2.0 TRUTHS AND CONTROVERSIES ABOUT THE GREEK CIVIL WAR (1945-1949) - Part 01

2.0 TRUTHS AND CONTROVERSIES ABOUT THE GREEK CIVIL WAR (1945-1949)

Great manipulations of the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia after World War II: From one lie to another!

Now in his book “Pette sudbonosni godini vo Egejska Makedonija (1945-1949) (“Five vital years in Aegean Macedonia (1945-1949)”) Kiriazovski has confirmed that: NOF, the National Liberation Front for the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia, was formed in Skopje on April 23, 1945 under the initiative and leadership of the CPY/CPM. AFZH, the women’s organization, and NOMS, the youth organization, were also formed at the same time.

With the establishment of NOF, the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia, for half a decade (1945-1949), found themselves caught up in binary politics which started with longing for a “United Macedonia” and ended with extreme persecution and exile from their native homes.

Was there a NOF vision of where we were going?!

The “false history” written about the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia has not explained why there was a unique need for a “special” women’s organization (AFZH) with objectives to massively mobilize women. What was the political message behind that? What were the real objectives behind the massive collection of children? But given the outcome of events one thing is very clear; the strategic goal was to turn the old traditional Macedonian family into a political family. That way it would be easier to manipulate it and make it do whatever they wanted it to do.

The “false history” has not explained why the Macedonian people were put in a position to fight in an alien war, to become its casualty and to lose their indigenous homes. Specifically it does not explain;

1. NOF, AFZH and NOMS were formed to fight on what front?

2. Who was on the other side of that front?

3. What was the purpose of this struggle?

Was all this done as per Tsvetko Uzunovski - Abas’s directives as ordered by Tito and Kolishevski?

In other words, up to now we have only experienced conflict and now, with the formation of NOF and the other organizations, by pushing foreign propaganda that stirs our naked patriotism, we were on the “Road to Freedom”?

In retrospect, from our research it has become very clear that our patriotism was abused by those who wanted to gain our allegiance and control us. We the Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia had become pawns of vengeance in the CPG and CPY’s ideological games. We became political subjects both in Greece and Yugoslavia.

As early as 1944-1945, a small group of elite intellectuals (which later developеd into NOF), instead of planning a better future for us, allowed themselves to be manipulated by Yugoslavia, delivering us to the Greeks and putting our fate in Greek hands, which as we well know resulted in us experiencing genocide and eternal banishment from our centuries-old hearths. This was an unforgivable mistake and in retrospect those who did this proved themselves to be immature in this historical moment. So, were all these Yugoslav and Greek representatives too powerful for us Macedonians to handle, we could not compete with them on an intellectual level so instead we resigned to serve them and their interests? Is that how it was? Is that what happened?

The Macedonian story from April 1945 to October 1946 became a shadow.

By early 1945 NOF and AFZH, in a short time, had done a fantastic job of making themselves known to the Macedonian people. In the meantime the Greek government undertook unheard of measures to terrorize the Macedonian people, including murder and persecution of ordinary villagers who had Macedonian National feelings. The peasants, particularly those who had no profession, began to join NOF and AFZH en masse and they in turn became the activists of these organizations. Soon politics had become their profession and most became “fishermen of human souls”.

It was all these “ideological activists” who coaxed the Macedonian people into looking into empty space, not only during the war, but also after the war, in peace time, when thousands of Macedonians were forgotten and left out there to wander the world, leaving their homes and hearth for strangers to populate. The great indigenous spirits which were deeply tied to the country (language, culture, statehood, church etc.) were suppressed by the “revolutionary” forces of NOF and AFZH.

Did we the Macedonian people at exactly this period of time, under the leadership of the CPY/CPM, unknowingly give the Greek government the right (not to be prosecuted according to international law) to take terrible measures against us, which led to genocide?

Under instructions and leadership from the CPY/CPM what did NOF and AFZH hope to accomplish in 1945 and 1946 by their actions in Greek occupied Macedonia? Did they unknowingly open the door to persecution and genocide? Did they unknowingly lead the people to sacrifice themselves by joining the ranks of DAG and fight in a senseless ideological alien war? Did they unknowingly bring doom and destruction, the break up of families and eventually the permanent eviction of all Macedonians who left their hearth; including the children?

