4. ETHNIC AND POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES IN GREEK OCCUPIED MACEDONIA AFTER THE GRE

4. ETHNIC AND POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES IN GREEK OCCUPIED MACEDONIA AFTER THE GREAT GREEK COLONIZATION

A) ETHNIC CONSEQUENCES

The great Greek colonization of Greek occupied Macedonia with non-Macedonian Christian settlers and colonists, undoubtedly, had an impact on the Macedonian people with severe ethnic, linguistic, political and economic consequences. The great ethnic changes that took place, in fact, further complicated the Macedonian National Question.

The most severe of all consequences was the loss of so many Macedonians and their replacement with non-Macedonians. In addition to the Turkish Christian colonists and settlers deposited in the period from 1923 to 1928, another group of 210,000 Turkish Christians known as the “Karamanli” was deposited in Greek occupied Macedonia. Since none of them spoke Greek, the Greek Patriarch ordered the liturgy to be read in Turkish during celebrations of important holidays. In addition to the Karamanli’s, the Greek government also deposited 80,000 Armenians and another 75,000 people of various ethnicities. The Armenians deposited in Solun created the “Society of the Armenian Minority” and, in the period between the two world wars, published the newspapers “Ashkatan” (Effort) and “Akhtanak” (Victory). The 75,000 people that came from the Caucasus were different in terms of origin, languages and traditions. So, after all these colonists and settlers were deposited in Greek occupied Macedonia, according to the languages spoken in the home by the family, there were 636,428 or 45.06% so-called Greeks, 240,000 or 16,99% Macedonians, 210,000 or 14,87% Turks, 80,000 or 5.66% Armenians, 75,000 or 5.31% Caucasians, 68,206 or 4.83% Jews, 44,414 or 3,14% Vlachs, 25,302 or 1.79% Roma, and 33,127 or 2.35% others, for a total of 1,412,477 people.

In fact, even after this great migration of people, Greek occupied Macedonia was still not “Hellenized”, but simply received a non- Macedonian ethnic character and became a “true ethnic lace” of people that differed in origin, language, cultural traditions and temperament. (E. Driauet, M. L’heritier, Histoire diplomatique de la Gréce de 1821 r nos jouás, Paris, 1926, p. 477.) As a result of this new ethnic reality, interesting ethnic events were observed. On the one hand, there was a decline in the Macedonian population and, on the other, there was an increase in the non-Macedonian population. If in 1913 the Macedonian population accounted for 35.20% of the total population, after this migration it was reduced to 16.99%. With the eviction of 127,384 Macedonians, as per the Lausanne Treaty, and the importing of 618,199 Christian settlers and colonists, the eastern and central part of Greek occupied Macedonia lost their ethnic Macedonian character. The only places where Macedonians lived as a compact majority was the western part of Greek occupied Macedonia, in regions such as Kostur, Lerin, Voden…, where the Macedonian population numbered more than 50% of the total population.

With the above ethnic changes, the Macedonian people not only lost their traditional national historical status but, from a majority living in their own native country, they became a minority with national, political and economic consequences. The so-called Greek population grew at the same time the Macedonian population declined. If in 1913 the so-called Greek population was 22.50%, after the migrations it grew to 45.06% of the total population living in Greek occupied Macedonia. In the short years after Macedonia was invaded, occupied and partitioned by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria, the so-called Greek population in Greek occupied Macedonia turned from a minority into a majority replacing Macedonia’s historical ethnic status. Greece did this, not with so-called “ethnic Greeks” from inside Macedonia, but with an ethnic mix of foreigners it imported from all over the world, predominantly Christian Turks who were coaxed into supporting the Greek cause. All mixed marriages between Greeks and Turks, Greeks and Caucasians, Greeks and Armenians, Armenians and Turks, etc., were without exception in support of and sided with the Greek cause.

After Greece succeeded in evicting much of the Macedonian population and replacing it with foreigners who supported its cause,

Greek authorities in 1926 enacted a law to change all toponyms in Greek occupied Macedonia from Macedonian to Greek. On the basis of this law, all the names of rivers and mountains, villages and cities received Greek names. For example, the city Kukush was renamed to Kilkis, Voden to Edessa, Lerin to Florina and so on, and the village Bomboki was renamed to Stavropotamos, Zagorichani to Vasiliada, Oshchima to Trigono, and so on. This literally, without exception, erased every single Macedonian place name from the Macedonian historic landscape. The Law used to rename the Macedonian Toponymia was published in the official Greek state newspaper No. 332 of 1926.

