Chapter four – Painful memories - black chronicles - Part 01

Chapter four – Painful memories - black chronicles

“Evildoers can never be revolutionaries, they will always be reactionaries.” (Vladimir Nobakov)

After the Balkan Wars (1912 - 1913) ended and the Bucharest Peace Treaty was signed on August 10, 1913, Macedonia and the Macedonian people were physically and politically divided between Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and later Albania which received Lower Prespa and Golo Brdo.

“There is only one truth,” said Krapov, “Greece, for the first time, officially set foot in the territory of Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia and in Kostur 100 years ago, when the Greek king signed a decree of occupation and not liberation. Occupation is conquest and possession of alien territory. Remember that! Then came decades of persecution and assimilation! Macedonians were prohibited from speaking their Macedonian language, punishable by law. It was an organized system of assimilation which worked very hard to erase the existence of our separate Macedonian entity.

Our old people used to say: ‘When the Greeks came here they brought dangerous nationalist laws with aims at uprooting our Macedonian roots, which they are still doing to this day. Since then many years of hard times have passed all full of lies, dirty propaganda, heroes and graves, persecution and missing generations - without youth’…”

Macedonia’s division and the problems the Macedonian people were experiencing from it were still very current when they were brought up to the Paris Conference on July 15, 1919, and addressed to the Commission for New Countries requesting that they find a solution. Under the then circumstances, the British were reluctant to do anything claiming that if they engaged themselves in the issues created by the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest, they would be facing many problems from which it would be difficult for them to withdraw. And thus the Macedonian problem was not even looked at, at the Paris Conference. Subsequent to that, the border problem was brought to the League of Nations, under Bulgarian pressure, many

times between 1925 and 1930, but it seems no one could offer an acceptable solution. This way the Macedonian problem was always avoided and so was the issue of redrawing borders in the Balkans.

The idea of granting autonomous rights to the Macedonians in the Serbian occupied part of Macedonia and to grant cultural rights to the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia was supported by the Italians and the British. Unfortunately France and Serbia opposed it and the idea was rejected.

Kostur chronicles – clarifying historical truths

I walked on the cobblestones of the green streets of Kostur for hours. I was moved by the beauty of nature and by the architecture of the city. I thought that the history of this place, my birthplace, was magical, enigmatic and unique.

I returned to the hotel and spent all night reading the history of the Balkan Wars. I became familiar with the tragic poverty of our spirit. Macedonia in the past resembled a theater in which people watched in silence these great national human dramas unfold. We the persecuted have lived here sunken in torment for half a century but have developed amnesia. We have forgotten how to learn about ourselves and about our past.

My recent return to a long lost war was like an open, fatal wound... I thought to myself: Will I find the courage to tell the truth?”

Just for a moment Krapov looked at me like he was feeling sorry for me and curiously asked: “I live over here... and you?”

“Me? I am a guest in this town where I was born and feel like an alien in my own country. I have permission to stay here for only several days. I have waited a lifetime for this while being at the mercy of the Greek government.”

“It’s a cruel fate… my friend!” replied Krapov as we hugged and parted ways…

For years we have been hiding behind the illusion of history, behind the semblance of humanity, behind the appearance of goodness, and all the while we stood in front of our executioners…

Ethnic cleansing in Greece – Round one:

Instead of respecting the rights of the Macedonian people, like it promised in all its agreements, Greece began to ethnically cleanse them. This was done through the following conventions;

A/ The Neuilly Convention, signed on November 27, 1919 called for “voluntary” exchanges of populations between Greece and Bulgaria. In 1920 Greece signed, before the League of Nations, a treaty obliging it to grant certain rights to the minorities of non-Greek origin in Greece. Four years later in 1924, at the suggestion of the League of Nations, Greece and Bulgaria signed the well-known Kalfov-Politis Protocol under which Bulgaria was obliged to grant the Greek minority in Bulgaria their minority rights (language, schools and other rights), while Greece, recognizing the Macedonians from the Aegean part of Macedonia as a “Bulgarian” minority, was to grant them their minority rights.

But instead of doing what they were expected to do and what they had signed, both Greece and Bulgaria went on expelling Macedonians from the Macedonian territories they had occupied in 1912, 1913. Greek authorities continued to expel the Macedonian population well into the mid 1920’s.

B/ Then came the Lausanne Peace Treaty signed in 1923 which called for the compulsory exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey.

