Front Matter - Part 03

If God himself came to earth and spoke to the Greeks and said ‘these people here are Macedonians’, the Greeks wouldn’t believe him. If Greeks start believing that Macedonians exist in Greece then they’ll also have to believe that Slavs, Albanians and Vlachs also exist in Greece. If Macedonians, Slavs, Albanians and Vlachs exist in Greece then Greeks would be asking ‘who then are the Greeks?’ And as I’ve found out in my quest ‘searching for the Greeks’, ethnically speaking, there are no Greeks.

But how can that be? The entire world knows that there is a country called Greece, populated by 10 million Greeks who are 98% pure Greeks and 2% Muslim Greeks!

Well yes, there are people who identify as “Greek”. Unfortunately, ethnically speaking, they aren’t ‘ethnic Greeks’; they are ‘politically’ Greeks. Did I just say ‘politically Greeks’? Yes I did, politically Greeks. They identify as Greeks not because ‘they are’ ethnic Greeks but because they ‘want to be’ Greeks! It’s a matter of choice. How else can one explain Slavs, Albanians, Vlachs, Macedonians, Christian Turks, Armenians, Russians and a whole group of other ethnicities ALL identifying as ‘Greeks’?

In other words, anyone can be Greek provided they agree with the ‘Philhellenic indoctrination’ of what a Greek is. Anyone who speaks Greek, claims to be a descendent of the so-called Ancient Greeks, pretends to be superior to other people, claims minorities don’t exist in Greece, is arrogant and insensitive to non-Greeks and hurls slogans like ‘Macedonia is Greek’ and ‘Macedonians do not exist’ can be a Greek.

And here’s how I came to that conclusion. For more information see: http://www.mlahanas.de/Greece/History/FilikiEteria.html

According to Greece’s 1st Constitution written in 1827:

Provinces of Greece are all those that were taken and will be taken by weapons against the Ottoman Dynasty.

Greeks are:

a. All those indigenous people of the Greek State who believe in Christ.

b. All those, believers in Christ, who under the Ottoman slavery, came or they will come to the Greek State to struggle or to reside in it.

Greeks are all those aliens, who came to Greece and enrolled as citizens.

To become a Greek, it was enough to be a Christian!

This document proves that Greeks have a very short memory. They don’t remember how the Greek State was created and also who the modern Greeks are. Why should we Macedonians have to prove that we are Macedonians since antiquity when the Greeks don’t have to prove anything for being Greeks?

The fact is that about 180 years ago anybody who was a Christian in the Greek State became a Greek automatically. Why doesn’t that bother the modern Greeks?

Can an Asia Minor Christian Turk settler who was deposited in Macedonia in the 1920’s be a Greek? Yes they can! They can even be a Macedonian, descendent of the Ancient Macedonians! Can a Macedonian whose family identified as Macedonian before Greece annexed Macedonia in 1913 identify as a Greek? Yes they can, provided they accept and swear by the “Philhellene Indoctrination”. Can any of my relatives, like myself who were born in Greece, with whom I share great grandparents, be Greeks even though I identify as a Macedonian? Yes they can! They can in fact also be “full fledged” Macedonians, direct descendents of the Ancient Macedonians!

Can I be a Greek, and I did ask this question, on account of some of my family members identifying as Greeks? The answer was a flat NO! And according to the same “Greek authorities” who said I could never be a Greek, I don’t even qualify to call myself Macedonian. According to them I am a ‘Slav’ and a ‘Skopjan’ from some ‘other’ country called ‘Skopje’, which I have yet to find on any ‘world’ map except on Greek maps!

If you’re still not convinced that the Greek identity is a 19th century Philhellene fabrication; an identity ‘created’ purely for political purposes, then you had best read my book ‘Who are the Modern Greeks’ mentioned earlier which can be found at this link: http://www.pollitecon.com/Assets/Ebooks/Who-are-the-Modern-Greeks.pdf. And the book: ‘A Glorious place called Greece’ which can be found at this link: http://www.pollitecon.com/Assets/Ebooks/A-Glorious-Place-Called-Greece.pdf.

Fight fire with fire. The Greeks, the smart ones, will back off when you challenge their identity and prove to them that it is artificial… fake… The not so smart ones will attack your character. They may even attack you physically… So you’ll have to be careful…”

“I know… I know… I have been attacked for thinking differently... It’s difficult to tell them anything when they don’t want to hear it…”

“Stefche, all joking aside, things like this have ruined family relationships, so you really have to be careful how you approach this subject with Greeks. People may get very angry at you and even bring you harm.

