10.0 AFTER THE WAR ENDED - Part 01

10.0 AFTER THE WAR ENDED

(It started on March 31st, 1946 and ended on August 30th, 1949)

A) End of war - Solve the Aegean problem with transfer of minorities!

The Greek Civil War was a national disaster for Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia. It left thousands dead, thousands more maimed and disabled and countless broken families. The vast majority of those who fled lost their ancestral homes and lands and became permanent refugees.

The unpleasantness of the Greek Civil War and the war years in general from 1940 to 1949 has taught me to never ignore politics because they often attract dangerous human beings whose actions contribute to lasting and intolerable consequences.

Once and for all it should be understood that the people from our villages in Lerin, Kostur, Voden and other regions of Greek occupied Macedonia, had no intention of leaving their homes at the end of the Greek Civil War. So, one would have to ask: “Why then did they leave?” What and who encouraged the people from the villages to leave their homes and properties and head for Albania? Was there some sort of a plan to get rid of every Macedonian from Greek occupied Macedonia? Was there a plan to “ethnically cleanse” Macedonia of its Macedonians? Is that why Markos and Zahariadis, both colonists from Asia Minor, were put in charge of “managing” the war?

It should also be understood that NOF and AFZH had no political or military power and had no influence on the war so why did they call on the Macedonian people to rise and fight and for what?

October 9, 1949. The CPG Central Committee held its 6th Plenum in Bureli, Albania. The Plenum rejected its previous position which called for the “Independence and full national self-determination of the Macedonians under Greece”, adopted during the 5th Plenary Session on January of the same year and returned to the notion of “Equality for the Macedonian minority within the Greek state”. The plenum also decided to disband NOF and AFZH.

During a delegation meeting led by Stalin between the KPSS, CPG and APT leaderships, held in Moscow in January 1950, a few issues were discussed. One was the conflict between the CPG and the APT, another was a letter addressed to the KPSS Central Committee written by General Markos Vafiadis accusing Zahariadis of being an Intelligence Service agent. And a third was a discussion regarding CPG politics aimed against Macedonian national issues.

It was also found that it was wrong of Zahariadis to have established KOEM, the Communist Party for the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia.

Acting on Stalin’s directives, the CPG leadership held its 7th Plenum on May 14 to 18, 1950, during which the following issues were discussed:

1. KPSS suggestions, and 2. The internal political situation in Greece and CPG objectives.

During the Plenum Zahariadis took the position that “Tito’s betrayal, with help from his NOF agents inside Greece, played a decisive role in DAG’s defeat.”

We can see from the overall analysis, that the Macedonian National Question was always present in the daily politics of the Greek Civil War. It was held there in the foreground to remind everyone of it but there was never any real intent to solving it. It was only there to serve the purposes of those who instigated the war and to fulfill their objectives. The Macedonian Question was used to spur the Macedonian people into action, to frighten the Greek right to take measures and to justify UK and US intervention in Greece in favour of the Athens regime. In the beginning the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia used it to create new socialist states but later used it to deflect the war away from Yugoslavia.

Unfortunately the consequences of these policies had devastating effects on the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia and subjected them to great cruelties including genocide.

* * *

In the end everything was on the table:

There are transcripts that exist in the UN of Russian and American dialogue with regards to the Macedonians of Greek occupied Macedonia, which deemed the Macedonian issue “a threat to the peace in the Balkans” and that discussions should take place about “population exchanges”. Meaning a transfer of minorities was proposed…

So what did all this mean for us Macedonians? It meant that the “powers” wanted us out of our ancestral homes and away, far away, from Greek occupied Macedonia. And isn’t that exactly what happened?

Up to this point we have faced the roots of evil and our dark secrets. It is time now for us to learn our own history and acknowledge our political immaturity. Leaving our ancestral hearths is proof of our “National defeat”. Worse than that, is that we kept silent for more than six decades, while being imprisoned and quarantined in foreign lands. Have we become complete robots controlled by foreigners? We need to show some respect for ourselves and start looking at our “black spots” in Macedonian history.

Are you convinced by any of this or do you still believe we experienced a “Revolution” as told by our “sectarian history”!?

It is now time for us to realize that we have been punished and exiled for over 60 years without being guilty of anything except of being duped and victimized by foreign politics.

We kept quiet at home while being punished on a daily basis by the Greeks for being Macedonian and for speaking our Macedonian language and we continued to keep quiet outside of home while roaming the world for the past 60 years! Will it kill us if we speak up? Will we explode if we tell the truth? Will we vanish if we declare that we have had enough of the Greeks and that we want our independence and to return to our homes and places of birth? No, we will not! So what is with our silence?

