THROUGH SIBERIA TO - CATARZA

THROUGH SIBERIA TO - CATARZA

(This was demanded by the Communists of Greece, implemented by the Communists of the USSR, and made the Athens government extremely happy.)

This is why history should not be silenced, for it will then know how to avenge us.

* * *

While the DAG fighters were resting in the Bureli camp in Albania from October 2 to 7, 1949, the CPG made a public announcement condemning 11 of the NOF, AFZH and NOMS leaders. The CPG publicly accused these people of being foreign spies and traitors to the revolution. As a result, without being charged, they were all sent to detention camps in Siberia. Why? The rest of the DAG fighters, including myself (Stoian Kochov), were left floundering as exiles for a few more years, some forever, adhering to the CPG slogan: “Me to oplo parapoda!” (Forward with rifle in hand.)

CPG MANIPULATING THE MACEDONIANS IN EXILE

The CPG not only manipulated the Macedonian civilian adults and DAG fighters, but also manipulated the exiled Macedonian children. The CPG did this for one ideological purpose - to turn the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia against the Macedonian people from the Republic of Macedonia. (See: September 12, 1951, minutes from the Slavo-Macedonian CPG membership Conference whose conclusions were approved by the CPG Central Committee Politburo.)

Note: A few months earlier a Conference was held during which 72 Slavo-Macedonians and members of the CPG discussed: “The movement of the Slavo-Macedonians after their departure from Vicho and Gramos and their tasks beyond that” and came to some conclusions. These conclusions were approved by the CPG Central Committee Politburo.

The Conference selected a temporary body to do the work for the Slavo-Macedonians, which consisted of 21 regular and 9 candidate members. This body decided that the conclusions reached during the Conference would remain in force. The same body undertook the compilation and elaboration of the status and program for the “ILINDEN” organization.

Conclusion 1: “...guarantee the fighting unity of Greeks and Slavo-Macedonians for the liberation of Greece from the American and English occupation. Form a general front against the Tito fascist gang in Belgrade, which politically, economically, and socially oppresses the Macedonian people in Vardar Macedonia...” (There was no end to the CPG cruelty here. While it calls the Macedonian people from the Republic of Macedonia “Macedonian” it calls the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia “Slavo-Macedonian”, even though ethically and nationally they are the same people.)

Conclusion 2: “...NOF was founded in April 1945 under Tito’s initiative and largely failed to fulfill the Slavo-Macedonian people’s desires. NOF was founded by Tito and Kolishevski from Tito’s adventurous elements hostile to Greece’s democratic movement. The founding and governing core of NOF was made up of Tito’s agents Mitrevski, Keramitdzhiev, Goche and Rakovski, with the sole purpose of serving the interests of the Tito clique in Aegean Macedonia. Their aim was to split and break our national liberation movement from within. They exploited the Slavo-Macedonians in the interest of Belgrade’s gang which had nationalist aspirations to annex Aegean Macedonia for Tito. It should be noted here that the English, before December 1944, preferred to have Tito take Solun instead of ELAS...”

Conclusion 8: “...The children’s education regarding the struggle should be based on politics, as outlined in our party’s letter from Comrade Zahariadis to the children at the ‘Paparigas’ boarding house...” The Slavo-Macedonian children will continue their education together with the Greek children in the ranks of EPON. The Slavo-Macedonian women will struggle side by side with the Greek women. The Conference also proposed the liquidation of KOEM and the Slavo-Macedonian communists become members of the CPG...

Were the children ever free from this hellish ideological propaganda? NO! Here is what was said on page 12 of the monthly magazine “Makedonche” no. 8, in August 1952:

TO THE CENTRAL COUNCIL OF THE ILINDEN ORGANIZATION

Our dear comrades,

With sincere pioneer greetings, we the united pioneers welcome you Greek and Macedonian children from the “Beloianis” children’s home in the People’s Republic of Hungary.

We are delighted to welcome the Congress of our newborn “ILINDEN” organization. In the spirit of honesty we will do our best to fulfill the tasks assigned to us by our national organization. Brotherhood and unity will stay forever with us. United with our brethren the Greek children, we will invest our energies in educating

ourselves and become capable of liberating our homeland and building tomorrow’s People’s Republic of Greece.

With the end of the school year and with help from our teachers, we have begun to fulfill the slogan “No student shall remain in the same grade”. We promised to do our best to move to a higher grade with high marks.

For the pioneering committee of the boarding house ‘Belogiannis; May 20, 1952, Tanas Biolichkin, Kosta Ristoski, Ristosia Nashulovska, Ioto Georgovski

This sad finale shows us how the NOF and AFZH political tragedy ended and how the communists took their revenge on us. Unfortunately, more than half a century later, it is difficult to ask the question who owns this responsibility and is it still possible to remain silent. Someone led our people to the slaughter house and managed to live peacefully and without a conscience ever since and, worst of all, they were applauded and rewarded by the CPG and CPM/CPY. That is the real problem here. And here is why. With the formation of NOF by the CPY and later controlled by the CPG, it was yet another great confirmation that foreigners were the real leaders of the Macedonian national movements. People recruited from the bosoms of propaganda proved to serve their own personal interests instead of those of the people and often and unconsciously they themselves became victims of serving the interests of foreigners.

This was a classic historic example with us Macedonians who were seduced by foreign propaganda and politics to die for foreign interests in the name of Macedon-ism. Our primordial passion was flamed and we turned a blind eye and deaf ear to everything…

Every Macedonian person who was exiled from their homeland has asked the questions “How could this have happened to us?” “How could our own people lead us to this quagmire?”, “Who was responsible for our genocide?”, “Will the truth ever come out?”, “Why do Macedonian institutions treat our history as the ‘History of the Aegeans’ and not as part of our national history?”…

And the question everyone wants to ask is “Was it really necessary to fight for so many years, lose so many people, destroy our homeland and exterminate our Macedonian nation?” What were our Macedonian leaders who led this conflict thinking?

More importantly, the question to ask is “Could we Macedonians have achieved better results had we not become involved in this war?”