their own way, and so did Vera. But if we don’t face the reality of the past, we will not be very happy in the future, that is also true for the people in the Republic of Macedonia.

I intend to provide plenty of glaring evidence of the absence of Macedonian awareness that we were subservient to others such as Tito, Tempo and Kolishevski. We especially behaved subserviently in front of Zahariadis and Markos and sometimes we even forgot who we were. Lured by their lies we rushed towards a promised “future” forgetting our past and present. One thing is certain we left behind an extensive record of “troubling history”.

But, even though we were mislead, for years and decades, both inside Macedonia and out, we lived with the fear that we might offend those who caused us harm. And we Macedonians generously and sincerely accepted their “slogan” and bled for them for years. That “slogan” during the Greek Civil War became a “cancer” for us, leading us to shout “fight to the death” and “Death to Anglo-American fascism…”

And who knows how many more years, we exiled Macedonians who were fed many empty promises, will remain exiled. When are we going to wake up and accept the fact that we were lied to and mislead? When are we going to stop looking at the Greek Civil War and talk about the GREAT SUCCESSES WE MADE?

Those Macedonian communists and CPG members in Greece went through three characteristic phases.

But, before we analyze the phases let us clarify some things: If the basic principles on which nations/states are based are historical and cultural past, territorial, state, ethnic, linguistic and economic principles, then the Macedonian communists, as CPG members, according to their accepted programs, practically gave up two principles “territorial and state”.

FIRST PHASE: The first part of Vera’s career is about how she voluntarily joined the ranks of the CPG and accepted its program and platform. The CPG, the left forces in Greece, during the parliamentary elections rated as follows: The CPG, on November 7, 1926, received 41,928 votes or 4.38% of the total vote. On August 19, 1928, it received 14,325 votes or 1. 41%, on September 25, 1932 it received 58,229 votes or 4. 97%, and in the March 5, 1933 elections the CPG received 52,958 votes or 4.44% of the total vote.

Not everyone can attest to the difficulties and storms that accompanied member of the CPG. The only people that could join were children of the working class, children of the future, struggling children, children of steadfastness, endurance and heroic deeds.

But, here is Vera telling us that she was a member of the CPG and fought in the military ranks of ELAS and EAM. She considers that a patriotic duty and she advocated for solving the “Macedonian question in Greece.” 6

6 Some Western diplomats date the beginning of the Macedonian Question to 1870, when Russia forced Turkey to allow the establishment of a separate Bulgarian Orthodox Church - the Exarchate, with control over parts of the Turkish province of Macedonia. Others advocate the opinion that the question dates back to 1878, when the Berlin Congress revised the Treaty of San Stefano, which Russia imposed on Turkey after the Russo-Turkish War. With the San Stefano Agreement, Bulgaria received the borders that fulfilled Bulgarian national dreams, and the entire part of Macedonia under Yugoslavia was assigned, including Vranje, Kostur, Lerin, Ostrovo and a small part of the Aegean Sea, west of Solun. Russia at the Berlin Congress renounced the San Stefano Treaty, which returned Macedonia to Turkey. (See: Documents; Great Britain and Macedonia. (1944 -1945). What was the position of the Communist Party on the Macedonian Question over the years?

There were six characteristic CPG policy periods regarding the Macedonian question. These were:

1. The period when the CPG was created (1918 - 1924);

2. The period when it agreed to a “United and independent Macedonia” (1924 - 1935);

3. The period when it supported “Full equality of Macedonians within the Greek state” (1935 - 1949);

4. The period when it manipulated the Macedonian people with offers of a “United and independent Macedonia in a Balkan Federation” (from January 1949 - March 10, 1949);

