15. XI. 1976 (S.P.) - Part 01

15. XI. 1976 (S.P.) T. Papa-Panaiotou.

VIII PROBLEMS FROM THE NEWEST MACEDONIAN HISTORY (Recognizing the historical truth)

No doubt, the issue here is:

- The CPG leadership’s attitude and approach towards the Macedonian national question and the Macedonian movement in the Aegean (Greek occupied) part of Macedonia, a matter of our most recent history. (This was the title of an unpublished text by Risto Kiriazovski, historian at the Institute for National History in Skopje).

However, I must say that for some reason or another, our historiography has not been paid much attention because no work has been published about any critical review of the CPG leadership’s attitudes and approach to the Macedonian people in the Greek state and to the Macedonian national question in general since the founding of the CPG. The several works that have already been published do not cover the entire issue as a whole. Namely, they only cover events from the 1940s, i.e. the National Liberation War against the fascist occupation and the Greek Civil War (1941-1949).

On the other hand, I must also say that there is a widely accepted view among our activists (some of them historians) that the CPG line with regards to the Macedonian national question, that is, with the Macedonian national movement, was basically correct. However, some unintentional errors were made and weaknesses and failures experienced in that regard. Those weaknesses and errors that the CPG made are discussed in the following:

- History of the Macedonian people, book three, part 13. - Macedonians and the Civil War in Greece, by Naum Peiov. - The truth about Aegean Macedonia, by Hristo Andonovski. - Macedonians under Greece in the struggle against fascism, by Hristo Andonovski. - Paskal Mitrevski’s presentation at the MANU symposium on the occasion of ASNOM’s 30th anniversary. - The Macedonian national question through CPG politics during the national liberation war, by Todor Simovski....

Recently, I had the opportunity to read Risto Kiriazovski’s unpublished text, which I mentioned earlier, in which, among other things, Kiriazovski said that: The Greek leaders never officially contested that the Macedonians are a separate nation (p. 1). A recently published article in INI’s “Glasnik” in which Paskal Mitrevski, former NOF secretary in the Aegean (Greek occupied) part of Macedonia, praised the Greek leaders for their “close and constructive cooperation” between them and the NOF leadership. (“Glasnik”, No. 2-3 / 1977, p. 203.)

Even though those views are unfounded and contrary to what really happened, those are the views that are widely accepted and persistently cultivated among the Macedonian activists and people in this (Greek occupied) part of Macedonia. These are also the views that the Greek leaders promote in order to:

- Blur and conceal the truth about their direct involvement in the difficult and dramatic “fate” of the Macedonian people.

Unfortunately we are still struggling to clarify this important and crucial part of our recent history...

There is a lot of illusion and self-deception. That is why it is necessary to disperse the smoke screen of “beautiful words” and see the truth, most importantly, identify the true historical events and facts. By carefully looking at the facts we will be able to determine that:

1. During the first six years since the CPG’s founding in November 1918, there was not a word about the Macedonians in its programs and official documents. The Macedonians were referred to as “Greek people”.

2. The CPG recognized the Macedonian people as an occupied and oppressed people who had the right to self-determination until

secession from Greece. This was requested by Comintern representatives and by the Balkan Communist Federation. The CPG recognized the Macedonians during its Third Extraordinary Congress in December 1924. (ΚΚΕ, επισηµα κειµενα, v. 1, p. 597.)

But then, during the next parliamentary elections in Greece, held on November 7, 1926, the CPG came out with its pre-election campaign and official program in which there was not a single word about any Macedonians, not even to seek their votes. Again, they were referred to as “Greek people”...

3. Not being able to formally and publicly reject the Comintern and Balkan Communist Federation request mentioned earlier, the Greek leaders accepted the 1924 initiative to create a minority revolutionary organization (IMRO (United)) in the three parts of Macedonia.

But, over a decade later, the Greek side undertook no action to create such an organization in the Greek (occupied) part of Macedonia.

4. After some criticism and pressure from the Comintern and Balkan Communist Federation, the CPG leaders were forced to approach the problem and create a Macedonian organization (IMRO (United)) in Greece.

