CHRONOLOGY OF IMPORTANT EVENTS IN 1949

CHRONOLOGY OF IMPORTANT EVENTS IN 1949

January 30, 31, 1949 - The CPG Central Committee held its 5th Plenum during which it dropped the slogan “Independent and united Macedonia within a Balkan Federation”. On February 3, 1949, the NOF Central Council plenary was convened and new NOF principles were proclaimed for the future of the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia.

February 9, 1949 - At the request of Porfirogenis, member of the CPG Politburo, a CPG delegation was admitted to Skopje and a meeting was held with NOF representatives during which the CPG delegation demanding that NOF recruit some 300 new DAG fighters from the refugees who had fled Greek occupied Macedonia and were now living in Yugoslavia. The demand was not granted.

March 7, 1949 - The CPG Central Committee issued a statement denying the CPG’s decision on the Macedonian question decided during the 5th Plenum and during the NOF 3rd Plenary held on February 3, 1949.

March 27, 1949 - A constituent meeting of 163 Communists, delegates of the NOF 4th Congress, was convened, where it was unanimously decided to form a Communist Party for the Macedonian people from Aegean Macedonia, which would be a separate organization and part of the CPG and would be called KOEM. It was said by some people that this event was the brightest point in the CPG’s care for the Macedonian people. But we will let history tell how truly bright it was and has remained...

June 16, 1949 - The Executive Board of the Macedonian Women Assembly of Aegean Macedonia (AFZH) adopted a resolution to activate Macedonian women to defend the Vicho front.

August 10-14, 1949 - Fierce battles were fought on Mount Vicho from August 10 to 14, 1949, between DAG on one side and the Greek government army on the other. The Greek government army was led by General Van Fleet and consisted of 60,000 troops organized in 6 divisions, 200 tanks and armoured cars and about 100 aircraft of all types. DAG was led by Michos Vlandas and consisted

of 9,863 fighters and 40 cannons. DAG was defeated during the night of August 13 and 14, 1949, with massive losses of 1,859 dead, wounded, missing and captured. The government army bore only 256 dead and 1,336 wounded. DAG units withdrew from the Vicho battlefield and during August 15 and 16, 1949, fled over the border into Albania. The DAG fighters regrouped there and in the following days 6,000 were sent to continue the fighting in Gramos. It was during this time that the CPG coined the slogan “Gramos will become the tomb for the Monarcho-Fascists - the Greek government army.”

August 24-29, 1949 - From August 24 to 29, 1949, fierce fighting ensued as the Government army launched a new offensive during the night of August 29 to 30, 1949, for the final conquest of Gramos and for the final liquidation of DAG. Again led by General Van Fleet, this time the Greek government army was three times larger than when it had attacked Vicho. During the fighting in Gramos DAG was led by General Georgios Vontisios-Gousias with about 12,500 fighters (6,000 were transferred from Vicho). The last battles took place on August 29 and 30, 1949, after which all DAG units withdrew to Albania. DAG losses amounted to 922 dead, 944 captured and 650 wounded. About 400 to 450 DAG fighters surrendered voluntarily to the enemy. The Greek government army bore only 243 dead and 1,452 wounded.

August 30, 1949 - During the fiercest fighting on Gramos, DAG Headquarters ordered all DAG units to withdraw because “they had completed their task”. So this opens the question: “What kind of task were they completing?” At this point the battle ended with DAG losing the war and with all remaining DAG fighters fleeing to Albania.

October 7, 1949 - 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.)

September 16, 1950 – Ioanis Sofianopoulos, then leader of the left-liberal party in Greece and former Greek foreign minister, in a debate in the Greek parliament, held in September 1950, (See: “Demokratikos Tifos”, 16/9/1950) admitted that “...There is a Macedonian minority in Greece, but that under international law that minority does not exist and cannot claim any protection because it has not been loyal to the state in which it lives…” (He was referring to the massive Macedonian participation in the Greek Civil War fighting against the Greek government.)

November 5, 1988 - CPG Secretary-General Harilaos Florakis told a journalist of the “Mesimvrini” newspaper in Solun that: “On this occasion, I would like to say that for us, for our Party, there is no ‘Macedonian minority’ in Greece nor is there a ‘Macedonian Question’, it does not exist!” (See: Georgi I. Mintzi 1991/141 and “Vecer”, November 5, 1988, p. 9.) These were the last words of our former comrades who returned to Greece because they were “Greeks by birth”.

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The question here is: “Can we Macedonians realistically call this so-called “Greek Civil War” a Macedonian revolution and a continuation of the glorious Ilinden Uprising?”

In the end, in place of an epilogue, we will compose facts and arguments which will clearly show the final outcome of events the Macedonian warrior faced through the history of DAG and how this warrior experienced genocide.

Perhaps all of this that we Macedonians have experienced can be summed up by the Latin saying: “At certain times, there are situations where a lot of national energy is wasted from which the nation benefited very little!”