THIS IS WHAT THE MACEDONIAN PEOPLE IN GREECE WERE TOLD ABOUT THAT

THIS IS WHAT THE MACEDONIAN PEOPLE IN GREECE WERE TOLD ABOUT THAT:

The Macedonians from Greece who left the ranks of CPG, EAM and ELAS were harshly condemned but welcomed by the CPM/CPY. Now, with help and instructions from the CPM/CPY a POLITICAL COMMISSION FOR AEGEAN MACEDONIA was created in Bitola, whose working meetings were presided over by a representative of the CPM Central Committee.

The Aegean Brigade was formed in free (from the Fascists) Bitola on November 18, 1944, and was composed of fighters from the Macedonian battalions that left Greece as well as from newly arrived Macedonian refugees from Greece.

What does this tell us? This tells us that these Macedonian left Greece to get away from the clutches of the CPM but to only land in the clutches of CPY. And why did they allow this? They allowed this, because, we Macedonians have not learned our lessons and continue to allow strangers to lead us to recurring tragedies that overtake us on the road to our future.

Federal Democratic Macedonia’s position

“WHY NOT TO SOLUN”?

“...The political and military leadership of the newly formed Macedonia state realistically assessed the January events and decided not to allow emotions to prevail over reason and decided not to drag the Macedonian population into a new war. They figured fighting against its allies from the anti-fascist coalition, on whose side they fought during the Second World War, was not a good idea because many lives would have been lost for nothing and the newly formed Macedonian state would have been dragged into yet another senseless war.”

On the surface this may look like a betrayal to the Macedonian cause and to the Macedonian people in Greece, but we will let history decide that. In the meantime if we did march into Solun we would have faced massive English resistance. 23

DIPLOMATIC PRESSURE

On December 9, 1944, McLean, head of the British Mission in Belgrade, visited Josip Broz Tito and told him that the act of creating the (Aegean) Brigade implied territorial claims on the Greek and Bulgarian territories and asked him to not interfere in

23 On October 31, 1944, a large group of English soldiers in armoured vehicles entered Solun supposedly beating ELAS to the punch. Three days later the BBC in London announced that British troops had liberated Solun. In less than a month later, on November 14, 1944, a damning British diplomatic report sent from Leeper to Eden, dated Athens November, 14, 1944, surfaced. Among other things the report revealed secret plans to get rid of the Macedonian population from Greek occupied Macedonia. British Ambassador to Athens Mr. R.A. Leeper, in November 1944, toyed with the idea of displacing 120,000 Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia and moving them north of the Greek border. Mr. Leeper suggested this to Mr. Eden, then UK Foreign Minister, in a letter dated November 24, 1944 in which, among other things, he wrote “…and since the amputation of the Slav areas in Western Macedonia and their annexation to a Slav Federation is a practical impossibility and would also be economically disastrous for Greece. It would follow that, difficult as it may be, a home must be found for perhaps 120,000 Slav Macedonians north of the Greek frontiers of 1941.”

Greek affairs, that is, in the clashes taking place between ELAS and the British forces in Athens, which began on December 3, 1944.

Tito convinced McLean that Yugoslavia had no intention of making claims on Greek Macedonia and that the First Aegean Brigade would not be sent to Greece. On December 22, 1944, Tito issued the following orders; 1. The Aegean Brigade was ordered to remain put, that is, not to go to Aegean Macedonia. 2. All aid promised to ELAS to be halted, that is, not to be given to ELAS. 3. And, as per Stalin’s directive to the CPG leadership, to stop the armed struggle in Greece and seek a peaceful solution to the conflict with England.

On April 2, 1945, by strictly confidential special order number 236, Marshal Tito requested the disbandment of the “Aegean Brigade.”

Our historiographers however have a different answer: “Not a whole month after the Aegean Brigade was created in Bitola, the CPG and ELAS demanded that it be disbanded and that its fighters be sent back to Greece to join ELAS, which neither the Aegean leaders nor Josip Broz Tito agreed to.” (See; Dr. Risto Kirjazovski, featurette -through the fighting pages of Aegean Macedonia: Ilija Dimovski-Gotse).

DEVELOPMENT OF EVENTS IN 1945 AND THE CREATION OF NOF

(The creation of NOF was a chaotic uncertainty for the Macedonian people. It was an event to be remembered. It was a big step into the unknown. April 23, 1945, was a day when foreigners messed with our destiny and when no one asked the people about anything.)

1. So, by creating NOF and AFZH, after the Second World War, did we not cause our own problems in Greece?

Well, we can blame ourselves for being trusting and not vigilant enough but we call also say that it was the outsiders who enticed us by lying to us. Regardless, we should have known better than to trust the well-known conflicting communist party (CPY, CPG and CPB) policies and practices towards the Macedonian national question. We should have known that they would exploit us, deliberately engage us in this “Macedonian syndrome” and lead us to fight against one another: Macedonian - against Macedonian?

We continue to fail to remember that:

a) There was a Macedonian movement with a Bulgarian ethnic historical tendency;

b) There was a Macedonian national movement with a Macedonian ethnic-historical tendency also emerging now, after the Second World War; and

c) There was a Macedonian movement with a pro-Yugoslav historical tendency,

If we make sure to remember our history we would not continue to make the same mistakes!

We would have known that a great political oversight was taking place before our eyes in 1945-1949 (during the Greek Civil War).

After many years of investigating NOF’s creation and all the troubles that it caused us, two key questions come to mind:

1. How did we inform the world about our actions, specifically the Great Powers, and what was the Macedonian role and vision in the Greek Civil War?

2. How did we Macedonians look at this issue ourselves and were we confident throughout the entire Greek Civil War period that we would realize our vision?

Or, maybe we went along with Lenin’s thesis that the communist movement would see the Macedonian national question as a tactical class issue serving the state interests of the dominant nation, in our case Greece. If that was the case then the question is: Why didn’t NOF’s and AFZH take another path and lead us in a completely different direction, and maybe we wouldn’t have experienced a drastic national defeat.

3. The Macedonian people living in Greece made many sacrifices during this war such as loosing lives, loosing their hearths, etc. These are vital issues of national importance so why they are not covered by out integral Macedonian history, but are set on the sidelines as sectoral history, i.e. the history of the “Aegeans”, like they are not at all Macedonian issues?

In the past, up until 1945, the Macedonian people living in Greece had strong spiritual and national unity. The older Macedonians, their children, their grandchildren… all lived similar lives and followed the same survival strategy in the same spirit. Unfortunately, even after WW II, despite promises 24 otherwise, they still lived under

24 When WW II ended the communists were still there and so were the Macedonians looking for the promised concessions they earned by fighting on the side of the Allies. These promised concessions unfortunately for the Greek government and for England were unresolved matters which had to be resolved. So once again the CPG’s help was needed. But before anything could be resolved the Greek government in Athens had to be legitimized and take root. After England installed its agent Zahariadis as general secretary of the CPG, the English turned to the CPG to help them elect the liberal party which, in turn, opened the door for the political right to take power. All Zahariadis had to do was encourage the democratic forces to support the liberals. He told the people to support the liberals in order to keep the “Monarcho-Fascists” from taking power. oppression and still had no rights as Macedonians. After 1945, the CPM/CPY, through NOF, began to exploit that unfortunate Macedonian situation and began to offer the Macedonian people options through which they could gain their rights if they fought in a future war… But there was a catch; they could only get the rights if they fought and won.

Most Macedonians did not want to fight, especially after WW II ended and were looking forward to living in peace.25 But that did not workout and the Macedonians living in Greece were dragged in yet another war.