Now 60 years later, we get to hear from Kiriazovski, an official historian who carried a different tune on the subject all these years. And what is he telling us now? He is telling us that: “The Macedonian people from Aegean Macedonia were organized and pushed into the mountains by the CPY/CPM!” Unfortunately he does not answer the questions: “What was the purpose for all this? Why did the CPY/CPM, led by Tito and the Macedonian leadership, form these organizations and dispatch them in Aegean Macedonia to convince people to take up arms and go into the mountains way before the Greek Civil War had officially started?”

In retrospect allow me to say that with the establishment of NOF and AFZH in Skopje by the CPY/CPM, we the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia gained two bitter rivals who turned us into their victims. The CPG and the Greek government had no intention of abandoning Greek occupied Macedonia and steadfastly defended the sovereignty of Greece.

Verbalism - Instead of historical analysis

Kiriazovski’s book “Pette sudbonosni godini vo Egejska Makedonija (1945-1949) (“Five vital years in Aegean Macedonia (1945-1949)”) contains information that has been neglected in the past which merits reexamining, reinterpreting and resorting. This neglected information shows that the current written history about the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia has left out a great deal of information and lacks honesty, the love for truth, righteousness, justice and fairness. The book poses new questions but many are poorly answered, particularly the ones that deal with the military and the political analysis of why the CPY/CPM and Tito created false hope for the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia. NOF was forced to propagate a great illusion on a small nation.

It is a historic fact that NOF did propagate a great illusion. But the important question is who instigated it and why? Why were the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia pushed to enter this deadly embrace which brought them genocide? The fact that they experienced genocide has been confirmed by historian Kiriazovski. This fact, hidden from us for the last 60 years has prevented us from looking into the secrets of the genocide and the real motives behind it. It has hidden the CPY/CPM’s real motives for creating NOF and AFZH in Skopje on April 23, 1945 under Tito and Kolishevski’s leadership. Here is what Tsvetko Uzunovski-Abas (11), CPM Central Committee Organizing Secretary and Interior Minister of the People’s Republic of Macedonia, had to say to the NOF and AFZH leadership: “… Yugoslavia has become the Centre of the revolution in the Balkans. The Macedonian question has now become a Yugoslav question on account that the CPY formed the organizations NOF, AFZH and NOMS in Aegean Macedonia and placed you in charge to lead them. These organizations have been tasked to give the Macedonian people in Aegean Macedonia a Yugoslav orientation. The Macedonian people and the Macedonian movements are now led by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. The Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia will get their full recognition and acceptance within a Federal Yugoslavia and Aegean Macedonia will join Yugoslavia.” (AM. Macedonian Archives. F-20/276, F-20/196).

What kind of political and national depravity was this for the top CPM leadership to cover up crimes committed against many of their comrades (See documentary Chento to Vlahov, 25-29.07.2011) accused of being autonomists and separatists; people who were in fact real fighters and patriots and willing to solve the Macedonian Question? Why, on one hand, jail and mistreat people who were truly interested in a “United Macedonia” and on the other hand instigate interests in Greek occupied Macedonia to “Fight for a United Macedonia”? This is what the Communist Party of Yugoslavia’s leadership did to the Macedonian people and to the Macedonian movement under them. The Yugoslav leadership, specifically the CPY, told the Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia to “Fight for a United Macedonia” and that “The Macedonian people from Aegean Macedonia would get their full recognition and acceptance within a Federal Yugoslavia and Aegean Macedonia would join Yugoslavia!”

Was it not a sin to push one’s own Macedonian nation into a war in which the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia experienced genocide and lost their native hearth forever? Yes, it was a sin, a sin of historical proportions! It was a sin for the CPY (Tito) and for the CPM (Kolishevski and Uzunovski) to form NOF, AFZH and NOMS and push the entire Macedonian population en masse to fight in a war which led to the annihilation of the Macedonian family and hearth. It was especially a sin to engage Macedonian women, mothers, into AFZH and ask them to give up their children for the sake of a senseless ideological war that had no real meaning for the Macedonian people! It was a sin to break up the traditional Macedonian family in that part of Macedonia. (This, as it turned out, was a strategic demonstration of a planned conspiracy.)

The NOF and AFZH leadership believed what it was told! Should it have had reasons not to believe what it was told? It should have had but unfortunately it had a primordial desire to unite the Macedonian people and could not resist the Communist Party of Yugoslavia’s offer to help (and that of the leadership of the People’s Republic of Macedonia).

