A REPORT BY THE COMMANDER OF THE NINTH BORDER SECTOR TO THE SECOND BUREAU OF T

A REPORT BY THE COMMANDER OF THE NINTH BORDER SECTOR TO THE SECOND BUREAU OF THE 9TH DIVISION IN KOZANI

March 2, 1936

No 2 E. P. 107, March 2, 1936

I have the honour to inform you that on February 28, upon the invitation of the regional Chief of the Administration, a conference was held in Lerin. At this conference, the following persons took part:

1. all the chairmen of the commercial, trade and craftsmen organizations of the town of Lerin,

2. the president of the bar association at Lerin,

3. the inspectors of the elementary and grammar schools,

4. the principal of the grammar school,

5. the Commander of the 28th Infantry Regiment of the Ninth Border Sector, as well as the Chief of Police at Lerin.

In accordance with the recommendation submitted by the regional Chief of the Administration, as well as by the other present chiefs of government agencies, a decision was made to request all the village administrators to convene general assemblies in their villages, and there to stress the necessity to abandon this language and to ensure that only Greek be spoken.

The conference concluded with the pledge of all participants that in future, they will work for the attainment of this goal.

AM. – F. Dimitar Vlahov. K. 21. A. E. 86.

(Pages 71-72, The University of “Cyril and Methodius”, Documents on the Struggle of the Macedonian People for Independence and a Nation-State, Volume II)

CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR USING THE MACEDONIAN LANGUAGE IN THE KINGDOM OF GREECE

April 24, 1939

The public prosecutor of the village Dolno Kotori , (105) in connection with paragraphs 143-145 of the Penal Code, summoned Georgi Mitri, a villager from Neret, to appear in person in court on Monday, May 15, 1939, at nine o’clock in the morning, to be tried under the indictment that on February 19, this year, he had been caught by the police of the village Neret, talking to other people in a language which is not known to these other people (Slav language), as well as singing in the same language.

Since paragraph 697 of the Penal Code was violated, and in accordance with Police order No 15/36, if the summoned does not appear in person, he will be tried and sentenced in absence.

Neret.

(106) April 24, 1939 (Seal)

The Public Prosecutor (signature illegible)

AM. –F. Dimitar Vlahov. K. 21. A. E. 86.

(105) The village has not been identified.

(106) A village in the district of Lerin (Aegean Macedonia).

(Page 72, The University of “Cyril and Methodius”, Documents on the Struggle of the Macedonian People for Independence and a Nation-State, Volume II)

A RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY GERMAN WORKERS CONCERNING MACEDONIA

February 25, 1930

German workers about Macedonia.

A powerful voice in defense of the Macedonian people. A major contribution to the Macedonian Cause. (112)

A Resolution (113)

...Macedonia was partitioned in three parts by so-called Peace Treaties. Partitioned in this way, the Macedonian people under Serbian, Greek and Bulgarian bondage are constantly being suppressed.

In the part of Macedonia under Serbian rule, Macedonians are killed on the basis of a black list which is prepared in advance. In 1928 alone, three hundred Macedonians were killed. Hundreds of others were brought before terrorist courts and thrown in jail. There, by slow torture, they are done to death. The courts delivered 9 death sentences. The corpses of murdered people are found virtually daily in the streets of Macedonian villages. Mass arrests are on the agenda now. (114) The arrested are subjected to brutal and atrocious torture. Public activists, who are not in favour of the dictatorship, disappear without a trace, one of whom was the well-known and respected Macedonian fighter Panko Brasnarov. (115). The state confiscates the property of political prisoners who have been accused of treason to the state. All non-Serbian schools and cultural institutions in Macedonia were closed. Macedonian peasants are being expropriated from their land.

The part of Macedonia under Greek rule is being terrorized by the fascist bands of Captain Stefo and other agents of Athens. Death sentences are being delivered and large-scale deportations of Macedonians to the Greek islands are carried out. The Macedonian population is being expelled from their homes and hearths, while their land and other property is being plundered. Schools and other cultural institutions have been shut down. Every Macedonian who

speaks in his mother tongue is persecuted. Greek teachers pierce with needles the tongues of their pupils who are not able to speak Greek.

In the part of Macedonia under Bulgarian rule, it is the Macedonian fascist organization which plays the role of the hangman (116). Every day it kills fighters for a united and independent Macedonia and for a Balkan federation. Over 1200 Macedonian national revolutionaries (117) have been killed since the introduction of the Bulgarian fascist dictatorship. Macedonian immigrants in Bulgaria are subjected to cruel terror.

We demand: Full political, national and cultural rights, and freedoms for the population in Macedonia.

Further, we demand: Abolition of the special regime. An end to the expulsions and deportations of Macedonians. Full and unconditional amnesty for the national revolutionaries and other political prisoner. Aid for the refugees who are suffering and possibilities for their return to their native hearths.

We support the struggle of the Macedonian people for national liberation and for a federation of the liberated Balkan peoples (l18).

“Makedonsko Delo” V/108 (25. II 1930), p. 4.

(114) The reason for this statement probably were the mass arrests in Macedonia following police infiltration of Macedonian organizations at Kumanovo and Veles in July and August, 1929.

(115) Panko Brasnarov had been in prison since May 1929. Later, he was included in the group arrested in Veles and, together with them he was tried at the so-called Veles trial, between June 21 and 23, 1930.

(116) This refers to the organization of Ivan Mihajlov.

(117) Since the June 1923 Coup d’Etat in Bulgaria.

(118) Underlined in the original. “Makedonsko Delo” (The Macedonian Cause) wrote that the Resolution “was published in many worker newspapers and magazines”.

(Page 72, The University of “Cyril and Methodius”, Documents on the Struggle of the Macedonian People for Independence and a Nation-State, Volume II)