5. The period when it offered the Macedonian people full equality (from 1949 - 1988);

6. The period during which it claimed a Macedonian minority (Macedonian people) did not exist in Greece (1988 to today).

Attitudes evolved as the ethnic composition of the population changed. Namely: At the CPG Sixth Congress held in December 1935, it was confirmed and determined that, according to the Party publication TO KKE AP TO from 1931 to 1952, “Such a change does not mean giving up the Marxist-Leninist principle of self-determination of nations... The population in the Greek part of Macedonia today is Greek and it is a majority (they said that after 660 thousand settlers and colonists were moved from Asia Minor into the Macedonian territory in Greece and after 80 thousand Macedonians were expelled from their homes in Greek occupied Macedonia. After this was done the Macedonian population in Greece amounted to only 3% of the total population of 10 million people) and as such the Marxist-Leninist principle of self-determination requires them to change the old slogan to fit the current conditions!” (v. 74). The same comment was made in the newspaper “Rizospastis” where its was said: “In 1935, the CPG at

its Sixth Congress, as a justification for changing the policy for a united and independent Macedonia, the majority actually accepted the “minority” argument because, after the large migration movements between Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey were implemented, the Greek element in the Aegean part of Macedonia became a majority and therefore the policy for a united and independent Macedonia was no longer necessary…”

Here is another concrete explanation of the communist movement’s basic thesis:

“The communist movement, due to its essential Leninist historical discontinuity, does not place the solution of the national question on a principled basis (to always correspond to the interests of the enslaved nation), but on a tactical basis (to correspond to the so-called class interests that always corresponded with the state’s interests) interests of the dominant nation and thus essentially denied the right to self-determination of peoples”.

This means that the highest guarantee the CPG could offer was: “Full equality for the Macedonian people within Greece” and nothing more, other efforts turned out to be futile and SENSELESS ILLUSIONS which were used to attract the Macedonian people into a common struggle (especially during the Greek Civil War which turned out to be one big scam).

It is not difficult to figure out that, with this new stance, the CPG put its policy on the national question in the service and interest of the Greek national and state interests. With that act, the Macedonian people who lived in the Aegean part of Macedonia were deprived of the right to unite their struggle with the struggle of the Macedonian people from the other two parts of Macedonia and jointly fight for a Macedonian national liberation, unification and the creation of a Macedonian state.

In other words, the CPY, CPB and CPG had no intention of supporting the Macedonian people in creating a Macedonian state at the expense of their state territories. And who ever thought they would?

Besides that even our struggle to win minority rights in Greece was limited.

Were the Macedonians included in the ELAS 7 program?

Let’s have a look:

The EAM (National Liberation Front), program was established on September 27, 1941. It mainly consisted of the following:

A) 1. Expel the German-Italian and Bulgarian occupiers from Greece;

2. Re-establish Greece’s integrity;

3. Establish self-determination in Cyprus, the Dodecanese and in northern Epirus. (Where is the self-determination for Macedonia, EAM’s faithful ally?) And;

4. Strategic regulation of Greece’s northern borders (meaning our so-called “partners” wanted a little more of our Macedonian lands). See the remarks in the ELAS authority newspaper “Mahitis” published on February 10, 1944. It says: EAM is the answer to the national question, yet to this day the EAM program contains absolutely nothing about us!

7 The ELAS or “ELASITI” were members of the military also called “andartes”. Andartes was a term used by the Greeks to refer to the armed Greek bands operating illegally in Macedonia before, during and after the 1903 Ilinden Uprising. The “andartes” were organized and armed in Greece and then sent to Macedonia to spread Greek influence through acts of terror. Thus in Macedonia the term “andartes” was associated with the infamous crimes committed against the Macedonian people. The Organization ELAS was jointly formed by the EAM, the CPG and the CPG Central Committee. The first ELAS military units or “Elasiti” appeared on February 15th, 1942. The first detachment of ELAS was formed in Kostur Region on December 7th, 1942 and included 10 Macedonians, 7 Greeks and 2 Vlachs. The total number of ELAS fighters throughout Greece numbered about 70,000. On July 16th, 1943 the leadership of ELAS and Colonel Eddie Myers, head of the British military mission, signed an agreement bringing ELAS under the British Command of the Middle East. On February 12th, 1945 the “Varkiza” agreement was signed with which the left (EAM and CPG) practically handed power to the right.

