Noose – Chapter 20

Noose – Chapter 20

After returning from Goli Otok; from Siberian Camp 025 in “Tajshed”; from the camp in “Makronisos”; from the camp in “Matka”; from the city of Tashkent; Vrotslav; Tulgesh; and from Belo Yani.

1.

It was a strange day that day. Our conversations were gloomy. “Our story,” said Vasil Bogdanov, “is unfortunate. I had just started to notice a thousand things that I had not noticed before. Now I am beginning to understand what we had been thinking earlier. The misfortune that our people experienced made thousands of people think about the various reasons why the genocide had taken place. But only those who, after many years of exile and difficulty, became makers of their own destiny would have fully understood those reasons. We Macedonians were born in this country and were deeply rooted and nobody could uproot us. But the foreign propaganda conducted about our centuries-old desire to be independent was sick and unparalleled...” “What kind of results did our desire to be independent yield through NOF (National Liberation Front) and AFZH (Women’s Anti-Fascist Front)?” someone asked. Bogdanov spat to the side and said: “The results are clear. These organizations made a breakthrough in our collective consciousness. That ideology entered the collective consciousness of the Macedonian peasant and become an inevitable picture of the general euphoria and fear. Now the peasant had an alternative way of thinking. Nature does not recognize political boundaries. Whoever has the most power will be the most favoured leader and he will be recognized as the rightful ruler of the country and the people.” “Who was ruling us wanderers? What can you tell us about that?” yelled out another voice. “What can I tell you? There is nothing to tell you!” replied Bogdanov. “Why don’t you want to talk about that? the voice asked. There was silence! I didn’t know anything about Vasil Bogdanov. He seemed very withdrawn and mysterious. His body had endured much abuse over the years. His face was darkened and full of shadows; a sign of suffering. He sighed and stood straight in silence for a while. He then looked at me and with a tiny smile on his face, said: “A man without a home is like a bird without a nest. My fate is a mirror image of the fate of many of our people who, after returning to Yugoslavia, had to pass through UDBA’s filter and KOS’s scrutiny in the ‘Idrizovo’ prison. The NOF and AFZH leadership on the other hand was greeted with open arms and given houses and work. Every fighter was asking him or herself this question: “How can the leadership be so ideologically eligible and we the fighters so ineligible!?” I know we should not be expecting too much but aren’t they the people that turned us into wanderers? And as wanderers we will forever continue to live in the SHADOW OF THE PAST.”

2.

Those who were sent to Stone Island, otherwise known as Death Island, could not understand or explain why they were sent there. Their punishment, they knew, had something to do with some “Informburo” Resolution whose purpose was reserved for the Party to explain. They could not understand why they were labeled “traitors”, sent to solitary confinement, beaten, tortured, put on a freight train like cattle, housed in camps of fear and horror, “re-educated” and so on, for doing the things they were ordered to do! (Rock Island used to be called “Izola Kavala” (Bald Island) by the Italians because it was completely bare and full of stones. It looked like a stone heap tossed into the sea with its peak rising to 220 meters above sea level.) “Everything went dark” continued Bogdanov “when they brought me in front of a freight train car. I felt my way on board on my own. I was greeted with threats, fear, darkness, desolation, agony, pain, grief, despair, injustice, fierce criticism, dirty looks and beastly orders as I took the first step on board the dark car. I sat on blood and tears; I heard quiet whispers, cries, protests and maimed people hopelessly moaning. When I arrived on the island, I was tired, exhausted, humiliated and felt like my human dignity had been trampled on.” “Every stone in Stone Island was a monument. Every grass blade was the soul of someone killed. There I heard every echo of death and every gunshot. There I felt cold fists of powerful hands hit me on the head after each thought. I said to myself, ‘Go ahead hit me! This is your gift. Only this way you can build your greatness!’ I listened to orders given: ‘Everyone must spit!’ The first guy snorted and spat slimy, stinking saliva on me. I felt disgusted as the slimy, salty liquid streaked down my face. While the saliva from the first guy was still sliding down my face the second guy snorted and after him all my fraternal people... I felt guilty for deserting, for leaving my brothers and comrades on the battlefields of Gramos. I felt remorse for not being killed there. I was afraid of the unknown and of the bloody trail of deception. A KOS commander standing in front of me asked: ‘Who did you cooperate with?’ I told him: ‘With all my closest associates and General Markos Vafiadis’s instructors and with the majors Vladimir Dechikj, Gjuza Rodovikj, Obrad Trninikj, Petar Licikj and Colonel Slobodan Krstikj Ucha and with others, all from KOS.’ ‘Until when?’ he asked. ‘Until Markos was removed from duty on August 28, 1948, when radio ‘Free Greece’ gave out information about the CPG Extraordinary Plenum claiming that ‘…Hrisa Hadzhivasiliu and Markos Vafiadis were seriously ill...’ I replied. ‘So that’s it, eh, you

