HOW PASKALINA, A MACEDONIAN, BECAME GREEK

HOW PASKALINA, A MACEDONIAN, BECAME GREEK

“No matter what identity the people were, they had to become Greeks…” said Anastasia Karakasidou”

Anastasia Karakasidou, a Greek anthropology professor at the University of Wellesley in Massachusetts, said that the Aegean part of Macedonia, now under Greece, was Hellenized. She came to this conclusion after eight years of research. She wrote a book entitled “Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood” in which she told Paskalina’s story. Paskalina and her family were referred to as “Bulgarians”, a derogatory term in Greece which is how some Macedonians were forced to accept Hellenism to avoid being persecuted.

Karakasidou chose a little place called Guvezna, located near Solun, in which to do her research. Guvezna was later renamed Asiros, this was the time when the Greeks were changing Macedonian place names to Greek. From all the people with whom Karakasidou spoke only three older women spoke the so-called Slavic (Macedonian) language. But of the three only Paskalina “The Bulgarian”, whose nickname Karakasidou puts in quotation marks, opened her soul and spoke about the terrifying times experienced during the Balkan Wars and later. Karakasidou spoke with her four times. During the fourth time, which took place in the summer 1991, Paskalina was nearing the end of her life. This time Paskalina told her the entire truth about her drama and her separation from her family.

This is what Karakasidou wrote, “At that time she was eighty years old and lived with her youngest son and his family. During our conversation I asked her several questions that were motivated by what she had previously told me. As an answer to my questions, she again told me her story but this time with considerable changes in some details. I asked Paskalina why the previous stories were different from this last one. She said that in those years she was

afraid to tell the truth because she feared she would be persecuted…”

During their first three meetings, Paskalina repeated the same story of how her family was separated during the Second World War, how her village was burned down by the Bulgarian army, how her brother and sister were taken away by force by the Bulgarians, etc. This time however, Paskalina told her a somewhat different story. This time she told her that her village was not burned down by the Bulgarian army, but by the Greek army, and that her brother and sister were not taken away by the Bulgarians, but her entire family had to leave their home in Aegean Macedonia and flee to “a Bulgarian village in Serbia” (most likely, a village in the Vardar part of Macedonia). Later her parents came back to Greece and her brother and sister went to Bulgaria.

This is what Karakasidou wrote, “In ‘her language’ Guvezna was called Grozdovo. Her father’s surname in Ambar-Koj (his birthplace) was Galchanov, but later he took a Greek surname. Sometime later her family moved to Guvezna, but lived in fear, because often Greek policemen came to their house and told them to leave. Besides working hard Paskalina’s family had many other problems in Guvezna. This was because her family was seen as ‘Bulgarian’. The police were constantly trying to throw them out. Her father’s business friends from the past didn’t want to be associated with them. They were really terrified. One time they had to hide her father to save him from going to prison. The people from Guvezna were also constantly forcing them to leave. The village people didn’t want them there and refused to even allow them to raise a tent inside the church yard during a celebration…”

According to Karakasidou, Paskalina’s “new” story was important from several aspects and that the story shows that the inhabitants from Ambar-Koj, those who spoke the Slavic language before nationalism was introduced in the 20th century, lived relatively peacefully with the inhabitants of Guvezna. This is what Karakasidou wrote, “Her last story indicated that, besides their conscious decision to return back to Greece and to become Greek citizens, the families, as was Paslakina’s family, were treated by some people as non-Greek. They were disrespected, laughed at,

forced out and forced to flee. Some of her neighbors still called Paskalina ‘Bulgarian’ even in the 1960s. But by this time Paskalina was ready to confront them…”

According to Karakasidou, Paskalina sued one of her neighbours for calling her “Vulgara” (Bulgarian). She brought two witnesses with her who told the court that she is not Bulgarian. She showed the judge her Greek identification card which did not say she was Bulgarian. At the same time she told the judge that if her family was Bulgarian her son would not be allowed to serve in the Greek air-force, in the most elite unit in the Greek military…

Karakasidou continued, “Unfortunately her legal victory had no real effect; she carried her shame till the day she died. However, I’m sure she felt that she was only a Greek woman. Her years of education and living a whole lifetime closely connected to the local people in Asiros (even married in the village) solidified her Greek national identity…”

Karakasidou felt that it was a privilege for her to have Paskalina confide in her. Paskalina told her the hidden truth about her and her family. Paskalina’s confidence in Karakasidou was far more important than the ethnographic standpoint, because she was one of the three women alive who spoke the “Slavic” (Macedonian) language in the village where Karakasidou did her research. This is what Karakasidou said, “I managed to find a small part of these women’s lives which confirmed their testimonies… Generally speaking a small number of local families were firm and loyal followers of their national cause at the end of the century. Trying to keep a good image of themselves, most of them tended to follow the interests of those who were most powerful or dominant at that moment. Some families were separated because of their national orientation…”

Karakasidou continued, “The chapters in this study document the Hellenization process in one small part of central Greek Macedonia. The chapters contain details about the locals with hopes that they will clarify the stormy path these families took in their communities. Still, this development was not uniform in the whole of Greece. Other parts of Greek Macedonia resisted the Hellenizing process...

However, in this part, in Lagadas, Hellenization was a long-term process which lasted the entire 20th century. For some it was a noble and profitable process. For others, especially in the beginning of the century, life in Guvezna was unpleasant, cruel and short. When two large hegemonic nations collide, researchers of historic fragments cannot see the forest from the trees. The so called liberation of Macedonia in 1913 was the beginning of the inviolable hegemony in the nation building process. Regardless of what the people in central Greek Macedonia were until then, it was clear that from that point on they had to be Greeks. And that’s the way it was…”