FOREWORD

FOREWORD

The political manipulation of the Macedonian people living in Greek occupied Macedonia, by Communist International and the Communist parties (CPG; CPB (Communist Party of Bulgaria) and CPY) during the war years (1940-1950); The half a century of wandering and silence after the 1953 Balkan Pact; are only a couple of factors that have led to severe consequences for the Macedonian people. These were people who were recruited (most by violent mobilization) and pushed into becoming ideological soldiers (“useful idiots”), victims who became unwilling servants of other people’s interests. And as a result they not only lost their political identity, but were thrown into total political discrimination and social marginalization (they were thrown into the ideological waste basket), with aims at turning them into ideological and political believers. Today all this is reflected in the overall national interests of the Macedonian people.

For them, the Macedonian Question, or a representation of it, from a political or even ethnic point of view, was a huge plot and that is why there was no reality to the slogan “United Macedonia” after the Second World War. And that is why we, the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia, found ourselves outside of our homes and exiled forever. To attempt to examine if we had a strategy of our own during the Greek Civil War is beyond reason, but we do have to admit that it was our blood that the strangers used to write their own great stories.

The topic “(Self) sacrifice of the Macedonians under Greece”, in a range of dilemmas, about which I have touched upon in my book, is of vital interest to the Macedonian nation and can be summarized by answering a few important questions: Are we defending a revolution in the “History of Greek occupied Macedonia”, or are we covering up a fraud for all those (self) sacrifices we experienced?! Was there any point to our entry into a new war (Greek Civil War) after World War II was over and after most problems created by it were already globally resolved, including the international border running right through historic and ethnic Macedonia? Why did we enter this war without any clear idea as to where we were headed? Why did we follow the absurd suicidal strategy to bring socialism to Greece and

allow the “communists” to use us in a fictional strategy concocted by strangers to “Soviet-ize the Balkans” and whatever else they were doing? Surely we must also have known how the Greek government with an Army of 250,000 trained soldiers equipped with the most modern weapons, leaning towards the far right, would have reacted to this, especially since they referred to us as “Bandits” and called this war, not a Macedonian revolution, not a Greek Civil War, but a “Bandit war”. Objectively speaking, most of the historiography about this war has been referred to as a “Partisan War with 90% of the fighters being forcibly mobilized peasants under the leadership of the CPG”. But, as a matter of fact, we the Macedonians contributed about 50-60% of the total resources available to DAG from the villages where NOF and AFZH had influence and pushed us into the war.

The problem seemed complicated but apparently the truth was simple, but only if we were honest and impartial about how we regarded our historical objectivity. We Macedonians living in Greek occupied Macedonia were always under close watch or under the watchful eyes of the anti-Macedonians. But the fact is that we never paid much attention to ourselves, our vital interests, but rather we hoped that our national problem would be solved by our ideologically affiliated “Big Brothers”.

Today’s findings are telling us that many powers did whatever they could to force the indigenous Macedonian people out of Greek occupied Macedonia and silence them permanently. These “interventions” were most apparent after the Second World War. But then the question is: What did we do in this “stormy chaos” after the world was divided into spheres of influence between the two camps? What did we do after they had dropped the “iron curtain” between us? Also surprising is the fact that, even after the creation of the Macedonian state and even when two sovereign states, Greece and Yugoslavia, stood between us, we were still obsessed with the idea of unifying all of historic and ethnic Macedonia and all the Macedonian people, including those living in Greek occupied Macedonia by “starting a revolution” which “fit with our historical needs” and was based on “ancient traditions.” But, from what had happened and the stage we were in, after World War II ended, and after the world was divided into rigid spheres of influence, when it

should have been very clear to us why such a political option was not viable at that point in time, we, it seems, were still too blind to see the truth. It seems that the “architects” who were planning our demise were sure that we would be “blinded” by our ancient desires to create a United Macedonia and that we would dismiss the truth even though it was staring us in the face. And sure enough they were right and that is why, at the end of April 23, 1945, they created the Macedonian organizations NOF, AFZH and NOMS (People’s Liberation Youth Organization) in Skopje and through them urgently called on the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia to stand up and fight: “Now or never!” It was done in the period when we were under the spell of the ideological force of strangers. Strangers who, on one hand, did not allow the Macedonians to foster healthy nationalism, but at the same time demanded that they fight for their nation without being aware of what that nation was, which made it impossible for them to create a strategy for building such a nation or a state for it. So, what did we do? We hitched a strategic ride with strangers, to an unknown destination and we ended up being exiled from our native homes and lands. We went where they wanted to take us and, as such, it is a fact that we Macedonians (in integral terms) did not see this coming. At the same time we cannot place the entire load of responsibility just on those who led the activities that directly sent our people to hell. Some of the blame must be placed on those who proclaimed that this was “an authentic revolution” and that we, by following the directive set out by the CPY and the CPG, “voluntarily” created the well-known idea of “unity” and that we were “assured” that the CPG led us down the mathematically best road we could have taken, and that the CPG had magical powers. And all this was only used for their own survival, at the cost of our national interests and in favour of installing socialism in Greece. After that we came to believe that NOF and AFZH were the “bearers of the noblest ideas and ideals of our traditional uprisings”. But as it turned out, they, our people, members of NOF and AFZH, only had titles without any power. They had absolutely no power of their own to act throughout the entire period in which they were supposedly in charge. Their positions were strictly dogmatic and canonical. They were subordinated with unquestioned blind obedience, built on doubt and constantly forced to prove their loyalty.