Stalinist dog!’ he said and ordered me to march. I said, ‘I am not hiding anything comrade Major.’ “With my feelings dulled and lacking self-confidence I started walking towards the rubble. Beaten with sticks, yelled at and spat on, I felt tortured deep down inside but in my chest it felt like I was filled with something masculine. Angry and with my teeth clenched I said to myself ‘and there is death in death’. If I had been killed for choosing life and looked down the Adriatic blue, the sun would have to lavishly splash its lustre on me. The sea subsided and its waves became silent and less angry. The stone, tired from my body, was silent and absorbed my sight. I am a man without a home, away from my homeland, like a bird without a nest. The anxiety in my heart kept asking questions. But there were no answers. Identity was power and conflict on this naked island. Everything that happened on this island was pre-planned and imagined, even death. There was silence… The sunny blueness was waving like silk. A blade of wild grass was swaying in the breeze. It bend and arched and then straightens up again. Excitement was rising in me: ‘When will my pain and torment end?’ I asked myself.” “Stamko Bogdanov, my grandfather on my father’s side, died for Macedonia as a young leader of the Ilinden Uprising. Pop Gligor Gaidov, my grandfather on my mother’s side, disappeared under the knife of the Communists. My mother suffered death by hanging. I don’t know where my grandfathers or my mother are buried. I don’t even know where the living Bogdanovs or Gaidovs are at this moment. Is there no end to this bloody victory, to this ill success? My father went to America to work to make some money so that he could build a new home for the Bogdanov family but now he too has disappeared. All the Bogdanovs are gone. There is no one living in our old residence. There are no people, no houses, no barns and no hope of us ever returning to our village! In our absence who knows who will settle in our ancestral home, the home where my great-great-grandfather was born. For months I have been lying in solitary confinement waiting for my death or for my death penalty to be recanted. My troubles are without end. Life is asking me to continually produce illusions. I continuously search for burning secrets, walking down the path of death. Life cannot be without a dream and without a dance under the full moon. The only thing I have left now is my faith in God to help me overcome this cruelty. This is my last human mechanism for my survival.” “Every day, barely breathing, barely able to hold back my tears, I examine the past layers of my life as I walk barefoot, looking strange. In the morning I whisper the anthem as I stare up at the blue sky. One day I saw a flash in the distance that spread like the gold tears of a wounded seagull. I stood motionless for a long time watching it, waiting for it to vanish… I am in the last phase of my life when only through death victims become myths and contribute to the development of human culture... The prisoners with crushed knees and injured elbows rise like stepped on blades of grass in the morning after it rains. We all have the same fate. We walked up some paths to the crest of a hill, we kept going, but the executioners escorting us had one thought in mind: ‘We need to kill in order to live.’ That’s how it was; every generation builds its life on the bones of the dead. One day I saw a man’s dismembered body, all dried up, mummified and turned into wood, with his eyes fixed on the rock. It made me think; I, a fighter from Gramos, thrown into the red hell of oblivion, had never seen anything like this. Why now, here on this stone island do I have to witness such never before seen horror: his hands were raised up and pointing to the sky. Motionless during a moment of strength or perhaps during a prayer for redemption for the inhumane torture he had received. Whatever I touch, time touches me back. I am unbelievably intimate with my patience and my worrying.

I constantly drift back and forth from the brink of oblivion and madness. Every day it is asked of me to revise my position but I don’t know what my position is!?” “You need to accept everything, now! That’s how life is... ‘It is time! Do you hear me?’ yelled an officer. ‘It is time for you all to line up; you bunch of lazy no goods! What are you waiting for you Stalinist bastards?’ We go through the same ritual every day. The officer walks up and down in front of us hitting the bare rocks and our backs with his whip, all the while carefully watching us and keeping quiet.” “What else did they make me do? I can tell you things that took place in those days that will make you shiver. For example I was forced to carry almost dead bodies to the cemetery in the dark of night. Alone, in the moonlight, I carried these still living bodies to a mass grave while they were moaning and whimpering. I could see all the bodies in the mass grave by the light of the pale moon. Sometimes I would lie down to catch my breath but could not avoid feeling the sinking pain and sorrow for these people and for my own broken body… But the worst thing they said to me that made me angry was: ‘Hey you! Aegean bastard! You who purposely deserted to make the revolution in Greece fail!’”

* * *

“Many terrible things happened to me when I returned from the island. The thing that made me most anxious was when someone said: ‘Here is the guy from Stone Island… the Aegean!? The liberator! First he was with the Greek communists and after that he joined Tito and became an officer of the Yugoslav National Army. He then was sent to KOS to work as a scout in the Greek Civil War to fight with the Greek Partisans. Then in 1948 he fled from there and came back to Yugoslavia. Then when he was asked who he supports, Tito or Stalin, he said ‘The great Stalin.’ And then right into prison in Goliot Otok.’ The ‘marble’, that’s what they called the naked island that left an open wound which I have to carry for the rest of my life. Every day I hear those voices and I keep silent. Only the government knows why I keep silent. It forbids me from mentioning anything whatever it may be. I am afraid, I admit it… I don’t hold it against them but I am amazed at all those who stare at me and want me to talk about my past.” “But sometimes someone’s scream will enter my head and will remain there forever. I hold my ears, I hold my cheeks and I wish to chase the scream out of me. We never imagined that the war would leave in us an indelible physical, especially ethnic, black trace. To this day I tremble in fear when I hear the terrible words ‘Greek Civil War’. I watched and experienced it with admiration from afar and from up close. The life of my heart is open, transparent. But the life of my soul is a different world altogether; mysterious and a whiteness where many evils were committed. Everything that I couldn’t stand to watch is in there but now it is too late, especially for heroism.”

* * *

One day, after many years had passed, an important letter arrived for Vasil Bogdanov and he asked me to read it. The letter was from his father Lambro and from his youngest brother Mite, who during the war had fled to America and knew very little about his mother and sister Lena except that they were killed by the Partisans. Before I opened it he said: “You don’t know how I feel about being far from my father, my brother and all of them...?” I began reading: “Dear son Vasil. Your brother Mite and I have come looking for your mother and your sister’s bones... we don’t know anything about Pavle.” He persistently kept quiet as I read the letter, sometimes showing a tiny guilty smile on his lips. Oh, fate, God, fate, bad ordeal. No one knows their ending...

* * *

The past had come to an end. There was too much pain associated with the Bogdanov family; the father Lambro Bogdanov had asked that that door be closed forever.

Dossier

Testimonials about the Greek Civil War (1945-1949) given by Jovo KAPICHIKJ, Yugoslav General of UDBA (State Security Services) and Yugoslav Deputy Federal Minister of Internal Affairs.