* * *

There were no demands ever made to the United Nations regarding the Macedonian Question and whatever was said by individual governments or authorities in the press, it was controlled by these same governments.

The Moscow Document:

When Stalin and Zahariadis finished their talks on September 16, 1949, a summary document was prepared and signed by Stalin. The document defined the reasons for DAG’s defeat which the CPG needed to grasp as a basis and roadmap for its new political line and the form of struggle it had to apply. This is what was said:

“1. After DAG’s defeat in Vicho and Gramos the situation in Greece changed, forcing the CPG to change its political line.

DAG’s defeat was attributed to:

a) The CPG being unable to solve its problem with reserves for DAG and supplying DAG units located in central and southern Greece.

b) The aid provided to the Monarcho-Fascists in Athens by the Americans and the British turned the tide in the war.

c) Tito and his clique’s betrayal.” … 6 additional points were also given.

This document provides us with sufficient information to prove that we Macedonians, during the Greek Civil War, did not make any demands and were in no position to make any demands regarding the Macedonian Question. It also proves that the continuation or ending of the war had nothing to do with us...

But just today (February 25/26 2006), as I am writing this text, the newspaper “Makedonija Denes” (Macedonia Today) published an article entitled “Does Macedonia have the ability to unite?” It was an excerpt from Risto Kiriazovski’s book “Makedonsko Nacionalno Prashanje I Gragianskata Vojna” (Macedonian national question and the Civil War).

What was his aim? What did he want to accomplish by that, especially today when we are desperately looking for someone to answer for the victims of communism?! Perhaps his goal was to keep the question open and from time to time endeavour to shade the CPM/CPY’s treatment (through NOF) of the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia. And at an elementary level, to prove to us that the Macedonian leadership did everything it could for our people, but it was the great powers that prevented everything.

In October 1949 the NOF and AFZH leadership was arrested, jailed and placed under investigation.

Based on decisions made during the CPG Central Committee 6th Plenum on October 9, 1949 and during the Party Conference on October 7, 1947 in Bureli, Albania, DAG General Headquarters, the CPG Central Committee Politburo and DAG’s Security Services, after receiving prior approval from the competent Albanian authorities and personally from Mehmet Shehu, Albanian President, the NOF and AFZH leaderships were sequestered. Included among those sequestered were Paskal Mitrevski, Pavle Rakovski, Mincho Fotev, Evdokia Nikolova - Vera, Urania Pirovska, Mihali Maliov, Tasho Hadzhianov, Lambro Cholakov, Hristo Kolentsev - Kokkinos and Lazo Pop Lazarov. All these people, after being arrested and jailed, were sent to prison camps in Siberia because they were suspected of being “Tito’s agents”.

All throughout October and November 1949, all the DAG fighters and civilians located inside Albania, instead of being returned to their homes or sent to the Republic of Macedonia, were transferred to various Eastern European countries.

Based on the October 1949 Moscow agreement, the fighters and refugees were picked up from Albania by Russian ships and transferred to the following countries: Romania 9,100; Czechoslovakia 11,941; Poland 11,475; Hungary 7,253; Bulgaria 3,071 and the Soviet Union 11,997 DAG fighters.

Many changes took place from October 1950 to May 1955 with people relocating in order to reunite with their families. As a result of that, for example, the number of refugees in 1955 in the Soviet Union’s Uzbekistan rose to 16,000.

Tashkent in Uzbekistan was reorganized into “towns” where the immigrants lived under a regime organized by the CPG with its own party organizations representing more than 8,000 Greeks and Macedonians.

Stalin died on March 3, 1953, at the end of an era. May history be his judge! The situation in the Soviet Union began to change after Stalin’s death and on February 23, 1956 the KPSS held its XX Congress, introducing fundamental changes inside the USSR as well as in the Balkan communist parties.

The CPG splits into two factions

Two factions of the CPG were created among the political refugees in Tashkent. Zahariadis’s faction was supported by Niazov, Central Committee Party of Uzbekistan First Secretary. The anti-Zahariadis faction was supported by Melnikov, Central Committee Party of Uzbekistan Second Secretary.