B) The People’s Liberation Army of Greece (ELAS) was formed on May 15, 1942 in Rummely and was organized in Partisan Detachments. ELAS’s goals were decided at a joint meeting between the CPG Central Committee and EAM. Its proclamation was aimed at the citizens of Greece and at the former officers of the Greek Army, known for belonging to the bourgeois class. At the time we, the Macedonians, were not ELAS’s allies or fighting partners, we were simple “Slavo-phones”, ordinary soldiers to be used as they saw fit, just like our fathers and grandfathers were used in previous wars. At that time the only thing we did was loudly sing and yell the slogan “Embros ELAS gia tin Elada” (Forward ELAS for Greece)… and nothing more. But there is still another undeniable fact about ELAS and the people (the Elasiti) who fought in ELAS that we should not forget. That is the oath to which we all swore. The oath reads: “I will fight for the liberation of our motherland Greece… and I will protect the integrity of the Greek nation...” Where is Macedonia and the Macedonian Nation in this oath?

Did the Macedonian communists in the CPG and ELAS ranks sign the oath “I will fight for the liberation of our motherland Greece… and I will protect the integrity of the Greek nation...”?

The second oath:

Here is the ELAS oath that everyone who joined ELAS had to take: “I swear that I will fight to the last drop of my blood for the complete liberation, stability and independence of Greece. I will fight to preserve the integrity of the Greek people and the establishment of order and basic human rights. For this purpose I will strive to fulfill the orders of PEEA (Political Committee of National Liberation of Greece) by performing due diligence and demonstrating discipline. I will follow orders and instructions from my superiors and I will avoid every process that may turn me into a traitor against the Greek people.”

During that period of time, the CPG position remained unchanged: “At the CPG Central Committee Third Plenum held in March 1935, in place of “the right to self-determination until secession from

Greece, i.e. united and independent Macedonia”, the wording was changed to say “complete equality of minorities within the Greek state...” So, for what kind of “Macedonian Question” were the Macedonians who voluntarily joined the CPG and ELAS fighting for?!

The Macedonian situation in Kostur Region and Kostur Region villages during the Second World War after Italy occupied the area.

With the ethnic change due to population exchanges, i.e. with the arrival of the settlers and colonists from Asia Minor, by whom the Macedonian population was terrorized as well as by PAO (Pan-Hellenic Liberation Organization) whose members were exclusively Greek nationalists, the Macedonian people were attacked on a daily basis. Raids and robberies (of cattle, grain, cheese, fat and other products) were carried out and the Macedonian population was robbed and tortured. This was one of the most unprotected areas in occupied Macedonia. The Macedonian people were deliberately accused of being communists and arrested and bitten to death unlike the Greek communists who were imprisoned but still released. Not even the Italian authorities wanted to protect them. At the same time there was also the problem of scarce necessary products that the Macedonian peasants could hardly obtain (Salt, sugar, oil, gas, etc.) and were unavailable for years. One day several representatives from the villages enquired from the Italian authorities an explanation as to why they were mistreated so badly and then asked them for their support to be treated like all citizens. They did not want the Italians to protect them; they simply asked if they can protect themselves. For that purpose they asked for permission to form what ended up being called the “MACEDONIAN COMMITTEE” for Kostur Region which was given the authority to exercise civil rights through the Italian authorities. As a result the first armed unit was formed on March 5, 1943, in Kostur Region, consisting of Macedonian fighters from the region. They quickly appeared in 54 villages and their numbers swelled to 9850 armed men. They called themselves fighters, defenders against the armed Greek nationalist gangs. In western Macedonia in 1943, these armed nationalist Greek gangs were responsible for intimidating the Macedonian people by spreading anti-Macedonian propaganda in the form of leaflets and by other means.

Who was bothered the most by the existence of the MACEDONIAN COMMITTEE, what was the purpose for creating SNOF and who created it? See: “History of the Macedonian people”, volume five, p. 449.

It has been said that: “...The second Macedonian anti-fascist organization that appeared in the Aegean part of Macedonia in the Second World War was SNOF.