Right after World War I, Greece began to implement its expansionist policies and initiated a campaign of conquest in Asia Minor, which later became known as the Turkish - Greek War (1919-1922). This turned out to be a disaster for Greece and the last time it attempted to implement its ambitious “Megale Idea” to create a Greater Greece.

After its expansionist ambitions were curbed by the crashing defeat it received from Turkey, Greece began to look inward in order to purify itself from the inside. Being built on a shaky foundation under the claim that everyone in Greece was Greek and Greece only occupied historically Greek lands, Greece did not want to harbour “nonconformists” on its territory and made sure that they were gone one way or another. But it had to do it “legally” and thus we have the various Agreements mentioned earlier. Legal or illegal, however, it made no difference to those being targeted. For them these agreements proved to be catastrophic and caused unprecedented consequences bordering on genocide, especially for the Macedonian people. During its last fiasco with Turkey, Greece expelled some 70-80 thousand more Macedonians and in their place, just in Macedonia, it settled 560,000 Turkish Christian colonists from Asia Minor.

One of the ploys Greece used to convince the world that it was okay for it to exchange populations with other countries, was the claim that these people were not only non-Greeks but they also did not belong there because they had “illegally invaded” historical Greek territories over time. And thus, the indigenous Macedonians who lived on those lands for millennia, over night became “Slavo-Macedonians”. Greece, at the time, never made any claims that “other” Macedonians lived in Macedonia so the “Slavo” label was in fact a superfluous label which served to marginalize the Macedonians and label them as “outsiders” on their own lands! After tearing up a big portion of Macedonia for itself (1913-1919) and ethnically cleansing its population from 1920 to 1940, Greece had to ensure that things remained smooth inside and that if anything did happen, then it would have to have explicit rules and modalities for political intervention.

It is worthwhile at this point to mention that, much later, Greece did use the label “Slavo” to make a distinction between the indigenous (Endopii) Macedonians and the Turkish Christian colonists (Ponti, Prosfigi) it brought to Macedonia from Asia Minor. After many years of denying that Macedonians ever existed and after it became obvious to Greece that the Republic of Macedonia was about to declare its independence from Yugoslavia, Greece did a reversal on the “Macedonian issue” and declared that “everyone” in its part of

Macedonia was now Macedonian, except in the reverse order. While the real Macedonians remained “Slavo-Macedonians”, the Turkish Christian colonists from Asia Minor became “Macedonians” without a label. They now were considered to be legitimate Macedonians who were exclusively entitled to the entire Macedonian heritage!

This was the Greek government’s first genocidal strategy venture: For the Macedonian people to lose their ethnic and historical status in the Greek occupied part of Macedonia.

In spite of everything evil that Greece did to the Macedonian people, it still entered the world as a multicultural country in the 20th century. In 1909 more than a third of the settlements in Old Greece (south of Mount Olympus, particularly the Peloponnesus) were non-Greek. Greece’s multiculturalism increased even more with its acquisition of “new territories” in 1913, a multiculturalism which Greece began to immediately suppress by population exchanges with Turkey and by renaming toponyms. The population exchanges with Turkey alone evicted 500,000 Macedonians Muslims out of Macedonia and brought 1.5 million Christian Turks into Greece. In 1923 the population in Greece increased from 5 to 6 million and the newly settled colonists and settlers from Turkey, known as “Madzhari”, “Prosfigi” or “Ponti”, made up about 25 percent of the total population. These population exchange agreements were carried out with the blessing of the Great Powers.

The Serbian kingdom did the same. It re-populated the Greek – Serbian border from Dojran to the tri-state border with non-Macedonian colonists. It intentionally created an artificial zone along the border so that Macedonians from one side could not have direct contact with Macedonians from the other side.

November 1926 - A dreary autumn in Kostur Region

Here is what the Greek government official gazette “Tis Efimeris Kiverniseos” no. 332 had to say on November 1st, 1926. A mandatory law has been passed calling for the replacement of all Macedonian names with Greek in all the settlements of the occupied part of Macedonia! Published in the same Gazette, no. 360 was a list of about 900 non-Greek city, town and village names along with

their Greek replacements. And this is how Greece and the Greeks were created!

Facts and arguments regarding Greek strategies in dealing with the Macedonians – as told by Greek history; the history of the victors!

Confucius says: “You can’t make joint plans with people who aspire to other goals…”

The Greek strategy was to acquire a Macedonia without Macedonians. They came to Kostur and to Aegean Macedonia with one goal in mind; to persecute the Macedonians until they all disappeared!

