PERSONALITIES - Part 07

living witnesses of the murder and incendiarism which these bands are committing on “our brothers.” This terrorism has become much worse latterly, when the Monarcho-Fascist clique, which has not been able to find deep roots in the Greek people, began its attempt to purge Greek Macedonia of Macedonians and Greek democrats. Just now active purging of Greek Macedonia is going on- tens of villages are burning, women and children and powerless old men are being murdered, as in the most terrible period of the German occupation. The district, in which a particularly violent terrorism is being carried on, and which is known under the name of Greek (Aegean) Macedonia, is, in f act, ethnically a part of Macedonia. In the whole of the Balkans there is no district which has passed through in the course of recent history such a bitter terrorism as has been suffered by the Macedonian population from the Greek imperialists. The ethnical history of Macedonia is then traced from 1896-1914, during the whole of which time it is shown that the Macedonians remained in an absolute majority in Greek Macedonia. After 1914, however, the picture began to change. The Greek soldiers killed tens of thousands of Macedonians, they destroyed villages, they burnt down houses. In the place of their former inhabitants there came Greeks or philhellene “Aromuni.” The greatest ethnical change was caused by the enforced exchange of populations between Greeks and Turks after the Greek defeat in Asia Minor in 1922 and the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. At that time the Greeks were forced by the Turks to take in all the Christian inhabitants, among whom “Karamanlija,” Greeks, Kurds and other Caucasian people predominated. The great part of these people were settled in Greek Macedonia. The Greeks, for their part, sent into Turkey all the Mohammedans, such as Turks, Mohammedan Macedonians, “Arbanassi” and “Aromuni.” Large numbers were also forced into Bulgaria from Macedonia. After this war, in which our Macedonian brothers fought heroically shoulder to shoulder with the Greek patriots, the Monarcho-Fascists had chased into Yugoslavia and Bulgaria about 20,000 Macedonians from Macedonia. As the result of this persecution 150,000 Macedonians had been displaced or killed from 1914 up till now. In the course of the years 1941-42 our partisan representatives personally completed a list of Macedonian families in Greek Macedonia, and they reckoned that there were still about 250,000 Macedonians there. If one also takes into account the places in which the Macedonians do not represent the absolute but only the

relative majority, then this figure of 250,000 should be considerably greater. What, the article goes on, can our brothers expect from the present regime in Greece? The latest terrorism which is being carried on in Greece only confirms that the Monarcho-Fascist bands are continuing the prodigious terrorism which was carried on by the reactionary cliques in the past, and that it is intended that this terrorism shall completely annihilate our brothers in Greek Macedonia. The Macedonians in Greece do not enjoy any kind of rights. It is forbidden for them to speak their national language even in their own homes. Absolutely no Macedonian schools exist. Even their local political organizations have been rendered powerless. Chauvinistic cliques try to sow hatred among the Greek and other nationals against Macedonians, and to destroy that fraternity which was created in the course of the war of liberation. But to-day, opposed to that reactionary Greek policy, there is not the old Yugoslavia in which the Macedonians were oppressed equally with other peoples, but the new democratic Yugoslavia where all peoples have equal rights. The Macedonian people who fought with Greek partisans for their liberation expected, with reason, that this war would bring them, in the spirit of the proclamations of the Great Allies, the right to advance and unite themselves with their other brothers. With justice they expected, that finally all the Macedonian people would be united and break away from foreign slavery. But it is only the Macedonians in Yugoslavia who have succeeded in bringing about their own complete liberation; and while in the People’s Republic of Macedonia a new national life is awakening, on the other side of the frontier our brothers are suffering under the yoke of Monarcho-Fascist bands. Greek imperialists have no right at all to hold Macedonians any longer under their intolerable yoke; ,they can no longer answer that Belgrade and Sofia are persecuting their Macedonian populations and that such people as free Macedonians in their own countries do not exist. They have even less right because they are stifling with all their force the democratic movement and the democracy of their people, accepting foreign support and giving over their country to the mercy, or otherwise of foreign exploitation. The people of Yugoslavia watched patiently what was happening to their brothers in Greek Macedonia. They believed, and today still believe, that the Greek people cannot oppose the fight of the Greek Macedonians for democracy and national independence. But the latest statements of responsible

