2.0 TRUTHS AND CONTROVERSIES ABOUT THE GREEK CIVIL WAR (1945-1949) - Part 03

So, while Zahariadis and his cronies were building a “new world” with a lot of help from the Macedonians, they were also “trampling on the dignity of the Macedonian people” by lying to them and playing with their “national feelings” and by persistently denying their national identity. And at the end they told them that they were not welcome; not even on their own ancestral lands...

Then when they thought that it was all over and behind them, the Macedonians were again confronted with years of dirty slogans; swept by the red storm; filled with dark thoughts and robbed of their destiny. And not that there was any truth to it, but they were also called “intruders”.

It all began after the Ioanidis – Karaivanov arrangement and after Kolishevski’s directives, when NOF completely and almost unconditionally deviated from the CPG and allowed General Markos to become the sole authority of the Macedonian fate. In other words, we allowed General Markos, the colonist from Asia Minor, to take control of our destiny and lead us to where? Our liberation?

This is General Markos’s first order after taking control of our destiny: Order no. EP 13 of 27.12.1946, issued by General Markos: “As of today, all partisan units belonging to NOF will be placed in the DAG composition.”

So, from this day on forward, NOF was stripped of its military and political responsibilities and as far as the “Brotherhood and Unity” was concerned, NOF was no longer considered a factor. After this there was a delicate balance between NOF and the CPG. Soon afterwards the CPG began to backstab NOF at every opportunity. Having become a CPG target and being falsely encouraged by the top CPM political leadership is what undoubtedly turned NOF into a victim of political games. It was not long after that, that NOF and the Macedonian people found themselves gripped by the authoritarian hand of the CPG.

For centuries the Macedonian people were the only people in the world who did not approve of slavery and now they themselves literally became slaves to the Greeks.

Did anyone ever stop to think that these people now running NOF were the same people, the former ELAS fighters who fled to Yugoslavia and for whom Greek hatred was never forgotten? And were NOF and AFZH ever recognized by any International Institutions as legitimate entities?

Here is a document, translated from Greek that may shed some light: “… A year had not passed, when in the evening of October 24, 1947 several Politburo members including Ioannidis, Stringos, Markos and Evripidis Georgios - Petros invited Mitrevski, Keramitchiev and Vera for a ‘special conversation.’

Markos coughed in his hand and looked at Mitrevski but nobody could guess what thoughts were passing through his head. Markos felt that he needed to reprimand the NOF and AFZH leaders once and for all. He made a stern face and loudly and sarcastically laughed and began to speak:

‘You need to be reminded that you are members of the CPG and this I want to emphasize, not once, but three times. There is only the CPG and no one else. I do not understand why you think that one day the Macedonians will noisily rise and leave the Democratic Army of Greece. NOF and AFZH are not just yours; I say that to you as your superior. You are well aware that you have been placed under the CPG umbrella with the blessing of Marshal Tito and our leader Zahariadis. First you need to be communists and then patriots. That’s how you should be looking at the Slavo-Macedonian Question and not thinking about some sort of “United Macedonia”. If you desire a “United Macedonia” then what will happen to us, the Prosfigi, as you call us, where will we go? Return back to Asia Minor?!

Oh, my Slavo-Macedonians. You should, once and for all, understand that this country - Macedonia now belongs to the majority of the people living here and that is us the Prosfigi! You have nothing to do with Macedonia in Greece any more.

This has been said many times; even Lenin said it many times: Minorities must obey the majority. You are fighting for other people’s interests and against mother Greece. But in the end you will lose. Nobody is going to help you; neither Tito nor Stalin. Whatever happens to you will be your own fault because you alone are responsible for bringing suspicion to yourselves in the eyes of the Party...

We know every detail about each one of you,’ said Markos, while showing them a piece of paper with the words ‘strictly confidential’ written on it: ‘We have been informed by Periklis Kolodakis, head of the Security Service in the Democratic Army of Greece. So stop your trickery, you are wasting your time and losing opportunities to advance in political life.

What do you want? Do you want the Party to make generals out of you?! You have read the “manifesto addressed to the Liberation Army of the Chinese people”. It says: “All officers and soldiers need to be educated as bravely as they fight to bring military victory.”

You have failed to free yourselves from the grips of chauvinism and have isolated yourselves from the Slavo-Macedonian people, especially from those 6,000 fighters in the Democratic Army of Greece who bravely fight and sacrifice themselves for the high ideals of the socialist revolution in Greece.