A1. Athens, May 2, 1906. File K 59 V, GAK

In investigating living space in the Greek state, necessary for economic and national survival, the first step of the Athens government was to look at the Macedonian territory, but not at its population. In this regard, a representative of the Greek “Macedonian Committee”, who was supporting the “Macedonian conflict”, arrived in Athens from Macedonia in 1905 with a delegation and complained (to the representatives of the Macedonian Committee in Athens) about the horrific and terrifying acts the Greek Andartes perpetrated in Bitola and Lerin Regions. The Committee’s reply was: “We (Greeks) do not need the Macedonians (people) but we have a great need for Macedonia (its lands). (Karavitis, 1994, 937)

MY NOTE: These were the first deadly thoughts against us Macedonians. No one in the world, to this day, has even seen or remembers the existence of a ruthless invader that has threatened the existence of a nation as Greece has with the Macedonians!

A2. A great deal of effort has been given to the study of the Macedonian conflict from 1904 to 1908 because of its importance to Greek history.

The city Kostur was the first place in the region where the liberation struggle for the conquest of Macedonia (1904-1908) began. The first

actions were against the Bulgarian bands and were organized in Kostur by Pavlos Melas.

Melas’s obituary reads: “He died heroicly on October 18, 1904 in the village Statitsa in Kostur Region. His last words were: ‘No Bulgarian should be left alive!’…”

NOTE: Unlike Karavitas, who said: “We don’t need the Macedonians, we need Macedonia…”

A3. The Metaxas dictatorship: cruelest attack on the Macedonian language

The Metaxas dictatorship focused on “solving” its internal problems by using the harshest methods it could find in order to assimilate the Macedonian population in the Greek fold. Harsh methods were used against the population living at Greece’s northern frontiers. Many villagers from those regions were forced to move deeper into Greece in order to avoid contact with the outside world, particularly with Macedonians living in the Serbian, Bulgarian and Albanian occupied parts of Macedonia. In a separate government order the dictatorship placed a ban on the Macedonian language, making it illegal to be spoken, even in private. Those caught speaking Macedonian faced steep fines and jail time. A large part of the population faced many fines and jail time because people simply did not know how to speak any other language except for Macedonian. In other words they were found guilty because they did not speak Greek, not because they did not want to, but because they did not know the Greek language. Many spent time in the Greek dry islands being tormented, humiliated and abused on a daily basis.

Summer in Kostur Region - August 4, 1936

The Metaxas dictatorship came to power in Greece on August 4, 1936. During that time the Greek fascist regime declared that it would transform Greece into a “third civilization”. It began by banning all political parties and organizations and all political activities in the country. It dissolve parliament and passed a “special measures act against communism”. It also labeled Macedonians as

“dangerous communists”.

In 1937 the fascist regime organized a new detention camp for the communists in Akronphplia near the city Naphplion. This was an old provincial town from the middle ages built on a huge rock beside the sea near Naphplion in the Peloponnesus. They named it “Stratopedon singendroseos komouniston, Naphplion-Akronaphplia”.

Winter in Kostur Region - December 1940

Krapov said: “My brother Naum, may he rest in peace, who died as a freedom fighter, told me a few things. One dreary morning in 1938, Italy occupied Albania and threatened Greece with war. In the fall of 1939, the Greek government began mass mobilizations and stationed troops on the Albanian border. That’s when it formed Division IX and filled it with Macedonian soldiers from Kostur and Lerin Regions. When the soldiers arrived at the top of Mounts Mali-Madi and Verba it was already late fall. It was a beautiful autumn afternoon and the sky above was clear and blue, as my brother remembered it.

Now, in addition to calling out the slogan ‘It is honourable to die for the motherland Hellas!’, being under the command of several Greek officers, being wounded by Turkish bullets in the Greek-Turkish war in Asia Minor, fighting in the name of an occupying king, being forced to work on road crews and building various fortifications, the Macedonian soldiers and the local Macedonian Kostur population, young and old, were forced to go to night school to learn the Greek language.

One day Nikos Papadopoulos, the National Brigade Commander, climbed on top of his jeep and gave a speech to the First Battalion, which surprised everyone. In his speech he said: ‘You Macedonians are great patriots and have courage to fight against the enemy and to protect your families. Metaxas (4) acted improperly when he banned your mother tongue.’ He said this with a disgusted, icy, harsh and serious look on his face.