During that period in 1943, Britain made every effort to bring the Greek resistance movement (EAM and ELAS) under its control. After lengthy negotiations between ELAS and EDES and English General Staff for the Middle East, a CPG and EAM delegation arrived in Cairo to negotiate “political unity” and the formation of a “joint headquarters” with the Greek government in exile and with a number of civil parties. The joint headquarters, headed by Andy Meyers, was created on June 18, 1943, which recognized the ELAS resistance forces as an allied army. With this Agreement the People’s Liberation Movement in Greece was subordinate to the English General Staff for the Middle East. And for the same purpose, on June 5, 1943, a military cooperation agreement was signed in Lebanon. Part of that agreement required disarming the MACEDONIAN COMMITTEE and other counter-bands and their armed units still active in Kostur, Lerin and Voden Regions. These bands mistrusted all Greeks including the CPG, EAM and ELAS. Being “concerned” about their existence but unable to do something about it, the communist leadership sought outside help. The help came in the form of a suggestion, not from a Greek but from a Yugoslav, more precisely from a Montenegrin code named Tempo. Svetozar Vukmanovich-Tempo was a CPY Central Committee delegate in Macedonia, who during a meeting with Siantos, CPG General Secretary, in August 1943, suggested that Siantos create a special Macedonian military unit in Greek occupied Macedonia for the purpose of leading, agitating and spreading propaganda in the Macedonian language.

So, following Tempo’s suggestion prompted the CPG leadership to allow the formation of Macedonian political organizations and military formations.” And this is how and why SNOF was created

and where Macedonians were fooled into fighting against Macedonians for foreign interests.

Here is a question for you: Why did CPG General Secretary Siantos not ask the Macedonian communists in his own Party for help? Why did he have to ask a high ranking CPY representative from Yugoslavia? And did the Macedonian communists react to that? No! Because they already had accepted Tempo’s suggestion that the skilful strategist he had shown himself to be: “Guardian of the royal Yugoslav border and nothing more.” Tempo favoured a Macedonian movement with a pro-Yugoslav historical tendency. And because of that the Greeks trusted him especially after CPM General Secretary Metodia Shatorov – Charlo, 8 was eliminated and removed from power and there was no longer any possibility of realizing Charlo’s ideas for some kind of spiritual unification of the Macedonian people from the entire ethnic Macedonian composition.

After this happened it should have been very clear to us Macedonians (especially those from the Aegean part), that any action we took to create a united Macedonia would be met with a knife from both the CPY and the CPG.

What that meant was that now everything that was done would be done at a Party and state political level as determined by Greece and Yugoslavia. This was also done by Albania with the same goal. An example of that was the June 20, 1943, Protocol “for close military-political cooperation” which was signed at the National Army Headquarters of Albania by the representatives of Yugoslavia (CPY) Svetozar Vukmanovich - Tempo, of Albania (CPA) Enver Hoxha and of Greece (CPG) Ververis.

8 Shatorov, Metodia - Charlo (Prilep 1897 - Bulgaria, September 1944). Shatorov lived in Bulgaria since the end of the First World War. He was a member of the CPB since 1920. In 1929 he immigrated to the USSR and from the spring of 1940 to September 1941, he was CPY Provincial Secretary for Macedonia. He advocated for the formation of a one Macedonian state with the unification of all its parts. He promoted Macedonian national individuality. He was removed from his position as Secretary (under Tito’s orders and replaced by Lazar Kolishevski) after the resolution of a dispute between the CPY and CPB and the Comintern regarding the Macedonian Provincial Committee’s affiliation. And that is why precisely, Papandreou’s government in Cairo insisted on this kind of level of talks. Bearing in mind that this level had been accepted and solved by Yugoslavia after Charlo was removed as well as the entire CPM Party leadership and its platform. Papandreou’s government demanded that the CPG and ELAS not accept any of the Macedonian conditions: not from Aegean Macedonia or from Vardar Macedonia, because “there would be historical consequences for the Greek state and its sovereignty”. I don’t know what else it would have taken for the Macedonian communists from Greece to realize that they were no longer accepted as true Macedonian political entities by the CPG or ELAS and that they had been lured by Tempo.

So, IT SHOULD BE EMPHASIZED that: the solution was agreed upon by the CPY and CPG representatives again within the framework of the Bucharest Agreement between Yugoslavia and Greece.

For us Macedonians, that meant that: By defending the communist ideology, we lost our identity and our ancestral hearths forever. Our destiny is our destiny and we had to take it into our own hands, because it is cruel when people don’t want to master their own destiny, then as our old people used to say, destiny masters them.

And that’s what happened to us.

* * *

In particular, SNOF was created and organized, but not by Macedonians but by manipulating the Macedonians! See: the book “Pascal Mitrevski and his time (1921 - 1978)”, p. 20.