Greek circles, not only in Greece but also in the international arena, and also the frightful terrorism which is being carried on in Greek Macedonia, show that the Greek, reactionary circles have become the provokers of tumult in the Balkans and have decided to annihilate their Macedonian population. There is no hope at all that the reactionary Greek circles, who to-day with naked force and with the help of foreign troops keep themselves in power, will show the slightest wish for the solution of this problem in conformity with the demands and interests of the Macedonians in Greece. This problem has become part of the fight which is being carried on all over the world for peace, for democracy and for the self-determination of peoples. Therefore, the article concludes, our country cannot remain indifferent to the annihilation of our brothers in Greece, nor to their rights and their demands for self-determination and union with their brothers in Yugoslavia. The theme of this article again predominated in the Belgrade press of the 27th August, when all three papers carried leading articles, which in Borba and Politika were headed by another map. The tone of these articles was extremely violent. I am sending copies of this dispatch to His Majesty’s Ambassador at Athens, His Majesty’s Political Representative at Sofia, His’ Majesty’s Political Adviser at Caserta, and to His Majesty’s Consul-General at Salonica. I have, &c, C. B. PEAKE.

1946 – August. From January to August 1946 more than 100 Macedonian people from Gumendzhe alone were imprisoned including members of the Menchev family. From the village Barovitsa imprisoned were Iovan Chutra, Hristo Siuli, Hristo Aita, Giorgi Kiosev, Jovan Gata, Katina Kuta, the entire Vangel Shoshov family, Paskalina Garti and Giorgi Todorov Shoshov. From the village Karpi imprisoned were Giorgi Tekni, Hristo Peikov, Hristo Kirkov, Hristo Kioska, Giorgi Kioska, Giorgi Dzharov, Giorgi Popnikolov, Atanas Betov, Maria Beta, Aneta Benova, Giorgi Erov, Aneta Tumba, Dimitar Popianov and Iovan Popianov. From the village Mandelevo 16 people were imprisoned, from Isiklar 50, from Boemitsa 15 and from Gorgopik 50.

1946 – September 1. A Plebiscite to bring the monarchy back to Greece was held. It was conducted under extreme conditions of anarchy and terror. First, now that the counter-revolutionaries (Republicans and Monarchists) were “legally” in power and their

authority was given to them by the people in the March 31, 1946 elections, they threw themselves with even greater vigour against the democratic forces. They liquidated all provincial EAM and CPG organizations and shut down all democratic newspapers. Second, after the parliamentary elections, as terror increased to unprecedented levels. open armed resistance began to take shape in the country. The democratic organizations and the political left in general did not abstain from the plebiscite. But who could now doubt the success of the monarchy? If falsification could succeed in parliamentary elections, then why not in a plebiscite? Indeed, on September 1, 1946 the eyes of the world were focused on Greece’s second massive fraud, this time in the restoration of the monarchy.

1946 - September 16. Civilian nationalists aided by the Greek Gendarme beat to death with sticks Ianis Asaridis from Gerakona, Nikos Karamanlis and Ianis Sideris from Aksiupolis.

1946 - September 20. A detachment of gendarmes and bandits entered the village Barovitsa and burned the houses of brothers Trifun and Giorgi Kuplev and took 2 mules, 300 goats, cheese, butter and everything of value they could find. They did the same to Hristo P. Kurlev’s house and to the houses and properties of Petar Aita, Kosta Proichev, Tano Gatsev, Kosta Gatsev, Giorgi Taratev, Jovan Kovachev, Hristo Cholakov and Giorgi Poppetrov.

1946 – September. The Greek government enacted a law designed to punish the families of army deserters. Imprisonment for political crimes was on the increase and as regular prisons became dangerously overcrowded, new systems of detention were being invented including detention centers, islands of deportation, concentration camps, etc. Incarcerating large number of democrats, male and female of all ages, dated back to before the Metaxas dictatorship, which involved the punishment of people not for their deeds but for their ideas, but the sheer number of those incarcerated during this period was far larger than at any time in the past, and easily dwarfed even the thousands jailed or detained under Metaxas. There was a far greater number of women and even children detained during this period than ever before, necessitating the need for special women’s camps. In 1934, for example, there were approximately 130 women jailed in the Averof Women’s Prison in

Athens. By 1945 the number of prisoners had grown tenfold. “The strains upon the primitive infrastructure required to support such an expansion of the system of incarceration can be judged in the remarkable collection of photos taken by women inmates and recently published under the heading Gynaikes exoristes sta stratopeda tou emfyliou.”

1946 – October 14. Tito and Zahariadis decide to transfer control of NOF from the CPY/CPM to the CPG.