It is interesting to note that the people of NOF and AFZH have been silent on the subject. These same people who convulsively propagated this deadly military ideology on the Macedonian people, step by step as it was prescribed by the CPY and by the CPG, and pushed them en masse on the projected red hangman’s noose are now silent on the subject. The very same people, who pushed the Macedonian people to experience genocide and to be persecuted and driven out from their homes, at the end the Greek Civil War, are now silent!

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The CPG, the PDB (Temporary Democratic Government in Greece) and DAG’s General Headquarters were heavily in support of the Party and Greek politics, particularly when Zahariadis was looking for exclusive traits in his staff, consisting of personal loyalty and obedience. Anyone who was not active in the Party and did not possess servility and was expected to be fully anonymous, still had to seek his or her rights which remained tightly framed by party rules.

To this day, we Macedonians cannot understand that the CPG could do only so much (or so little) for us Macedonians before it was noticed by the Greek state or regime in power. Although the CPG needed us to do its bidding, it did not want to associate itself with us, with the Macedonian people as the indigenous people who traditionally and for centuries lived in our ethnic and historic territory, which was taken away from us during Macedonia’s invasion, occupation, division and annexation by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria in 1913. The CPG did not want to be associated with an oppressed people within the Greek state, a people that was treated as a minority on its own lands; a people that was not entitled to reunite with its own family of people. A people that had the right to self-determination! Yet here we are, witnesses to the fact that the CPG was not a defender of the Macedonian people living in Greek occupied Macedonia, even though it claimed to be a defender of all minorities living in foreign ethnic - historical territories. And in all that time, while the CPG treated us as an ethnic minority living on historic Greek territory, and after the genocide of the Greek Civil War, it threw us out of our homes, without the right of return, that is

if we did not declare ourselves as “Greeks by birth”! To this day the CPG, which was trusted by many Macedonians, has remained an observer in the destiny of the Macedonian people.

This kind of political manipulation on the part of both the CPG and the CPY could hardly go unnoticed, let alone remain without serious consequences, not only in the integrity of these parties but also on the totality of the Macedonian people, because it was through these parties that the people accepted the rhythm of global indoctrination. It was through this kind of political manipulation that we ended up in the ranks of the CPG, or in DAG, as typical ideological soldiers; meaning we were soldiers who fought against imperialism in Greece; we were not an army leading “our indigenous revolution” as was proclaimed to us early in the mobilization. Then when we found ourselves at the end of our ropes, fighting for our “biological survival” against an army which possessed the latest weapons and was managed by General Van Fleet, a US Specialist against guerrillas, what options did we have but to flee for our lives? This, or dying to the last one, was the only logical solution chosen for us by the strangers whom we blindly followed into the genocidal blind alley. They led us to a fight for justice with fire and a sword and instead of justice; we found genocide and ethnic cleansing. This is how the Macedonian people were led to the historical situation where they had to sacrifice themselves as ideological soldiers.

After this disaster, to place blame elsewhere, the CPG accused the same powerless and obedient Macedonian leaders, who it led by the nose, of accomplishing their own “sacred” task. The very same people who helped the CPG carry out this ideological war were accused of sabotaging it! And when the situation had all the signs of tragedy then we saw the rise and fall of our ideological activists. But what is more absurd about all this is the fact that these “Macedonian leaders” were not punished by their opponent, but by their own ally, with whom until yesterday they had fought and both were dying for the same goal, i.e. to defeat imperialism and establish socialism in Greece. For us the Macedonians, here and now, the ideological systems of strangers became important. But there is nothing strange when we think that the consequences of that civil war were politically exploited by those who saw them fit their agenda. Isn’t

that why we continue to write our historiography and literature with such motives?

HOW AND WHY DID WE ALLOW (ENTRUST) THE SETTLERS FROM ASIA MINOR TO LEAD US IN THE WAR FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, SELF-DETERMINATION AND THE REUNIFICATION OF MACEDONIA!?

Research conducted in this study, regarding the ideological activism phenomenon applied against the Macedonian people living in Greek occupied Macedonia, has revealed that this phenomenon was used to suppress Macedonian national interests and put them in the background. The Communists did not want independent and proud Macedonians, especially in CPG forums: Central Committee, Politburo, military - political functions, etc. These organizations were all staffed by non-Macedonians. The architects of this struggle wanted the Macedonians to be ideologically obedient soldiers and nothing more. By denying the Macedonian people leading positions in the struggle, the CPG laid the foundation for their destruction in the future. It legitimately created new conditions for genocide, which were then carried out by the Greek state in the most brutal way.