SNOF was created on October 20, 1943. The CPG, EAM and ELAS leaderships, “concerned” about the counter-band situation that existed in Greek occupied Macedonia, especially in Kostur, Lerin and Voden Regions, decided to create a separate Macedonian organization; SNOF (Slavo-Macedonia National Liberation Front) to deal with it. SNOF, for Kostur and Lerin Regions, was created on October 20, 1943 in the village Snichani, Kostur Region, and for Voden Region a little later. The people who created SNOF were

Greeks who belonged to the CPG District Committee for Western Macedonia; Hristos Kalfas (Andreas), Antonis Andonopulos (Periklis), CPG District Committee Secretary for Kostur Region and Thanassis Kartsunis, CPG District Committee Secretary for Kozhani Region. Less than 6 months after it was created SNOF was disbanded. Within the six months of its existence, SNOF in Kostur Region amassed in its ranks about 2,490 men and about 2,280 women. The number of people recruited by SNOF in Lerin Region amounted to more than 10,000. SNOF emerged as a true leader and organizer of the Macedonian people’s struggle in Kostur and Lerin Regions against the foreign occupiers and against the domestic traitors. Regarding SNOF’s activities in Kostur Region, an article came out on April 3, 1944 and published in the newspaper “Slavo-Macedonian voice”. Among other things the article said: “SNOF is the only people’s liberation organization which will meet the Macedonian people’s national and social demands. SNOF is the new VMRO for the Macedonians, which will lead them to the end of the work of Ilinden...” One of SNOF’s main tasks in Kostur and Lerin Regions was to declare war on supporters of the Bulgarian Court and on Vancho Mihailov whose propaganda endeavoured to turn the Macedonian population in the wrong direction. But the Macedonians involved in the anti-fascist struggle against the foreign invaders and against the domestic traitors, seriously upset the CPG, EAM and ELAS leaderships. It seems that by the end of April 1944 the top CPG leadership made a decision to disband SNOF in Kostur and Lerin Regions. The justification given was that SNOF’s influence was “harmful” to the popularization of the Greek masses in the ranks of EAM.

SNOF’s political program was a platform for a joint struggle between Macedonians and Greeks. It called for mass mobilization of Macedonians in ELAS units for the purpose of conducting an armed struggle against the Macedonian rebels and against the occupiers.

You will find more information about this in a book (“Yugoslav Communists and the Macedonian Question” by Steve E. Palmer and Robert P. King, Archon Books, 1971, p. 94-95) where the following was written:

“In the beginning of May 1943, Tempo established contact with the Greek Communists, in an attempt to establish domination of the CPY in Greek occupied Macedonia, which smoldered from the repressive measures applied by the Metexas dictatorship before the war. The situation was ignited by the Italian occupiers who organized special Macedonian gendarmes (Kostur rebels) to fight against the Greeks. The Kostur rebels received carte blanche and their influence was dangerous for CPY plans in Macedonia in a Yugoslav framework. Tempo suggested that it would be good to allow Tito’s agents (Macedonians in ELAS and the CPG) to organize and lead the Macedonians in Greece. The Greeks refused. Tempo however took his case to the Supreme Command of the Greek People’s Liberation Army (ELAS) which then allowed the Greek Macedonians to organize the Slavic National Liberation Fronts (SNOF). ELAS Command immediately agreed to combine military actions with the Yugoslav partisans but, of course, was not thrilled with the formation of separate Greek Slav units because it seemed like a move to enable Yugoslav efforts to create a Greater Macedonia. It was possible that Greece could lose Aegean Macedonia and that was the main black point of the Greek communists. Agreement to such a proposal, no matter how it was camouflaged in plans for some kind of Balkan Communist Federation, was going to strongly jeopardize their mass support.”

On August 8, in a letter to the CPG Central Committee, Tempo accepted the Greek Communist insistence to preserve discretion: “The Greek party has the following position on the issue of Macedonia. I.e. the Macedonian minority in Greece will gain its freedom and will be safe from any kind of national oppression.’ They did not recognize any right to self-determination for the Macedonian nation.”