Our return to the People’s Republic of Macedonia

One of the best explanations of the return to the People’s Republic of Macedonia was given by Evdokia Foteva – Vera which deals exclusively with her own personal experience and the welcome she received upon her arrival. Vera said many positive things about her experience after her return, particularly how she was taken care of by the state. In her book she also mentioned how the state also took care of the “deserters” who had fled the Greek Civil War to save their own skins. She was being very open and honest when on page 204, she said: “… Those who deserted DAG, NOF, who fled the war, not only left our people at the mercy of the enemy, but in our absence, here, they spread unbelievable lies… Even when they were down there in Aegean Macedonia, in the CPG, NOF, AFZH and NOMS, they served with intrigue. These people took the truth about DAG and NOF and turned it 180 degrees. They did this because they thought that we, who were sent to the Siberian prison camps would never return alive.”

Let’s talk about the return of the refugees and fighters!

The return of the refugees and fighters was nothing like the return of the NOF and AFZH leadership. While the NOF and AFZH leaders, upon their return, were welcomed with open arms, we the fighters who spilled our blood, died and were maimed for life in this war, had to prove our allegiance before we were allowed in. We “the brave fighters” as historian Kiriazovski has often referred to us had to prove our loyalty by serving time in jail. Our welcome was from the airport, from the train station, from the bus station… directly to jail so that our national identity could be confirmed and so that later we could be ranked into “eligible” or “ineligible” for entry and for benefits provided we were not convicted of being “Russian spies”. The fighters were then placed in different “ghettos” in Avtokomanda, Chair, Kisela Voda, etc., most probably for some unknown purpose. But as young people eager to get on with our lives, many of us managed to crawl out of the ghettoes and mix with other Macedonian people, and not just with the “Aegeans”. Those left in the ghettoes, for whatever reason, for the last 60 years felt like second-class citizens. These once proud people had to live with a sickly painful feeling of being pushed into this segment of life while endlessly waiting to go home…

Time for desire and lost illusions - hungry for our native land

After the Greek Civil War ended the Macedonian people who left Greek occupied Macedonia were left with nothing except their desires. But as it turned out, life soon taught them that even that was too much to ask. No wonder they became so unhappy.

Many Macedonians have pondered: “I fought to the end of the war but without knowing why. Nobody recognized my contributions, not my history and not the Greek history which the communists wrote…”

The burden is heavy and hard to bear but we carry this burden and we bear it every day.

News: The newspapers “Politika” - Belgrade and “Nova Makedonija” – Skopje

(August 23, 1992)

Tito put a “freeze” on the Aegean Macedonians.

In order to have a secret and lasting union with Greece, 42 years ago Tito ordered Yugoslavia not to raise any questions regarding the fate of the Aegean Macedonians in northern Greece; a practice which lasted many decades.

Explanation: “In the summer of 1950, Tito decided to solve his problem with Greece and benefit Yugoslavia immensely. This was done through an agreement with his old military contact Fitzroy McLean. McLean arrived in Brioni in June 1950 as an unofficial representative of the British government, prepared and empowered to make Tito an offer if the results of his talks with him were favourable. The talks went better than expected and an agreement was reached but was kept secret. The British promised Yugoslavia 30 million pounds worth of aid and a loan of 11 million pounds…”

From the Macedonian Archives

In February 1953 talks took place in Ankara between Greece, Yugoslavia and Turkey with aims at forming a tripartite Balkan Pact of Friendship.

In August 1954 the tripartite pact was amended, signed in Bled, Yugoslavia and put into effect as a military alliance between the three signatories.

The 1953 Balkan Pact was put in place in support of Yugoslavia because of threats directed against it by communist countries. The pact did not last long. In 1961 the three countries agreed that the Balkan pact was dead in the water.

Unfortunately the signing of the Balkan pact had undesirable consequences for the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia because, in order to placate Greece, Yugoslavia dissolved the “Association of Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia” and shut down the newspaper “Voice of the Aegeans”. News: “Utrinski” newspaper – Skopje

CIA Facsimile of a document disclosed: CONTINUING SATELLITE AID TO THE GREEK GUERRILAS. CIA HISTORICAL REWIEW PROGRAM RELEASE IN FULL - central intelligence agency:

Secret CIA documents about Tito, Yugoslavia and the Greek Civil War

Title: - Clash between Tito and Stalin left the Macedonians in Greece in a lurch.

What were CIA impressions about Macedonia and about Belgrade-Sofia relations?

Title: - Independent Macedonia major threat to Tito during Inforburo days.