Perhaps the NOF and AFZH leadership did not know what it was getting into. This however does not excuse what Tito and Kolishevski did! There is something wrong and illogical about Tito’s and Kolishevski’s attempts to impose themselves (through NOF and AFZH) on the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia. How could Tito and Kolishevski dare send back the very same people who were in conflict with Greece (ELAS and CPG) in the first place, the same people who fled with the Lerin-Kostur and Voden Battalions, the same people from whom the Aegean Brigade was formed in Yugoslavia and installed in Tito’s army?

In the beginning these acts (NOF and AFZH showing up and wanting to recruit people and start a war) confused the villagers in Greek occupied Macedonia; a confusion which persisted throughout the course of the entire Greek Civil War. To begin with NOF and AFZH, for the Greeks, were not indigenous organizations. Communism was not well understood and not accepted by the people. It was imposed on the Macedonian peasant as an “ideal”, as an “eternal perspective”. The people became bewildered and completely confused by the CPY/CPM’s unprincipled acts after 1948, precisely when the Greek Civil War was raging at its worst.

The old people used to say: “In confusing times clarity and freedom must be our eternal vigilance. If we lack these two things we will be uprooted from our ancestral hearths. Many of us Macedonians know that those who plan our demise, plan it behind our backs.”

And it happened just as our old people predicted: “The less people understood what was happening to them the easier it was to fool and manipulate them.” Their expectations were futile and the outcome proved to be disastrous which leads us to ask some serious questions: “Why have Macedonians, especially in Greek occupied Macedonia, for centuries chosen self-sacrifice over assimilation? Why did they not choose to become Greeks and live more comfortable lives and have a better future?”

The answer is simple: “Because we are Macedonians and nothing more! We have our own language, customs, culture and history.”

Strategists were well aware of this! They knew very well that successive Greek governments and Greek authorities had tried everything, including using harsh measures against the Macedonians to assimilate, denationalize and eradicate their national identity but without success. So what do you do with a people that have an identity you want to get rid of but can’t by conventional methods? You get rid of the people, of course!

This is why Tsvetko Uzunovski’s suggestions wreak of suspicion and need to be further analyzed in order to determine if there was a conspiracy? A conspiracy perpetrated by whom and what was its purpose?

The notion of “conspiracies against the people” existed in all communist nations so it should be of no surprise that it also existed in our country. Right from the start NOF and AFZH were secretly planning a mass mobilization of Macedonians (men, women and youth). They wanted to mobilize the entire population - to breathe together, to think together and to act together in accordance with the orders given to it by the ideological activists. The aim was to plan together in secret, especially for premeditated illegal acts.

For the Greek authorities and the Western powers an organized network such as NOF and AFZH operating inside Greece had the designs of a Civil War. It was well understood that secret preparations for war were made from April 23, 1945 when NOF and AFZH were formed by the CPY/CPM in Skopje, up to March 31, 1946 when the Greek Civil War officially began.

But after the Greek Civil War started, NOF and AFZH’s role changed. The organizations were now led by the CPG, by Zahariadis, and not by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia or Tito, their creator.

Sixty years of ideological injustice and concealment of an ominous alien concept.

So we now can confirm that this was the starting point (for a secret strategy) for politically mass organizing the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia. We now know that the task for organizing the people was initiated by the CPY/CPM with Tito’s blessings!

Meaning, NOF and the other Macedonian organizations formed on April 23, 1945 were tasked with organizing the Macedonian people for a struggle to unify Greek occupied Macedonia with the People’s Republic of Macedonia in Federal Yugoslavia.

Logically this opens a lot of questions for every Macedonian that to this day have not been opened by any of our historians including Kiriazovski. For example:

1. Was the Macedonian CPM Central Committee leadership convinced that NOF and AFZH (with such a fateful concept) would be able to unite Aegean Macedonia just after World War II? Or did they act blindly on Tito’s orders?!

2. Were the selected (appointed) members of NOF and AFZH true leaders of the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia or just puppets in the hands of Tito’s personally selected, mysterious people with great power?

3. Does it mean that by seducing the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia (who naïvely believed in panacea democracy) they could re-arrange Greek occupied Macedonia to their liking?!