We very well know everything about you; we know every one of you, your political activities and the responsibilities that you have undertaken for the Yugoslav information services.

Information from our intelligence services has revealed that: ‘The leadership of the Yugoslav Communist Party, in order to have insight and influence on events in Greece and on the Macedonian Liberation Movement, secretly committed a large number of fighters and NOF activists (who returned from Yugoslavia) through organized channels to inform them about everything that was happening in the Aegean part of

Macedonia and in Greece. The NOF leadership was forced to receive and execute directives from both the CPY and the CPG leaderships.’

Are you aware that by doing this for the CPY you are actually doing a lot of damage to yourselves which will have severe consequences for you and for your people? Your attitudes are not in line with the views of the Party. But I believe by the time you wake up and realize that, it will be too late. The Party does not tolerate fraction-ism. By now our intelligence services have identified dozens of Macedonians who will be prosecuted as Yugoslav agents’. And so will the numerous deserters.”

The division of spheres of influence was a major strategic obstacle for a “United Macedonia”. This division put Greek occupied Macedonia along with Greece under the influence of the Western block. Internal conditions inside Greek occupied Macedonia were no less of an obstacle especially with the introduction of the 640,000 non-Macedonian, non-indigenous colonists.

We Macedonians have to understand that after Macedonia was invaded, occupied and partitioned in 1912, 1913 and particularly after the Asia Minor colonists and settlers were brought to Macedonia in 1924, the ethnic composition of Greek occupied Macedonia was drastically changed.

Most convincing about that was when the Greek daily “Ta Nea” and “Epikera”, published in Athens, wrote an article about how General Markos hugged, with a heartfelt embrace, his enemy General Tsakalotos from the Greek government forces during the Greek Civil War when the two men met. At their meeting Tsakalotos said to Markos: “If we had done this before the Civil War started we could have saved many lives.” To this General Markos replied: “It is true that many people died because of me but you must never forget that I did this for the future of Greece. The true meaning of this war was to drive the Slavo-Macedonian out of northern Greece so that Macedonia could remain Greek. See: “Nova Makedonija”, 25.02.1992.

In other words, according to General Markos, the Macedonians fought in the Greek Civil War to lose their homeland permanently!!?? So, as a representative of the Communist Party of Greece, Markos openly lied to the Macedonian people about their involvement in the Greek Civil War!? Ironically as it turned out, General Tsakalotos, the Macedonian people’s supposed enemy, was more humane towards the Macedonians than was Markos, whom Macedonians saw as their saviour. In other words, when Macedonians were sacrificing their lives to honour General Markos, he intentionally led them to their extinction. Why was it so important to have the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia, who lived through genocide, left out of the overall Macedonian history for the last sixty years?

It is a fact that for sixty years, from 1945 until today, the Macedonian people’s (from Greek occupied Macedonia) history has been distorted in order to hide the deeds of those who caused them the heaviest casualties, exodus and the loss of right to return to their homes.

According to Kiriazovski’s most current accounts, it is a fact that Tito’s actions in Greek occupied Macedonia from October 1944 to October 14, 1946, while the Macedonian people found themselves in the arms of the CPY/CPM and after Tito had surrendered them to Zahariadis, General Secretary of the CPG, who until the end of the Greek Civil War stood over them like a hawk over chickens, were a betrayal which must not be hidden or forgotten.

It was a betrayal for Tito to have totally surrendered Macedonian fighters and the entire Macedonian population in Greek occupied Macedonia to the CPG. It was a betrayal for Tito to have created NOF and AFZH and surrender them to Zahariadis where they did nothing more than run through the labyrinths which the CPG created for them.

Worse than that was Kolishevski’s insistence for “brotherhood and unity” between the CPG and NOF and the AFZH, which packed a “Fist full of hate” for the Macedonians.

What this “brotherhood and unity” really meant was that the Macedonians had to now bow before the Greeks and kiss their hands. And all these very loud and clear messages were coming from the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and Tito.

The Macedonians now had to follow Roosevelt’s advice to: “Speak softly, but carry a big stick.”

Someone may ask: “Was that how the Communists were? Was that the character of the people who led you to a brighter future?”

Yes, we were pushed into this and regardless of who pushed us and how we truly served them, they left us Macedonians without any alternative. And so, being without alternatives we ended the war before the great red gallows. We did this to survive.

Why? Because after the ideological transfer at the end of 1944, the Greek Communist revenge for the ELAS battalions fleeing to Tito’s army (19) was taken out on us. We all became the scapegoats for those who fled to Yugoslavia.