1946 – October 18. Paskal Mitrevski, Ilia Dimovski-Gotse and Mincho Fotev were invited to visit Kolishevski at his office. After a brief conversation about an agreement with the CPG, Kolishevski ordered the NOF leaders to show absolute loyalty to the CPG and all problems that NOF had were to be solved by the CPG. At the end of the meeting Kolishevski told them that: “It was of particular interest that they consistently enforce unity with the CPG on the basis of this agreement, to maintain and strengthen unity in the ranks of NOF, to maintain and strengthen brotherhood and military solidarity with the Greek people, to consistently and unreservedly fight when necessary, and any problems that arose during the fight were to be decided jointly with the CPG leadership and with DAG headquarters…” After NOF was put under CPG control, all ties and contacts with the socio-political factors in the Republic of Macedonia were to be broken.

1946 – October 19. The NOF Main Board representatives rushed back to Greek occupied Macedonia through Albania. They were met by DAG couriers in Korcha and were escorted back in. Paskal Mitrevski, through Gramos, arrived at DAG Headquarters on Mount Hasha where he met with General Markos Vafiadis. Ilia Dimovski-Gotse went to Mount Vicho to the Regional Headquarters of the Macedonian Partisans, where the other NOF Main Board members were, and informed them of the latest orders. Mincho Fotev went to Kostur to inform the NOF district leadership of the agreement and its implementation.

1946 – October 28. The Monarcho-Fascist regime in Greece further intensified its repression through its police and terrorist formations, in an attempt to expel the Macedonian population in Greek occupied

Macedonia through terror. This practice reached its peak with the return of the Greek king on October 28, 1946. The right-wing press, through its newspapers “Ellinikos Voras”, “Nea Alithia” and others, called for the expulsion of the “Sudetenland of Greece”. Because of the cruelty of the perpetrated daily terror, old people, men, women and children, naked and barefoot began to flee across the border into the Republic of Macedonia in an attempt to save their lives. According to reports maintained by the NOF Main Board, in the first 6 months of 1945 alone, more than 25,000 Macedonians were expelled from Greek occupied Macedonia. The Macedonian fighters in ELAS were constantly persecuted and arrested. The number of Macedonian patriots and ELAS fighters detained and persecuted had risen to several thousand. Even in a small town such as Rupishcha around 300 Macedonians were arrested, three were heinously killed and about 100 were persecuted and expelled to the People’s Republic of Macedonia. Those arrested were sent to the infamous concentration camps such as “Makroniso”, “Iura” and “Pavlos Melas” and to the prisons “Averof”, “Edikule” and others in which many were killed by the Greek police using “medieval inquisitorial methods of torture”.

1946 – October. NOF and the CPG reached an agreement to combine forces and jointly fight against the Monarcho-Fascists. This was done following a directive issued by the CPM Central Committee ordering the NOF Main Board to make arrangements to have NOF put under the leadership of the Communist Party of Greece. After a difficult and arduous journey, an Agreement was finally reached to unite NOF and the CPG. NOF was not represented during the final talks to determine the conditions under which the unification was to take place. The NOF leadership participated only in the preliminary discussions.

1946 - October 28. In September 1946 Markos Vafiadis returned to Greek occupied Macedonia from Belgrade where, on October 28, 1946, he established DAG Partisan Headquarters.

1946 – November 9. All DAG and NOF units in the Gramos area were gathered together in the village Drianovo, Kostur Region, and were merged together in the presence of Paskal Mitrevski, Nikos Theoharopoulos-Skotidis and their assistants.

1946 - November 10. Paskal Mitrevski met with the NOF, NOMS and AFZH District leaderships and informed them that a UN Inquiry Commission had arrived in Greece at its headquarters in Solun and that the Commission was there to examine the causes of the Greek Civil War amid allegations, made by the Greek Monarcho-Fascist government, that the governments of Yugoslavia, Albania and Bulgaria were responsible for the war in Greece. NOF senior officials in the district organizations were requested “to take most urgent measures and form groups of delegates, approach the UN Inquiry Commission, and submit petitions, memoranda and others materials, with irrefutable evidence, that point to the Greek government as the sole culprit for the Greek Civil War and for the causes of the unprecedented terror unleashed against the anti-fascist movement participants, who for the most part were members of EAM and ELAS, and who fought with gun in hand against the German-Italian fascist invaders. The NOF leaders were asked to also inform the Commission of the Greek genocidal attempts to terrorize the Macedonian population with aims at crushing the progressive democratic forces, which represent the vast majority of the Macedonian and Greek population. This information was to be confirmed and accompanied by thousands of signatures signed by Macedonian fighters and supporters of the anti-fascist struggle and to testify that thousands more Macedonians were currently in Greek prisons and in Greek concentration camps being brutally tortured by the Greek government. The people being imprisoned, without trial and being killed by the Greek police, were the leaders and fighters who had earlier fought in the anti-fascist movement. The International officials needed to learn that the majority of the chiefs of police in the Greek State apparatus and officers in the Greek army were officials of the quisling government and officers and associates of the fascist occupiers. The highest priority for the NOF leaders at that time was to inform the Commission that the Macedonian people were suffering in Greek occupied Macedonia and that “orgies and crimes were carried out against them by the Monarcho-Fascist government”. It was expected that when the world found out the truth, about what was going on in Greece, it would also find out that there were many Macedonians living in Greek occupied Macedonia and that they had participated en masse in the great anti-fascist war and had made many sacrifices and sustained huge material damage.