But then when the liberals took office they opened the door for the “Monarcho-Fascists” to take over. After the “Monarcho-Fascists” took control of the security forces in Greece they began to torment the democratic forces and terrorize the Macedonian population. They demanded that the Macedonians leave Greece. Unfortunately their tactics did not work because the Macedonians were not going anywhere. So a new plan had to be put in place. If they were not going to leave under duress they would be removed by other means. For example if the Macedonians were to pick up guns and begin to fight against the Greek government, say to carve out Greek territory, then the Greek government would have no choice but to fight back. Its actions would also be supported by its allies England and the United States because their intervention would be deemed of “legal” character because they were there to help the “legally elected government” and the “lawful regime in Greece” against “subversive elements”. Here again the English and their Western partners turned to the CPY and CPG for help. While the rightists in Greece were tormenting the democratic forces and terrorizing the Macedonian population, the CPY was creating a new people’s liberation movement for Greek occupied Macedonia (NOF). Zahariadis in the meantime was preparing the democratic forces inside Greece for a new armed struggle. Both Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union agreed to support the CPG in this. NOF arrived in Greek occupied Macedonia before the new armed struggle, later termed the Greek Civil War, began and started preparations to arm the Macedonian people.

25 After WW II ended the Macedonian people did not want to fight and refused to join NOF. To make them fight the political right (“Monarcho-Fascists”) began to escalate its terror activities against the Macedonians to unprecedented levels, forcing many Macedonians to run to the mountains and join NOF in order to save themselves. After NOF established itself on the ground and was ready to fight, the CPY subordinated NOF to the CPG and the CPG used it as an instrument to rally the Macedonian people and joined the armed struggle. Chronologically speaking NOF was subordinated by the CPM/CPY from the day it was created on April 23, 1945, to November 21, 1946, the day it was subordinated to the CPG under the “Brotherhood and unity” program when the CPM/CPY elegantly washed their hands of the Macedonians in Greece. NOF remained subordinated to the CPG from November 21, 1946 until DAG was liquidated in 1949 and beyond for some years while the Macedonian people were in exile.

WHO WERE OUR ALLIES IN THE GREEK CIVIL WAR?

The answer is: no one! Not even the CPM, because it too was completely subordinated to the CPY.

If the CPM, CPY and CPG were not our true allies then why did they engage the Macedonian people to fight in the Greece Civil War? Why was NOF created and mandated to “fight for the national rights and the right to self-determination of the Macedonians living in Greece?” 26 if that was not the CPY/CPG’s intent?

26 In 1946 NOF adopted this program with some corrections. We don’t know what the program looked like in 1945 (it was most likely given orally) but was set out with the following tasks: 1. The irreconcilable struggle of the Macedonian people from the Aegean part of Macedonia to win their national and social rights; 2. Affirmation of the Macedonian national identity; 3. Actualization of the Macedonian national question in the political life of Greece; 4. Organizing resistance against the terror and genocide imposed and systematically carried out by the Greek reactionary authorities on the Macedonian population; 5. Strengthening the national unity of the Macedonian people; 6. Uncovering Vancho Mihailov’s autonomist activities carried out by his supporters and breaking up their spy network in this part of Macedonia. The spy networks and their agents also operate as Anglo-American sabotage centres which fight against the national rights of the Macedonian people; 7. Disclosure of the Anglo-American plans, which aim to turn the Aegean part of Macedonia into a base for espionage and subversive activity against the Republic of Macedonia and the whole of Yugoslavia as well as against all the Balkan people’s republics; 8. Strengthening the brotherhood and unity between the Macedonian people and the Greek people and together with all the progressive forces of Greece, the Macedonians fight against the common enemy; and More than a half a century has passed and the question “why was NOF truly created for and what was its real purpose” has not been adequately answered. What was NOF’s real national strategy? Why was it created in Skopje on April 23, 1945, by the CPM/CPY and mandated to lead a war in the Aegean part of Macedonia, outside and independent of the CPG? Why was NOF created to lead a war that did not exist and did not start about a year later?

The NOF leadership was sent to Aegean Macedonia on April 28, 1945, to form Macedonian partisan units to fight in a non existent war. (See: Kirjazovski, 1995/202)

Suppose NOF was truly created to “fight for the national rights and the right to self-determination of the Macedonian people living in Greece”. How was NOF going to achieve that? What portion of the population living on that part of Macedonia was going to support such an undertaking? Did the people that led NOF not know that the Macedonian people were a minority in that region? Did the people in the CPM/CPY who mandated NOF not know that the Macedonian people living in Greece were a minority in that region? Did NOF consult the majority of the population about its undertaking and did they get support from it? No! NOF never bothered to do any of that. It never bothered to face the very complex problems created by the internal and external factors. Nor was NOF able to assess its own forces, much less its strategic interests and plans. It completely relied on the CPM/CPY and later on the CPG to do all that. In fact why didn’t anyone in NOF, the CPM the CPY or in the CPG provide answers as to how was NOF going to achieve its mandated objectives under these circumstances?