By sending most of us back to Greece and then abandoning us to Zahariadis, Tito shoved us all into hell.

What kind of secret did Tito want to hide? What was Tito’s opinion and attitude towards the Greek Civil War when he met with McLean? “Μελετε για τον εµφυλιο πολεµο (1945−1949)” Analysis of the Civil War (1945-1949) pages 336/337 article by Joze Pirievich, “Η ρηξη Τιτο- Σταλιν και το τελο του εµφυλιου στην Ελλαδα”. This secret about the Macedonians and Yugoslav-Greek relations was exposed in British documents found in the Republic of Macedonia’s State Archives and published by historians Dr. Liljana Panovska and Dr. Todor Chepreganov. In part here is what it said:

“…Tito does not deny that in the past he offered assistance to the rebels in Greece. …But he promised that in the future he would not allow the rebels to return to Greece to continue to fight, nor would they be given any other assistance...” Other things that were discussed included the shutting down of Markos’s radio station located inside Yugoslav territory; removal of all Greek recruits currently training inside Yugoslavian territory; closing the Greek-Yugoslav border to rebels etc. From the British documents we can see that: “The Yugoslav government, even Tito himself, had no pretensions towards Greece and no interest in interfering in Greece’s internal affairs.”

By what Tito said, he left no doubt in the British that the “Macedonian issue would soon be placed in the freezer, perhaps forever”.

So, what was the real reason for the CPY/CPM leadership, Tito and Kolishevski, to have NOF, AFZH and NOMS formed in Skopje on April 23, 1945? And why did Tsvetko Uzunovski – Abas, CPM Central Committee organizational secretary and Minister of Internal Affairs of the People’s Republic of Macedonia, say to them that: “The Macedonian question has now become a Yugoslav question on account that the CPY has formed NOF, AFZH and NOMS, Aegean Political and Party Organizations, and placed you in charge of them!”? Why were these organizations charged with the task of “giving the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia a Yugoslav orientation?” Why were they told that the Macedonian people and the Macedonian movement were now under the leadership of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia? Why were they told that the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia would find their full establishment only within a Federal Yugoslavia when Greek occupied Macedonia joined Yugoslavia? (AM. Archive of Macedonia. F -20/276 F-20/196.)

Shouldn’t these people be liable for their lies, sins of historical dimension and the evil they inflicted on the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia?! Were NOF, AFZH, and NOMS not intentionally formed by the CPY (Tito) and the CPM (Kolishevski) and sent to Greek occupied Macedonia to organize massive recruitment in the Macedonian population. What was this recruitment for? Why were the recruits prepared for an armed struggle? Was that not a CONSPIRACY?!

It is time for Macedonian historians to start speaking up and refrain from hiding the historic evil perpetrated against the Macedonian people by the self-appointed strategists, politicians and various naïve ideological people who had no sense of respect for the thousands of Greek Civil War victims who not only lost their lives in the battlefields but lost their homes and became permanent refugees. It is time that Tito and Zahariadis are recognized for who they truly were and for what they did to our people. The communists promised us a “United Macedonia” and look where we ended up! Exterminated and permanently exiled from our homeland! This is the reality! This is the truth!

New zone of confrontation

From what was done to us Macedonians, there should be no illusion in anyone’s mind of what the Greeks are capable of, be they communists, royalists, nationalists, or democrats. They never wanted or now want negotiations with people who have Macedonian patriotism...

Especially after the fictitious “Brotherhood and Unity” period which extended to the end of the Greek Civil War. Nothing changed for the better – the Macedonians quarreled and remained divided and after the war ended they continued to quarrel.

The Macedonian people found themselves exiled, divided and mistreated no matter which way you look at their situation. Historically these people lived and still live stuck between different eras, divided between “Marxists, supporters of the CPG and Zahariadis” and “Revisionists, supporters of the CPY and Tito.”

From an ideological point of view, most vividly, these people were split into “patriots” and “traitors” depending on which camp you were in. But was there any truth to be found in Zahariadis (CPG) and Tito’s (CPY/CPM) program goals and objectives instilled in NOF and AFZH that attributed to the Macedonian National strategy for the spiritual and physical survival of our centuries-old homes and for a united Macedonia? No!

These kind of false illusions spread among the Macedonians not only “lost” our people but violated their basic Christian values which they had shared for centuries. Those who believed in God were shunned and anathematized. The Christian Churches which served their spiritual needs for generations became “ideological gathering places” and the priests were persecuted and killed. People were pushed to lose the desire for “ethnic patriotism” and forced to accept ideological activism and false internationalism.