The communists conveniently, through deceit, pressure and white terror instigated by the right side, placed arms in the hands of the Macedonians so that the Greek government, in the name of protecting its sovereignty, could legally destroy them by armed action and by expulsion. In other words, Greece was placed in a situation where it had no choice but to react to this internal threat. It had the right to protect itself in accordance with accepted legal standards.

The genocide in Greek occupied Macedonia began after Greece annexed 51% of historic Macedonia along with its population. Greece wanted the Macedonian territory but did not want the Macedonians that came with it and, ever since, tried by any means possible to get rid of them.

Regardless to what party or political system a Greek belonged, he or she has one national goal, to eradicate the Macedonian existence by

any way possible. Greece always wanted to change the complete national physiognomy in Greek occupied Macedonia but, on a massive scale, it began in the 1920’s, in the period 1924-1935, when the Greek government settled six hundred thousand aliens on Macedonia soil; when it changed the place names in the Macedonian toponomy including the names of cities, villages, lakes, rivers and mountains; when it changed the personal names of every single person who had a Macedonian name. Later, when the CPG was verbally preaching to the Macedonian people about a “United and independent Macedonia”, it was setting the conditions for a new type of “genocide” the likes that had never been experienced before – total annihilation.

But for all that was said and done, to this day, the CPG has offered no explanation as to why it did that; to this day it has remained silent on this matter. The CPG’s main goal, the entire time, was to recruit as many Macedonians as possible into its ranks and then sacrifice them “for the good of the Party”. But as it turned out, in reality, all this was done to divert Macedonian attention away from Macedonian national feelings, and to be able to lead the Macedonian people into a deeper crisis and eventually have them run for their lives; forgetting about their Macedonia, Macedonian sentiments and Macedonian traditions. And, isn’t it exactly how it turned out?

This ideological activism, however, was not only dominating the winds of war, but was also expressed in Macedonian historiography in a kind of Macedonian historical positivism, which shows that our historiography, in its meticulousness and political apathy, has allowed this secondary unscrupulous aggression, through awareness of this ideological activism, to build and legalize this ideological position as a fundamental and basic historical factor of the past of the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia. But this is also evidence of a tragedy, caused by this absurd war of foreign strategists in which, as a war, had no code of conduct, in which ordinary men and women were violently ideologically indoctrinated with a national vision of cosmopolitanism, an exclusively ideological entity and a strategic factor in a planned genocide. The genocide was a reality for as long as the victims cooperated with their executioner. And the result was violent, as violent as the people wanted to make it.

So the question is: “Did the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia, who were members of the CPG, come into conflict with the CPG when they raised the question of unification with the other parts of divided Macedonia?!” The answer is: YES!

Why? Because after changes were made to the ethnic composition of the population by depositing the 600,000 Madzhir colonists from Asia Minor into Greek occupied Macedonia, which was a strategic move on Greece’s part, the most important thing was to have a colonist lead the CPG, a colonist who would never want to separate Greek occupied Macedonia from queen mother Greece. Greece gave the colonists free homes and lands in Greek occupied Macedonia, why would they now risk all that? How would it have helped them if they allowed the so-called United Macedonia to become a reality in a Balkan federation?

This means that, outside of the equal rights that the CPG offered in its program, it offered nothing else! This is why this ideological activism, guided by strangers, brought great harm to our people.

For the sake of the truth I have decided to reveal the entire picture from our tragic and great cruelty of life, which shows the extent to which we were tormented. This means that the strangers who led us could only fully realize their goals, through forward-looking projections by grinding down and destroying any kind of lasting testimony of the Macedonian people’s national potential, who for centuries have lived and fought for the independence of their grandfather’s homes.

WERE SNOF, NOF, AFZH AND NOMS CREATED BY CHANCE?

Right from the start I want to emphasize that: “Only laymen believe what happened in the Greek Civil War (1945- 1949) was purely by accident!”

After Macedonia was partitioned in 1913, it became known as the “powder keg” of the Balkans, which at any moment could explode.

How and why? Because in politics, as it is in life, nothing is done by accident!

In this book we describe a hidden history; about all Macedonian divisions and schisms, especially in the years 1940 - 1949, in which we Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia experienced genocide and forever lost our traditional homes.

There was nothing “accidental” in the politics about us Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia. Everything was planned as part of the Greek strategy, well planned for the days, months and even years ahead after Macedonia’s 1913 partition. Greek strategists have created various options for “de-Macedonian-izing” Greek occupied Macedonia or the part of Macedonia under their authority. If they failed with the first part, they activated the second part, the third part... and regardless of who was in power be it the; Left forces, middle, or right forces... their policy regarding the Macedonians was and still is the same because Greece is a “conventional state”: “one king, one nation, one language, one church and everyone in it is a Greek by birth.” So, as you can see, there is no room for Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia!