Epilogue

Epilogue

All the generals and politicians who led the Greek Civil War, and even some historians who were attached to the government, knew what had happened to the Macedonians in that war, everything else was politics. Exactly for that reason the novel “Noose”, six decades later, has treated the Greek Civil War (1945 to 1949) as a subject of literary analysis and of military-political and historical importance. These are events of our past, which could re-occur in our present and which have multi-layered deposits of dramatic consequences of our uprooting from our homes in Greek occupied Macedonia and of turning us into “WANDERERS”, as individuals, groups, or entire communities. And regardless of the topic and the sources that this novel relies on, events are described as they developed from day to day, especially in times of war, until the later years in the camps and prisons. The people who experienced the war are able to only occasionally forget their discomfort and anxiety but such moments are rare and are not a measure of their lives. What is described here touches on the moral significance of events formed on the awareness at an individual level. Described here is also the psychological turmoil that is part of our historical destiny, bestowed upon us and on the entire Balkans by the Great Powers. This novel also covers the history of “the political visions”, or at least the topology of it, including an overview of the human situation and destiny in which the heroes, no matter what the initial motivation, regardless of actions and ultimate goals, are always searching for the meaning of life in order to confirm the subjective qualities of their own being. The heroes confess their beliefs and attitudes in an environment (military or alien) in which psychology and spiritual climate are living and growing entities of ideological activism, which test personal worth, personal risk and details of a person’s moral commitment. This novel describes the suffering of these “condemned” people and their journey in that struggle, unbeknownst to them, working for foreign interests. From another perspective, the novel examines the fate of the displaced – the torn people who wander through the world of human existence in exile, who have been taken and turned into victims. It also examines the political cynicisms, the triumphs, the pragmatism and the hypocrisy of diplomatic agreements. Many of the “heroes” who participated in these dreadful wars have paid for their loyalties and beliefs in “nationalism” – by death during combat in the units of DAG and by suffering and dying in camps and prisons during and after the wars. But some remained alive to testify and let us know what it was like to have failed in their conscious effort to assert their own identity. What happened to these people, to this generation, was a complete tragedy mainly because they were left with no exit out of their situation; they had no chance to succeed by resisting. These people were pressured to enter into conflict with a historically murderous force and to experience the trauma that carried them through a time of lawlessness and complete lack of human dignity. These people were faced with a broken system with no reasonable human relations. A false consciousness was instilled into them which eventually pushed them into the hands of the executioner and turned them all into victims. This was done to them by the cruelty of people, some of whom belonged to the same group as themselves. There was no natural human consciousness in that. Groundless and historical misconceptions, such as human origin, have also played their part. In other words, we will meet people in the pages of this book that have personal and official arbitrariness, discreet authority, human life and those unprotected and constantly exposed to the impact of legislative power. According to statements made by UDBA General Jovo Kapichikj regarding the Greek Civil War: Yugoslavia won the battle, the Greek government won the war and the Communist Party of Greece lost both the war and its freedom.

But after the war was over Greeks returned to their homes and the Macedonians, who through the organizations NOF and AFZH sacrificed themselves together with some communists, suffered horrendous casualties, estimated at 20,000 killed and more than 60,000 exiled, destined to become WANDERERS of the world with no right to return to their homes because they were not Greeks by birth. The novel “Noose” has been written with special care and love and with a sense of respect for the fighters, of whom many gave their young lives on the battlefields of Gramos, Konitsa, Klefti, Hashiata, Epirus, Pieriata, Vicho, Lerin, Voden, Negush, Mali-Madi, Burno, Siniachko and in many other battles. The author has reconstructed the entire truth about the genocide perpetrated against the Macedonians and about the loss of the Macedonian people’s right to return to their ancestral homes. “Facts” play an integral and dominant part in this political novel. Facts play a dominant role in the literary analysis of the cruelty of war. Facts play a role in the most frightening, worst moments for those young individuals, with sad destinies, mobilized in the military and who spoke of elementary moral values, humanity and compassion when referring to the Macedonian family. The tragedy of the thousands of mobilized young people is touching, which led the author to ask the question: “Who put the NOOSE around the neck of the Macedonians?” Destiny was a paradigm for those boys and girls (children without childhood) who were forcibly mobilized, forced to fight and do what was required of them in a guerrilla war. The novel has done an extensive analysis of the iniquity perpetrated against the Macedonian people. This is a story about the loss of a

birthplace, of bitter love, of the eternal search for roots and of the deep and sincere sorrow experienced by the author himself.