CHAPTER THREE - NATIONAL SUBJUGATION AND RESISTANCE OF THE MACEDONIAN PEOPLE I

CHAPTER THREE - NATIONAL SUBJUGATION AND RESISTANCE OF THE MACEDONIAN PEOPLE IN GREEK OCCUPIED MACEDONIA (1913-1940)

1. NATIONAL SUBJUGATION OF THE MACEDONIAN PEOPLE (1913-1940)

With the annexation of Greek occupied Macedonia, the Greek state began to implement policies to de-nationalize and assimilate the Macedonian population. The name “Macedonia” and “Macedonians” was forbidden from use and the Macedonian people were called everything but Macedonian. The most common pejorative and insulting words used to refer to them were “Paleovulgaros” (old Bulgarian) “Servos” (Serbian) or simply “Endopios” (Indigenous). At the same time, all Macedonian given and surnames were changed by force to Greek sounding names and every surname ended with a compulsory suffix such as -os, -es or -poulos. A name such as Georgi Volchev was turned into Georgios Voltsidis, while Stoian Popov was turned to Yannis Papadopoulos, Liuba Popova to Olimpia Papas, and so on.

The Greek state refused to recognize the Macedonian nation and the Macedonian language, implying that if a Macedonian nation did not exist then how could a Macedonian language exist. The Macedonian language was banned, belittled, and regarded as barbaric, primitive and unworthy of a cultured and civilized citizen. It was forbidden in all communication including in communications between parents and children, among peasants, in weddings, in meetings and even in funeral rituals. In other words, the Macedonian language and the words “Macedonia” and “Macedonian” were forbidden from oral and written use in every aspect of human life including in poetry, drama, humour, etc. Those who violated this rule and were caught speaking Macedonian were penalized and morally and psychologically harassed. Punishments included spitting in the person’s mouth, fierce beatings, putting needles through the person’s tongue; one needle for each Macedonian word spoken, and so on. For example, a Macedonian child was severely punished in the village Konomladi in Kostur Region for accidentally speaking a few Macedonian words. While playing in the schoolyard the child forgot about the language ban and spoke several Macedonian words. Angered by this, the Greek teacher threw a sharp metallic object and hit the child on the head creating a deep gash. The child was traumatized and was no longer normal. According to witnesses, the child experienced episodes of what was described as “wild craziness”. (Veritas, Makedonija pod igo 1919-1929, Dokumenti I svedetelstva, Sofia, 1931.)

Even with the similarities between the Macedonian, Bulgarian and Serbian languages, the authorities caused problems of medieval proportion for the Macedonian people in both Serbian and Bulgarian occupied Macedonia. That, however, was mild in comparison to the problems the Greek authorities caused for the Macedonian people over their language in Greek occupied Macedonia, which could only be described as unprecedented in contemporary historical practices. With the annexation of 51% of Macedonian lands in 1913, the Greek state forbade and severely punished every public manifestation of Macedonian national feeling, of external expression through language, and of Macedonian traditions and customs. The Greek state directed its authorities to eliminate and liquidate any and all written and oral forms of Macedonian traditions manifested. So, immediately after 1913, the Greek state began a genuine campaign to eliminate all Macedonian literacy in Greek occupied Macedonia. As a result, all Macedonian inscriptions on buildings, monuments, churches and even gravestones were removed. In fact the Greek state, with much satisfaction, ordered the destruction of everything that existed from the Ilinden era, including the gravestones of the Macedonian heroes who fought for Macedonia and died during the 1903 Ilinden Uprising. The Greek state took its campaign of destruction even a step further and began to destroy Macedonian archaeological finds. Everything that was reminiscent of the Macedonian people’s historical and cultural existence in Greek occupied Macedonia was destroyed. Everything Macedonian that was found disappeared without a trace. All Macedonian churches were renamed with Greek names and meticulously examined. Any traces of the Macedonian alphabet found in church inscriptions were removed. All church books written in the Macedonian language were burned. Burning Macedonian books, however, was nothing new. The Phanariots had been burning Macedonian books since medieval times. Their persistence was so great that randomly missed Macedonian church inscriptions were removed 20 and even 30 years

later. One such removal took place in the village B’mboki, Kostur Region, where several Macedonian words in the church’s dome had been missed. They were removed 20 years later.