The next person to give a speech after Papadopoulos was Boulikas. Excited and jumpy he said: ‘In 1921 in Asia Minor, during the Greek-Turkish War, I fought in the front lines exclusively with Macedonians. They fought bravely and heroically and gave their lives for the motherland Hellas and for the King of Hellas. We need the same courage from them today to fight against the Italian occupation’. After that Boulikas cried out loud: ‘Forward Macedonians! Forward brothers! Hooray!’ And such was the fate of the Macedonian people occupied by the Greeks who died by the thousands on the battlegrounds during the Greek-Turkish and during the Greek-Italian Wars, not to mention those who died in the Greek prisons on the dry islands and during the Greek Civil War and who were buried in mass graves. When they needed us they called us ‘brothers’, ‘comrades’ and acknowledged our bravery but what are they saying now, after a century of silence!?

But what do the suffering Macedonian mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, who lost loved ones and have found themselves living far away from their birthplace, say?

They say: ‘We sometimes hear voices in the night. They are the voices of our sons and brothers who left their bones at the fronts. They are calling for us from the front lines in Asia Minor, from the fronts from Elbasan to Korcha on Mount Tepeleni, from the fronts of Gramos and Vicho! They are crying because they have not been buried properly; because they gave their lives not for Macedonia but for the interest of those who today occupy us and have taken everything from us. They died for those who today deny our rights, our existence, our country, our nation, our name, our language… They died for those who persecute us and have exiled us from our homes and birthplace…’ The Greeks were not satisfied to have received 51% of Macedonia in 1913; they wanted everything and committed great atrocities to get it. Now they refuse to acknowledge what they have done because, according to them, we don’t exist! They butchered our people and drove our families apart all around the world! They took our properties and refuse to allow us to return to our homes, claiming that we don’t belong there because we are not Greeks by birth. They destroyed our habitats, changed the names of our toponyms and personal names and all this was done in front

of Europe. And thus Europe and the rest of the world are well aware of the Greek genocides committed against the Macedonian people!”

Krapov then stood up firmly on his feet and cried out: “Europe! There is no silence when there is horror!”

* * *

Krapov continued: “Many Macedonians who fought at the Albania front against the Italians were not allowed to return home after the Greek army’s defeat in February 1940. They were sent to the prison camps in Akronaphplia.

Life flowed the way the Greeks wanted it to flow. They did not care about the cries of the Macedonian mothers for their children, the dead or the living interned in prisons all throughout Macedonia. Thousands of children were left without their fathers and earners of their bread. Children were left to beg for their food and as they gathered at the churches, the Greek priests prayed to the Lord for their salvation: ‘Today is August 15, 1940, and as we celebrate the Assumption of the Virgin, the Great Mother, let us all pray for our salvation, forever to live in angelic purity and virginity’.

On April 6, 1941 a number of German military forces began an operation against Yugoslavia and Greece. On April 8, several German mechanized units arrived in Solun. On April 9 Greek units began to capitulate and on April 21 German units occupied Athens. The Greek government had fled and was nowhere to be found. High ranking Greek officers tore off their military ranks and symbols from their uniforms and abandoned their posts, stealthily lurking among the Italian and German military.

Spring in Kostur Region - April 15, 1941.

The German army entered Kostur on April 15, 1941, stripped all Greek authority, removed all Greek institutions and declared them irrelevant. Not knowing what to expect from the new occupying regime, the people watched the Germans function efficiently and effectively. After a short time the German army showed itself to be competent and capable of giving orders without shouting, insulting

and humiliating people. They were clearly soldiers to the bone, capable of functioning in silence, resolved to do what was deemed most essential for themselves and giving a clear impression of what was possible and what was not. Execution of details was left to subordinates to carry out.

These soldiers stayed in Kostur for about 20 days. On May 4th Italian soldiers arrived and replaced them. The Italians, as I remember, were jovial people, talkative and smiling all the time…

May 1941.

They arrived in Kostur under the glow of the May morning sun, riding their noisy trucks and motorcycles and carrying their machine guns over their shoulders while singing out loud. They drove their vehicles hard and fast over the Kostur cobblestone streets to create fear. They resented the Macedonians, especially those who had served in the Greek Army and fought very bravely against them. The Greeks, with their eternal hatred for Macedonians, as they did during the Asian campaign (1919 - 1922), now sent the Macedonian soldiers to fight at the frontlines. But, as they demonstrated during the Asian campaign, the Macedonians, once again, showed themselves to be even more courageous at the Tepeleni front fighting against the Italians.