Unfortunately the organization, formed in 1934 in the Greek (occupied) part of Macedonia, was an imaginary and fictitious organization and remained that way. The stillborn IMRO (United) Central Committee, based in Solun, remained inactive and left nothing behind to mark its existence…

5. At the CPG Central Committee Third Plenum, held in March 1935, the CPG Greek leaders spoke openly against the democratic rights of the Macedonian people. In their party program they removed the Macedonian people’s right to self-determination until secession from Greece and replaced it with minority rights. At the CPG Sixth Congress, held in December 1935, they confirmed the above change by declaring that:

“This kind of change does not mean abandoning the Marxist-Leninist principle of self-determination of nations... The population in the Greek part of Macedonia today is Greek in its majority, and the Marxist-Leninist principle of self-determination requires that the old slogan and line be replaced in today’s conditions…” (Το ΚΚΕ απο το 1931-1952, p. 74.) And this, of course, was done in the interests of the workers movement and in the interest of the revolution, which according to the CPG’s official interpretation means:

a) The CPG did not give up on the principle of self-determination to secession for the occupied and oppressed peoples. They simply recognized the rights of the settlers and colonists recently deposited in Greece from Asia Minor and other places and awarded them greater rights, making them the indigenous peoples in this country and allowing them to seek the principle of self-determination to be applied in their favour. In other words the colonists, that is, the oppressors received the rights that were due to the oppressed Macedonians.

b) Even though this part of Macedonia and the Macedonian people were occupied and annexed by Greece, a foreign country, their rights as Macedonians were stripped and they were treated like Greeks belonging to the Greek homeland, an alien world... In other words, the CPG refused to recognize the historical reality of the Macedonian situation in Greece...

c) Above that, the CPG also ignored the historical reality that Macedonia was an ethnic whole and was the Macedonian people’s homeland. The CPG leadership ignored the fact that Macedonia, as an ethic whole, was occupied, partitioned and annexed by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria, and that the Macedonian people had no rights and were not recognized as Macedonians. On top of that the CPG leadership accepted well-known imperialist policies and the Balkan bourgeoisie thesis that : Macedonia was a geographical term, that is, a space on which all neighbours have the right to fill with some other national content except Macedonians.

d) The CPG leadership went from openly and unequivocally condemning the domestic bourgeoisie imperialist policy which

proclaimed that the Greek occupied part of Macedonia was an absolute part of the Greek homeland, which allowed for the continual persecution of the Macedonian people and which allowed for the placement of Greek colonists to be carried out in hopes of artificially altering the national composition of the population in favour of a Greek element, to openly and unequivocally accepting and establishing the same domestic bourgeoisie imperialist policy as part of its practices in the interest of the workers movement and in favour of the revolution in Greece. And, on top of that, calling it a “success”...

6. Early on in the fascist occupation of Greece, the CPG leadership, during its CPG Central Committee Sixth Plenum, held in July 1941, called on all the “Greek people” and all their parties and organizations to join one national front against the occupiers. (Το ΚΚΕ απο το, βασικα ντοκουµεντα, p. 105.) There was not a single word about any Macedonians in that call (official document)… The CPG referred to everyone as a “Greek people”.

No Macedonians were mentioned in any of the CPG official documents compiled during the CPG Central Committee Seventh Plenum, not even as a minority even though they were the largest minority in the Greek state. Again the CPG referred to them as a “Greek people”.

But when the conditions were right and the neighbouring nations rose up in a struggle for their own freedom, the Macedonian anti-fascist liberation movement became inevitable.

This was when the Greek CPG leaders resolutely opened a frontal attack against the Macedonian leaders, that is, against the Macedonian anti-fascist liberation movement in order to discredit and stifle it by slandering and destroying its leaders. And as we now know, the armed clash between Greek and Macedonian ELAS fighters became inevitable...

7. This, among other things, is what the newspaper “Rizospastis”, the CPG central authority published on July 20, 1943: “After the exchange of populations Macedonia became as Greek as the Athens district of Attica…” Well, of course, no one can even imagine that

Macedonians, and even other non-Greeks, could possibly exist in Attica, never mind allowing them to develop any kind of anti-fascist liberation movement there.

Three days earlier, on July 17, 1943, the EAM official newspaper “Elenieri Elada”, somewhat threateningly, wrote: “Macedonia is and will remain Greek.” The CPG Central Committee’s, theoretical organ “KOMEP”, in August 1943 claimed that allegedly: “The Slavic minority in Western Macedonia is insignificant…” (p. 332.)

This may be unbelievable but it is true: The EAM coalition, meaning the political left headed by the Communist Party of Greece, feared that Greece would lose Macedonia and did everything in its power to stifle the Macedonian anti-fascist liberation movement. The CPG did everything it could to cover up everything about the Macedonian anti-fascist movement...