Let me give you an example of what happened to me. By mentioning in my books that the Christian settlers and colonists from Asia Minor brought to our part of Macedonia by the Greek state were Turks, one fellow from my mother’s village got very upset with me and hated me for years before he accepted the idea that he might be half Turk. His mother was Macedonian. One of the worst things you can do to a Greek is call him a Turk. Even worse than that is calling him Bulgarian. They hate that because in their own minds Bulgarians and Turks are the worst kind of people in this world. So, this guy was so afraid that he ‘might be’ half Turk he hated me for reminding him. It bothered him a great deal and upset him a lot when I called him a Turk.

“Wow! Wow! Unbelievable! People hating what they really are? That’s unbelievable.”

“Well Stefche, don’t you think your own parents hate themselves for being who they are?”

“Yes, you’re right. But I don’t understand why? Why can’t they be who they are?”

“I can’t give you an answer… You’ll have to ask them… I can tell you, however, what others have told me…”

“Yes, I would like that…It might give me some perspective as to why my parents are such fanatics…”

“One of the reasons Macedonians or what we call ‘Grkomani’ are loyal to the Greeks is because they grandfathers or great grandfathers accepted the idea of ‘Hellenism’ and became Greeks. But in order to become Greeks they had to reject their ‘real’ identity… Not only their personal identity but also their entire Macedonian ethnicity… In other words they had to reject everyone who wasn’t Greek including their own Macedonian family, their Macedonian neighbours, the Macedonian people in their village and all the people that were Macedonian in general. In those days you couldn’t openly be anything other than Greek if you wanted to live in Greece.”

“So, how did your family remain Macedonian?”

“It didn’t. While your great grandfather voluntarily accepted to be a Greek, my great grandfather accepted it unwillingly. The Greeks changed his last name, his first name, the names of all his family members… but deep inside his heart he remained Macedonian and kept his real identity a secret. Then over time, as we all grew older and could keep a secret, he told us that we were Macedonians and not Greeks. This was passed on from generation to generation. I found out I wasn’t a Greek from my parents. One day my mother told me I wasn’t Greek. She had to tell me because I was becoming a nuisance. When I started going to public school in Greece, I sang the heroic Greek songs I had learned in class. I even sang them at home. One day as I paraded around the house like a proud Greek yelling I was born a Greek and was ready to die for Greece, my mother took me aside and told me to stop saying that. Fearing that I might tell my teacher she had to tell me why. She told me the entire ‘secret’. In short, she told me we were Macedonians, not Greeks. I had never heard the word ‘Macedonians’ before and it sounded very strange to me but I listened to her and promised her I would stop singing Greek songs and would keep her secret safe.”

“And who were these Greek heroes you sang about?”

“They were the murdering thugs who tortured and killed Macedonians in an attempt to turn them into Greeks, so that Macedonia could be Greek. So when someone says to you ‘Macedonia is Greek” just remember how many Macedonians had to suffer and die so that Macedonia could be Greek.”

“Oh, man, that is cruel…” “What was even crueler was what happened to the widows and orphans of the Macedonian men who fought for Greece during the Greek-Turkish War (1919-1922). The wives and children of the Macedonian men who fought for Greece and were killed during that war didn’t receive any compensation or benefits for their sacrifice and were left to starve. The reason for that, according to the Greeks, was because these men weren’t Greek. According to them they were Bulgarians. This is how the Greeks treated the Macedonians who sacrificed themselves for Greece.

The Macedonians weren’t the only people that were mistreated by the Greeks. I heard stories from two people of how the Turkish Christian settlers and colonists from Asia Minor were treated. You know the people that were deposited in Macedonia after the population exchanges between Greece and Turkey that took place in the 1920’s. They too were beaten by the Greek authorities for speaking Turkish to one another. Most of the Turkish Christian people that were exiled were rich and educated. They lost everything when they were kicked out of Turkey… just because they were Christian. And they too had to suffer pain and humiliation alongside the Macedonians. Unfortunately, in the Greek social scale they were levels above the Macedonians. They were considered to be ‘true Greeks”. Now they are the ‘real’ Macedonians, descendents of the ancient Macedonians and we’re still third class citizens without a single basic human right.”

“I, I just don’t know about all this… I have a hard time accepting it. And if I do accept it, I’ll never recover from it…”

“By now you must agree that it’s a curse to be Macedonian, to know the truth and not be able to do anything about it! Many Macedonians felt this way and those who dared to do anything ended up dead or exiled… If your parents were so loyal to the Greeks and the Greeks loved them so much, why did they leave and go to Canada?”