So to be clear, would NOF have been able to achieve self-determination for the Macedonian people in a newly created situation in Aegean Macedonia, still under Greek control, given the

9. Organizing the struggle of the Macedonian people to bridge the artificial gap Macedonians from all parts of Macedonia, especially with the Republic of Macedonia, which represents the “Piedmont” for the entire liberation and unification of the Macedonian people. See: NOF’s organ for Aegean Macedonia “Bulletin”, no. 9, March 15, 1946.

population exchanges that took place in 1924 during which over 600 thousand Asia Minor non-Macedonian settlers and colonists were settled on Macedonian land by which the Greek state turned the Macedonian population into a minority? Would the majority of the population living in Aegean Macedonia been in favour of Macedonian self determination if it came to a vote? No one bothered to answer the question so we will answer it for them.

No, NOF would not have been able to fulfill its promise because the Macedonian population was a minority in its own native land. The other people would have voted against self-determination because they were loyal to Greece who gave them Macedonian lands.

Identity

Greeks Macedonians Karamanli Armenians Jews Vlahs Roma Miscellaneous

Total

Nationality %

711,428 50.36 240,000 17.00 210,000 14.87 80,000 5.66 68,206 4.83 44,414 3.14 25,302 1.79 33,127 2.35

1,412,477 100

Included in the “Greeks” row is the diverse refugee population that came from the Caucasus. The Greek population by origin and language is actually less than 50% of the entire population living in Aegean Macedonia. (See S. Kiselinovski 2000/48.)

a) Like I said before, did anyone from NOF ask the colonists and settlers living on Macedonian lands if they wanted to live in some kind of Balkan federation? Let us ask ourselves, would we have made enemies of them if we did ask? But the question still remains; as Macedonian communists how did the NOF people react to the actions taken by the Greek government to change the ethnic composition in Aegean Macedonia? Were they in favour and saw this as a humane act towards the colonists and settlers? Or were they against it? If they were for it then how do you supposed the

Macedonians, who lost their lands to the colonists and settlers, would have felt? If they were against it them they certainly would have made enemies of them.

b) Did NOF not know that those same colonists and settlers were leading the leftist forces in Greece like Zahariadis, Partzalidis, Ioanidis, Vafiadis, etc. Did NOF truly expect these people to support NOF in obtaining Macedonian self-determination? Surely the people in NOF must have known that they would not.

c) Why did the CPG not allow NOF to become a political entity during the anti-fascist struggle? And did the people of NOF forget that they were persecuted when they demanded national rights and were slandered and anathematized as autonomists, secessionists, and Slavophones?

Now let us go back to the biggest manipulations perpetrated by the CPY and CPG against NOF on April 2, 1946, during a meeting between Tito and Zahariadis in Belgrade, without the presence of a single Macedonian, during which they decided:

1. That NOF and the Macedonian People’s Liberation Movement for the Aegean part of Macedonia be passed on from being directed by the CPM/CPY to be directed by the CPG. And NOF’s program goals were changed to read: NOF will now fight in alliance with the Greek people to save the Macedonian people from physical extermination.

Perhaps this was part of the strategy the foreigners (CPY/CPG and their Great Power supporters) used to achieve their own objectives through manipulating NOF. As a result the Greek state began to take legal action against the Macedonian population persecuting Macedonians and using unprecedented terror against them including sending the military to harass and shoot at them. People were forced to leave their native hearths and flee to Yugoslavia or the Greek government security forces would send them to prison to the dry Greek island concentration camps. 27

27 NOF arrived in Greek occupied Macedonia before the new armed struggle, later termed the Greek Civil War, began and started preparations to arm the Macedonian people. But by then WW II had ended and the Macedonian people 2. Those who escaped to Yugoslavia, unfortunately, were not safe. The CPM/CPY and the CPG agreed to recruit DAG fighters from those Macedonians who fled to Yugoslavia. The CPG was allowed to recruit from the entire political emigrant population in Yugoslavia. In other words those people who managed to save themselves from Greek terror were now were being mobilized and sent back to hell. It is obvious that “something unusual” was happening to the Macedonians, because both the Greek government and the communists (CPM/CPY/CPG) were abusing them. So, it’s not unreasonable for one to ask: What is wrong with us Macedonians? Why our friends and enemies treat us the same way?