As soon as the Italians settled themselves in Kostur they established military rule and got rid of all Greek symbols and flags flying in homes and public buildings. It took one day to wipe out the entire Greek character of the city. At the same time the Greek government also disappeared and its servants were nowhere to be found. Again, the people did not know what to make of this new invader but it did not take them long to discover that the Italians did not care what language the Macedonians spoke, what religion they belonged to and how they prayed in church. They discovered that they were free to speak their mother tongue anywhere they wished, without being bothered by the authorities. They even got the courage to take down every poster that ordered them to: ‘Omilite Elinika!’ (Speak Greek!). Every poster was taken down and destroyed.”

“Whoever isn’t with me is against me. Whoever doesn’t gather with me scatters!” (Luke 11: 23)

Krapov paused for a moment, looked up and in a mellow tone of voice said: “A couple of days later Colonel Aldo Venier, an older Italian officer, gave a memorable speech during which he said: ‘I would like to inform the residents of Kostur and the surrounding villages that as of today the Greek government has been suspended and you are under the protection of our government.’

After this news we began to live a new life in Kostur. The mood of the people changed and Kostur came alive... People began to speak Macedonian in the streets, churches, markets… It was a delight listening to people openly speaking the Kostur speech and without fear that somebody might punish them...

The first open thing that we did was to celebrate ‘Ksantika’, the holiday of spring. This was an ancient ritual which belonged to our folk customs. It was a holiday with magical powers, which united the souls of the Macedonian people in their mutual aspiration for survival and for a peaceful life in Kostur. This was an age-old holiday of spring, of love, of freedom, of flowers and of beauty. The people of Kostur, especially the women wore velvet red, green, brown, pink and blue dresses looking attractive and charming. Besides the lavish colourful dresses they also wore kerchiefs embroidered with colourful beads and a variety of jewelry so that they could look their best when dancing the famous dance called ‘Mori Chupi Kosturchanki, rasheretego oroto da vi vime fustanite...’

The Macedonian rebels and freedom fighters also took part in this holiday. They showed deep respect for the traditions of their ancestors by dressing up in Ilinden robes and by wearing belts with bullets and daggers and by giving allegiance to the preservation of our homeland.

During the period after Macedonia was occupied and partitioned in 1913 and before the start of the Second World War, Greek governments made every effort to erase the Macedonian people’s past, particularly their memories of Ilinden. By the start of World War II they had partially succeeded but, in spite of all their efforts,

many Macedonians in Kostur still walked with their heads raised high for which they were cruelly punished, particularly during the Metaxas years. Every Macedonian letter and word was erased and removed, even the inscriptions on gravestones and icons of saints in the Macedonian churches.

But the greatest insult inflicted on our people, particularly on the very old, was when the Greek government ordered them to go to night school to learn the Greek language. This was one of Greece’s harshest policies of denationalization and assimilation. Greece banned the use of the Macedonian language even from crying.

I remember a story being told by the people of Kostur from the time they attended night school when old man Trpo asked his neighbour, Tsveta Labamoska, a question:

‘Hey Tsveta, do you know any Greek? What is a sickle called in Greek?’

Tsveta replied sharply: ‘I don’t know. I think those people are trying to brainwash us…’

Trpo then asked: ‘Is it called “drapani”, I think it’s called “drapani”.’

Tsveta looked at him sharply and said: ‘Drop dead… You’re an idiot!’

The people of Kostur finally revolted. It was done on the day of the “bubuni” or great burning fires, in the Delcheto locality where each person brought their notebooks and pencils and tossed them into the fire burning in Sveti Stefan square, in front of the Sveti Giorgi church near the road leading to the large balcony where Italians soldiers stood, laughed and joked with the Kostur girls and with all the people of Kostur who fed the great fire, telling them that their deeds would bring them good health.”

Krapov and I stood opposite each other, like two soldiers from opposing camps. But we understood each other well because we had suffered a similar fate, so I asked him to tell me a bit more about those great fires that he called the “bubuni”.

Full of desire he smiled and began to tell me more details of his story.

“In those days,” he said, “something unbelievable took place in our neighbourhood. The bubuni were tall bonfires which we lit during Lent (both small and great Lent).