8. When the CPG leaders could no longer keep the Macedonian “phenomenon” under wraps, mainly due to pressure from events, they took the first bold step and declared the Macedonians “Slavophone Macedonians”. This happened for the first time and with very few words during the 1942 CPG Central Committee Plenum… (Σαραντα χρονια του ΚΚΕ, p. 147.) And who were these “Slavophone Macedonians”? According to Stefanos Sarafis, ELAS Supreme Commander, they are the “Slavophone Greeks” who live in Macedonia. Stefanos Sarafis, in his famous book “O ELAS”, wrote that when he went to inspect the ELAS Second Battalion of the ELAS Twenty-Sixth Brigade he found that the entire battalion was composed of “Slavophone Greeks”… (p. 331.) He was talking about the Macedonian battalion led by Ilia Dimovski-Gotse.

Similarly, in the spirit of “Rizospastis” mentioned in part 7 above, General Bakirzhis, commander of the Greek ELAS divisions in Macedonia, in his well-known interview with the party newspaper “Laiki Foni”, an organ of the CPG Bureau for Macedonia and Thrace, said: The ELAS Macedonian fighters and the Macedonian people in general are “Bulgarophone Greeks”. (Aegean Macedonia and the national liberation war, 1944-1945, pp. 522-523, doc. no. 191.)

In other words there are no Macedonians in Macedonia but only “Slavophone Greeks”, a Slav speaking part of the Greek people. And as “Rizospastis” proclaimed, Macedonia is as Greek as Attica.

But, as is well-known, these claims are not only unbelievable and absurd but also add to the actual line the CPG-EAM-ELAS practiced, confirmed by their actions:

I. The Macedonian people were not mentioned as separate non-Greek people in any of the EAM and ELAS program documents. Therefore no democratic rights and freedoms are foreseen for them in the new democratic Greece.

II. Instead of allowing the Macedonian organizations to exist in the Macedonian villages and cities, The CPG imposed its own Greek national organizations such as EMA, ELAS and EPOEA, which urged the Macedonian people to join their ranks and fight for the national liberation of Greece.

III. In fact, even those Macedonians who joined the Greek organization were not recognized as Macedonians. Even though they fought for Greece’s liberation they were denied the right to have their own revolutionary organizations, that is, the right to their own anti-fascist liberation struggle for their own freedom, as an equal ally of the Greek people.

IV. After the Macedonian liberation movement broke out, no means were made available for it to become the bearer of its Macedonian national distinctiveness. Instead, everything possible was done to stifle it. And:

V. Even the national council from the democratic nation (“Εθνικον συµβουλιον”) ignored the Macedonian people when it convened in May 1944 somewhere in the liberated territory. It too treated and welcomed the Macedonian people like they were Greek people, when it proclaimed the “Greek character” of Macedonia. (Στα αρµατα, στα αρµατα, Χρονικον της εθνικης αντιστασης, 1944-1945, second edition, 1967, p. 328.)

9. Nothing was said, not even a single word, about any Macedonians at the CPG Central Committee Eleventh and Twelfth Plenums held in April and June 1945, respectively. The CPG made no mention of any Macedonians in any of its adopted positions and official documents… Not a dot on the question of democratic rights and freedoms for the Macedonians. They were completely ignored even though they participated in the struggle en masse and even though they organized themselves in the People’s Liberation Front (NOF). They were treated like they did not exist, like the Macedonians in Attica.

But, despite every effort the CPG made to stifle the Macedonian movement, NOF rapidly developed its own military formations and soon became a force that could not be ignored. So, during its Seventh Congress, held in October 1945, the CPG said: “The CPG condemns the persecution of the “Slavo-Macedonian” minority by official Greece as a crime against national interests…” (KKE Apto 1931-1952, p. 126.)

That was all. Not a word after that. The CPG warned official Greece (the government in Athens) that the violence it committed against the Macedonians made them organize themselves and fight, which in no way was in Greece’s “national interests” in Macedonia.

Two months later the CPG Bureau for Macedonia and Thrace convened a meeting, held on December 26-27, 1945, in Solun during which Zahariadis acknowledged NOF as an anti-fascist organization with which the CPG would cooperate… but without its leaders... (Λαϊκη φωνη, December 28, 1945.) As a result the CPG press in Macedonia continued with its hostile campaign against the NOF leadership and against the most conscious and active bearers of the Macedonian national ideal...

10. During its CPG Central Committee Second Plenum, held in February 1946, the CPG openly and officially treated the Macedonian people not as part of a certain nation, but rather as a disfigured and deformed nationality consisting of “Slavophones” who just happen to live on Greek soil. (To ΚΚΕ apto 1931-1952, pp. 149-150.) During its Second Plenum the CPG proclaimed that it will fight “to recognize the rights and equality” of the Slavophone

population, but again without its Macedonian leadership. After this plenum ended the party press in Macedonia continued with its hostilities against the NOF leadership...