3. Conditions for the Macedonian people radically changed after Tito and Zahariadis, that is, the CPY and the CPG, agreed to pass NOF from CPY slavery to CPG slavery. Unfortunately oblivious to all this, NOF became even louder with its slogans for total mobilization of the Macedonian people. NOF made many loud calls and proclaimed that the CPG was our only savior and well-wisher for solving the Macedonian national question for the Macedonian people living in Greece. They also echoed that the CPM/CPY were in agreement. (See: Lazar Kolishevski’s directives and recommendations in Kirjazovski’s book 1995/29).

In other words, the NOF leaders believed not only that the CPM was not going to steer them wrong but they (CPM/CPY) were going to protect NOF. The NOF leaders had no idea or did not care that they were in pursuit of other people’s interests.

The misunderstandings, or whatever you want to call them, with regards to the tasks NOF performed under CPY/CPG manipulation unfortunately hurt the Macedonian cause more than it helped. This resulted not only in loss of life and property but left many Macedonian people in exile with no prospect of ever returning

did not want to fight and refused to join NOF. To make them fight the political right (“Monarcho-Fascists”) began to escalate its terror activities against the Macedonians to unprecedented levels, forcing many Macedonians to either leave their homes and go to Yugoslavia or run to the mountains and join NOF in order to save themselves.

home. And what did NOF gain? Nothing! Unfortunately NOF’s actions are still being blindly defended by some people. It has been difficult to pass through the labyrinth of manipulation surrounding the CPG and the CPY, because they had a well-designed strategy in which even those so-called “hard nationalists” succumbed to their aggressive daily propaganda, in favour of so-called “class” rights, and as things progressed “national” rights (especially for us Macedonians) were left behind and forgotten. In simple terms, it appears as if the war was about class rights. But, this is how things appeared from the outside. What about from the inside? Did the simple Macedonian villager who gave his life know that he was fighting for class rights? No! The villager was told he was fighting so that he can be recognized as a Macedonian with full rights… In other words NOF lied to him.

Fighting for class rights or to make Greece communist was also a big lie. According to the Yalta agreement Greece rightly fell under western influence. The West fought against communism. When Britain and later the USA got involved in Greece, the communists in Greece had no hope in hell of winning; the top CPY and CPG leaderships must have known about that. (See the preface in this book). If they did know about that then the CPY and the CPG lied to the people in order to draw them into the so called Greek Civil War. But why?! The Greeks and their supporters the British and the Americans wanted to eradicate the communists in Greece and to get rid of the Macedonian population (from Greece) once and for all!

But, as things turned out for NOF (and for all us Macedonians, especially those living in Greece), the Greek Civil War was a chaotic war and in chaos those who are powerful are right. In other words justice is not in correctness, but in power.

If the Macedonian people were told that they were going to fight a civil war in a class struggle and if they had been invited by the CPY, practically no one would have participated. So, what happened? The Macedonian people participated in this war only because they were invited by NOF, a Macedonian organization supported by the CPM, and because they were promised that they would be fighting for their Macedonian national rights. But, instead of delivering what it

promised, NOF forced them to (unknowingly) fight for the interest of the foreigners (CPY/CPG) that created and led NOF.

Testimonials:

See: “DOCUMENTS, the struggle of the Macedonian people for independence and for a national state”, Volume two.

NOF MAIN LEADERSHIP DIRECTIVES TO THE NOF DISTRICT COMMITTEES.

September 1945

It is your duty to expand and install NOF in every city, village and farm house wherever Macedonians exist. No Macedonian man, woman or young person should be left out of NOF, AFZH or NOMS influence. (pp. 721-722-723)