“I don’t know…”

“They left because they had no hope of advancing in Greece. They were treated just like the rest of us, despite their loyalty. A Macedonian is always a Macedonian, it’s our fate. One day, a generation or two later, your family would have turned on the Greeks… They know that. I’m sure you would turn on the Greeks once you find out who you are and what they have done to you and your people. The Greeks don’t want us… loyal or not…”

“You never did explain to me why Macedonians are loyal to the Greeks. What other reasons do they have… Is it because they’re ignorant like me?”

“Well, some are ignorant but many feel that they can avoid trouble and humiliation if they ‘become Greeks’, others think they can gain advantage over Macedonians. Others feel they can function as equals to the Greeks in Greek society. But it doesn’t always work out that way. I’ll give you a few examples where Macedonians loyal to the Greeks fell flat on their faces.

One man from the village Trnaa, a neighbouring village, now called Prasino in Greek, was very loyal to the Greeks to the point that he informed on his villagers to the Greek police. He had a son who had very high marks in public school but when he applied to go to high school he was rejected. The school board told him his son’s marks weren’t good enough. His father tried everything but he couldn’t get his son in to attend higher education. Eventually the man gave up and moved his family to Canada. In Canada his son was one of the top students in his school despite the language difficulties.

Another man from the village Zhelevo, another neighbouring village, now called Andartikon in Greek, also loyal to the Greeks had a smart son whom the Greeks also rejected. That man too moved his family to Canada. His son finished medical school and worked as a skilled surgeon. Unfortunately he was killed in a car accident. His father was devastated and died soon after that.

This other story I heard from people and I don’t know where this particular young man was from but when he was an adult he joined the Greek military. He was an orphan, his parents were both killed during the Greek Civil War and he was adopted by a Greek family. He didn’t know that he was Macedonian.

One day when the Greek army was doing exercises over the frozen Lake Prespa on the Greek side of the border, the ice broke and the general leading the exercises fell into the water and would have drowned if not for this young man who jumped into the cold water to save him. In gratitude the general told him that if he ever needed anything he could count on him to help him.

The Greek military, for this young man, was his family and he did his best expecting to be promoted… but after years passed… nothing. Eventually he wanted to know why he had been denied promotions and made many inquiries but no one would tell him why he was being held back. Finally he decided to go and see the general who by now was retired. The general promised to help him. Sometime later the general called him back and told him that his promotions were denied because he was the son of ‘slavs’.

The young man was devastated. He quit the military and, after he found out he had an aunt living in Canada, he moved to live with her. He didn’t speak any other language besides Greek so, until he learned English, he refused to speak Greek. I was told that he is also trying to learn Macedonian. That’s what I was told.”

“Oh man, oh man and I thought I had problems…”

“My friend you will have problems, the moment you open your mouth and start telling people that you are Macedonian…”

“How do you do it? How do you cope with the crap?”

“I have known that I was Macedonian from an early age, from a long time ago and I’ve adapted. I learned how to cope with the negativity to a point that it has become normal for me… But I can’t say it doesn’t affect me. I get upset every time I read something or watch television and hear this and that about the ‘ancient Greeks’, about the ancient Macedonians being Greek, how Philip and Alexander were Greek, how Cleopatra was Greek, and so on. It doesn’t bother me when the Greeks say this but it does when outsiders say it, especially the English who never miss an opportunity to tell the world about how ‘everything’ about the ancients was Greek, even though nothing about the ancients was Greek. If you want to learn more about this you should read my book ‘The little book of big Greek lies’ which you can find at: http://www.pollitecon.com/Assets/Ebooks/The-Little-Book-of-Big-Greek-Lies.pdf.”

“I will…”

“Stefche, I’ve taken enough of your time today. We should go home now and pick it up again next Friday…”

“I agree…” and with that we both went our separate ways. Part 8 – About Macedonia The next Friday we met, Stefche had some questions… He said:

“A couple of Fridays ago you mentioned that the Macedonian people had a massive uprising in 1903, I believe you called it Ilinden. You also mentioned that the Great Powers, through Bulgaria, made sure the uprising was sabotaged from the inside. I know you said you didn’t want to talk about it but can you at least tell me something about how it was sabotaged? Was Greece also involved?”