Each believer was expected to bring a bundle of straw, sticks and firewood from home and add it to a big pile. The pile grew like a tree and when everyone was done piling their contributions the pile was lit and tall flames shot up towards the sky. After the fire died out, those gathered around it jumped over the ashes and unburned materials in hopes that the smoke would drive out the fleas and get rid of the bad from their bodies...”

ELAS (Greek people’s Liberation Army) and the EAM (Greek National Liberation Front) Program formed on September 27, 1941.

ELAS was formed in Rumeli on May 15, 1942, structured in partisan-style detachments with similar goals, as was decided by EAM and the CPG Central Committee during a joint meeting. Its formation was proclaimed by an address to the citizens of Greece and to the former Greek Army officers known for belonging to the bourgeois class. At the time, for the Greeks who formed ELAS, we Macedonians were just “Slavophones” and nothing more. We were simply living soldiers just like our fathers had been in previous wars. At that time we may have loudly sung: “Embros ELAS gia tin Ellada…” (Forward ELAS for Greece…) and nothing more. But there is one more undeniable fact; every person that joined ELAS had to take an oath.

The Macedonian communists who joined the ranks of the CPG and ELAS had to take the following ELAS oath: “I, son of the people of Greece and fighter of the Democratic Army of Greece, swear that I

will fight with a rifle in hand, will shed my blood and will give my life for the stability and independence of Greece.”

After being silent for a while, Krapov suddenly raised his head, thought for a moment and said: “We, the people of Kostur, have equally shared our fortunes and misfortune. We were never too happy or too unhappy and, as the old people used to say, ‘and as such was our twisted fate!’…”

One autumn day in 1942

One day, a dangerous article appeared in a Greek newspaper calling for more land to be found for food cultivation.

The article was not written by just anyone; it was written by His Majesty George II claiming that “Greece is finding itself restrained by its current borders and lacks land which it needs to ensure a steady food supply for its people. This lack of land prohibits Greece from developing its economy and as such King George proclaimed the right to occupy territory in the Balkan Peninsula.”

There was quick reaction to this strategy by deserting Greeks from Athens who were very worried that a Macedonian Patriotic Organization was about to be formed in Kostur with aims at fighting for the protection of Macedonian rights under Italian rule. There was a massive turnout of Macedonian volunteers from all the Kostur Region villages who were more than willing to join the Macedonian freedom-fighting units.

The great winter of December 1942 and January 1943

It was early 1943 when Greek politicians still lived off politics, when they urgently got together in Athens under the guidance of the quisling government headed by Mr. Papandreou and formed a special Commission composed of state university professors and politicians, to deal with the Kostur phenomenon in Greek occupied Macedonia. The Commission immediately established the organizations IVE (Protection of Northern Greece), EEE (Greek National Union), PAO (Pan-Hellenic Liberation Organization), EKA (Greek Social Security and Defense) and others.

Surprisingly, an unprecedented reunion took place among the squabbling Greeks. Everyone agreed with everything that called for the “national liberation of Greece”. After that a large number of officers from the nationalist organization ESA, under orders, infiltrated ELAS partisan units and were even entrusted with command positions.

“What do you think the situation among us Macedonians was like at the time?” Krapov asked.

After thinking for a moment I said: “From what I remember, from what the older people used to say, after Macedonia was divided the Macedonian people developed three views of patriotism. On our side, we all bowed our heads down and accepted Greek slavery. We were hoping that because the Greeks were Christians they would treat us better than the Ottomans had... I remember asking my grandparents why they accepted to live under Greek slavery and they used to say that this was our homeland from time immemorial, and that this too would pass. The Greeks will leave one day just like the Ottomans did!

I remember my grandparents telling me about their life during the struggle against the Ottomans when, one time, I asked them why they fought. My grandmother said: ‘Because we were Christians, we fought for Christianity, unfortunately we Macedonians have been cursed by God and made to suffer and to serve foreign masters like the Ottomans, the Greeks, the Serbians and Bulgarians who want to change our identities and turn us into something we are not…’

The logic of these Greek organizations was simple: vilify the Macedonian people and terrorize them to no end. They organized unprecedented terror, maltreatment, murders, burning of crops, deforestation and eviction of innocent people from their homes simply because of minor infractions. They were punished simply because they broke some racist law passed by the Greek powers; a law such as the one that banned the Macedonian language or renamed personal names and toponyms.”