From the TV show “Tsentar” by Vasko Eftov 2008

V.E.: According to our information, as a representative of UDBA, you came to Macedonia several times and were responsible for the coordination of the revolution that took place in Greece, in Aegean Macedonia. General: Yes, I was that person. On behalf of Yugoslavia and on behalf of the state, I, as an assistant to Interior Minister Aleksandar Rankovikj, did this job. I led all the Yugoslav activities in Greece, in Macedonia. Some points were in Macedonia and other points were here. In other words it was my job to send weapons, food, clothing, medical assistance and experts to assist in organizing the war, creating units and establishing a hospital in Katlanovo. Similarly we took 10,000 of the children that were sent to the Eastern European countries. (Ivan Karaianov was special deputy scout to Tito. He was also an agent of the Soviet NKVD and a Comintern instructor. Immediate associates and instructors of General Markos Vafiadis were: Gjuza Radovikj, Obrad Trninikj, Milo Vrbitsa, Velimir Docnikj, Svetislav Lutsits and Petar Stojanovikj, all KOS agents from Serbia. Slobodan Markovikj was charged with the task, illegally if necessary, of safely extracting General Vafiadis from Belgrade. (See: KOS and UDBA - Actions and documents of the secret services). V.E.: Did Tito ever want to help the Macedonians in Greece and later attach Aegean Macedonia to Yugoslavia? General: No, Tito did not think of joining... Look... that struggle with the Greeks in Greece was the work of the Macedonians. You wanted that done because you were thinking that it was a Macedonian minority. What does Solun have to do with Serbia and Montenegro? V.E.: In other words it was Lazo Kolishevski who was asking for that. General: Yes Lazo, but others also thought it was possible, that the situation in Greece was right and a breakthrough towards Greek Macedonia was possible. V.E.: Did Tito want that? General: The Government approved it, whether Yugoslavia wanted it or not it had no interest in going to Solun. V.E.: And did Macedonia have any interests there?

General: Macedonia had interests. There was a centre in Macedonia that dealt with that issue politically. The whole Eastern world was involved, considering that Greece was weak and that the West did not have a lot to deal with on that issue. It was possible, not necessarily to separate that part of Solun but, for Markos and Zahariadis to come to power and as such for the people to make a new Greece, similar to Yugoslavia. V.E.: Was there a chance that that could be accomplished in Aegean Macedonia? General: There was no chance. V.E.: Why? General: Because we did not want to fight a military war. V.E.: Why didn’t Yugoslavia enter into war? General: We were a marginal country that could have come under attack by those who were prepared to do everything for Greece. Yugoslavia had no interest, except for Macedonia. Macedonia had interests, the Macedonians saw it as part of their national territory. They considered those lands as belonging to the Macedonian nation. That’s how it was! V.E.: Have you ever been down there as part of some covert operation as a staff officer attached to UDBA? General: I have not been inside the territory of Greece, but I was in Bitola, in Skopje, in Ohrid and to some border points where we had to transfer materials over the border. We were not making war there; we were just opening the border. V.E.: In other words, you were just transferring goods across the border. General: We transferred material and closed the border. They took it and used it in their fight, etc. V.E.: Did the Macedonian UDBA enter Greece and do battle with the Greek army? General: That I don’t know, whether our troops clashed with the Greeks? No, that is not true. We had our officer-instructors. There were several officers. It is not true; our military never intervened... There was a time when one of our small units crossed the border into Greek territory because it was lost, not to attack, not with a detachment to attack Greece. And then the Greeks captured and killed all of our troops. It happened. V.E.: Did anyone pressure Tito to participate in that part of Aegean Macedonia? General: No. That was done solely under his own initiative. It was an illegal act outside of the UN; it was not approved by them or by any other international forum. It was contrary to work underhanded as if nothing was done, even though Yugoslavia was a major factor. All of that went through us and in Yugoslavia I was the person who led the process with a number of people in Skopje and some others in Belgrade. V.E.: Who obligated you to do that?