The turmoil triggered among the Macedonian people by Siantos and Tempo is incomprehensible even to this day. It is hard to believe that Macedonians, participants in the ranks of ELAS, took part in the destruction of the Kostur rebels. It is hard to believe that they attacked 9,800 armed rebels in 64 villages; Macedonians who stood bravely against Hellenism to protect our people and our national identity. Instead of valorizing these brave fighters as a Macedonian national resistance dedicated to protecting Macedonian interests, we

blackened our own history by attacking them! And whose interests were we protecting when we did that? The Party’s? What is funnier about this sordid affair is that in the end, the rebels left alive were recruited to fight for the communists… The best sons of Macedonia were recruited to fight for the interests of the Party…

The appearance of the Kostur rebel fighters was an extraordinary moment in Macedonia’s reality, but in place of showing respect and dignity for them we entered a new political game and destroyed them. We now have to live with that sin.

If ever there was a nation in the world that had broken something created by its own people eons ago, then we the Macedonians must be the first. Our biggest sin was the destruction of the Macedonian rebel fighters in Kostur.

We also need to know that the rebels experienced the worst discrimination from the Greek state since the day they were born, but on top of that the Greeks made sure that they were vilified, recklessly anathematized and their history, along with their sacrifices, were forgotten.

Also, see “History of the Macedonian People”, volume three.

The SNOF District Committee for Kostur District officially presented the Macedonian national question to the Communist Party of Greece on the basis of the “Atlantic Charter”. 9 Early as January

9 The Atlantic Charter was drafted to express the post-World War II aims of the United States and Great Britain. President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain adopted the declaration in August 1941 during a conference aboard a ship off the coast of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and decided among other things that all people who participated in the liberation of the world from Fascism and Nazism would have the right to choose the form of government under which they would live; and to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who had been forcibly deprived of them. Germany’s attack against the Soviet Union and the Atlantic Charter of August 14, 1941, especially its provisions on liberation of all nations, which would take part in the anti-fascist fight, the recognition of their right to self-determination and creation of independent countries, motivated Macedonian people in the three parts of Macedonia strongly to join the wide anti-fascist movement and the resistance of the Balkan nations.

1944 Lazo Damovski, the secretary of the regional council of the Macedonian National Liberation Front for Kostur Region, addressed the CPG council for Macedonia and warned of this. On January 24, 1944 Damovski wrote: “The conditions created by World War II for the liberation movements in all of occupied Europe including the Balkans have opened new roads for the self-determination of all people. Macedonians are no exception. Macedonians have spilled blood in the 1903 Ilinden Uprising and are now fighting, spilling blood and making sacrifices to gain their freedom from the Fascists. Our friends in Vardar (Republic) Macedonia are going in the right direction…” “The Macedonians in Lerin and Kostur Regions represent the majority of the population (70%) and are fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Greek people. When they become liberated, will they, according to the Atlantic Charter, have the rights to self declare? Will they be granted the promised rights?” “The CPG promised the Macedonian people equal rights within the framework of a Peoples Republic of Greece, the same way it promised the people of the Dodekanis and Cyprus. If the CPG is serious about delivering on those promises when will it then allow the Macedonian people to freely express their ethnic culture? When will it let the Macedonians fight for their own ideals and for composing something unique to show that they are truly Macedonians? Is the CPG really afraid of being criticized by the chauvinist elements? If so, how then does it propose to form “national unity” and not receive any criticism? Does the CPG truly understand the Macedonian question? Because if it doesn’t it better learn it fast and start facing reality and make the right decision…” One by one the CPG ordered all regional Macedonian National Liberation Front wards to close down and all fighters to disband and join the ranks of ELAS. This however was not what the Macedonians wanted and some began to show dissatisfaction.

In the book “History of the Macedonian People”, volume three, page 452, it said:

“Despite the fact that the CPG and EAM leaderships used SNOF for their own political and military purposes until April, primarily in confrontation with the MACEDONIAN COMMITTEE movement, during which significant results were achieved. But it seems that towards the end of April they changed their mind. Namely, at the

beginning of May, the CPG Central Committee Politburo made a decision to disband SNOF and forced its members to join the EAM ranks.”