“No, Greece wasn’t involved… Not directly… But Greece refused to sell weapons and ammunition to the Macedonian revolutionaries. The history behind the 1903 Ilinden Uprising is a little complicated when it comes to Great Power involvement and how they worked through their proxy Bulgaria to weaken both the Ottomans and the Macedonians and prepared the grounds for Macedonia’s invasion and occupation. Like I said before, the Great Powers in 1878 had already decided that there would be no Macedonia and that Macedonian territory would be divided between Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. However there was no schedule as to when this would happen.

But when the Macedonians started preparing for their liberation, the Great Powers, through Bulgaria, decided to take advantage of the situation. They chose to use Bulgaria because the Macedonian revolutionaries associated with Bulgaria much more than with any of Macedonia’s other neighbours. Besides, there was a huge Macedonian population that had immigrated to Bulgaria, which could also be used to manipulate the Macedonians.”

“So, what exactly did the Bulgarians do?”

“Are you sure you want to know more about this… It has nothing to do with Greece?”

“Yes I do. If it involves Macedonia I want to know…” “Okay. Some of the Macedonian revolutionary leaders in those days were aware of, or at least suspected that the Great Powers were planning at some future time to divide Macedonia between Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. But before that could happen, the Great Powers had to take Macedonia out of the hands of the Ottomans. The Macedonian leaders had realized that in order for Macedonia to remain intact it had to remain as part of the Ottoman Empire... but not under the existing circumstances. They wanted Macedonia to be given autonomy as a province of the Ottoman Empire. At the same time they realized that the Ottoman Empire had to be strengthened in order to resist the Great Powers from destroying it. Unfortunately this wasn’t possible at the time because Macedonia was under Ottoman occupation and the Macedonian people were fighting against the Ottomans; struggling to liberate themselves. No Macedonian was prepared to stay in the Ottoman Empire without major concessions. Besides, many Macedonians didn’t believe Macedonia would be divided and felt it would be madness to continue to be slaves under the Ottomans. The Ottomans, on the other hand, didn’t want to give Macedonia autonomy. They didn’t believe the European Great Powers would defeat them and somehow believed they would survive without Macedonia’s help… which was wishful thinking of course. Later I found out from a Turk that the Ottomans were willing to make Macedonia an autonomous province but it was the Macedonians who resisted, they wanted outright independence. But I couldn’t verify that.”

“So, what happened?”

“Well, when the Great Powers found out that the Macedonians were preparing to either join the Ottoman Empire or fight to liberate themselves through a massive uprising, they began to accelerate their plans to ‘liberate’ Macedonia through their proxies, particularly Bulgaria.

“What did the Bulgarians do?”

“They constantly interfered in Macedonian internal matters, especially through the Macedonian immigrants in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian propaganda worked overtime to convince the Macedonian people that it was time to rise up and liberate themselves… and they would be right behind them to help. The idea that the Ottomans were the enemy was strictly emphasized and that was that…

Most Macedonians couldn’t understand how it would be beneficial for them to continue to be slaves to the Ottomans. And for that reason they were against an Ottoman-Macedonian alliance and tended to believe the Bulgarians.

And like I said, the Ottomans, on the other hand, didn’t want to give Macedonia autonomy. Why should they? Macedonia was already theirs.

However, the Macedonian leaders who wanted autonomy for Macedonia and for it to remain in the Ottoman Empire as an Ottoman province figured that in time they could convince the Ottomans to see things their way. They figured that by agitation, by attacking them from the inside, the Ottomans would eventually get tired of fighting and give them what they wanted; their autonomy.

The Great Powers unfortunately didn’t like that and looked for ways to stifle the Macedonians. And they did. Every time the Macedonian people made any gains, the Bulgarians would interfere and sabotage them. Instead of helping the Macedonians the Bulgarians constantly hampered their efforts.

Eventually the Bulgarians succeeded in dividing the Macedonians into two factions, the internal and the external faction. The internal faction struggled for an independent Macedonia while the external faction struggled for Macedonia to join Bulgaria. The story is a bit more complicated but you can understand what I’m getting at.”

“Yes I do. Please go on.”

“To make sure that Macedonia wouldn’t become independent, either through winning an uprising against the Ottomans or by joining the Ottomans, the Bulgarians escalated their interference in Macedonia’s internal matters to a point where they influenced an early uprising; before the Macedonian people were ready to fight. To learn more about this read my three interviews entitled ‘Analysis of Historical events in Greek Occupied Macedonia’ which can be found at: http://www.pollitecon.com/Assets/Ebooks/Analysis-of- historical-events-in-Greek-occupied-Macedonia.pdf, http://www.pollitecon.com/Assets/Ebooks/Analysis-of-historical-events-in-Greek-occupied-Macedonia-2.pdf, and http://www.pollitecon.com/Assets/Ebooks/Analysis-of-Historical_Events-in-Greek-Occupied-Macedonia-Part-3.pdf.

The Bulgarians succeeded in starting the Ilinden Uprising early, before the people were ready to fight. The idea was to start the uprising early, before any deals were made with the Ottomans and before the Macedonians were fully prepared to fight. By getting them to fight one another the Great Powers, through Bulgaria, aimed to weaken both the Macedonians and the Ottomans to make an invasion of Macedonia possible. And they succeeded because ten years after the Ilinden uprising Macedonia was invaded, occupied and partitioned as planned between Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria.

But, us it turned out, Bulgaria got screwed. For all its effort it only got 10% of Macedonia whereas Greece, which invested the least effort, received 51% and Serbia only 39%. The part that Serbia occupied in 1913 became a Republic of Yugoslavia in August 1944. Then in 1991, after Yugoslavia broke up it became an independent state. Today we call that part of Macedonia, the Republic of Macedonia.

“Did the Bulgarians help the Macedonians?”

The Bulgarians promised the Macedonians many things including military help but none of it was delivered. They told the Macedonians ‘you just start the uprising and we’ll be right there behind you, to help you. We’ll send our army to help you liberate yourselves.’ That never happened. The Bulgarians even sold the Macedonians rifles but wouldn’t sell them bullets. And just like the Greeks, the Bulgarians were party to every evil that was committed against the Macedonians. And today they dare to say that the Macedonians are Bulgarians. Is this how Bulgaria treats its own people? I think not!

Even the Great Powers were there watching the Ilinden drama unfold. English ships were floating in the Aegean Sea watching villages burn in the hills and didn’t lift a finger to help. Some say they were there to stop the Bulgarians from invading. Others say they were there to turn the tide… to stop the Macedonians from winning. All I can tell you is that they were there and did nothing to help save their Christian brothers from being slaughtered.”

“Is there anything good you can tell me that someone did for us?”

“I’m afraid not. Everyone looked after their own interests and didn’t care about us. I’m not saying that they should have cared about us and helped us, but there were better and more humane ways they could have treated us. But that would be asking for too much…”

“Man, I still can’t believe what I’m hearing. Are we cursed or something as a people?”

“We must be. When I was back in the village before we left for Canada, I used to sit with the old men and listen to their conversations. Some of their stories were tragic. They used to say ‘curse that Alexander for the crimes he committed, now we’re cursed because of that’. They would say that we are still suffering and paying for Alexander’s evil deeds, for the thousands he slaughtered; turning the rivers red. We are a cursed people…

Another story they used to tell and laugh about it, was what happened to them when Greece attacked Turkey in the early 1920’s. They would say it took us 90 days to get to Ankara and one day to get back. When we were attacking them we used to yell ‘five Turks to a bayonet’ but then when they attacked us we ran like rabbits.

I could have learned a lot from those old men but I was too young to understand. They made history, the kind you can’t learn in school…”

“Well, I’m glad you remember all these things…. But now that we’re talking about the Bulgarians I have a question.”

“Go ahead, ask away…”

“I’ve heard many Greeks, or Grkomani’ as you call them, call the Macedonian language Bulgarian. Is there any truth to that?” “No! And I can prove it. Let’s start with the Bulgarians. According to Bulgarian history the first Bulgarians arrived in the Balkans during the 7th century AD. They were a Turkic people and spoke a Turkish language. The Macedonians speak a Slavic language, so how can the Macedonian language be Bulgarian? On the other hand, the Macedonian people were already in the Balkans before the Bulgarians arrived, so what language were they speaking then? They were speaking the Macedonian language, of course, the same language they spoke before and after the Bulgarians arrived… the same language we speak today. If the Bulgarians spoke a Turkic language before they arrived in the Balkans and today they speak a Slavic language, then whose language are they speaking? And if the Bulgarians today claim the Macedonian language is Bulgarian, then the Bulgarian language must be Macedonian and not the other way around. In other words, the Bulgarians today speak the Macedonian language…”

“You have a point… You have a very good point. In other words by claiming the Macedonian language is Bulgarian the Bulgarians are in fact admitting they speak the Macedonian language and, therefore, the Bulgarian language is Macedonian.”

“Now you’ve got the idea but don’t say that to any Bulgarians because they might be liable to bite your head off.”

“I want to ask about the Serbians. I assume things were different with the Serbians?”

“The Serbians too committed the same or should I say similar acts of evil against the Macedonian people. The Serbians sent settlers to Macedonia, mostly Serbian and Montenegrin military officers, to administer their newly acquired Macedonian territory and gave them the best and most fertile lands. The Serbians also changed people’s names from Macedonian to Serbian and began to teach the Macedonian people Serbian. In school, children were told they were Slavs who had come to the Balkans and that Macedonia’s history began in the 6th century AD with the arrival of the Slavs.”

“What about the Albanians? Were they any better? I understand a small part of Macedonia was given to the Albanians?” “That’s true. Albania was given a small part of Macedonia. The Albanians in Macedonia were deposited there by the Ottomans. The Muslim Albanians were allies of the Ottomans and were predominantly responsible for spying on the Macedonians. They too committed horrific crimes during the Ottoman occupation. After the Ottoman occupation the Macedonian people lived peacefully with the Albanians, that is, until the Republic of Macedonia became independent. After that, instigated by the West, especially the United States, they too started causing problems, especially in 2001 when they rose up against the Macedonians. You know the rest…”

“Yes, yes I do… So, what else can you tell me about our new occupiers?”

“Well, let me put it this way, all of them want more of Macedonia and demonstrated that over the years, especially the Bulgarians and Albanians. The Bulgarians want all of Macedonia and joined the side that offered them more of Macedonia during the two world wars. It was easy for Hitler to offer more of Macedonia to the Bulgarians because he had nothing to lose. It wasn’t the case with Churchill who didn’t want to displease Greece by offering Bulgaria more of Macedonia’s territory.

As for the Albanians…? They are allies and special friends of the Americans. The Americans gave them Kosovo and also want to give them the western part of the Republic of Macedonia. Even though they are a minority in Macedonia, they act like they are the majority. They literally run the country.”

“So, Macedonia played an important role in how the wars were shaped? That’s interesting…”

“There is more to it than that. Let’s say that there can be no Greece or Bulgaria without Macedonia…”

“What do you mean?”

“It doesn’t take a genius to see that Greece ‘expropriated’ everything that is ancient about Macedonia and Bulgaria expropriated everything that is modern. The dividing line is the 6th century AD. The Greeks claim that Macedonia and its entire ancient people, including Philip II and Alexander the Great, were Greek. Bulgaria, on the other hand, claims that Macedonia and the entire modern Macedonian population including Gotse Delchev, the supreme commander of the Macedonian revolutionary force, are Bulgarian.”

“What a quagmire… Will it ever be straightened out?”

“Yes, but not by the Macedonians alone…! It will take Great Power intervention to straighten it out.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well the Great Powers of yesterday who signed the 1913 Bucharest Treaty to partition Macedonia are the same Great Powers of today and as long as they are in power they will dictate the rules of what happens to Macedonia. The rules to this day have been, as we know them, ‘Macedonians do not exist and Macedonia shall belong to Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Albania’…”

“What about the Republic of Macedonia. Didn’t it become independent in 1991?”

“Yes but both times it surfaced, once in 1944 and the other time in 1991, it never received full support from the Great Powers. Look at the problems we’re facing today with Greece and Bulgaria? Both of these countries are supported by the United States in their endeavours to keep us from achieving our goals. If you want to know more about American influence in Macedonian and Greek affairs, read Risto Nikovski’s book entitled ‘America’s Role in Macedonia’s Troubled Journey to International Recognition (1991 – 2013) Second Edition’ which you can find at this link: http://www.pollitecon.com/Assets/Ebooks/America%27s-Role-in-Macedonia%27s-Troubled-Journey-to-International-recognition.pdf.”

“What about Serbia…? Part of Macedonia was given to Serbia by the same Great Powers, wasn’t it?”

“Yes but Serbia is a Russian ally and an enemy of the United States. The Western Great Powers not only took Macedonia from Serbia but bombed it for over 70 days and took Kosovo. But… If Serbia ever joins the European Union, mark my words, it will ask that the Republic of Macedonia be given back to it. Serbia is being punished for being a Russian ally.”

“Do you think so?”

“Yes, unless of course the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest is annulled. But that will never happen.”

“Why not?”

“Well, what can Macedonia offer the Great Powers that Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria can’t? All Serbia has to do is break relations with Russia and become an ally of the United States in exchange for getting its part of Macedonia back. If I were an Albanian today I would think very carefully… If Serbia becomes a Western ally what do you think will happen to Kosovo? The other thing to think about is Russia’s growing influence in geopolitics…” I said and after a short pause added. “I think we’ve said enough for one day, don’t you?”

“I’m grateful to you for all this… I’ll see you next Friday…” replied Stefche and walked away shaking his head from side to side. Part 9 – Lead up to the Greek Civil War

The next Friday we met Stefche was excited to see me and tell me how happy he was to have met me.

“Since I met you a whole world opened up in front of me. It was sitting there in front of me but I just couldn’t see it. And despite all the tragic things that have happened to our people, I’m glad that I’m Macedonian. Now I want to know more… I want to know everything there is about us…”

“You know my friend there is more than one side to our story. Just being Macedonian isn’t enough; you’ll have to accept others and be accepted by them. Otherwise you’ll either become a lonely old man hiding a secret… a lonely man with a cross to bear… or a hated, scorned pariah. You have to be careful how you deal with your new found knowledge and how you use it with your family and friends, especially in your autobiography.”

“If there is a will there is a way… I’ll learn how to handle it… I have given up on writing my autobiography. What could I possibly say about myself, with all the things I’ve learned…?”

“Stefche, what you’ve learned could be your autobiography; a man struggling to discover his identity. What could be better than that?”

“I’ll think about it but for now, for this moment, I need to learn more… Tell me more about our struggles…”

“Everything I know I’ve written down in my books. You should read my books.”

“Yes, but it is different when you can look in the eyes of the person telling the story and feel his emotions… his passion… than just reading…” “Okay, okay. I haven’t told you much about the Greek Civil War. It was another tragic event in our people’s history. Maybe today we can talk about that…”

“Yes, yes… that’ll be fantastic… Tell me more about the Greek Civil War…”

“Let me begin by saying that the Greek Civil War was a perpetrated war and by that I mean it was started to serve two purposes. One was to destroy the communists in Greece and the other was to get rid of the Macedonians living in Greece.

After the Second World War ended, the countries that were affected by the war were divided into zones of influence. Greece fell under English influence and the English didn’t want a Greece with communists or Macedonians living in it. England was afraid that if the Greek people voted for a communist party in Greece and that party came to power, England would lose Greece. As you know Greece is an English proxy. In its entire existence as a country it has served England as a bulwark against Russia gaining access to the Mediterranean Sea. So Greece was very important to England and it didn’t want to lose it under any circumstances.

Later, during the Cold War, when the world was divided between East and West and the Iron Curtain, as Churchill called it, was drawn, it divided Greece from Yugoslavia. This meant that the Iron Curtain divided the Greek part of Macedonia from the Yugoslav part (formerly the Serbian part). I mention this to you now because I want you to remember it. I’ll explain later.

Like I said, two things prompted England to take immediate action in Greece during the Second World War. One was the massive number of communists and the other was the large number of Macedonians living in northern Greece.

As far as the English were concerned there were no Macedonians living inside Greece. The Greeks themselves had said so. According to Greek statistics from the late 1920’s, after the population exchanges took place and all minorities were evicted, only Greeks lived in Greece, that is 98% pure Greeks and 2% Muslim Greeks. Unfortunately for the English that wasn’t true. During the German, Italian and Bulgarian occupation, England had set up spy rings in the Balkans to monitor the war situation, particularly to organize and connect the internal resistance movements. One such ring was set up in Florina, the city we Macedonians call Lerin. My father had told me about that but later, as I did my own research, I found an article written by a Captain Evans who was present there at the time.

One interesting thing that Captain Evans found and wrote about was that a large number of Macedonians were living there. He found that the majority of the people living around Lerin were Macedonians and spoke Macedonian. He had visited Greece before and, as far as he knew, everyone in Greece was Greek and spoke Greek. So this was a surprise for Captain Evans which he felt was important. So he informed his command in London about it. He also reported that these people were locals, not Yugoslavs, and had lived there for many generations.”

“Why were these people speaking Macedonian, especially in front of strangers, weren’t they prohibited from speaking Macedonian by law?”

“Yes it’s true, they were prohibited by the Greek government but by this time the Greek government had capitulated and the new invaders, especially the Italians, didn’t care what language the locals spoke. The locals naturally took advantage of their new found freedom and started speaking Macedonian openly.

So after Captain Evans filed his report and sent it to London, in which he estimated that about 120,000 Macedonians lived in that part of Greece, England went into panic mode and looked for ways to get rid of them. England used, or I should say abused, Captain Evans report to create plans to forcefully remove the Macedonians from their ancestral homeland, just because they were Macedonians, and this was genocide.