11. After “Unity” was established, on November 21, 1946, the attacks against the Macedonian leaders and active bearers of the Macedonian national ideal were shifted from frontal and open, which were unsuccessful until then, to internal. The attacks coming from inside the ranks of the Macedonian leadership were more devastating, persistent, systematic and efficient.

a) In the ranks of DAG:

The Macedonian battalions were made up exclusively of dedicated elite Macedonian revolutionary fighters. Their presence, political and military activities in (Greek occupied) Macedonia stirred up the revolutionary character of the Macedonian people. This prompted more Macedonians to join DAG and the rebellion. This, however, aggravated the Greeks and clashed with the “Greek character” of Macedonia which was heavily promoted by the Greeks. So, in order to remove their influence on the Macedonian people and to destroy them, the Greek leadership ordered the battalions to go south into Greece proper. Then, as soon as they arrived on Greek terrain, they were “reorganized”. Their Macedonian commanders were removed and replaced with Greek commanders. There was, of course, resistance but it was quickly quelled by killing those who resisted, which happened to be the more important carriers of the Macedonian ideal. (Among those killed was journalist Hristo Andonovski’s relative). There was also a NOF directive to submit to the Greek commanders. After that command of all DAG units was taken over by the Greeks. As a result the Macedonian battalions which were led by Greek commanders were pitted against superior enemy forces in tough and uneven battles. As a result the Macedonian battalions were overpowered and destroyed leaving NOF terribly weakened. On top of that, at the same time, the Greeks conducted mass murders and killed many of the most prominent Macedonian leaders and activists. Included among those who were killed were Dzhodzho, Shamardanov, Tanurov and Koroveshkovski.

In parallel with all this, the identity of the Macedonian fighters, who heroically fought “to their last breath” (like Mirka Ginova for example, who was referred to as Irina Gini by the party press), was concealed and they were presented as “Greeks” fighting in the “Greek struggle”.

In other words, as a preventive measure, the Greeks made sure nothing Macedonian was heard or printed. On top of that anyone who expressed Macedonian sentiments was heavily discriminated against. Namely:

- A large majority of them were ordinary fighters, corporals, sergeants. - Few of them were commanders of a unit. - Rarely any of them were battalion commanders. - Only one had a higher rank (Vainas) - commander of a division -and he was a Grkoman (Macedonian loyal to the Greek cause).

The CPG carried on with its well-known scandalous and open anti-Macedonian attacks against NOF. The NOF leaders protested and made all sorts of demands, but without success. So, in the name of unity, the NOF leaders submitted themselves to the wishes of the Greek leaders...

b) In the ranks of NOF:

Sometime in July 1947, the NOF top leadership and members of the central agitation and propaganda department were summoned to meet with Zahariadis, then CPG Secretary General, somewhere above the village Likorahi in Epirus. The summons specified which route they were to take. With that, the leadership was sent into the hands of the enemy. An enemy military unit had been waiting for them for three days in a row. Only by a lucky coincidence did they manage to avoid its trap. This was yet another Greek attempt to behead NOF.

But this was not the only time and means by which the Greeks tried to behead NOF. Their next attempt was to infiltrate NOF and bring it down from within. Preparations for this were made before the First NOF Congress, held in January 1948, and before the First NOF

Central Council Plenum, held in August 1948. The Greek leaders made careful preparations to infiltrate the top NOF leadership with Grkomani (Macedonians loyal to the Greek cause) and to remove and neutralize the real Macedonian leaders. In other words the CPG selected a number of NOF enemies and put them in charge of NOF with hopes that they would fool the Macedonian people and reorient their liberation movement to look to Athens and not Skopje as its national centre. This new reorientation had aims to convince the Macedonian people to accept that they were part of Greece and the Greek people.

The NOF central agitation and propaganda department was dissolved and its core members were mobilized as fighters in various DAG units. At the same time, the Macedonian teacher’s school was closed and replaced with a newly founded Greek teacher’s school under the motto “Macedonians are part of the Greek people”. A little later that school too was closed… along with its motto.

The NOF cultural and artistic group and the Macedonian national orchestra were also dissolved. The NOF organization itself was attacked and paralyzed. Most of its regional leaders and activists were mobilized into DAG as common fighters and sent to fight at the fronts. According to Risto Kiriazovski’s unpublished works “The CPG leadership’s attitude and approach towards the Macedonian national question and the Macedonian movement in the Aegean (Greek occupied) part of Macedonia” mentioned earlier, on page 34, Kiriazovski said that a total of 91 activists were sent to various DAG units. (According to Mihailo Keramitchiev, then NOF president, over three hundred activists were mobilized.)