A short commentary: Macedonian historians (especially Risto Kirjazovski) have written that there were clashes between the Macedonian leadership and the CPG (EAM, ELAS and DAG) leaderships. That is not true: The Macedonians never had discussions with the CPG Central Committee high authorities, but often argued with the local Greek leaders in Kostur, Lerin and Voden, who served as delegates for the CPG and EAM. We, the Macedonians, never asked questions that were of vital importance for the survival and preservation of the centuries-old civilization of our ancestors. We never confronted the Greek state or the international public about the problems we were facing in Greece. Not even about the ethnic changes Greece made by bringing 640,000 Colonists and settlers from Asia Minor and depositing them on our lands. We did not raise questions or express dissatisfaction about the problems we faced in Greece after Macedonia was invaded occupied and partitioned regarding the care, rights and development of the Macedonian indigenous population.

Here is another, a more serious historiographer, had to say (See: “N.M.” 20.08.1994): “Toward the middle of 1944, the situation in Aegean Macedonia became unbearable for the Macedonian communists. The Greek communists, directed by the British intelligence service, took numerous measures to stifle the Macedonian national liberation movement:

They forbade the admission of new fighters to the Macedonian battalions under the pretext that the volunteers were unreliable;

They broke up the Macedonian national liberation front in Greece;

They banned all propaganda in the Macedonian language in Greece;

They forbade promoting the Macedonian people’s right to self-determination;

They ordered the Macedonian battalions, which had already been formed, to retreat to southern Greece. Every measure taken was aimed at stifling the Macedonian national liberation movement.

These Greek Communist moves however, did not go unnoticed so the Macedonian battalions took measures to retreat to the territory of the Republic of Macedonia, seeking protection. At the same time, a delegation of Macedonians from the Kostur, Lerin and Voden Regions arrived at the NOV and PO Headquarters in Yugoslavia, which brought numerous documents of evidence about the terror and crimes committed by the Greek ELAS partisans against the Macedonian people during the past three years...” The text is entitled: “Communist against Communist.”

SECOND PHASE: The second phase, according to Evdokia Foteva – Vera, was when a larger group of Macedonians left the ranks of ELAS and joined Tito’s army. ELAS Headquarters declared them deserters and they came under CPM/CPY command.

Naum Pejov 10 - Chakalaro wrote about these events in his brochure: THE KOSTUR BATTALION IN THE COMPOSITION OF THE FIRST MACEDONIAN PEOPLE’S LIBERATION BRIGADE, December 1985, Skopje.

This is what Pejov said: “... Тhe Yugoslav NOB and POJ units began their march towards Aegean Macedonia from Karadzhova to Karaorman on Easter Day in April in the spring of 1944. One of the units, following Partisan Headquarters, established itself in the villages Bapchor and Turie in Kostur Region. In Bapchor the fighters organized a meeting during which Headquarters representative Giore Velkovski spoke. In his speech, among other things, he said that given the reluctance of the Macedonian peasants of this region to enter the ranks of ELAS, they could come and join

10 Naum Pejov was born in the village Gabresh, Kostur Region, in 1919. He was a member of the CPG before WW II. He was arrested by the Greek police in 1939 and joined NOV in 1941. He was commander of the Macedonian partisan detachment “Lazo Trpovski”. He was a member of the SNOF District Committee for Kostur District. He led the group of fighters that left ELAS and went to the Repubic of Macedonia in May 1944. He was deputy commander of the First Aegean Brigade. After the war, he held various high political and state positions in the Republic of Macedonia. the NOB and POJ units in Vardar Macedonia. This conclusion may have been reached after assessing that the Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia had a deep mistrust of the Greeks and the Greek movement and they did not want to enter into the Greek ranks. This created a genuine desire for Yugoslavia to attract these fighters into the ranks of NOB and POJ. After announcing their intentions, several villagers from the village Trsie, Lerin Region immediately voluntarily joined these units.

I (Naum Peiov) was present at that meeting in Bapchor. I was invited to attend by a letter from Anesti Panovski. At the time I was SNOF secretary in Kostur. The meeting was also attended by ELAS representatives from the Vicho detachment. Anesti Panovski served as translator. When the Greeks found out what Giore Velkovski was trying to do they became very upset and urgently sought to prevent it.