Deportation: According to a 1949 CIA report about Macedonia, if Tito was faced with a serious threat in 1949 by the establishment of an independent Macedonian state, Tito was prepared to organize mass deportations of Macedonians to other parts of Yugoslavia…

“… There are CIA documents relating to the Greek Civil War, dating from 1946 to 1949 that give new meaning to events from that period. U.S. intelligence information clearly shows that the then Yugoslavia and Macedonia, as part of the federation, actively participated in and aided the rebel movements in northern Greece. The subsequent withdrawal of Yugoslav support and the defeat of the communist guerrillas, the CIA attributes largely to the conflict between Tito and Stalin.”

(August 8 and 9, 2005)

Who should answer for the history of the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia, a country of unhappy people with a dark fate? We are people, victims without a history; no history in the Republic of Macedonia and no history in Greece. We also seem to have a long amnesia among ourselves because we continued to keep silent for more than half a century allowing strangers to manipulate us and take over our lives! The world changed many times over the past 60 years and yet to this day we remain silent…

For more than half a century now I have asked myself the following questions: Why did the Communist Party of Macedonia allow both the CPY and the CPG to sacrifice the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia? Why have we allowed official history to claim that we do not exist! How is that even possible? Why have we allowed our enemies to drag us through the mud without reacting! Are we that incapable? Are we, the brave warriors who threw ourselves into the fire and fought like lions, actually afraid to speak up when it comes to our identity?

Why did the CPM allow NOF to fall into the CPY and CPG’s vice grip and find itself in a position of having to walk along the razor’s edge?

Did the CPM not know what NOF was doing for the CPY and later for the CPG? Because the more we look at this the more we realize that the “meaningless chaos” in Greek occupied Macedonia was planned well in advance and that in order to do what the planners wanted, they needed NOF and AFZH to fulfill their strategic interests and objectives. That is why NOF and AFZH were created on April 23, 1945 and their objectives were dictated by outsiders until October 16, 1946!

In other words, we do not need great wisdom and analytical skills to arrive at the conclusion that the “conditions for legal persecution and expulsion of the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia” were created and organized through NOF and AFZH. This crime cannot be hidden and is very difficult to forget.

We cannot believe that the CPM, standing between the CPY and the CPG, was totally unaware of what was being done to the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia and neither can we dismiss the idea that that CPM was not party to it!

Was the CPM leadership blind and deaf to the ideological activism of strangers, spreading propaganda like a malignant disease of the soul, in the years 1944-1950 or was it simply stupid...?

Why did we discard the alternative of having not to fight at all? It would have been “less glorious” but at least we would have preserved ourselves and our homes. Today our villages would have been full of Macedonian people. It seems that every time we are pushed by outsiders to “do something” we end up losing more and more of ourselves and of our home! Today we are being pushed to change our country’s name! What disasters will await us tomorrow if we do that? So the pushing from the outside by outsiders, as it turns out, is not done only in war times, it is done all the time. That is why it is “very important” for us to learn from our history and from our own experience “not to trust outsiders and do things suggested by them” before thinking of all the consequences. We need to learn to think for ourselves and do only what is right for us and do only things that we are capable of tackling on our own…

In the end, I know that “we” were responsible for our own defeat because we did not resist against those who we truly needed to resist. To trust maybe a noble thing but it can often get you into trouble because those you trust may not be trustworthy, even if they are your own kind! There will always be scammers and extremely unscrupulous people out there who look for ways to gain advantage over us and, as history has shown, they will gain advantage over us if we allow them to. So you see the victim too has a role in this and the victim’s role is to “not” allow themselves to become a victim and for that, one has to be wise and far seeing. When will we wise-up as to what has been happening to us over the years? Well, I would have to say that that depends entirely on us! I can tell you one thing; there will always be scammers “buyers for our souls”… We need to learn to recognize them before they get us into trouble… The answer is in our history… We just have to start paying attention…

Comrades, friends and enemies

In the chapter “DAG’s defeat” on page 21 of her book, Evdokia Foteva – Vera said: “... Zahariadis, CPG Central Committee General Secretary, after Vicho fell to the enemy said: ‘Gramos will be the tomb of the Monarcho-Fascists’. But that did not turn out to be the case. DAG suffered numerous casualties but had it not backed down and fled to Albania, the opposite would have been true. Gramos would have been the tomb for DAG. For the longest part, after removing General Markos Vafiadis from his command and abandoning the proven military strategies of the so-called ‘Supreme War Council Law’, Zahariadis worked personally with his Politburo installing new ‘military strategists’ who had absolutely no relevant experience.”