The first ELAS partisan units appeared in Kostur Region. They were led mostly by EKA officers like Baskakis, Zisis, Kirtsidakis, Efremidis, Kolaras and other evildoers who seized the opportunity to organize terrorist actions against prominent Macedonians, including against those who fought during the Ilinden Uprising and their descendants. In May 1943 Andreas Dzhimas, a member of ELAS General Headquarters and a declared communist, during a meeting with ELAS senior staff, among other things said: “...nationalist groups have appeared in this first period in Kostur. These groups are promoting hostile policies to the Macedonians which are unsympathetic towards the Greek partisans. These groups are hostile and dangerous for the partisans. With their actions they make it harder for EAM-ELAS and the CPG to function in attracting Macedonians into our ranks...”

Brochures with intimidating slogans...

Krapov, not wanting to speak loudly, sighed and whispered: “At that time, especially in Kostur Region, the Greeks scattered leaflets with intimidating slogans against us Macedonians.”

Krapov continued: “Many things happened in Kostur at that time. Greeks of all ideologies and from all corners of Greece united against us making us their object of torment and dividing us along every conceivable line. On top of that more than 1,800 Macedonians were serving in the ranks of ELAS. Many considered themselves to be staunch communists but we called them people with ideological tattoos. Strangely, there was also a unit in the ranks of ELAS exclusively populated with Macedonian women but commanded by Greek nationalist officers who had infiltrated ELAS and who hated both the Macedonian and Greek communists. Included among the infiltrators who led partisan units were Portis, Kirtsidakis, Bashkakis, Zisis, Mandaropulos, Efremidis, Minchos, Kolaras and others who on April 8, 1943 formed a large group of ELAS fighters totaling 3,500. Of these, 2,130 were from Kostur Region and split from the others. They vowed that from that day on forward they would fight against the anti-communists and anti-insurgents who were still in the ranks of ELAS.

Our people, who constituted the Kostur freedom fighting units, lived in a daily nightmare. But still, they were not the kind of people who wanted to hide behind others. Not like the skillful communist demagogues, Macedonians included amongst them, who had ready answers to every question and claimed that communism was the cure to all ills in the future life of all Macedonians, including the people of Kostur. These demagogues preached that communism would solve every problem and that all the people had to do was get their communist tattoos.

This ‘care and love’, shown by these Greekophile Macedonians, was never part of our centuries-old Macedonian historical tradition; it was built on the backs of the Macedonian people, starting with the arrival of Bishop Karavangelis and propagated by the first Greek Andartes in the early 20th century.

Outside of the Macedonian communists, Macedonian ELAS fighters and Greekophile Macedonians, there were many Macedonians who would have cut their own veins for Greece. Unfortunately the majority of these Macedonians did not want to know anything about what was going on because of their bad experiences in the past; the Greek Church and Greater-Greece propaganda had pushed many Greeks to view the Macedonian people as prey, which one day must be put back in the old cage. So they would have done anything to placate the Greeks and keep them happy; tactics that historically have never worked…

The first partisan unit combat actions were conducted in the southwestern part of Greek occupied Macedonia, mainly in Kostur Region, at the end of 1942 and in early 1943. They were led by Greek nationalist officers and were directed against prominent Macedonians and against the descendants of the Ilinden Uprising fighters. On March 4, 1943 they gathered in the village Nestram where they proclaimed a people’s revolt but the speakers and CPG and EAM leadership said nothing about Macedonian national rights or about the fate of the Macedonian people. The Greek nationalist revolt was directed against the Macedonian people and called for their destruction, which could only be saved if the Macedonian people joined their ranks.

On March 5, 1943 a Macedonian Committee was formed in Kostur with its own Macedonian military formations.

The Kostur Committee was authentic and the first line of resistance against Hellenism in 1943. These fighters defended the spirit and essence of the Macedonian people.

A meeting was called on March 5, 1943, attended by 48 members and representatives from various local villages. It was decided to form a ‘self defense’ organization called ‘Macedonian Committee’ for Kostur Region, which was to serve about 60 villages. They were given permission to arm themselves because the Italian authorities felt they needed to protect themselves from the Greeks who meant to do them harm.”

Krapov looked up, smiled, took his first sip of coffee and looked at me with a sad look on his face. He then wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked down again. The expression on his face changed, he looked sad and uncomfortable reminiscent of those times when he had told me sad things about life and the pain he had endured. He then rubbed his face and continued:

“It was a time when a lot more patriots existed in Kostur than traitors.