B) ETHNIC CHANGES AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE MACEDONIAN LANGUAGE (1913-1940)

After Macedonia was invaded, occupied and partitioned in 1913, the Macedonian people continued to live compactly in Greek occupied Macedonia. This compact Macedonian population created the right conditions for the survival of the Macedonian language, despite the Greek state’s terror and attempts to eradicate it. This is because the Macedonian language was a mother tongue with long roots and a historical tradition. In the period immediately after the Second Balkan War, the Macedonian language in Greek occupied Macedonia played the role of a “langue usuelle” (the most used language) not only by the Macedonian population, but also by the other traditionally historical minorities that lived with the Macedonian population for centuries, which included Turks, Jews, Vlachs, Roma, etc. Of the total of 1,052,227, 815,472 people spoke and used the Macedonian language in their everyday lives.

At the same time, in the period from 1913 to 1923, the Greek language had no role as the “langue usuelle” in Greek occupied Macedonia, despite its status of being a “langue officielle” (state official language). This was because the Greek population living in Greek occupied Macedonia, which actually knew and spoke the Greek language, was a small minority, which gave the Greek language the status of being a “langue de la minorité” (a language of a minority) or a “langue de famille” (a family language). The so-called Greek language was spoken and used by 236,755 people in a population of 1,052,227 inhabitants. After 1923, the Macedonian language began to gradually lose its status as a “langue usuelle”, and after the forced population exchanges between Greece and Bulgaria and between Greece and Turkey, the Macedonian language became the “langue de famille” of the Macedonian people and a “langue de la minorité”.

With the forced eviction of 86,582 Macedonians to Bulgaria, the Macedonian population in Greek occupied Macedonia not only lost its physical compactness, but also its linguistic diversity. The forced eviction from eastern and central Greek occupied Macedonia, from regions such as Drama, Seres, Kavala, Solun, Kukush, Demir Hisar, etc., and with its replacement with settlers and colonists, these regions became affected not only ethnically but also linguistically. The Macedonian people’s departure and the addition of settlers and colonists limited the Macedonian language to be spoken by a smaller population but still remained alive in the east-central parts of Greek occupied Macedonia. It is important at this point to mention that even though discouraged by the Greek authorities, the Macedonian language was spoken not only by the Macedonian people but also by the newcomers who had no choice but to learn Macedonian in the streets before they learned Greek in school. The settlers and colonists spoke Macedonian in the marketplace when purchasing their food and other goods. They had to learn the language of the people so that they could interact with the people. This included colonist children who played in the yards and streets with Macedonian children. The colonists and settlers continued to speak their own languages (non-Greek) at home for many years, some past the first generation. The older colonists never learned Greek.

The forced expulsion of the Macedonian population to Bulgaria and the compulsory population exchange between Greece and Turkey were done in parallel. The Muslim population in Greek occupied Macedonia, despite its ethnic origin, according to the Lausanne Treaty, was obliged to leave for Turkey. About 350,000 Muslim Turks left for Turkey under these conditions. These Muslims, in addition to speaking Turkish, also spoke and utilized the Macedonian language in their daily lives. Another 40,802 Macedonian Muslims were evicted because of their Muslim religion.

These Macedonians did not want to leave their ancestral homeland but were forced to. With their departure the Macedonian language was further eroded and began to lose its traditional historical status, becoming the “langue de la minorité” which, by this time, was spoken only by 240,000 Macedonians. These Macedonians were left to remain in their ancestral lands in Greek occupied Macedonia in regions like Kostur, Lerin, Voden and so on. With time, the Greek language became more prominent and after 1923, when more people were obligated to learn it in school, it began to replace the historic Macedonian language. And thus, as mentioned earlier, as the Greek language slowly began to become the “langue usuelle”, the Macedonian language slowly shrank to the “langue de famille” or the “langue de la minorité”. The homes and properties left behind by the evicted Macedonian people were immediately settled by 618,199 non-Greek colonists from all over the world. With the expansion of this non-Greek Christian colonist element, and with its mandatory teaching in the schools, the Greek language began to spread. Out of a total of 1,412,477 people living in Greek occupied Macedonia after its colonization, 1,172,477 people, so-called Greeks, Christian Turks, Armenians, Caucasians, Jews and others, in time were obligated to learn and use the Greek language. With this, the Greek language, in addition to its langue “officielle status”, became a “langue usuelle” or “langue majoritaire” for the entire population living in Greek occupied Macedonia.