On top of that it was also important to inform the civilized world and the international democratic community about the genocide the Greek Monarcho-Fascists were committing against the Macedonian population. In other words, to inform the world, in the most comprehensive way, of the Macedonian National Question in Greek occupied Macedonia. The United Nations representatives were given over 50 memoranda and petitions. These were documents with evidence showing the tragic situation that existed among the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia. The documents also contained requests for the United Nations “to condemn the terrorist policies of the Greek government and to demand of it to commit to providing a peaceful and democratic life for the people in Greece and to recognizing the Macedonian people as an equal nation to the Greeks”.

1946 - November 10. Zahariadis receives directive from Stalin to NOT expand the armed movement during the winter of 1946-1947 because it was allegedly causing an international situation and that the CPG should focus more or less on its political struggle.

1946 – November 21. Based on decisions made by Tito and Zahariadis on October 14, 1946, the CPY, represented by Karaivanov, and the CPG, represented by Ioannidis, soon after announced the following joint agreement: “The Macedonian organizations NOF, AFZH and NOMS and their leaderships will now fall under CPG leadership and the Macedonian armed units will join DAG and fall under the leadership of General Markos.”

1946 – November 21. After a few preliminary meetings between CPG and NOF representatives, it was decided that a meeting should be held between the NOF leadership, the CPG and DAG. After the meeting was held in the village Turie, Lerin Region with NOF’s immediate leadership on one side and Skotidas representing the CPG and DAG on the other, it was decided that NOF should merge with the CPG and its battalions stationed in Paiak, Kaimakchalan and Vicho should merge with DAG. But, as it turned out, NOF was subordinated to the CPG and the Macedonian battalions were placed under DAG’s command.

1946 – November 21. Following the agreement reached at the unification meeting Pavle Rakovski was assigned the task to find the necessary people and technical means to organize the NOF Central Council Agitation and Propaganda department. The main task in this department was to prepare and publish NOF and AFZH’s newspapers “NEPOKOREN” and “BILTEN” and the magazine “NOVA MAKEDONKA” as well as print flyers, leaflets, brochures and propaganda material. Unfortunately this was one of Zahariadis’s maneuvers. The newly established agitation and propaganda department was systematically prevented from starting work and working normally after it was formed and capable of doing such work.

1946 - November 21. Based on decisions made by Tito and Zahariadis on October 14, 1946, NOF’s new program goals were to instruct the Macedonian people to fight together with the Greek people in an alliance. The Macedonian people were told that they now had to fight for their survival in order to “save themselves”.

1946 – December 3. A Greek delegation was sent to the UN to inform the Security Council that the struggle being led in Greece was led with help from the outside, claiming that “the rebels in Greece are being helped by Greece’s northern neighbours who are it violation of international law and are endangering the peace and security in the Balkans”.

1946 – December 19. A decision was reached at the UN to form an Inquiry Commission which was to go to Greece and examine the situation on the ground. The Inquiry Commission consisted of 11 Security Council representatives which included delegates representing the interested parties of the four named Balkan countries - Yugoslavia, Albania and Bulgaria on the one hand and Greece on the other.

1946 – December 23. The rightist Greek newspaper the “Ethniki Floga”, an organ of Napoleon Zervas, a former occupier collaborator now under British influence, waved another “Slav threat” flag giving Greek nationalists the signal to start terrorizing the anti-Fascist democratic citizens of Greece by printing the following: “The danger is patient and is always there. As long as Soviet Russia

is not contained within its own borders the danger will lurk and make us uneasy threatening our lives and our country. As long as Russian watchtowers are closer than 30 km from the Aegean Sea they will continue to attack. With burning heat provided by their branches Serbia, Bulgaria and Albania the communists will burn our state because it is in their nature. There is only one way to escape this –full destruction of this banditry which breaks the law of justice and makes this treachery possible. The lozenge is war without hesitation or mercy. War until the enemy is transformed into food for vultures and wild beasts or it is in chains in the prisons from which there is no escape.”