4. Why haven’t Macedonian national historians explored this subject and come up with answers? Why have they allowed (and still allow) a cover-up to take place and possible conspiracies and theories to find fertile soil in Greek occupied Macedonia? Why have they not reported the national crimes committed against their own people who suffered genocide?!

All these questions need to be answered! We need to uncover all internal and external political, military and state interference in order to get to the truth. We need to know why this terrible thing happened to the Macedonian people, why they lost their native hearth. Why were they driven into an open conflict against the Greek government after the war (WW II) ended and the Great Powers had already divided the world into spheres of influence? Why were our people led to sacrifice themselves for nothing and be forever exiled from their native ancestral homes?

Right after releasing his book, Kiriazovski opened a lot of questions which will lead to a long and arduous journey looking for answers. Every educated researcher and historiographer already knows or has sensed the truth about the Macedonian involvement in the Greek Civil War. They all know that the Greek Civil War was not a revolution nor a continuation of the Ilinden struggle because the Macedonians never led a struggle guided by the two basic pillars; political and military. This is a fact!

The NOF and AFZH leaders (as party subjects and soldiers of the CPY/CPM), however, have insisted that the Macedonian people were a political and military factor in the Greek Civil War! How?!

It is truly dishonest and malicious to keep us in the dark regarding development in the various stages of NOF and AFZH run by the CPY and the CPG.

In retrospect we know that a violent mass mobilization took place in Greek occupied Macedonia involving many Macedonians joining the various DAG military units. In fact between 16 and 17 thousand Macedonians were recruited, which represented more than 60% of the total number of active combatants in the Democratic Army of Greece. What the reader probably does not know and should know is that about 12 to 14 thousand more Macedonians served outside the ethnic part of Macedonia, i.e. throughout Greece, who were not part of the NOF and AFZH organizations. These fighters, particularly those serving in southern Greece, had absolutely no rights as Macedonians: they were not allowed to speak Macedonian, sing Macedonian songs, or to organize or join Macedonian Associations.

This is exactly how the Macedonian people lost their identity. They were beaten down to believe in ideological concepts. They were required to sacrifice themselves for internationalism in the name of Macedonian patriotism! We Macedonians were forced to turn a blind eye, to ignore reality; a typical Macedonian syndrome.

If that was not true then how does one explain the mysterious ways of the black politics, the evil, the mass pushing of Macedonians in that hell, especially the Macedonian women who fought in the Greek Civil War, which brought eradication to the Macedonian people!

And now every Macedonian who suffered because of this War should be asking the question: “Why did this author (as well as the many others) not speak up and say, ‘This war was not a revolution; it was a scam!’ What ‘Macedonian Question’ were they talking about after World War II ended and after everything had been settled? Whose ‘policies’ were NOF and AFZH implementing? Were they really Macedonian policies?! Or were they the policies of strangers who were enforcing their strict commitments to the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest working against the Macedonian people and against the Macedonian Question; leading our people to genocide?!”

My attempt to answer questions such as these, which to this day remain unanswered, or are intentionally shaded by some authors, is the primary reason why I opted for this investigation.

We have waited for more than half a century for this moment when the truth can finally reveal itself, a truth trapped in eternal mystery, a truth that will finally show that the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia experienced evil, evil that did not fall from the sky. For 60 years now we have been warned to be careful when asking such delicate questions and to be respectful of the people who pushed us into the Greek Civil War because, we are told, those very same people created the People’s Republic of Macedonia. If we blame and criticize those people then we would be blaming and criticizing the Macedonian state! Does this not resemble a historical setback?

But no matter how painful the truth may be, it should be told for the sake of future generations who should not be burdened with the heavy ideological burdens of the past.

I want to open every question in my research, even those questions which have no hope of being answered.

As far as the eye can see, we know why we suffered defeat and that knowledge can be a very important and powerful lesson for us for the future.

My aim in doing this, i.e. studying this military historical and political subject (12), is to bring awareness of what truly happened and examine its results, i.e. the fatal consequences of this phenomenon.

I will not defend anyone because I am neither a lawyer nor a judge. I do not criticize; I seek to find the root of the problem by asking questions. I want to be realistic in my approach and I want to know the truth. I want to extensively research the root of this evil, i.e. I want to restore the credibility in our National History - especially the part about the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia. I want to know who lured the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia to the ideological gallows?! If

I don’t do this it will disappear and another voice will be lost and so will the truth and our hope for the future.

I must tell you this: I don’t agree with people who write history and include the truth only when it suits the Party or the Government and ignore, omit, hide and fight against it when it doesn’t! For me those people are not historians! We the people from Greek occupied Macedonia have lived through a terrible, tragic time and we need to know who did this to us and why! Unfortunately none of the Macedonian politicians are prepared to give us answers; they don’t want to tell us “who brought the evil in Greek occupied Macedonia?” “Specifically, why was this evil delivered from Yugoslavia?” “Why were we lied to and why was our Macedonian patriotism exploited for cosmopolitanism?” Was this part of the communist ideology? I need to know, we all need to know: Did the Macedonian NOF and AFZH leadership, which led us in this hellish Greek Civil War, have a political strategy that went beyond day to day activities of where it was taking the Macedonian people? Or did it succumb to outside pressures and surrender to the storm which carried it along into oblivion while it blindly recruited innocent and naïve people from the villages, using meaningless ideological slogans and put them behind the “barbed wire”.

There is no doubt that the Macedonians were psychologically pushed en masse by those regimes whose motto was: “It is forbidden for Macedonians (in the villages in Greek occupied Macedonia under the control of NOF and AFZH) to work outside NOF and AFZH policies. Those who do are considered dishonest and unpatriotic.” In such a narrow space, maneuverability was very difficult and the consequences for some Macedonians were disastrous.

Separating men from women and their children was also disastrous. This resulted in ruining the Macedonian family. Men were pushed to join NOF, women to join AFZH and the youth to join NOMS. Thus families were deprived of fatherhood and motherhood. People were used to the max for a future created by NOF and AFZH first under CPY directives and later under CPG directives.

In our analysis we will carefully follow the evidence. Following Tito, Tempo and Kolishevski’s directives, we took Zahariadis and Markos’s lead like sycophants and acting like witty servants we forgot who we were. We were lied to and lured towards a promised “future” which made us forget the present. One thing is certain though: we have left an extensive dossier - a “tormented history”.

For years and decades we lived in the outside world as immigrants; living in fear, being afraid that if we said anything or asked questions we might offend those who inflicted evil upon us. We generously and honestly accepted what they did to us without question. We thought it was our fate. We also accepted without question the slogan, “We will fight to the death and win against Anglo-American fascism,” which became a “cancer” for us during the Greek Civil War.

And who knows how many more years we will remain scattered in exile and listen to promises made by people who have no intention of delivering? But there is one thing we Macedonians must realize, once and for all, and that is: We had (and remains in us to have again) an invisible leader who showed us the way to human misery. And to this day some of us still live under the slogan: “Forward to the recent past! For the ‘Great Vassalage’ and ‘Success’ in the Greek Civil War?!!”

This once was the psychology of everyday life. We lived in a chaos of individual and collective paranoia. Our tragic discord led us far away from reality. Our embrace with authority was the embrace of self-destruction. Our obedience was an ultimate political act against ourselves.

The bitter question remains to be answered: “Did Tito’s crude gesture of kindness towards the Macedonian people cause this Macedonian tragedy?”

Was this “white lie” the bait that brought the Macedonian people unprecedented suffering? Now, 60 years later, the shocking truth is beginning to trickle out forcing the reader to ask again and again: “Why did Tito (CPY) and Koloshevski (CPM) do this?

Why?! Every exiled person who has been driven out of his or her native hearth deserves to know... But in order for us to know we must find the truth about what exactly happened... “When the truth starts to come out nothing can stop it.” Emile Zola (1840-1902).

How could the CPG and members of the Macedonian Central Committee lie to and lure the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia to fight for a “United Macedonia” when Tito’s position regarding that question and regarding the Macedonian Question were well-known all along, especially since “Josip Broz Tito, during WW II, persistently advocated for the retention of the pre-war borders in order to preserve the Yugoslavia of Versailles?”

The decision of a large group of Macedonian fighters and activists from Kostur and Lerin Regions in May 1944 to secede from ELAS and join Tito’s army qualifies as an extreme and harmful act and so does the return of these same fighters back to Greece. Tito was well aware that these people had started the conflict in Greece and then fled to Yugoslavia and the conflict remained unresolved.

There is no doubt that patriotism and commitment to the Macedonian cause was expressed at the highest level by these Macedonians, but they made political and strategic mistakes. But then, when they successively repeated the same mistakes, one must question their leadership abilities and their abilities to get along. All confrontations, discussions, taking-giving, pigheadedness, arguments etc., between Macedonians and Greeks always ended in favour of Greece. Why? Because that is precisely what the Western Powers wanted and that’s what Tito gave them.

What was Tito’s (CPY/CPM) diplomatic game regarding the future of the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia right after World War II and at the beginning of 1945? There was no diplomatic game! The Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia became one of the biggest casualties (20,000) of communism and of the Yugoslav myth! They served the CPY/CPM and Tito’s ambitions for controlling the Balkans and when things did not work out Tito surrendered them to Zahariadis and to the CPG to turn them into casualties!

During the war, Josip Broz Tito believed that the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia would realize their aspirations within the Greek state, but after the February 12, 1945 Varkiza Agreement, he noticed a radical change in the world.

The situation in the People’s Republic of Macedonia and the CPY’s position at the time regarding the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia is well described in the slogan: “Why to Srem and not to Solun?” (More about this later).

Here is how it happened: A rebellion began at Skopje Fortress and in Shtip: It was Sunday morning, January 7, 1945 - Christmas Day (by the old calendar). The National Youth of Macedonia’s Second Congress was hosted at the ‘Officer’s House’ in Skopje Square. Hundreds of armed soldiers came down from the fortress and crossed over the Stone Bridge to get to the ‘Officer’s House’. Many were carrying banners and shouting slogans, “We don’t want to go to Srem, we want to go to Solun!”, “We don’t want to go to Berlin we want to go to Solun!” OZNA jumped into action and began to arrest and round up the soldiers. (See Focus, p. 24, May 2009).

By analyzing this problem and knowing the situation in Greece, I have concluded that the slogan: “We don’t want to go to Berlin, we want to go to Solun!” meant a final showdown with fascism and with the occupier was going to take place in Solun. But something terrible and frightening was present in Solun. There was a large British military force based in Solun which would have been disastrous for the Macedonians if they collided with it. Going to Solun would have meant going to war against the British troops already stationed there. ELAS forces did go to Solun much later and Churchill probably did this intentionally for the greater security of Greece. (More details on this in later chapters.)

Thus this was not only a manipulation of the sacred Macedonian feelings of wanting a “United Macedonia”, it was an end to creating a single Macedonian state. This was the signal that Greek occupied Macedonia now again belonged to Greece and British troops were there to make sure of that! The problem now was: “Knowing all this, why did Tito (13) (CPY/CPM) form the Macedonian organizations NOF, AFZH and NOMS and in less than two months dispatch them to Greece with aims of uniting Greek occupied Macedonia with Yugoslavia?”

By now we have enough facts to give us a glimpse of our true past. If facts are a sacred thing then, right from the start, let us confess that there were no Macedonian National coats of arms, crest, flag, or any other kind of symbol used in the five year war period (Greek Civil War). So what exactly makes this war a “Macedonian Revolution” as we are led to believe by historian Kiriazovski in his many books? And now in the epilogue of his latest book he wrote:

“… an attempt has been made to give tribute to the magnificent struggle of the Macedonian peoples from the Aegean part of Macedonia, a struggle which had a deep national and progressive character…!” Further down he wrote: “…The armed struggle of the Macedonian people from Aegean Macedonia in the period from 1945 to 1949 represents a continuation of earlier struggles for survival and for political and national equality and freedom.” (215, 216)

Did the Greek Civil War have elements that identified it as a “Macedonian Revolution” or have we been fooled for the last 60 years? As far as I know (myself being a participant in that war), in all those cruel battles that we fought, I never saw a single Macedonian symbol that represented the Macedonian people or the fighters who fought and left behind 20,000 victims.

Given the above, I would like at this point to discuss the importance of just one National Symbol – a nation’s flag. We Macedonians had NO flag of our own and it is well understood in this world that: “A State or Nation’s flag embodies the spirit of society. Attacks are carried out under the flag because the flag represents the embodiment of the homeland: soldiers swear allegiance to the flag and its loss is a disgrace to any army. Besides that, the flag is a connection between the people, the land and its rulers. During war time in the old days, top military leaders stood under the flag in the battlefield from where they conducted maneuvers. And in peace time the flag stood by the throne where it was well guarded until the next war.

I am reminded of the 1945 “Victory Parade” in Moscow, in Red Square where the Germans, carrying their German flags sloping and to the beat of the snare drums, were throwing them under the walls of the Kremlin.

In 1950, sometime after DAG’s defeat and disbanding (when the Greek government was still referring to us as bandits and was a long way from recognizing the Greek Civil War) and after we had fled our homeland and were taken to the USSR, I began to realize that there was something not right about what had happened to us Macedonians. It was then that I began to see us more as victims than as revolutionaries. My suspicions of being “victims” were confirmed when, with great joy, I returned to the People’s Republic of Macedonia only to be put in jail in “Idrizovo” Prison and tried by UBDA, the Yugoslav State Security. Every single DAG fighter wishing to return to his or her beloved Macedonia was put through this! After that we were placed in shelters. In contrast, all NOF and AFZH officials returning to the People’s Republic of Macedonia were met with state honours and placed in comfortable apartments and given state functions.

So, it was by no “accident” that the history of the “Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia” was written in this manner and as such we should not believe the illusions presented to us without hard, objective and analytical historical facts to back them. The people from Greek occupied Macedonia experienced a traumatic tragedy and deserve to know why they were lied to and who brought the evil that destroyed their lives and uprooted them from their native home forever.

Any historian who has written about the Macedonian disaster and has told us that we, the Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia, created our own tragedy is out of his or her mind. As once Socrates said: Even though stupidity is eternal, it is still immoral and we have to realize that it is part of human existence. That, however, does not mean that we must allow it to exist unopposed! I don’t know why we are so timid and don’t have the courage to come out and tell the whole truth about our Macedonian tragedy and admit that it was a conspiracy; since all facts point in that direction.

In my entire experience, with all my memories of the war years and its aftermath and knowing the mistakes we made and the successes we achieved, never once did I think that I would be writing history. I felt that that would be the job of future generations and future historians. So why am I doing it? Because if I don’t the truth will be lost in the pile of lies that have been piled upon us for the last 60 years. With my generation gone there will be no more voices left to speak and future historians will have no other perspective, “no other face of history” to rely on and will never understand the true tragedy of our people and the genocide the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia experienced; they will never know exactly what happened from1945 to 1949 and who was responsible for it. And as such, the forces that want this subject to remain a secret would win and that “Secret of the Century” would die with us.

From what I am discovering through my research, it seems to me, even though we have gone through the Greek Civil War and have been exiled from our ancestral homes, we still have not learned or can’t even comprehend the hundred-year-old Greek fascist struggle with genocidal aims which the Greeks led against us in history.

In this destructive war; hatred, greed, ambition and wounded feelings were a driving force in an unprecedented (brother against brother) cleansing of Macedonians - fighters and communists. This ideological war was a means of destroying the Macedonian family, and as Giovanni Mazzini once said: “Family is the fatherland of the heart.”

Thousands of families were destroyed. The entire ancient Macedonian culture and language were devastated in some regions. What was once a thriving culture was wiped out and all that remained were the memories in the minds of the exiles along with blood, tears and mourning! It was a time of universal deceit...

My great interest in the Greek Civil War compelled me to continue my research, so that my readers would be offered unknown facts which, up to now, had been hidden from the public in favour of CPY/CPM policies dictated by Tito.

And as the English journalist and writer George Orwell once said: “In our time there is no such thing as ‘avoiding politics’. Every theme is of political nature and politics itself is a set of lies, evasion, absurdity, hatred and schizophrenia.”

So, it was a time of universal deceit!

Sixty years later, hidden facts are finally coming out. These relevant facts were intentionally hidden from Macedonian politicians, historians and authors who had written about the Greek Civil War. People were told that the genocide the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia experienced was actually “a glorious revolution” that now belongs to our glorious past.

The root of this evil and the dark secrets of those who perpetrated it have been hidden for six decades. The masters, who through ideological activism deceived our people and set a deadly trap for them, knew it would lead to the spilling of blood, genocide and eviction of the Macedonian people (from Greek occupied Macedonia) from their homes.