After doing all this, the architects of this debacle felt justified to create a climate of fear and ethnic conflict among the Macedonian people, which lasted throughout the whole course of the war. The Macedonian people, it seems, had lost their way.

The Macedonian people found themselves seized and arranged in rows in the ranks of the Greek communists, with their families ruined and replaced with political families. They were left with nothing except to sacrifice themselves in the white snow of Gramos, and not for Macedonia or for themselves but for other people’s interests.

Is this the kind of war the Greek Civil War was? Well, this is how Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), U.S. President and former General defines war: “War is a period during which people who do not know one another, kill each other at the command of those who do know each other, but would not kill one other.”

And what did the NOF and AFZH leaderships do during the course of the Greek Civil War? They acted like internationalists until the last days of the war, when the Greek Communist convicted them and sent them to jail in Siberia.

It is a fact that there were no strategic options given to NOF and AFZH regarding the safety of the Macedonian people. This option was taken out of their hands. In retrospect, arguments show that even though NOF and AFZH were Macedonian organizations formed in Skopje by the CPY/CPM and were engaged in the Greek Civil War from 1945 to 1949, knowing or unwittingly, they misled the Macedonian people and delivered them to their national tragedy! It is a fact that everything that happened to the Macedonian people was not by chance. It was a plot as described in the newspaper “Ethnikos Kirikas” published on May 21, 1946. Here is what the newspaper wrote: “Greece soon needs to expel 80,000 Slavo-Macedonians.” The same was published in “Eleftheros Tipos”, the weekly republican newspaper published, on January 28, 1946 in an article entitled “Let the Slavo-Macedonian go - let them go wherever they want to go.”

It is a fact that if anything in the spirit of an independent and sovereign Macedonian state was suggested during Tito’s time in Yugoslavia, it was fiercely opposed. For his entire life Tito fought to create one imaginary fictional super national “Yugoslav nation” and later strived to maintain the illusion of cohesion on which the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia rested.

In retrospect, we can see that from the expensive politics played with the Macedonian people’s lives during the Greek Civil War of 1945-1949, a model was created for the organization and expulsion of the Macedonian population out of Greece, which in the end worked out according to plan for its designers.

Unfortunately, to this day our history has failed to answer the following questions: “What happened to us? What was the reason for developing a strategy of ‘massive retaliation’? What were the real reasons for forcing the Macedonian people to form a political family? Why did so many Macedonian people have to die for an ideological reason that they did not understand or believe in? Why was there such a large engagement of Macedonian women in this war? Why were so many women forcibly mobilized, finding themselves on the frontline? Why was this not done in Greece!? What was the real reason for evacuating the Macedonian children? Why were so many Macedonian homes abandoned? Why has Greece not allowed the Macedonian people to return to their birthplace?!” These are all unanswered questions that scream for answers!

It is a fact that the Macedonian people were pushed into the Greek Civil War by outsiders. First by the creation and dispatch of NOF and AFZH from the Yugoslav side, long before the war had started. Then by the application of “white terror” instigated and propagated by the Greek right.

During the Cold War when the “iron curtain” was drawn between Greece and Yugoslavia, the Macedonians under the CPY/CPM went on a nonsensical campaign. But before too long they recognized that the dream created for them by the CPY/CPM through NOF and AFZH proved to be a total fraud, a deception, an empty dream, a lost hope. There never was going to be a “united Macedonia” no matter how hard they fought and how many more lives they lost. All that war was meant to do was displace them from their homes and turn them into eternal wanderers – straight genocide. Just like it happened!

This is how we, the Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia, first became accomplices and then victims. Or to say the least: we became accomplices in the implementation of politics with a predicted plot – our right as Macedonians to be exiled without the right to return. We became accomplices in the politics that turned us into “lost people” searching for our “spirits” throughout the European continent.

History remembers all, words and silence. The truth is in history! It is possible through truth to build something real and lasting. Unfortunately, to this day, even 60 years later, we have not confronted the truth. There are many things in Macedonian history that are unclear.

For more than half a century now, we the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia have been making ourselves naïve and blind, turning our other cheek to every new situation not because we are guilty of something, not because we do not feel pain, but because of lack of information which kept us hostage to our inability to take stock of what really happened to us and how we lost our native land forever. There is no dilemma in a hidden history, so we all, for the last 60 years, have become complacent and accomplices in the lack of our true history.

That was a time of pure political propaganda and brainwashing.