1946 - December 27. NOF partisan units ordered to join DAG. An order, order number EP 13, from General Markos read: “As of today, all NOF Partisan Units are to be placed in the composition of DAG.”

1947 - Legal Act L-2 is issued during the Greek Civil War, on the strength of which all who left Greece without the consent of the Greek government were stripped of their Greek citizenship and banned from returning to Greece. This included Greeks and Macedonians. In its modernized version the Act is still binding for Macedonians.

1947 – January 11. A joint meeting between NOF, CPG and DAG representatives was held in the village Kupa, Gumendzhi Region. The meeting was chaired by Paskal Mitrevski, NOF Main Board Secretary. Included among the others from NOF who participated and spoke in the meeting were Evdokia Baleva-Vera, Mincho Fotev and Ivan Kovachev-Orfias. Mitrevski opened the meeting by speaking about the brotherhood and unity between the Macedonian and Greek people, the role of NOF and the other Macedonian organizations in the struggle, and how the Macedonians were helping with DAG’s development. Evripidis Kapetanos-Panos, CPG and DAG representative on the Greek side in the meeting, welcomed the NOF-CPG unification Agreement and promised that the CPG would deliver a “free Greece” and “national equality and freedom for the Macedonian people…”

1947 – January 29. The Inquiry Commission began its work as soon as it arrived in Athens. The Commission remained in Athens from January 29 to February 15, 1946, after which time it moved to Solun with individual teams visiting one side and then the other side of Greece’s northern border. On March 24, 1946 the Commission left for Sofia and Belgrade with one team heading for Skopje, where it held meetings until April 2, 1947, conducting interviews of witnesses. The Commission also received CPG and EAM delegations, one team even made contact with General Markos Vafiadis, Army Commander of DAG General Headquarters. The Inquiry Commission then retreated to Geneva where it remained from April 17 to May 23, 1947 preparing the report of its findings.

1947 - February 12. The UK government informed the U.S. government that, for economic reasons, as of March 31, 1947 it would stop helping Greece. The U.S. government agreed that it must inherit Great Britain’s role in Greece because otherwise Greece would inevitably fall under Russian influence.

1947 - February 20. The U.S. and Greek governments signed agreement in Athens. The U.S. government pledged to help Greece and as a result began to exercise American dominance over Greece, pushing the UK to the side.

1947 - February 24. The Greek king and Greek government publicly called on DAG fighters to surrender. They were given a deadline up to March 15, 1947. If they were to surrender before the March 15 deadline their offenses committed against the State and against the people would be absolved and they could return to their homes.

1947 - February 25. Armed Greek civilians and soldiers attacked and looted the village Lagen, Lerin Region, burned 16 barns, raped a girl and set fire to Evdokia Ivanova’s house. The armed band of the notorious Skordas lead by the villains Garapis from Kalinitsa and Argir the Vlach from Plasnichevo was responsible for terrorizing the Macedonia population in Enidzhe-Vardar and Gumendzhisko Regions. Armed civilians and gendarmes with whips in their hands roamed the streets calling the Macedonians “Bulgars” and threatening to kill them. These where acts of torment and humiliation never before experienced by the Macedonian

population. And if that was not enough the rampant unemployment and economic crisis created by the evacuation of the villages added another dimension of hardship to the people, a burden which forced them to look to NOF for relief. Since the spring of 1947 hundreds of villages were emptied of their residents by force. In Negush Region alone 17 villages were evacuated among them were Gorno Seli, Dolno Seli, Kutsu Fliani, Trasilovo, Golema Reka, Ianakovo, Nea Strandzha, Ropan, Arkudohor, Chernevo, Iavornitsa, and Tursko Selo.

1947 – March. British Vice-Consul Hill weaves conspiracies. If anyone should be accused of having “autonomist ideas” it should be the British. It was no secret, at least not to the Macedonians, that during 1945-1946 the British government and Greek security forces, through the political officer Bafas and through various collaborators of the occupiers, were interested in creating an autonomous movement in Lerin Region. If anyone should be accused of irregularities it should be the British Vice-Consul Hill who was the one weaving conspiracies. This information was made available to the UN Inquiry Commission by Dr. Ianidis, a Lerin Region doctor, in March 1947. It took a lot of courage on the part of Dr. Ianidis to divulge this information and as a result of this he lost his life.