Simultaneously with the removal of traces of Macedonian history, the living Macedonian language was hunted down. Various Greek nationalist gangs began to visit Macedonian villages and not only hunted down those who continued to speak Macedonian but tormented the rest of the Macedonian population in an attempt to “persuade” it to speak only Greek - if it wanted to live and see the next day alive. The Greek nationalist organization “Eliniko -Makedonki pigmi” (Greek-Macedonian fist), in its 1926 declarations, warned the Macedonian people that they were strictly forbidden from speaking their mother tongue and that they were obliged to speak only Greek. (Veritas, op cit.)

The most severe attack on the Macedonian language came during the General Joanis Metaxas dictatorship. Two hours before the general all-Greek strike began on August 4, 1936, General Metaxas suspended the Greek constitution and introduced his personal dictatorship.

General Metaxas’s dictatorial rule, among other things, began with the suspension of the Greek constitution, the burning of books written by famous ancient writers, the banning of the Macedonian language, and the introduction of Metaxas’s version of “the third Greek civilization” modeled after the so-called “Ancient and Byzantine Greeks”. With intentions of removing every basic element that characterized the Macedonian nation, Metaxas began to ban the Macedonian language, not only in everyday public life such as the market, in ordinary communications, in church, in funeral rituals, etc., but also in the family, in the privacy of the Macedonian home. To force the Macedonian people not to use the Macedonian language, even in the privacy of their own homes, Metaxas issued orders for the police to spy on Macedonian families inside their homes. Policemen were obliged to go under people’s windows at night and listen to family members speaking in order to determine which language they spoke. If they spoke Macedonian, they were immediately arrested. For every Macedonian word that was uttered, either publicly or in the privacy of the family circle, people were

fined, jailed and tortured. Some of the torture methods applied included rubbing a person’s tongue with a hot pepper, forcing a person to eat salted fish and refusing to give them water, forcing a person to drink castor oil and refusing to let them go to the toilet, plucking hairs from a person’s moustache, beating a person with a stick all over their body and so on. The cruelty was so great that at times people were physically and psychologically damaged. With the cruelty shown for the Macedonian people, Metaxas surpassed even the cruelty of his teachers, the Italian fascists, who spat in the mouths of Slovenian and Croatian people who dared to utter a Slovenian or Croatian word. Spitting in the mouth and various other methods were used by the Italian fascists to belittle the national and linguistic dignity of Croats and Slovenes under the Italian occupation. At the same time, Metaxas introduced night school for adults and, regardless of their old age, Macedonians were forced to go to so-called evening school and learn “the melodious and culturally superior Greek language”. Because of violations due to the ban of the Macedonian language, especially in the villages where people spoke no other language, more than 5,000 Macedonians were sentenced and sent to prison to serve their sentences in the harsh Greek islands. Macedonian people were mainly sent to Corfu, Pylos, Akronavplia, Gavros, Ikaria and other desolate and cruel places. The Macedonian people described these severe Greek repressive measures as “far worse than those of the Ottoman regime”.

Between the two World Wars, the international democratic community and the League of Nations put some pressure on the Greek state to take some formal action as a European country, and show some respect for the provisions on the protection of minorities as was required by the Paris Peace Accord, so that the Macedonian National Question could be resolved calmly. Greece was obligated to respect the rights of its minorities by the Neuilly Peace Treaty but refused to honour that obligation. Greece was also obligated to honour the 1924 “Kalfov-Politis” protocol, but that too was set aside. The Greek Ministry of Education, for example, had tasked a committee composed of Papazahariou, Saiachkis and Lazarou to publish a primer intended for Macedonian children. This primer, called the ABECEDAR, was completed in early September 1925 and was printed with the Latin alphabet but in a Macedonian (Lerin-Bitola) dialect. Despite the fact that the “ABECEDAR” never

reached the Macedonian children, its publication was official recognition of the Macedonian people and their language for which the Greek authorities persistently persecuted them. But, immediately after the ABECEDAR was published, it was seized by the Greek authorities and promptly destroyed.