After the meeting I (Naum Peiov) met with the broader leadership from the Headquarters and with Kiro Georgievski-Deian. I wanted to know from Georgievski why NOB and POJ wanted to recruit Macedonian fighters from Greece. I especially wanted to ask if those Macedonians who were now in the ranks of ELAS could also join NOB and POJ. Georgievski’s response to my question was: ‘... this primarily applies to fighters who want to participate in the anti-fascist struggle but who, until now, have refused to join ELAS because ELAS was entrusted to the Greek movement. These fighters did not approve of the Greek position on the Macedonian Question. Our aim is to use the anti-fascist spirit of this nation in order to perform a general mobilization of volunteer fighters. If members from the ranks of EAM and ELAS wish to cross into our ranks, we will gladly take them.’

The next day, “writes Paiov”, I left for SNOF Headquarters located in the village Krchishta where I met with some Macedonian fighters from the “Lazo Trpovski” Units. The fighters I met with were Nikola Shalbarinov, Dimitar Shishkovski and Sotir Andonovski with whom I discussed Giore Velkovki’s plan to recruit our people in NOB and POJ. I also met with and said the same thing to Lazo Damovski-Oshenski, Lazo Pop Lazarov and Paskal Mitrevski. But they expressed some hesitation regarding this plan and wanted to

know more so they agreed to send me and some other people to the Macedonian Headquarters in the village Sulin in Prespa. The people they selected to send with me were Nikola Shishkovski, Spiro Lazovski, Risto Jankulovski, Blagoi Daskalov and Kicha Baleva (Vera).

After arriving at Sulin, which I believe was on May 4 or 5, 1944, the group held talks with Kiro Georgievski-Deian and then left. Kicha Baleva (now Evdokia Foteva-Vera) was left behind. It was estimated that if the group stayed it would have been placed in a precarious situation.

* * *

About the situation, Vicho Commissar Haralambos Haralambidis-Athanatos wrote a report detailing the meeting and what was proposed. The report was sent to ELAS General Headquarters. The report was entitled: “The politics of the Serbo-Macedonian partisans of NOB and POJ of Yugoslavia in April in the Greek territory: from Karadzhova-Prespa.” See “Collection Aegean Macedonia in NOB 1944/1945”, vol 1 p. 135-239.”

* * *

Peiov further explains: “... After leaving the NOB and POJ Headquarters, the group arrived in Kostur Region in order to inform the Macedonians who wanted to leave the ELAS units and join the NOB and POJ units. But early in the morning on May 8th we were arrested and disarmed by ELAS units at a place called “Kiprievi orevi” near the village Gabresh. Among those arrested were myself (Naum Peiov), Spiro Lazarovski and Nikola Shalvarinov. We were then taken to the village D’mbeni where we were told that we would be tried for desertion and treason. The group was transferred under guard to SNOF Headquarters in the village Krchishta on May 9th.

In Krchishta we were received by the CPG District Committee Secretary for Kostur Region, Antonis Andonakis-Periklis, and by representatives of ELAS. We were also accompanied by a large number of villagers and SNOF members who sought to liberate us.

After a lengthy discussion we were conditionally released and placed under the watch of CPG activists and ELAS units.

The situation became more and more volatile, especially with the Macedonians who served in the ranks of ELAS. There were volatile reactions from the Macedonians in the ranks of ELAS.

Under dramatic circumstances of mistrust,” writes Peiov, “we decided to leave. At dusk, on the eve of May 15, 16, 1944, around 30 fighters from the “Vicho” units got together at the village Pozdivishta and left for Mount Mali-madi towards Prespa. As we continued on our way to the Macedonian General Headquarters located in the village Sulin, we ran into more fighters who also wanted to leave. By the time we got there we were numbering about 80. There, we were received by the Political Commissar of the brigade Naum Naumovski-Borche. A plan was out together and we were dispatched to Karaorman where we were enlisted in the first Macedonian-Kosovo Brigade.”

There were strong reactions from the CPG and from ELAS headquarters. Тhey declared an emergency and gave chase to the deserters. The reactions were not only directed at the Macedonian Headquarters but at Yugoslavia, at the Yugoslav Communist Party headquarters and at Josip Broz Tito himself.