Silence was required of us Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia in the past half century or so. It was an “active” silence in which we were expected to participate in covering up our own ethno-genocide. And it was not just the Macedonians from that side (Greek occupied Macedonia) but also the Macedonians who supported Tito and his policies to “bury the Macedonian Question!” Definitely, with his latest book, Kiriazovski is demystified and has recognized that he had a duty to act against the crippled structures put in place and supported by the Yugoslav ideological power, which brought great harm to our national consciousness. Everything was turned upside down in the last 60 years. Facts were changed by politics and arguments were created to fit the current anti-Macedonian political agenda. It is a fact that this “false” history created “spiritual invalids” of many young generations who have suffered and are still suffering from this incurable Yugoslav syndrome where they believe in the thesis that the Greek Civil War was a Macedonian Revolution! Some young historians have even made careers out of this! Everything until now that has been written and promoted by historian Kiriazovski and transformed into a mosaic in the ideology of false consciousness was paraded as an element of Macedonian national consciousness. For decades the Macedonian people have been pushed to accept this history and having no chance of being able to reject it in the last 60 years, they remained confused. On the other hand, every independent thought they might have had, which may have had historical importance, was publicly downplayed and disqualified. This was similar to the way the Greeks had been treating us since Macedonia’s brutal invasion, occupation and partition in 1912, 1913.

Their first line of defense was obvious. They used nihilism, marginalization, alienation, etc. The Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia were treated as if they were fighting for foreign political goals or for foreign interests. They were treated as if they were fighting for glory or for some Macedonian historical nonsense in which their blood was spilled to create history. That was not the case, but it did not stop historians from excluding these people from Macedonian history, leaving their Macedonian national identity unprotected, thus contributing to their emigration all throughout the world, where more and more became lost with each passing generation. In addition to Tito closing Yugoslavia’s borders to the Macedonian refugee flood from Greek occupied Macedonia in 1949, Yugoslavia shunned those same people for generations later.

So, it was by no accident that the “Macedonian factor” was missing from Macedonia’s history. But what is really curious is how the Institute of National History treated historian Kiriazovski. Until recently he was an excellent contributor to Macedonia’s history, that is, until his latest book which the Institute not only refused to publish but distanced itself from this author.

Every well-intentioned DAG fighter and participant, for a long time, must have wondered: “Was the Greek Civil War a ‘Revolution’ or just a ‘Fraud’ perpetrated to ‘sacrifice’ the Macedonian people?”

A reasonable person who understands the Macedonian people would describe them as “rational, logical and honest people who follow moral conduct”.

And then there were those, influenced by the likes of Kiriazovski, who propagated the ideology of false consciousness. These people stubbornly and with unprecedented tenacity continue to defy historical reality, which

they did not want known or recognized. They rejected ethics and accepted violence, malice and hostility.

Historian Kiriazovski is recognized by the Macedonian public mostly for his famous book: “Народноослободителниот фронт (НОФ) и другите организации на Македонците од Егејска Македонија (1945-1949)” (“National Liberation Front (NOF) and other Aegean Macedonian Organizations (1945-1949)”).

Here is what he said about his own book: “The most important point is oriented around NOF as the central leader of the Macedonian National Liberation Movement, which I insist is documented in my work authentically and brings out the most complex events and arguments”.

In the same book on page 338, there is a quote taken from “Nova Makedonka", April 1, 1948 which says: “Today NOF and AFZH have historical importance and urge the Macedonian people to join the ranks of DAG en masse, because their freedom and life can only be guaranteed by an armed struggle!”

But here is a question: “How could NOF and AFZH, when they were inviting the Macedonian people to join the armed struggle, be a “factor” of anything when it was well known that at that time they had neither political nor military power!?”

Kiriazovski was also known for his strong defense of his books. He vigorously defended his own books from authors who thought differently. He disqualified all those who questioned him and sought to discredit them by equating them to Yugoslavia’s enemies. He vigorously argued that: “Macedonian history is the height of its own task” (Here is an excerpt of such an attack: “Denes” Magazine, January 14, 1999).

According to a “Nova Makedonija” article, Dr. Risto Kiriazovski’s work: “Народноослободителниот фронт (НОФ) и другите организации на Македонците од Егејска Македонија (1945-1949)” (National Liberation Front (NOF) and other organizations of Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia (1945-1949)” was promoted on October 22, 1985 at 12 o’clock in the Institute for National History in Skopje. The title of the article was: “In the traditions of the previous National-revolutionary struggles”.