1947 – March 1. US President Harry Truman openly said that he was determined to “help Greece secure its independence”. Truman announced this to the US Congress and his statement became known as the “Truman Doctrine”, which basically was a plan to rescue the Greek bourgeoisie. Based on this the US government began to openly intervene in the Greek Civil War. In 1947 alone the US sent 300 million dollars of military aid and this practice continued throughout the entire duration of the civil war and beyond. On top of material assistance in military equipment, the US also sent military experts to train the Greek army. In the fall of 1947 a joint military staff was formed and placed under the command of US General Van Fleet and all major operational units were staffed with US officers. This intervention was deemed of “legal” character because it was there to help the “legally elected government” and the “lawful regime in Greece” against “subversive elements”. US aid came at a time when the Greek bourgeoisie had fallen into a difficult situation. Before the US had awarded this aid, part of the Greek bourgeoisie

was unsure of Prime Minister Konstantine Tsaldaris’s Populist Party and the success of its dynamic policies. Themistoklis Sofoulis, head of the Liberals with his MP’s in opposition, had criticized the government and the partisan movement of being two extremes and advocated “for agreements”, “peace”, etc. But the arrival of US aid in September 1947 had such an effect on the entire liberal bourgeoisie that it entered into coalition with the government and led the war against the Democratic Army with even greater dexterity.

1947 – March. With collaborator Napoleon Zervas taking charge of the Ministry of Public Security in March 1947, the police and gendarme forces were expanded and the terror and violence were increased to unprecedented heights, especially after the elections and the plebiscite.

1947 - March 31. US replace UK in Greece. The UK government informed the U.S. government that, for economic reasons, as of March 31, 1947 it would stop helping Greece. The U.S. government agreed that it must inherit Great Britain’s role in Greece because otherwise Greece would inevitably fall under Russian influence.

1947 – April. The royalist government issued a secret order to all its units to withdraw from open spaces and concentrate in major administrative and communication centres. Here the forces found better security and at the same time isolated these urban centres from democratic partisan movement access. The royal army’s retreat into city centres was followed by a forceful civilian evacuation of many villages which gave the royalists greater economic control. These measures were accompanied by efforts made to organize a defense strategy around urban centres and communication facilities. The cities in the regions where partisan movements existed were surrounded by barbed wire (left over from the occupation), minefields, bunkers, machine gun and cannon nests, etc.

1947 – April 9. According to the military plan ‘Terminus’, on April 9, 1947, the Greek government initiated military operations in order to destroy DAG. DAG forces were to be encircled, destroyed or thrown out of the Greek territory.

1947 - April 17. Military age men were forcibly taken from the Lerin Region villages and sent to the Greek island prison camps. They were victims of American policies in Greece. They were victims of Lieutenant General James A. Van Fleet’s military tactics. Van Fleet was familiar with the concept of how to starve a guerrilla army. In order to do that he had to rob the guerrilla army of the ability to feed itself and of the ability to recruit new fighters. To stop the partisans from recruiting new fighters, the Greek government arrested basically every man, capable of carrying a gun, who was not loyal to the government or was affiliated with the partisan movement. All these people were sent to the Greek island prison camps.

1947 – April 21. Nikos Zahariadis went to Belgrade to discuss with Tito the help the CPY had promised him. He then went to Moscow and in May 1947, met Stalin and Zhdanov. In June 1947, after returning from Moscow he again went to Belgrade to speak with CPY representatives. They agreed to create a corridor for transporting weapons from Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. In the meantime operation ‘Terminus’ was finished, but the government forces did not achieve their goal. DAG forces breached the encirclement and escaped but with severe losses.

1947 – April. In late April 1947, after spending two fruitless months in Greece, the UN Inquiry Commission was dispatched to Yugoslavia and Bulgaria to interview more witnesses at the request of the Greek government. The Greeks were making accusations against Yugoslavia for allegedly harbouring a NOF organizational network in Skopje and Bitola, which allegedly managed the partisan groups in Greek occupied Macedonia. The witnesses offered by the Greek government were Patatoukas, Mensourakis and Bopchis who, in their testimony, created a lot of confusion about what NOF’s role was and about the refugees from Greek occupied Macedonia found in Yugoslavia, which caused many Commission members to declare that the statements made by these witnesses were deprived of any value. In other words, their testimony was useless.