After Zahariadis’s CPG leadership decided to convert DAG, a small hit and run army without tanks, heavy artillery or military aviation, into a stationary army and placed it in a “defensive position” to fight against an enormously large enemy military machine, this war turned into a catastrophe. After DAG was torn apart remnants of its broken up units and civilians near the battle zone began to flee across Greece’s northern borders. While fighters and civilians alike were fleeing for their lives, the CPG wasted no time to again attack NOF. Instead of attacking covertly as an expression of the

Macedonian national uniqueness, without embarrassment, the CPG began to openly attack by telling the fleeing refugees that NOF was a “crypto-fascist” organization which (allegedly) tried “to turn the Macedonian liberation movement from a revolution into a counterrevolution! “(See Το ΚΚΕ ap to 1931-1952, p. 272.)

Soon after that NOF was quickly dissolved and all its leaders were prosecuted and convicted to death. In other words, all the original NOF leaders who were still alive were destroyed.

After NOF was destroyed Zahariadis created a new organization for the “Slavophones” and named it “Ilinden”. He used the Macedonian sacred name “Ilinden” in order to hide his true intentions to weaken and destroy the Macedonian resistance movement. “Ilinden” was staffed with carefully selected and trained Grkomani (Macedonians loyal to the Greek cause). These Grkomani or “Slavophone Greeks” were given the task to kill the spirit of Ilinden with help from the name “Ilinden”…

And this is what the Grkomani did:

- They threw out the Macedonian alphabet because, according to them, it was a “foreign” alphabet. Instead, they introduced a new alphabet based on the Russian and Bulgarian alphabets.

- They threw out the Macedonian literary language and Macedonian grammar because, according to them, they were allegedly imposed on the Macedonian people by “sold adventurers”. In their place the Grkomani introduced a mutilated Macedonian language, based on how the “Kotsopouloses” spoke, and a new Macedonian literary language and grammar were compiled. The Grkomani then published new Macedonian textbooks and literary works in that language through the “Ilinden” publishing department and tried to promote them as Macedonian language works...

This was in line with the well-known bourgeois (and non-bourgeois) anti-Macedonian thesis of non-recognition, that is, of denying the existence of a unique Macedonian nation, language and culture in general (in the three parts of partitioned Macedonia and beyond).

This was yet another attempt to break down the Macedonian nation, culture and language. In addition to breaking down the Macedonian territory through its invasion, occupation, division and annexation by the neighbouring monarchies through the Balkan wars, the CPG’s aim here was to break down the Macedonian people’s language and culture in order to prove to the world that the vocabulary used inside the Greek state is really only an internal Greek phenomenon, only an eloquent part of the Greek people, the bilingual Greeks, who have nothing to do with the Macedonians in the Republic of Macedonia in Federal Yugoslavia... According to the logic of this crude anti-Macedonian act, the Macedonians who survived the Greek-bourgeois genocide, that is, the Greek denationalization and assimilation policy, cannot and must not exist except as a complimentary addition to the Greek people, and as a people’s sacrifice… In time they are destined to disappear… As for the rest, because they work against Greek national interests, they must be viewed as actors working for foreign interests…! Of course, it was not an easy job to destroy a people like us Macedonians. The CPG’s final goal was obvious:

- To consolidate and, if possible, to perpetuate the disintegration of Macedonia and the Macedonian people in order to preserve and strengthen the Greek position in Macedonia.

Unfortunately for the Greeks, our primordial forces that keep us going are well hidden, like they are in every healthy and strong nation, and with every chance we get we replace the lost and heal the wounds of the injured. But, like all others before them, this time too our Greek comrades, the CPG leaders, tried everything in their power to destroy us but they proved to be unable. They failed to change the character and nature of the Macedonian phenomenon. They tried this inside our homeland and they tried it outside but it did not work. They called us “Slavophone Greeks” meaning Greeks who spoke a Slavic language but we did not buy it… They formed an organization called “Ilinden”, something near and dear to our hearts, but that too we did not buy… But not only did we not buy it…, it backfired on the Greeks…

As the number of “Slavophone Greeks” grew under heavy Greek influence, so did their anti-Macedonian sentiments to which the

Macedonian people caught on and began to openly rebel against. In this way, “Ilinden” the organization began to increasingly receive its colour as the national Macedonian organization in the spirit of Ilinden, and became more and more the material force of the Macedonian national ideal. Because of this, it did not take long for our Greek comrades to dissolve it. The “Ilinden” organization and its Macedonian pages in the Greek newspapers were abolished in almost every centre among the Macedonians including among the Macedonian émigrés. By doing so, the Greeks, yet again, robbed the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia of all their rights. They robbed them of their opportunity to organize, develop and continue their struggle for elementary human rights. They robbed them of their struggle to survive as Macedonians and, on top of that, ended their chances of creating a decent life in the Greek state as Macedonians, or as a non-Greek nation...