So, was Markos a general or a criminal? A story was written in an issue of the Greek newspapers, “Ta Nea” and “Epikera” printed in Athens, about a meeting that took place in Athens between General Markos with General Tsakalotos, his opponent. Tsakalotos at that time was in command of the Greek government forces and this meeting took place during a time when the Greek Civil War was still ongoing. (See: “Nova Makedonija”, February 25, 1992.)

Most convincing about this, the article said, is how General Markos hugged, with a heartfelt embrace, his enemy General Tsakalotos from the Greek government forces during the Greek Civil War when the two men met. At their meeting Tsakalotos said to Markos: “If we had done this before the Civil War started we could have saved many lives.” To this General Markos replied: “It is true that many people died because of me but you must never forget that I did this for the future of Greece. The true meaning of this war was to drive the Slavo-Macedonian out of northern Greece so that Macedonia could remain Greek.

In other words, according to General Markos, the Macedonians fought in the Greek Civil War to lose their homeland permanently!!?? So, as a representative of the Communist Party of Greece, Markos openly lied to the Macedonian people about their involvement in the Greek Civil War!? Ironically as it turned out, General Tsakalotos, the Macedonian people’s supposed enemy, was more humane towards the Macedonians than was Markos, whom Macedonians saw as their saviour. In other words, when Macedonians were sacrificing their lives to honour General Markos, he intentionally led them to their extinction. So you tell me, was he a saviour or a criminal?!

So here we have the two top leaders on the resistance side of the Greek Civil War, Nikos Zahariadis and Markos Vafiadis, both colonists and settlers from Asia Minor and both leading the Macedonian people in an alien war, lured by CPM/CPY lies and coaxed by the activism of NOF and AFZH, with big promises of freedom and a new and much better way of life!!!

In the name of building a “New World” they brutally trampled on the dignity of the Macedonian people, besmirched their national sentiments and persistently denied them their Macedonian national identity. And in the end they said good bye to us as we were driven out of our ancestral homes... And whose interests did we think Zahariadis and Markos had at heart? Ours or their own? …What were we thinking?

In September 1988, almost one year after the May 1987 Congress, CPG Secretary General Harilaos Florakis held a press conference in Solun with Greek and foreign journalists to openly explain the position he took at the Congress. In his answer to a journalist working for “Mesimvrini”, among other things, Florakis said: “On this occasion I would like to say that for us, for our Party, the Macedonian minority does not exist!” (Vecher, November 5, 1988, page 9)

In August 1948, Zahariadis relieved General Markos Vafiadis as DAG’s Commander and Chief. Vafiadis was known for his Partisan style strategy and tactics with a small but effective force. Vafiadis did not believe in frontal warfare. Unfamiliar with the conduct of warfare, Zahariadis wanted

DAG to be seen as a real army capable of defending its territory, even on large fronts.

After dismissing Vafiadis, Zahariadis himself took command of DAG and forced it to fight frontal combat against the Greek National Army which was 10 times larger, better equipped and supported by the United States of America.

Because of this, in August 1949, DAG fought on two fronts, one in Vicho and another in Gramos and was almost destroyed. It would have been completely destroyed had its fighters not fled to Albania. By changing strategy, Zahariadis made a big mistake and placed the entire movement in jeopardy. But what does Zahariadis say about it? “It was not a defeat, it was a small setback; the fighters needed a little rest and to catch their breath before returning to their guns on the front line: To oplo parapoda.”

Voice of the Rebel Radio

On November 4, 1949 the Greek rebel radio transmitted the CPG Central Committee’s official statement regarding the causes of DAG’s defeat. Among other things, the broadcast announced that: “From the day the communist and worker party informburo exposed Tito’s treason, slave imperialist gangs began to openly undermine the heavy and uneven struggle of the Greek people. The gang of traitors and deserters were established in Skopje and Belgrade and this clique organized and led defections from the Democratic Army. Tito then deprived it of the necessary supplies. Finally, he not only allowed the Monarcho-Fascist Army to use Yugoslav territory to attack the Democratic Army at Kajmakchalan, but also allowed his forces to attack our back during the battle in Vicho…”

Vukmanovich – Tempo in his book “How and why the national liberation struggle in Greece was defeated”, on page 77 wrote: “Yugoslavia’s involvement in the Greek Civil War was so great that the CPY felt obliged to present its own analysis of the rebellion’s failure. The general conclusion was that the CPG failed because it did not explicitly recognize the Macedonian nation and that it was not cautious in its military actions, especially after General Markos was deposed ‘under false pretenses’.”

Tempo continued: “NOF was created by Tito and Kolishevski... Its founding and managing core was composed of Tito’s agents from the likes of Mitrevski, Keramidzhiev, Gotse, Rakovski, Vera and others who worked for the sole purpose of advancing Belgrade’s interests in Aegean Macedonia... To use the Slavo-Macedonian Question to achieve their nationalistic plans - a merger of Aegean Macedonia...” This was written by Zahariadis, and was later adopted by the CPG special counsel to the Macedonian Cadres, and reviewed and accepted by the CPG Central Committee Politburo. The Greek side paid attention and understood things. See HP KKE 1918-1952, p. 271, and quoted by Pavle Rakovski in his book 2000/347.

Zahariadis continued to manipulate the Macedonian people until his last days as General Secretary of the CPG. He even created the organization “Ilinden” to replace NOF.

“Under orders from Zahariadis, the Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia, on June 4th, 1956, created the Organization “Ilinden” and placed Pando Vaina in charge. Pando then, regarding the persecution of Macedonian people by the CPG, among other things said: ‘While DAG was active and after its defeat, Zahariadis had implemented a policy to vilify and persecute the Macedonian leadership and the Macedonian fighters. His accusations were completely unfounded but he found ways to easily label Macedonians as ‘enemy agent of the people’ and ‘Tito’s agents’, etc.”

But in 1955, in Tashkent, there were strong reactions against what Zahariadis said during the 6th Plenum. There were even stronger reactions in March 1956, after the Soviets intervened and removed Zahariadis from the CPG.

So, Zahariadis did say: “If I had known in those days what I now know today this would not have happened to me”.

After this, Zahariadis was sent to a Siberian jail in Sorgur where, in 1973, he died a tragic death.

Should we feel sorry for him? Lie after lie, Zahariadis used and abused us and in the end gave us a one way ticket and sent us on our way to oblivion. Because of him we suffered immensely and lost so many lives, and in the end we were driven out of our homes!

Over the last half century or so, I often wondered why there were some topics that we couldn’t openly discuss in Macedonia. These topics are a key to national issues, important to our national interests, yet amazingly we cannot discuss them because they may create “political problems” which some people do not want to come out. Simply, no one wants to discuss this taboo subject. Even Vera, leader of AFZH did not and has not addressed these secrets in her book. For God’s sake, more than half a century has passed, why are people still afraid to speak up about the Greek Civil War and what it has done to us Macedonians? And most importantly, why did Yugoslavia put a lid on talks in favour of Greece...?

I believe that we, the damned, uprooted from our homeland, are realizing that all of these ideologies such as Nazism, Fascism and Bolshevism are created to serve the ambitions of their creators but are advertised as “concerns” for the welfare of mankind. For example, Lenin created a system which eventually destroyed itself. Power in the hands of one man can be a real source of danger. But there is no country or government in the world to this day which has shown so much cruelty towards its fighters than the CPG; driving its supporters out of their homes and leaving them to roam the world as permanent refugees...

The CPG it seems has forgotten that thousands of Macedonians gave their lives for the sovereignty of Greece. It seems it has forgotten that thousands of people became victims during the resistance against the Germans. The CPG, it seems, has forgotten that thousands of Macedonians served in the ranks of DAG and died in the battlefields throughout Greece. The CPG seems to have forgotten that Greeks were allowed to return to their homes and make a life for themselves while the Macedonians were left out to wander the world after being given a one-way ticket out! Is there any sense of humanity left in the CPG, a party in which we put our entire trust?

At the end of our extensive military and political analysis we can conclude one thing; that the CPY and the CPG, during the Greek Civil War, wanted to resolve all their problems inherited from partitioning ethnic Macedonia in 1913 and to prove to the Macedonian people that they would “never” support a “United Macedonia”.

The Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia were definitely victims of the CPY/CPM and the CPG, who fueled the war and then blamed the Greek government for instigating the white terror, for destroying Macedonian properties and for exiling so many Macedonians.

The burden we have been carrying for the last six decades or so is heavy and many things are still unclear, which begs asking some fundamental questions. For example, who started the war in Greece? Was it started out of necessity in an attempt to save the Macedonian people and went horribly wrong? Or was there a plan perhaps by the CPG or the CPY, or by both, to rid the Macedonians from Greece?

Surely by now it has come to light that all of the organizations SNOF, SNOB (created by the CPG) followed by the Greek Civil War with the organizations NOF, AFZH, NOMS (created by the CPY) and KOEM and “Ilinden” (created by the CPG) and their propagandas did create a centre of a massive cult of personalities. But one thing they forgot is that they needed to love their country and their people, not just their party interests and seizing power.