1947 – May 20. Siantos had a heart attack and died. Zahariadis, however, claimed that the intelligence service liquidated him

because he was one of their agents and they feared that he was going to be discovered. They killed him to stop him from talking…

1947 – May 20. During a NOF meeting, the CPG put in a request for the name to be changed from “NOF Main Board” to “Coordinating Bureau”. Then during NOF’s First Congress, held on January 13, 1948, the name “Coordinating Bureau” was replaced with “Central Council”. This last “nickname” given to the highest NOF governing body remained until NOF was dissolved.

1947 - May 23. NOF issued fist edition of a Macedonian newspaper. The newspaper “Nepokoren”, organ of NOF, edited by Pavle Rakovski, published its first issue with about 500 copies.

1947 – August. During the time that the royalist government in Athens was facing a crisis in Greece, DAG General Headquarters issued a communiqué with which it declared that Greece was an “independent republic”. Further in the communiqué it reported that DAG General Headquarters was in charge of the supreme legislative and executive powers up to the formation of a democratic government.

1947 - September 15. The CPG 3rd Plenum was held (from September 15 to 17) during which time military matters were discussed. The following slogan was coined: “All to arms, everything for victory!” It was also decided to create a free territory in the Kozheni Plateau surrounded by the mountains Pind, Pieria, Karakamen, Kaimakchalan and Vicho. This was done immediately after the Greek government hostile spring offensive. The CPG Central Committee decided to create a compact liberated territory which was prepared to defended at all costs until the spring of 1948, at which time DAG was to be expanded to 65,000 fighters. This unfortunately proved to be completely unrealistic. According to General Markos: “That was wishful thinking on our part and did not necessarily reflect the reality of the day…” Considering all the above factors, one should have arrived at the logical conclusion that the 1st NOF Congress was convened in order to turn NOF into a mobilizing Machine to mobilize all the Macedonian young men and women into the war effort in accordance with the decisions made by the CPG Central Committee.

1947 - September 27. DAG GHQ issues mobilization order to mobilize all men ages 17 to 35. A mobilization which took from 4 to 9 months was conducted, which included mobilizing people from the Macedonian refugees who had fled Greece and had gone to Yugoslavia. Places of mobilization outside of the Greek borders included Skopje, Veles, Shtip, Bitola and various other places in the Republic of Macedonia. All these people were shipped out of Yugoslavia and sent to join DAG.

1947 – October. The CPG Central Committee held its 3rd Plenum.

1947 - November 22. A British officer, who at the time was stationed in Greece made the following remarks for the newspaper “New Statesmen and Nation”. In short he described the situation in Greece like this: “One week after the signing of the Varkiza agreement I witnessed the most horrific and antisocial behaviour committed by the newly formed National Guard made up from personnel from the former collaborators of the occupiers. Everyone who placed their faith in the word of the agreement (which the English had guaranteed) and did not leave in good time, were put in prison and mistreated. In an underground enclosure in the larger part of a kitchen in a small flat I saw 16 men, women and children. Two of the men were lying on the floor unconscious swimming in a pool of their own blood. Every prisoner had the right to go to the toilet only once in three hours and only for three minutes. An old man, because he was selling EAM newspapers, was tied and beaten for an entire hour. None of the prisoners were informed as to why they were imprisoned. None of the prisoners were taken to court, sued and found guilty but were kept in prison for nine months. This was not an isolated situation during the time when not a single group of communists existed and not even a single leftist activity was taking place.” The newspaper “Daily Mirror” published an article written by a British soldier who personally had witnessed atrocities committed by the Greek Rightist forces. The article was illustrated with photographs showing people being tortured and beaten. There were photographs of mass slaughters and decapitations. There was even a photograph of a 16 year old decapitated girl. People’s decapitated heads were shown to be carried as trophies hung on the saddles of horses or propped up on spikes. The people who had

suffered and died at the hands of these blood thirsty Greeks were Macedonians who had done nothing wrong except to have being born Macedonian. Connie (Koni Ziliakus (sp?)) wrote that the official Greek government and the military which was organized by General Charles Uiakam, (sp?) a well known enemy of the communist ideology, well known from the time he was chief of the British military interventionist forces in the Soviet Union, were no better than the police and the gendarmes. “Four fifths of the forces in the official administration, in the courts and in the police are in the hands of these extremists. Surlas’s bands ruled the province and had established their own administration. They are well armed and did what they feel like.”

1947 - December 7. Greece enacted Decree “Z” which stated that: “All persons abroad who express anti-national sentiments are to be stripped of their Greek citizenship.”