The information revealed in this study, in this book, is original testimony that comes directly from documents found in the secret archives of several countries, which authentically point to horrific processes perpetrated against the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia, which eventually led to genocide. My study, which includes military, historic and political events that took place in Greek occupied Macedonia, has its roots based on the theme: The one hundred Year Struggle of the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia under Greek fascist ideological policies. Viewed from today’s perspective what “ringleader” would want to exclude the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia from its history? The Greeks themselves of course; none other than the Greeks who ruled Greece and caused misery for the Macedonians! The very same people who, for years had been planning the extinction of the Macedonian people and who set these genocidal goals in motion in the first place. My arrival at this conclusion is not based on speculation; it is based on facts and arguments found in various sources. These “facts and arguments” reveal a plot: How and who (after WWII) directed this strategy of genocide over the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia!

The Greek Civil War ended with 20,000 casualties, mass persecution, which continues to this day, and an undecided Macedonian question in Greece. We literally became hostages of our past.

After the Greek Civil War was over, we the participants of DAG (Democratic Army of Greece) were treated like a “confused” generation (especially after we “returned home” to the People’s Republic of Macedonia and every ordinary fighter had to pass through an OZNA sieve while the NOF and AFZH leadership were welcomed home with honours). We, the fighters of DAG, were so “confused”, we were left in limbo; to slowly, slowly complete our life cycle. It seems that we represented a “frightened” generation, with no credibility, unable to talk about or explain the historical events it had experienced. As ordinary fighters, it seems that we were somehow guilty of failure, of failing to win the Greek Civil War.

But in order to follow events that took place during the Greek Civil War, a massive and violent undertaking that pushed the Macedonian people into oblivion, one would have to know the Macedonian people’s “real” history, up to now hidden for six decades. The controversial question that remains to be answered is: Why and for what purpose were the Macedonian organizations NOF and AFZH formed in 1945 in Skopje by the CPY/CPM and sent to Greek occupied Macedonia to enlist and encourage Macedonians to fight in the Greek Civil War (1945-1949)? It was well-known by then that Greece, including Greek occupied Macedonia, fell under the British sphere of influence and no “United Macedonia” was possible under those circumstances. It was also well-known that no “Soviet-ization” of the Balkans was possible and neither was a “socialist” Greece. So why start a war that would mark a milestone in the history of the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia, which would spill blood, bring tragedy and genocide and cause expulsion and the permanent loss of native hearths?

Facts definitely show that NOF and AFZH were created in 1945 and were functioning before the Greek Civil War officially started on March 31, 1946. Facts show that the presence of NOF and AFZH in Greek occupied Macedonia heightened the threat of terror and created the conditions under which the Macedonian people began to arm themselves. Facts also show that there was a massive propaganda campaign aimed at the Macedonian people to prepare for a massive fight. Facts show that the Greek terror campaign was understood to be an aim at “massively ethnically cleansing” the Macedonian people. Facts show that in the eyes of some Greeks this “recruitment and arming of Macedonians” was seen as the ultimate evil that threatened the integrity of Greece. Having said all this, then, one of the more fundamental questions that come to mind is: “Why did NOF and AFZH do this; and why under CPY/CPM directives?”

Another unexplained, and to this day, unclear act to consider in retrospect is the true purpose of the “child evacuation” program!

And with that in mind, as Hannah Arndt once said: “Lies are always more acceptable and more appealing than the truth as long as they are a challenge for those who have tested the knowledge of what the audience is expecting to hear.” For us Macedonians, from Greek occupied Macedonia, the words: “He who does not remember his past is bound to repeat it!” spoken by English scientist Adam Hart Davies, ring true.

And now with his latest book, historian Kiriazovski has pulled the rug from under the many “moldy” secrets and relevant national issues and has officially given us a reason to do extensive research and discover the real intentions behind the Macedonian tragedy and genocide.

In his book: “Narodnoosloboditelniot Front I drugite organizatsii na Makedontsite od Egejska Makedonija (1945-1949)” (The National Liberation Front and the other Macedonian organizations from Aegean Macedonia (1945-1949)), published by “Kultura” in Skopje in 1985, on page 93, Kiriazovski wrote:

“In order to understand what made our nation arm itself and go back to the mountains and resist the unbridled Greek bestial attack, we must first understand what happened to the Macedonian people after the restoration of pre-war Greek reactionary power in February 1945. Here you will find the explanation for the position in which the Macedonian people were put, which coincides with the appearance and activities of NOF in Aegean Macedonia.”

Was the program accomplished by the CPY/CPM? No! Was it terrible for the Macedonians! Yes!