* * *

In a nutshell, here in front of us we have a series of historical events which actually show exactly what the Greek CPG leadership did against the Macedonian people from the CPG’s founding congress to this day. This was the real attitude of the Greek CPG leaders in contrast to their claims made with beautiful words.

Unfortunately, there are people in our ranks and among our activists who don’t know or don’t want to know about all of this. Paskal Mitrevski, former NOF secretary, is among these people. According to “Glasnik”, Mitrevski said:

“There were irregularities and mistakes... in the activities of the CPG central and regional leaderships and in DAG command in relation to the Macedonians...” (p. 204.)

But where does life exist without errors? According to Mitrevski, the Macedonian people did realize their equality in Greece and his proof of that was in the fact that: “many Macedonian cadres rose up and took up senior management positions in the movement…” (p. 203.)

But what “Macedonian cadres” was he talking about? The only Macedonian cadre that rose to become minister of the provisional government of Greece and to be appointed member of the CPG Bureau for Macedonia and Thrace, was himself. By making this statement to “Glasnik” Mitrevski not only left a false record for our historiography but came in defense of the same Greek leaders who abused the Macedonians… On top of that Mitrevski forgot to say that his appointments were made only several months before DAG was defeated. The other possible appointments Mitrevski could have been thinking of were those of Kotsopoulos and Koitsis, both Grkomani. These two were appointed by Zahariadis during NOF’s Central Council First Plenum, held in August 1949. Kotsopoulos was appointed NOF secretary, and Koitsis was appointed NOF Central Council president. One cannot say that these two were Macedonians considering that until yesterday they were public enemies of the Macedonian movement and NOF. Mitrevski could also have been thinking of these too given that Kotsopoulos was also appointed “chief director of the general directorate for national minorities in Greece” and Koitsis was appointed “member of DAG’s military council”.

That was all. Even if we include the Grkomani in his assertion “that many Macedonian cadres have risen and taken up senior management positions in the movement” we are talking about three people. Therefore Mitrevski’s assertion is unfounded and has no legs to stand on.

Mitrevski also asserted that: “Macedonian commanders and political commissars were placed in DAG’s leadership structures in battalions, brigades and other large military formations…” (p. 204.)

As proof of that Mitrevski mentioned the following names:

- Pando Vaina, also known as Pantelis Vainas, appointed commander of the DAG Eighteenth Brigade and after that commander of the DAG Eleventh Division.

- Liako Papadimitriou, appointed commander of the DAG Tenth Division.

- Giorgi Vasilko, appointed political commissar of the DAG Eleventh Division.

- Ahilea Papaioanou, appointed commander of the Hundred and Third Brigade.

- Paskal Mitrevski, appointed political commissar of the Fourteenth Brigade.

-Anestas Gushevski, a Vlach also known as Thasios Gusiopoulos-Makis, appointed political commissar of the DAG Eighteenth Brigade. And...

- Dim. Prikos, appointed commander of the DAG Eighteenth Brigade. (p. 204.)

As we can see from all the above-mentioned appointments, only Mitrevski was a Macedonian activist, the rest were Grkomani, that is, “Greek patriots”. One has to wonder why Mitrevski took his place among these Grkomani? Why did Mitrevski, soon after the establishment of “unity” in November 1946, accept the role to “clean out” the nationalists in NOF’s immediate leadership? Why did Mitrevski, in a letter to Zahariadis, initiate and secretly ask:

- To clean up NOF from its “nationalist” element, and,

- To add “fresh blood” to NOF. (Historian Kiriazovski mentioned this in his INI unpublished text, quoting a good part of Mitrevski’s letter.)

And as was well-known then… And as we all know today, that so-called “fresh blood” did not belong to the Macedonians from the ranks of the Macedonian national liberation front (NOF). This “fresh blood” came from the opposite side of the barricade, that is, from NOF’s opponents.