1947 - December 12. , 1947, quoting British Colonel Shepard, the newspaper “New Democracy” wrote: “The backbone of the Royal Gendarme, making up Greece’s Security battalions today, consists mainly of German collaborators”. Richard Mayer from the American Overseas Information Agency reported from Athens that “a large part of the former gendarme which a while ago served the Germans is now using the lists left by the Germans to oppress doubtful personalities…”

1947 – December 17. Based on the two reports which the Balkan Commission prepared regarding “Greece’s neighbours helping the rebel war”, the Greek government requested that this “Greek issue” remain on the Security Council agenda, which it did for the entire summer of 1947. But because the Soviet Union placed a veto on it whenever the issue was brought up, the US, on August 20, 1947, sent a request to the UN Secretary General to move the “Greek issue” to the UN General Assembly agenda. When the General Assembly convened on December 17, 1947 in New York, the item was present on the agenda under the theme “Endangerment of the national independence and territorial integrity of Greece”. The initiation of the “Greek issue” by the US delegation in August 1947 had great significance for the Greek government and was also encouragement for the counter-revolutionary forces in the country.

The major crisis that the Greek government faced in August 1947, thanks to the international factor, primarily the US, reached consent and the leadership was assigned a mandate to put together a government headed by Themistoklis Sofoulis. For the Americans, and for the international factor, it was like it was for the domestic factor, he was last but a pretty good trump card. The “Greek issue” was again raised in the UN General Assembly in October 1947 during which time a decision was made to task the Balkan Commission with assisting the Greek government to suppress the democratic movement. The commission, composed of representatives from the US, Britain, France, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Pakistan, China and the Netherlands, arrived in Greece in November 1947 and, after remaining in Athens for a few days, moved to Solun where it was subdivided into teams and dispatched to various points along the Greek border. The Commission remained in Greece until May 1948, after which it moved to Geneva. The Balkan Commission became a good protector of the Greek bourgeoisie by strongly insisting that material assistance to the democratic movement by the democratic countries must be prohibited. It constantly and morally acted in favour of the bourgeois government both domestically and on the international scene. When on December 24, 1947 it was announced that a democratic government had been established in the “free territories” in Greece, with General Markos Vafiadis at the helm, the Commission was first to warn the Balkan countries that “any recognition of the Democratic Government is in opposition of UN decisions”, and so on. Thus “international intervention” regarding the “Greek issue” was actually developed in favour of the Greek counter-revolutionaries.

1947 - December 23. The Provisional Government of Greece was created in accordance with the decisions made by the CPG’s Central Committee Political Bureau. The seat of the provisional government was established in Prespa, in Asamati, located in the Peoples’ Republic of Macedonia. The seat of the government was supposed to be established in Konitsa (as claimed by Secretary-General Zahariadis when he said “… If we take Konitsa our government will probably be recognized…”). But unfortunately, it did not happen! DAG units fought tough battles and sustained heavy losses in their attempt to take Konitsa, but to no avail. The arrival of members of

the Provisional Greek Government in Prespa was accommodated by UDBA’s Lieutenant Colonel Slobodan Krstich, a Yugoslav National Army officer. Originally the provisional Greek government consisted of eight members: President Markos Vafiadis, Yannis Ioannidis, Petros Rousos, Miltiadis Porfirogenis, Petros Kokalis, Vassilis Bardzhiotas, Dimitrios Leonidas and Vlandas Stringos. Then, by decree, 25 people were promoted to the rank of DAG colonels. But neither in the government nor among these officers, who represented the military and political factor of DAG, was there a single Macedonian! The Provisional Democratic Government of Greece was a one-party government exclusively composed of Greek communists. Despite the fact that 50% to 60%, or more, of the DAG fighters were Macedonians, not a single Macedonian was in charge! But according to the “false” history of the Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia, NOF was a military and political factor. The Provisional Democratic Government of Greece led by Markos was not recognized by any country, which means it was conducting illegal mobilizations, especially in the Republic of Macedonia. NOF and AFZH remained silent on this “illegal” act. There was also a “third period” for NOF which lasted from the time it was disbanded on December 23, 1947 until DAG was liquidated on August 30, 1949. This was the time when NOF accepted the program of the Interim Democratic Government of Greece, a government that was not recognized anywhere in the world. A self-recognized government desperate to continue the struggle by further committing the Macedonian people to war and by offering them: “Equal rights as national minorities and freedom to carry out national activities!” but only if they won the war.