The processes of assimilation and denationalization of the Macedonian people were simultaneously carried out in parallel with the terror perpetrated against them over their Macedonian language. Official Greek policies for faster assimilation were not only put into place but also upgraded and accelerated. Teaching played a special role in the process. This was the first time the Macedonian people were included in an educational system en masse with aims at teaching the Greek language fast. This was the first time the vast Macedonian population had met the Greek language. Education was carried out exclusively in the Greek language and its main goal was to “root out non-Greek feelings out of the souls of these young Macedonians…” (Viviadou Lazarou, i Prespa ke i omorfes tis, Athina, 1940, p. 69.) If the closeness of the Macedonian language, nevertheless, contributed to the teaching process as much as it would normally do, in Serbian and Bulgarian occupied Macedonia, the great difference between the Macedonian and the Greek language initially made teaching very difficult in Greek occupied Macedonia. But two hours of the day dedicated to learning the Greek language and Greek history, and all other subjects taught through “singing and dancing”, over the long term, proved to be the best method of penetrating the Greek language and Greek consciousness in the young Macedonians. One of the mandatory songs sung was: “I am a Greek, I know my origin and my Greek soul always lives free...”

Another way to entice the Macedonian children to learn the Greek language faster and to infiltrate “Greek tradition and pride” into the consciousness of the Macedonian youth was through various excursions. (Makedoniko imerologio, Thesaloniki, 1939, p. 41.) Macedonian children were taken on historical excursions, organized especially for the Macedonians, in Thermopylae, Salamina, Marathon, Mesolongi and other historical places where the Macedonian children had the opportunity to learn about the heroic feats of “their supposed ancestors the likes of Leonidas, Kolototronis, Diakos, Papavlesas, Miaoulis, Kareskakis and others”.

Every child was taught and knew Diakos’s dying words by heart: “Grekos genithika and Grekos tha pethano!” (I was born a Greek and a Greek I shall die!)

Cultural organizations, especially music societies, also played a major role in assimilating the Macedonian people into the Greek fold and spreading the Greek language among the Macedonian population. The music repertoire was composed mainly of music about the glorious Greek historical past and almost always music bands, performing at various national and religious holidays, played Greek patriotic songs in front of a Macedonian audience.

Sports societies played a role in promoting “everything Greek” to the young Macedonian people. In addition to promoting sports, they also promoted and nurtured Greek patriotic feelings. A place was made where the Greek language could be practiced and studied every day. The Greek press also played a role in the process of assimilating the Macedonian population and spreading the Greek language. The Greek press always took the Greek side when it came to the Macedonian National Question. There were 26 chauvinistic Greek newspapers published in Greek occupied Macedonia, which included the papers “Ditiki Makedonia”, “Kastoria”, “Makedoniki”, “Foni tou laou” and so on.

The political and cultural advancements made, especially in the fields of education, church, the military, etc., certainly contributed to the assimilation of the Macedonian people and to the spread of the Greek language in Greek occupied Macedonia. The Christian colonists, who were also busy learning the Greek language, were also a factor in expanding the Greek language into the ranks of the Macedonian population. Their everyday presence forced the Macedonian people, mostly for economic reasons, to learn Greek, a foreign language which the Macedonians hated. In this regard, one example will be sufficient to prove that conditions were tough and unnatural for the Macedonian language’s struggle for its survival. Before 1923, there were two Turkish villages, Vratolom and Pleshevitsa, located in the vicinity of the Macedonian village Leskoets, Lerin Region. Until then, the Macedonian language was exclusively used as a means of conversation and communication between all the villagers in the market and the bazaar. Under those

circumstances, the Macedonian language played the role of the “official language”. After the Turks were evicted from their villages, they were replaced with Christian colonists who spoke only Turkish. At the same time the village names were changed. Vortolom became known as Agios Bartholomeos and Pleshevitsa was called Kolokiti. With the arrival and settlement of the colonists, after 1923, the Macedonian language was quickly replaced with the Greek language as people began to speak it more and more. Something similar also took place in the village Medovo in Lerin Region, located near two Turkish villages, Shaovtsi and Bostandzhovtsi. When the colonists arrived they were settled on the properties of the Turks evicted from the two Turkish villages. But, at the same time, several colonist families were settled in Medovo, a Macedonian village. The properties in Medovo given to these colonists were confiscated from the Macedonians. An ordinary fence erected in the middle of the properties divided the Macedonians from the colonists. Until that time the Greek language in Medovo was only present in the school and the church. After that, with the arrival of the colonists, the Greek language was heard in the village streets as well as out in the fields. (Statement given by P.M. from the village Medovo, now a resident of Skopje.) So, even the Turkish speaking colonist element, to a large extent, was also responsible for spreading the Greek language in Greek occupied Macedonia.