2. THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF GREECE AND ITS POLICY OF - “NO STATE, NO NATION” - (

2. THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF GREECE AND ITS POLICY OF - “NO STATE, NO NATION” - (1918-1924)

Following the Bucharest and Neuilly Peace Agreements, the Greek state ceased to supposedly be nationally heterogeneous and became a homogeneous state with a single Greek nation. As a result of this, all unresolved ethnic problems with the non-Greek population living in Greece, all of a sudden, disappeared. This was irrespective of the fact that Greece expanded its territory into Greek occupied Macedonia and Western Thrace and with it acquired non-Greek territories and non-Greek people. At this time the Dodecanese islands and Cyprus were still outside of the political boundaries of this small but overly ambitious Greek kingdom. The islands Astypalaria, Kalimpos, Karpathos, Leros, Rhodes, Chios and others remained under Italian occupation after the Treaty of Versailles.

According to their national origin and corresponding manifested external national consciousness, such as language, customs and traditions, about 133,761 or 93.5% Greeks, 6,874 or 4.8% Turks, and 2,455 or 1.7% Jews, for a total of 143,080 inhabitants lived in the Dodecanese islands. (Megali eliniki enkiklopedia, Athina, 1930, tomos th, p. 600). Similarly, a large and compact Greek population lived in Cyprus, which at the time was under British rule. According to their ethnic origin, as well as on their basis of cultural traditions, 274,180 or 79.7% of these people were Greeks, 64,180 or 18.65% were Turks and 5,666 or 1.65% were others. (Ibid. p. 405.)

But despite the fact that a non-Greek population lived in the Greek territory, there were also so-called Greeks living as a Greek minority in traditionally foreign ethnic and national territories. These were the so-called Greek minority that lived in present day southern Albania and the so-called Greek minority that lived inside the Turkish state in the vicinity of Smyrna and Istanbul.

There were 200,000 or 83% Albanians (Christians and Muslims) and 40,000 or 17% so-called Greeks by origin, language and national feeling living in Southern Albania. (Ibid. p. 341.)

There was a mixed so-called Greek, Turkish and other distinct Christian population living in the western parts of Asia Minor, especially in Smyrna Region. As a result of the active economic life in Smyrna, the so-called Greek population continuously grew, especially with the intense migration of so-called Greeks from the Dodecanese islands. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a greater presence of a Turkish ethnic element in the region of Smyrna. According to 1919 French Chamber of Commerce reports, the total number of people living in Smyrna Region was around 400,000. But only 50% of that population was considered to be Greek. (Jacques Ancel, Peuples et Nations des Balkans, Paris, 1930, p. 185.)

So as far as the Greek national question was concerned, which interested the Greek state, it existed in three different forms: 1) There was an unresolved Greek national and territorial issue where a compact Greek population lived in a traditionally Greek ethnic-historical territory in the Dodecanese and Cyprus; 2) There was a

Greek minority issue with a Greek minority population living within other ethnic-historical territories such as Southern Albania and Turkey; and 3) there was an unresolved national and territorial issue inside Greece where a compact Macedonian population lived in a traditional ethnic and historical Macedonian territory.

A) THE SOCIALIST WORKERS’ PARTY OF GREECE AND ITS ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE UNRESOLVED NATIONAL AND TERRITORIAL ISSUES

The existence of unresolved national and territorial issues in the Balkans and beyond very much attracted the attention of the young Greek Socialist Party. At its founding congress in 1918, the Socialist Workers’ Party of Greece paid special attention to the unresolved national and territorial issues that arose in Europe after the Great War. The discussions that took place, about the position the Socialist Workers’ Party of Greece should be taking, were so appalling that the commission that was supposed to summarize the Party proposals for the resolution of these international questions were incapable of making a single decision before the founding Congress, due to their differing views. The views supported by the so-called “reformist socialists” led by N. Ianiou and A. Sideris, contradicted the views of the Left led by D. Ligdopoulos, N. Komiotis and Dzhoulatis, and not only on ideological issues. This is why two resolutions were submitted to the Socialist Workers’ Party of Greece just before its founding Congress. Submitted on one side was the resolution of the so-called “minority”, which essentially covered the views of the “reformist socialists”, and on the other the resolution of the “majority” which expressed the views of the Left and which was increasingly reinforced in the ranks of the Greek labour movement.