England feared that if Stalin of the USSR found out about them he would have two reasons to ask for giving them independence: One, because they were indigenous people living on their ancestral lands and two, they were fighting on the side of the allies. But according to the Atlantic Charter, about which you can find more information on pages 129 and 130 of my book: ‘Macedonians and the NOT so Civil War in Greece’, which can be found at this link: http://www.pollitecon.com/Assets/Ebooks/Macedonians-and-the-NOT-so-Civil-War-in-Greece.pdf, the Macedonian people in Greece had the right to make territorial adjustments and the right to self-determination because they fought on the side of the allies… which they did. This worried England to the point where it decided it was time to ‘get rid’ of them from Greece.”

“But how? How does one get rid of 120,000 people, unnoticed?”

“Well it seems the English have ways… Since these people lived close to the Greek-Yugoslav border, the easiest thing to do was drive them out of Greece and into Yugoslavia. The English had good relations with the Yugoslav government of the time and an agreement was reached. But unfortunately for the English, Tito and his communists took over Yugoslavia and derailed their plan. It took some time before the English could convince Tito to do the same but by the time they did, WW II was over.

The English, however, still wanted the Macedonians out of Greece and the communists destroyed so they had to invent new ways to do it; especially since Tito was still willing and open to the idea. And they did. Somewhere down the line the English, with help from the Greek government they had created and the Greek communists, they succeeded.”

“Are you telling me that the Greek communists helped the English; to destroy themselves and get rid of the Macedonians? That sounds ridiculous!”

“It wasn’t all communists. It was the top communist leadership that was involved, both Siantos and Zahariadis were English agents.”

“Who were these people?”

“They were both general secretaries of the Greek communist party. A general secretary occupied the top leadership position in a communist party, similar to a president in the West. If you want to know more about them (Siantos and Zahariadis) read my book: “Macedonians and the NOT so Civil War in Greece” which can be found at this link: http://www.pollitecon.com/Assets/Ebooks/Macedonians-and-the-NOT-so-Civil-War-in-Greece.pdf. I have dedicated a chapter for each. It is important for people to know who these people were and that they secretly worked for the English during WW II and the Greek Civil War.

People say, and even historians agree, that Siantos and Zahariadis ran the Communist Party of Greece (CPG) like a couple of idiots. Almost everything they did made no sense. They acted like they didn’t know what they were doing. They’ve been called incompetent, fools, idiots, etc. The more polite people said they made many ‘mistakes’. However, if you view their actions from the point of view that they were English agents and worked for English interests, then things start to make sense.

Siantos led the Greek communist party during World War II and Zahariadis led it after him during the Greek Civil War. They both did things that were destructive to both the Macedonians, who were their best allies, and to the communists who supported them. They made too many ‘mistakes’ and did things that made no ‘sense’ but I’d rather you read my book than discuss it here. I’ll give you some highlights.”

“No problem. I’ll read the book… eventually… So, please go on.”

“Siantos signed a number of Agreements with the English that were detrimental to the communists but benefited the English. He also disbanded the lead communist army (ELAS) and left the progressive Macedonian and Greek people defenseless and at the mercy of the fascist terrorists who earlier were allied with the occupiers and hated both the Macedonians and the communists. Siantos allowed and encouraged these terrorists to attack the Macedonian people, especially the innocent Macedonian civilian population.

One has to wonder why? What else could be going on?

After World War II ended, the communists, the very same people who liberated Greece from the German, Italian and Bulgarian Fascist occupiers, were left defenseless to be tormented by the same people who yesterday were allies of the Fascists. Siantos and later Zahariadis allowed this to happen… They created the conditions for unchecked terror to take place after Siantos, at the request of the English, disarmed and disbanded ELAS; the communist led army. Many Macedonians served in that army and many ended up in prison on the dreaded dry Greek islands.

While the rest of the world celebrated the armies that liberated them, the army that liberated Greece was punished and sent to prison.

Why?

Because England wanted it that way! It seemed like England was preparing Greece for something! But for what?!

That will become apparent when you look at what Tito was doing in Skopje. At the same time terror was raging in Greece, directed against the communists and the Macedonian population. Tito and his Yugoslav cronies were preparing the Macedonians from Greece for war.

For what war you may ask?!

WW II had ended and no one wanted to fight. But, nonetheless, Tito created a liberation organization called NOF and sent it to Greece, where Macedonians lived, to start a liberation war.