It was the first time in a long time in Kostur that so many people got together that day, during our spiritual holiday ‘Ksantika’, and genuinely smiled at each other and the women wore festive clothes, new shoes, velvet dresses and long braids. They sang and danced as we the bachelors, along with the Italian carabinieri, looked on enthralled by their beauty.

Even God must have been amazed at how the Greeks, in the short twenty-five years they had been in Kostur and in our county, had sown so much hatred among our people. Hatred and envy had gripped the people of Kostur so much so that they did not even celebrate Easter in our churches like old times. But now that the Greeks were gone, it seemed that even the faces and eyes of our saints were brighter and they smiled at us...

The old links between Macedonians and Greeks, marriages, friendships, the carefree gatherings and drinking with the teachers; became increasingly fewer and broken between the Macedonian Greekophiles and their Greek counterparts. The times of fear were slowly going away…

All we Macedonians needed now was to unite. We were forced into a situation where we had to fight for our lives with arms. All this culminated on March 5, 1943, the day we declared the people’s uprising in Kostur Region; an uprising which represented the first real resistance against Hellenism; an uprising organized by the sons and grandsons of the Ilinden fighters; the day everyone rejoiced at the prospect of breaking away from the deadly Greek embrace.

My freedom fighting grandfather, when speaking about the communists, Greekophiles and ELAS fighters, one time said: ‘You can’t make plans with people who aspire to other goals…’ I think he was quoting Confucius.”

Krapov looked at me with an apathetic and quiet look, so I said: “I admire how well you remember all these things after all those years. It is really nice of you.”

I then thought to myself, every person who carefully listens to this man will discover the effort he goes through to carry all this weight on his shoulders all these years. It must be a great burden for him… even the questions he is asked… The memories alone must be a drain.

Krapov’s mood quickly changed and he went silent again. Then silent, he flinched as if he had forgotten something important and continued:

“Do you know how it was then? It was hard! It was a time of uncertainties and poverty, threats, dangerous divisions and it was very important that we survive.

Fears were passed on from one generation to the next, especially in Kostur where we have coexisted with various regimes who occupied us, regimes like the Ottomans and the Greeks, especially the Greeks

who did everything in their power to make life difficult for us. In Kostur we also had generations of educated people who had finished university and did not know any other world except the one that surrounded them. Those young people accepted the world the way it was. They knew nothing of insurrections or revolutions like the Ilinden Uprising and did not understand that the rules of the game needed to be changed, because for them the game had always been the same. The rules of this game were simple: nothing was certain and we were active in conditions of complete uncertainty. In such a situation the people of Kostur were faced with two feelings: One, no matter how communist ideas were propagated and how many million questions were asked and answered, many people felt like they were insufficiently informed because they felt unsafe and were uncertain of what was going to happen.

Two, almost every family living in Kostur Region had relatives who had participated in the Ilinden Uprising and their stories were well-known, passed on from grandparents to grandchildren. The heroism of their ancestors and why they fought was well-known to them.

The people of Kostur gladly formed strong opinions often based on bias. They usually entered into conversations without arguing and were often prepared to hear out arguments that were in support of their beliefs. The Grkomani (Greekophile Macedonians) always had an ironic smile on their faces which puzzled people, making them wonder how they could smile and at the same time stab people, or watch others stab people in the back.

The older generation, which was continuously tormented by Greek assimilatory practices and constantly felt humiliated, at that time felt up to the task; to defend the honour of the Macedonian people. People of that generation finally felt like individuals, like being the creative and autonomous leaders their own people expected.”

Krapov’s last comment reminded me of one of the comments by Leo Tolstoy, who said: “In life, as it is in chess, we spot our mistakes after others take advantage of them.”

Krapov looked at me strangely, but only for a moment. He them adjusted himself, stood up slightly and continued:

“We Macedonians have always been wrong about our rights which made me wonder; ‘Can a person obtain all his rights in one day and fix all the mistakes he made during his entire life?’

Well, this is the Macedonian condition. But let me tell you this. The Kostur freedom fighters tackled this problem and showed us that everything was possible. They managed to quickly overcome the problems which the Greeks had built up over decades. Whatever ill the Greeks had done and the divisions they caused amongst us were quickly overcome when the Macedonian freedom fighters rose to the task and took our fate into their hands. Their emergence and rise was greeted with great joy and relief by the people of Kostur. They were the hope that people were looking for to liberate them and free them from Greek slavery.