But Mitrevski did not want to know this and consciously ignored it when he was interviewed by “Glasnik”, and publicly defamed many of the prominent figures from the Macedonian national liberation movement… (p. 204.)

Mitrevski did exactly what the Greek leaders were doing, and are still doing to this day...

I knew Mitrevski well and I think it will not be a sin if I were to say that Mitrevski was a person that the CPG Greek leaders could count on for his support… The Greek leaders have their own people among us even in INI...

As for my general assessment, the Greek leaders never officially denied that the Macedonian people were a separate nation. But then words are cheap and everyone is entitled to their own opinion… Words without actions can be beautiful… In our case however, what was said and what was done were two different things. Some people tend to believe what was said… and are blind as to what was done. As for the Greek CPG leadership, it must be judged not by what it said in its programs, but by what it did to the Macedonian people. We cannot just talk about their verbal policies and perceive them as “real” and be silent about their “real” practices… This means that we cannot just sit back and allow the Greek leaders to hide and their anti-Macedonian endeavours and serious political crimes to be covered up with “beautiful words” and not be exposed to the world public...

* * *

Naturally events carry their own logic and no single event can be taken in isolation to explain what had taken place. Every event is dependent on and influenced by other events. The entire story cannot be understood from a single event and without connecting it to a series of other events that occurred before and after it, as a practical expression of some particular policy.

During its CPG Central Committee Fifth Plenum, held on January 30-31, 1949, for example, the CPG again recognized the Macedonian people’s right to self-determination. On its own this event can be seen as a gift, a kind act on the part of the Greek leaders and cause for great appreciation on the part of the Macedonian people.

But, if we look at the Fifth Plenum in connection with the previous CPG Central Committee Plenums during which the CPG denied this right to the Macedonian people, especially during and immediately after the national liberation war, a decisively critical period, and if we add to it the series of anti-Macedonian acts the CPG perpetrated against the Macedonian people, it becomes clear that it was yet another CPG tactical maneuver to mobilize the Macedonian population in the war effort.

The Fifth Plenum, the NOF Central Council Second Plenum, the NOF Second Congress, the establishment of KOEM, a separate communist organization for the Macedonians in Greece, the Acts of the Provisional Democratic Government, the creation of a separate “Macedonian Battalion”, which was demobilized after a month-long intensified propaganda in the Macedonian villages, the establishment of the Directorate for Minorities in the Provisional Democratic Government, the appointment of NOF representatives in the provisional democratic government, the appointments at DAG Supreme Command, etc., were all CPG acts to influence certain events. And so was the recognition of the right to self-determination up to secession from Greece… These were all tactical maneuvers, absolutely required so that the CPG could manipulate certain events.

So, recognizing the Macedonian people’s right to self-determination during the Fifth Plenum was another timely CPG tactical maneuver to:

Succeed in the “total mobilization” of the Macedonian population especially in the free territory located around the border zone. To succeed in emptying the Macedonian villages in that zone!

It is important at this point to note that when DAG was breaking up and remnants of DAG units were fleeing across the border in August 1949, the CPG ordered everyone to flee their villages, including the oldest and youngest. All the people, including the thousands of very young children left behind in the Macedonian villages were collected and escorted to the border. According to a Greek census taken in 1951, forty-six Macedonian villages were completely emptied of their population and another one hundred seventy-nine had half the population. For more information on this see

“Macedonians and the Civil War in Greece” by Naum Peiov. Peiov has provided a list of all these villages by name and district.

As we now know, after the CPG Greek leaders had their way with the Macedonian villagers, they left the rest for the Athens government to deal with. Most of the empty Macedonian villages were burned down and completely destroyed, and in the rest Athens deposited colonists, settlers and loyal Greek families from nearby Epirus and the Greek south.

This political crime, as far as I know, has been left in the shadows to this day. Our historiography did not even try to understand or draw attention to it. According to Mitrevski, based on the comments he made to “Glasnik”, it must be concluded that the “total Macedonian mobilization” at the border zone was carried out within the framework of “close and constructive cooperation” which Mitrevski managed to establish with the Greek leaders as an imperative need to find reserves for DAG. According to Kiriazovski, INI historian in Skopje, who has also accepted the position of the Greek leadership, wrote: The total mobilization was carried out to solve the DAG reserves issue. In other words, an attempt was made to resolve the DAG reserve issue by mobilizing “only the Macedonian population” in its entirety (page 30). According to Kiriazovski: “To that end the Macedonian villagers had taken part in many events (demonstrations, rallies, conferences, meetings) and the central question was total mobilization of the Macedonian people in the decisive battles that were soon expected to take place at Vicho and Gramos…” (p. 51.)

