Front Matter

Macedonians in Greece 1939 – 1949

By Risto Stefov Macedonians in Greece 1939 - 1949

PREFACE

Very little has been written about the Macedonians in Greece and their involvement in World War II and in the Greek Civil War. Macedonians who live in Greece to this day are afraid to speak of their terrible ordeals for fear of repercussions from the Greek authorities or because it is simply too painful for them to remember. To this day it is taboo in Greece to speak of the Greek Civil War. The Macedonians in Greece it seems have been ignored by all sides. Yugoslavia has ignored them because it did not want to ruin its good relations with Greece. Greece on the other hand, to this day claims that Macedonians simply do not exist and wants no part of them. Bulgaria, even though it has a large Macedonian immigrant population from Greece, has yet to recognize the Macedonian people as a distinct ethnic group. So in reality no one really cares about the Macedonians in Greece and as a result very little to nothing has been written about them. “Indeed, the Macedonians in Greece are hardly ever mentioned in scholarly literature and have been virtually forgotten as a people and as a national minority.” (Andrew Rossos) This is most unfortunate not only because the Macedonian contribution to the struggle against Fascism and Nazism has been completely omitted, but because the Macedonian people themselves living in Greece despite their contributions, have been completely ignored as if they didn’t exist. In the chapters that follow we will make an attempt to tell the Macedonian story as it unfolded from a Macedonian point of view. The story begins with an overview of events starting with Macedonia’s invasion, occupation and partition by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria in 1912, 1913 to events leading up to the start of World War II. A more detailed approach will then be taken to explain the Macedonian involvement in World War II and in the Greek Civil War. This is not a story about battles fought and strategies applied but rather a story about the human factor and about struggles for equality and human rights. It is a story that will reveal, perhaps for the first time to English speakers, how the Macedonians in Greece were treated by Greek authorities and by the Great Powers during the war years from 1939 to 1949. Greece has accused the Macedonian people living in Greece of being autonomists, separatists, communists and even of being foreign agents. But as we will see, none of these accusations are true; the only things Macedonians are guilty of are struggling for equality and human rights. In spite of all assurances made by the Macedonian leadership during World War II and during the Greek Civil War that it had no intention of leading an autonomist or separatist movement, the Greek leadership always remained suspicious and used every opportunity to stifle the Macedonian struggle. All through the war years the Greek leadership was divided into two dominant factions; the Democrats leaning to the left and the Royalists and Republicans leaning to the right. Even though there were many political parties in Greece, each tended to lean to the left or to the right. So, to avoid confusion and for the sake of simplicity in telling this story, we will assume that there were only two sides; the Right and the Left. While the Left was lead by the Communist Party of Greece (CPG), a significant player in World War II and in the Greek Civil War, the Right was lead by a number and variation of parties to which, for the purpose of this write-up, we will refer to as the Royalists and Republicans.