There are many questions about our Macedonian leaders, yet no one has showed courage to provide answers and to admit that they were indeed involved in tragic and deeply misguided politics, especially during the Greek Civil War when the entire Macedonian nation was driven to a national disaster.

Did the NOF and AFZH leadership behave responsibly throughout all this? Well, one thing we can say is that they were deeply divided abroad and often gathered around a party leader who was in opposition to another party leader. One faction of Macedonians supported the CPY and fought against another faction of Macedonians who supported the CPG! And where was their concern for Macedonia in all this? Nowhere to be found! This should show you how politically mature we were in those days!

Let us rephrase our question. Did our Macedonian leadership have difficulties functioning outside of the CPY and CPG? Were they capable of making major political and strategic decisions on their own, particularly during the war? Were they capable of preventing the loss of our homes and us from being exiled outright? If they were then why did they not act? Why did they put the Macedonian people’s destiny into the hands of strangers?

Our burden is already heavy and difficult to bear but what choice do we have? I simply cannot remember how many thousands of my comrades I left behind, with their bones scattered on the battlefields of Gramos, Vicho and everywhere we fought… None of them properly buried and all of them forgotten by history… Have we not been punished enough for crimes we did not commit? What have we done? We were simple soldiers and told what to do…! What are we guilty of to deserve such punishment...? When will it all end…? Someone please explain…!

The time has come for the truth to come out. Nothing in politics happens by accident. This study can be upsetting but it is designed to seek the truth which is the only thing that can set things right. The truth will also serve and guide the new generations to avoid the mistakes of past generations. A lesson learned is a lesson remembered…

10.1 The source of the so-called “name dispute” can be found in the Greek Civil War led by the Slavo-Communists

Let us have a look at Professor Trepst and at former Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis’s positions regarding the Macedonians:

“The real reason for the hysteria that swept through Greek society regarding Macedonia can not be simply explained because of the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Macedonia becoming independent. The Greek problem has deeper roots that stem from an unresolved trauma which the Greeks refer to as Slavo-Communism,” said Professor Stefan Trebst, head of the “Greece and the Macedonian Question” research project at the University of Leipzig, during an interview with Radio Deutsche Welle.

According to Trebst, the so-called “name dispute” between Macedonia and Greece may take a century to solve because Greece will completely lose its reputation if the name “Republic of Macedonia” is officially accepted.

Actually, what is Greece really disputing? Our country’s name is Macedonia. No one can dispute that and no one can dispute our right to exist as a nation, as Macedonians. Our name Macedonia does not come from the future, it comes from the past. If we change our name then who will we be in the future? How will that future connect with our past? If we become “something else” in the future, how will we defend our past, our Macedonia? If we change our name everything about us and our past will disappear and we will become an “unknown” entity. So Greece is actually advising us to “negotiate” with Greece so that we can lose our identity and become “nothing”. This is what the dispute is about!

Greece does not specifically care about the name “Macedonia”. What Greece cares about is stopping the Macedonian people from learning their history and from finding out that the Macedonians are indeed the true inheritors of the Macedonian heritage. Greece tried to bury the name Macedonia since it invaded, occupied and annexed Macedonian territories in 1912, 1913. The only time Greece showed any interest in the name was when it became clear that the Republic of Macedonia was about to become independent. Greece knows very well that it has committed fraud regarding ancient history and it does not want that coming out. Greece also knows that the Macedonians are the only people in the world who are willing and capable of challenging Greece’s claims regarding Macedonia. Most important about this so-called “name dispute” is to remember that Greece is using it as a distraction to sidestep important issues about the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia against whom Greece has committed many crimes over the years and genocide during the Greek Civil War.

Greece and Bulgaria, its partner in crime, want us to give up everything, our name, our identity, our language, our past, our history, our heritage… so that they can claim ownership of what has been ours for so many millenniums… Not only do they want us to part with all these things, they want us to “voluntarily” do it… It was not enough for them that they took our Macedonia from us by force, they now want us to “voluntarily” commit suicide! And why should we do that?

Now let us have a look at an interview of Constantine Mitsotakis (“Nova Makedonija”, June 28, 1992) conducted by “Shpiegel” of Hamburg:

SHPIEGEL: Can you reconcile with the existence of this country (Macedonia)?

Mitsotakis: It is good for us for this state to exist. If it did not become independent it would have been divided between Albania, Bulgaria and Serbia. Greece did not want to interfere because we do not want people in Greece who are not Greeks.