The resolution on settling national and territorial issues in Europe, submitted by the “minority” group, demanded respect for the right to self-determination especially for the people in Alsace, Poland and Trieste. The “minority” group demanded the problems in Alsace and Lоrraine be resolved in favour of France because France actively supported the Greek territorial claims in Greek occupied Macedonia, Western Thrace and the region around Smyrna. The “minority” group also advised the Congress to be “cautious and wise at all costs” when dealing with national and territorial issues in the Balkans, which the Greek state was interested in. (Gheorghi D. Kaculi, Istoria tu KKE, tomos 1, 1918-1922, Athina, 1976, p. 119.) Representatives of the “minority” group proposed that Eastern Thrace, a part of European Turkey, become an Autonomous Republic (Autonomous Republic of Marmara) with a hinterland on two sides of the Marmara Sea and the Bosphorus and with Istanbul internationalized. They proposed that these regions become a protectorate of the Society of Nations. The “minority” group also proposed that “the Bulgarian part of Thrace” be taken away from Bulgaria and included in the composition of the Autonomous Republic of Marmara. Western Thrace, as we have shown, was awarded to Greece in accordance with the Paris Peace Accord. Greece did not aspire to lay claim to the so-called “Greek region in Bitola” and the Serbians did not recognize the so-called Greek character of Solun. Neither Greece nor Serbia agreed that an “independent Muslim” Albanian state be created. But, since the Albanian state already existed after 1913, the “minority” group demanded that Albania be weakened by giving power to the ranks of the non-Muslim population, of which its vast majority was of Albanian origin. The “minority” group demanded that the Italian kingdom recognize Albania’s right to Avlona, but with southern Albania in favour of Greece. At the same time, the “minority” group supported Romania’s territorial pretensions to Southern Dobrudzha, Erdei, Transylvania, etc. Southern Dobrudzha was an ethnic Bulgarian territory occupied by Romania after the Second Balkan War. This territory was returned to Bulgaria after World War II under the Kraiova Agreement concluded between Bulgaria and Romania on September 7, 1940. Transylvania was a territory disputed between Hungary and Romania.

With regards to Asia Minor, a Turkish territory, the “minority” group drafted a resolution requiring the regions around Smyrna, Aidiniu and the Dodecanese be given to the Greek state, supporting the idea of creating an Armenian republic at the expense of Turkey, Greece’s eternal historical rival, and creating a Jewish state with Jerusalem as its capital, at the expense of the Palestinian people, etc. (Gheorghi D. Kaculi, op. cit, p. 117). The “minority” group actively advocated for the formation of a Jewish state around Jerusalem, but it did not do it without self-interest. A Jewish state would have given the Greek state the opportunity to evict the large Jewish minority

living in Solun and acquire its assets for which the Greek bourgeoisie had shown great interest.

The “majority” group’s resolution, contrary to the “minority” group’s, was to seek recognition and respect for the right to self-determination for the people in Cyprus, Imbros, Lemnos, Tenedos, Samotrake, Dodecanese, and the right to self-determination of the people in so-called Northern Epirus (southern Albania). The “majority” group called for full rights to repatriation and reparation of the refugee population from the Balkan countries and from Asia Minor and to provide it with the means to return, as well as for the creation of a Balkan Federation. (Epiton eksoterikon zitimatos, To KKE, Episima Kimena, tomos 1, p. 11-12). The “majority” group supported and respected the political, national and linguistic freedoms of people and believed it was possible for all Balkan nations to politically and economically develop regardless of the people’s national and church affiliations. (Ibid.)

From the resolutions proposed for the settlement of territorial issues that existed in Europe and Asia, the Founding Congress of the Socialist Workers’ Party of Greece adopted the resolution proposed by the “majority” group. But, despite the differences that existed between the “majority” and “minority” groups, there were some things that were in common in their resolutions, i.e. in the way the territorial and national issues in the Dodecanese, Cyprus, southern Albania and Greek occupied Macedonia were handled, which were of interest to the Greek state.

B) THE SOCIALIST WORKERS’ PARTY OF GREECE AND ITS ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE UNRESOLVED NATIONAL AND TERRITORIAL ISSUES IN THE DODECANES ISLANDS AND CYPRUS

After the First World War, part of the now Greek territory was not included in the composition of the Greek state. The Dodecanese and Cyprus were still under foreign control, and the majority of the population living there was considered to be of Greek origin and traditionally lived on this so-called Greek ethnographic territory. Ius Solis (the right to the historical territory) as well as Ius Civitas (the right of the nation) were plundered in order to unite them with the Greek state. However, Turkish people lived in these islands among the so-called Greeks representing 14.35% of the total population. The Turkish people demanded that the majority respect the rights of the minority which included their language, culture, traditions and customs and looked forward to their free national and economic development within the Greek majority. The rights of the Turkish minority in Cyprus, unfortunately, have never been respected by the Greek bourgeoisie, and the Turkish people have always distrusted the Greek majority which has been looking for ways to unite with Greece.