So, a single act, all on its own, seemed like a positive thing for the Macedonian people, but by examining a series of acts in sequence, and understanding why they were enacted, can bring us closer to the truth. Because this act is an element of Zahariadis’s policy, it is important to also examine it in its proper context. The CPG’s general line for this period was determined after Zahariadis gave his introductory address at the CPG Central Committee Twelfth Plenum, held in June 1945, during which he declared that England was Greece’s “great friend”. In doing so he opened the door for an English military presence in Greece which, according to Zahariadis, was necessary: “In order to ensure our position and our borders to

the north…” (Apofasis tis 12ti Olomelias..., p. 21. Also: Σαραντα χρονια του ΚΚΕ, p. 645.)

Zahariadis did this about two months after NOF was founded in the Republic of Macedonia. Greece’s position and territorial integrity on its northern borders were seen as weak and English presence and support was necessary to strengthen them... The Twelfth Plenum also emphasized that: “The CPG resolutely opposes all territorial claims against Greece from all parties... Preservation of the Greek territorial integrity is the first task of every Greek patriot…” (Το ΚΚΕ απο το 1931-1952, βασικαν ντκουµεντα, p. 110.)

This, of course, was justified by the fear that danger was looming from the north… Stemming from the belief that Tito had plans to invade and occupy Greek (occupied) Macedonia and, with help from the Macedonian liberation movement, join it to Yugoslavia. (Ibid, p. 205 and p. 271.)

This “fear from the north”, obviously created the reason for our Greek “patriots” in the CPG leadership to want the English to help Greece… to the end.

And this is why the CPG leadership proclaimed England Greece’s “great friend” and justified its presence in Greece. But that was not all the CPG did. The CPG leadership opened the door for England to interfere in Greece’s internal affairs, to organize and finance the reactionaries, and in the end to hand them over their victory. As a consequence of its actions the CPG organized its own destruction as well as the destruction of the democratic forces and, above all, the annihilation of the Macedonian nation in Greece.

Why did these CPG “patriotic Greeks” speculate that the Greek position and borders in the north would be weak without England’s presence and support?

Why was DAG not allowed to grow? Why was its growth limited by the CPG? Was it because if DAG was allowed to grow to its natural strength it would have threatened the English-installed Greek government and England’s interests in Greece?

Why were the huge organized masses, which served as DAG’s reserves, kept passive? Why were they left for the opponent to collect, place them in the larger centres and use them as its own reserves?

Why was the CPG leadership persistently trying to break and destroy the Macedonian anti-fascist liberation movement, its natural ally and DAG’s reserves?

Why did the CPG leadership allow its opponent to smash and destroy DAG, by converting it from a partisan hit and run army into a stationary army? Why did the CPG leadership turn DAG into a stationary target for the opponent’s huge military machinery to destroy?

The answer to all these questions is quite obvious. The CPG leadership was afraid that if DAG won the war, and because the main DAG force in the northern part of Greece was Macedonian, Greece’s position and northern borders could be threatened.

So, in order to avoid this danger, the CPG enacted a number of “seemingly noble acts” to mobilize the entire Macedonian population en masse and remove it from the border zone. Once the border zone villages were emptied and DAG was defeated, the danger from the north passed. These, unfortunately were anti-Macedonians acts and political crimes against the Macedonian people.

Unfortunately, to this day, there are Macedonians, including former activists from that era, who still refuse to see the truth for what it is. They are still blinded by the eloquence of Zahariadis’s brilliantly spoken words delivered during various critical moments when more Macedonian blood was needed to be spilled…

“The Slavo-Macedonian people in northern Greece have given their all for the struggle. They are fighting with such heroism and self-sacrifice that it would arouse admiration. So, there should be no doubt that as a result of DAG’s victory and the people’s revolution, the Macedonian people will completely accomplish their sacred national establishment, the way they want to. They are shedding

their blood today to accomplish this tomorrow…” (CPG Central Committee Fifth Plenum Resolution. See: Το ΚΚΕ απο το 1931-1952, βασικα ντοκουµεντα, p. 195.) Unfortunately many of those who heard these eloquently spoken words refuse to see the application of the CPG leadership’s practical policies or the physical extermination of the Macedonian population in the border zone.

By not speaking out about the CPG’s “real” and “genocidal” policies the way they were applied against the Macedonian people, and by only paying attention to the strictly verbal policies which the CPG Greek leadership claims to be “their genuine policies”, we allow the shameful anti-Macedonian criminal acts to be blurred and hidden...

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