SHPIEGEL: Then why is Greece so stubbornly refusing to call this Republic “Macedonia” and continues to call it “Skopje”, like you are doing today? This is very strange that no one in Western Europe can understand.

Mitsotakis: There is nothing strange about it. Greece has been through a lot and none of our friends should forget that. After World War II, when the communists fueled the Civil War in our country, the Republic of Macedonia attempted to stretch its way to the Aegean Sea through Salonica (Solun). Ever since then, without interruption, Skopje has led expansionist propaganda.

SHPIEGEL: Surely this tiny, poor country cannot possibly pose a threat to Greece?

Mitsotakis: The Republic of Skopje is an unstable structure, a mosaic of two million inhabitants. It is not a threat to us, but it can cause dangerous instability inside our country. We are afraid that the propaganda it is currently leading will cause problems in the future. That is why Greece wants this country to change its name. Well, I think the gentlemen in Skopje have nothing to lose because they have neither national nor historical reasons to keep that name. SHPIEGEL: If Macedonia, under an agreement, gives up territorial claims and recognizes the current borders, then what meaning does the name have?

Mitsotakis: The name is everything. It is its own propaganda; it is a symbol.

... No one has a copyright on the name Macedonia. Macedonia is a geographical feature. One part of Macedonia - 50 percent belongs to Greece today, another part to Bulgaria and a third part to Skopje. This is the reality today…

10.2 Since when and why did Greek politicians want to become Macedonia-nized

Discussions, analysis and commentaries regarding important Greek-Macedonian issues as viewed through a prism...

According to Jovan Donev, “Euro-Balkan” it is still possible, in the 21st century, for a person not be allowed to say what they think!

“I have personally declared publicly, six times, that Greece’s policy towards Macedonia and the Macedonian people is a ‘Holocaust’ (63)! And if anyone does not know what a ‘Holocaust’ policy is, please contact me. All among us, who support the behaviour of the Hellenic Republic, actually support the Holocaust and I was not told this by Gruevski or by Ivanov, it is my own belief!” (Jovan Donev).

A. FINALLY – THERE IS NO SILENCE BEFORE THE HORROR!

OCCASION: Evangelos Kofos (64), historian, political analyst and architect of the Greek policy regarding the “Macedonian question” from the Greek side. Kofos participated in the “ROS – ROT” seminar in Skopje and drew the red lines that should not be crossed for a possible solution to the so-called name dispute. Published in “Nova Makedonija” from October 22 to 24, 2010, in Skopje.

Dear Mr. Kofos, you claim to be a Greek historian, political analyst and architect of the current Greek policy regarding the “Macedonian Question”, yet you failed to realize that there is only one Macedonia! You insisted that there were several Macedonia(s) over the ages:

First Macedonia – The ancient Macedonian kingdom, and this was historic Macedonia.

Second Macedonia – The Administrative Region of Royal Greece, but you failed to mention when and how this region became part of Greece? In other words, you don’t know anything about that and have no evidence of the 1913 Carnegie Commission and its task to investigate crimes committed against the Macedonian people by Greek troops in Macedonia during the Balkan Wars? Do you not know anything about the obligations that Greece undertook when Macedonia was partitioned and annexed by Greece and when that Macedonian territory and its people became part of the - Administrative Region of Royal Greece? So, what exactly do you know and why have you kept silent on these issues? ... And now you are telling us that the People’s Republic of Macedonia was created in 1944 as part of Federal Yugoslavia?

Third Macedonia – a territory is created in which citizens of FYR Macedonia live.

Fourth Macedonia - homeland of the ethnic Macedonians.

Mr. Kofos, while you were speaking at the “ROS-ROT” seminar you said that the problem between the two states is the name, not the identity. But then you said: The Greeks today are not looking for land outside of their boundaries and that Greeks today consider the legacy of antiquity as the basic ingredient of their heritage.

If that is true Mr. Kofos, why did you not seek to acquire this “heritage” in 1944 when the People’s Republic of Macedonia was constituted in federal Yugoslavia? Why did you not complain then about the name “Macedonia” being used inside Yugoslavia? Furthermore, if the name “Macedonia” carried such importance for you Greeks why did you try to “bury” it for so many years? Why did you prohibit everyone, even foreign scientists and archeologists from saying “Macedonia” inside Greece? Did you know that, for decades, people were afraid to say “Macedonia” inside Greece and used to say the “M” word is a dirty word in Greece?