General: Who obliged me? Aleksandar Rankovikj of the State Security Service. (Aleksandar Rankovic was a Partisan nicknamed Marko, born on November 28, 1909 near Obrenovach, Serbia, creator of KOS and UDBA, responsible for many deaths.) V.E.: Did he have a good relationship with Kolishevski? General: Well, Lazo was... He was with Rankovikj, etc. They worked on it together. Tsvetko Uzunov, of whom I know, worked there. I know – that which was for Yugoslavia was my job and not for Macedonia. Macedonians there organized themselves. And that’s the way it was. Internationally the war was illegal. We invaded Greece, an independent state, on account of Macedonia and at the wish of the then Macedonian leadership. V.E.: How much ammunition and weapons did you send down to the fronts? General: A rail car of arms. It was not one rifle or one machine gun; it was wagon loads of weapons. There were no planes, but there were cannons. There were no tanks, because they are heavy weapons, but there were many light weapons. The many weapons were concentrated in Panchevo and from Panchevo were sent by train to different parts in Greece. The border was opened, our soldiers freed part of the border and the ammunition was placed inside for the Greek Partisans to claim, like it was nothing. Then our soldiers would return and the border would be closed again.

* * *

UDBA General Jovo Kapichikj who consciously and responsibly acted on behalf of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1948, and who organized the supply line and supplied the Greek Civil War with weapons and ammunition, would not disclose what exactly Yugoslavia’s interests were in that war. He did not even disclose how the Macedonians were pushed to participate en masse in that war through the activists from NOF and AFZH who were organized by the CPY and then left the CPG to deal with them. Now, after 60 years have passed, he concludes that: “It was impossible for things to change in Greece despite the senseless bloodshed!” The reason for that is because the West had no intention of ever leaving Greece. So it was a stupid, absolutely a stupid idea to have started a war there. Such an act was never agreed to at the Conference in Tehran. I repeat: It was never agreed to that Greece would go to the Eastern Block of countries during the Yalta Conference. That never happened!

* * *

We are all suffering from Balkan nationalism and we all should understand: A SICKNESS PROVES THAT WE ARE ALL THE SAME – WE ARE ALL PEOPLE, BUT THE GENERAL MOST PROBABLY KNEW WHO AT THAT TIME WAS CAPABLE OF IGNITING THE GREEK CIVIL WAR AND WHAT KIND OF INTERESTS YUGOSLAVIA HAD. HE, EVEN NOW, PROBABLY KNOWS HOW CAPABLE OR INCAPABLE THE MACEDONIANS WERE BEFORE THAT TIME BEFORE TITO AND BEFORE RANKOVIKJ TO POSE THE QUESTION ABOUT THE ACCESSION OF GREEK OCCUPIED MACEDONIA!? *

* From the chronicles:

“... A few days before the New Year in 1945, the Second Session of ASNOM was held in Skopje, designated extraordinary, which Josip Broz Tito, the great leader did not attend. In his place he sent the Slovenian Edvard Kardelj - Bevts. Mystified by the greatness of his guest, Kolishevski humbly listened to him and Kardelj without being intimidated, before leaving he left Kolishevski with some unpleasant things to think about. The war (WWII) is nearing its end, Kardelj told Kolishevski, and with it the days are nearing when accounts must be given about who did what. Macedonia’s accounts have five major minuses against it: the latest is the starting of the uprising, most comfortable was the mining of the occupation, Macedonia had the lowest destruction, it had the least casualties and, finally, it did not participate in the liberation of Yugoslavia. Frantic, Lazo asked Kardelj what could be done to change the situation. Kardelj replied: ‘The first three things you can not correct, but the fourth and fifth can be remedied. To do that you need your military police (OZNA) to immediately start arresting and shooting people. You also need to immediately send a large unit of fighters to the Srem Front’.” But what does it mean to be silent before the distorted history of the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia? How long are we going to hold allegiance to strangers? The communists (CPY and CPG) have supported us as much as the rope on the gallows supports a hung man. Those who bear allegiance have been doing this to us for six decades and they are still doing it to us now. When will it all end?