In the article, Kiriazovski expressed his “stellar” moments of false ideology when he said: “The existence of specific organisms in the Macedonian issue could not have been explained without NOF’s ability to organize the struggle of the Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia…” In his book Kiriazovski speaks about NOF’s overall activity, but in his comparative review he only dwells on NOF’s development and political objectives in which he identifies two periods of development:

The first period ranged from April 23rd, 1945 to November 21st, 1946 when NOF acted independently of the CPG. He said nothing about the CPY/CPM’s involvement.

The second period ranged from November 21st, 1946 when NOF was under the leadership of the CPG until April 2nd, 1952 when it was formally disbanded by the CPG.

About the first period he said: “According to incomplete data, in early 1946, NOF, in addition to having its main leadership, it also had 5 county, 10 district, 3 city and 32 regional leaderships with 120 professional staff belonging to NOF, NOMS and AFZH. On the territory of Aegean Macedonia 220 villages were organized (half of these were destroyed during the Greek Civil War - m.z.), working under the leadership of more than 170 village and town organizations. Its membership consisted of 4784 Macedonian and Vlach members of NOF, 4823 young men and women members of NOMS and 2201 Macedonian and Vlach women members of AFZH.” (See page 129).

About the armed situation during that period he said: “In August there were about 100 armed fighters in Vicho and about 500 NOF partisans in central and western Aegean Macedonia, 200 of whom were deployed in Kajmakchalan, 85 in Paiko, 130 in Vicho and 85 in Gramos. The Macedonian partisans were organized into groups of 10-15 and in squads of 40-50 fighters. The larger military formation was in Pella Prefecture consisting of a battalion.” (See page 143).

According to the emergency measures act of July 6, 1947 there were 200 thousand democratic citizens accused of crimes against the state, of whom 80 thousand were Macedonians.

A Macedonian hereditary situation?

There are always these twisted traps set for Macedonians through which they have to tread carefully. If you belonged to an armed village band in 1944, protecting your family and village and you were against the CPG, you were labeled “autonomist”. If you were politically neutral and did not want to get involved in NOF and AFZH politics after they were formed in Skopje in 1945, you were labeled a Grkoman (Grekophile) who worked against the Unification of Macedonia and did not trust Tito. If you were against the Organization “Ilinden”, formed in 1950 outside of Macedonia, you were labeled “Tito’s agent”.

When we returned to the Republic of Macedonia from the USSR and other Eastern European countries the NOF and AFZH leadership was welcomed back with music and marching bands. With the exception of some leaders like P. Rakovski, who did not even receive a grave, most NOF and AFZH leaders were given apartments to live in and jobs in the public sector. But all this was forgotten when we, the ordinary DAG fighters, returned to the Republic of Macedonia. The first place they sent us upon our return was to “Idrizovo” Prison (20). The UDBA sieve caught us and sent us to prison. After enduring a horrific war, being exiled from our homes and being shuffled in foreign lands, we were so happy to have returned home to Macedonia, to where we felt like we belonged only to find out that there too we were not wanted!

The most tragic part about our return to the Republic of Macedonia was to find a lot of those NOF and DAG fighters and personnel, who had deserted the combat units in Greek occupied Macedonia en masse and fled for Yugoslavia after 1948, working with the State Securities UDBA and KOS. Our destiny was now left in their hands to decide our fate; were we heroes or traitors? Being installed in public sector jobs and working for the State Security Services they were responsible for surveillance activities conducted on those returning from Eastern European countries, among whom historian Kiriazovski, very easily, found traitors. He learned quickly to stick such labels on them.

After my return to the Republic of Macedonia in 1957, to what I considered to be my homeland, I had my first collision with destiny.

As Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia, we “were” Macedonians but when we returned to what we considered to be our homeland we suddenly found out that we were “Aegeans”! The institutions in the Republic of Macedonia in the “national” column had “labeled” us “Aegeans”?! What the “hell” was that?! What the hell was an “Aegean”?! Never in my life had I ever heard this term until I arrived in what I considered to be my “homeland”!

The next day I went to visit the “social centre” and lined up with many of my comrades in front of a counter which bore a sign that read: “Desk for Aegeans.”

What the “hell” are “Aegeans”? Since when did we become “Aegeans”?! This is the first time in my life that I heard this word “Aegeans” with a capital “A”. For centuries we have been Macedonians and now we have become “Aegeans” and in what we consider to be our very own homeland no less! Was this another way of robbing us of our identity? Are they doing to us as they did to the Muslim Macedonians calling them “Torbeshi” and “Pomaks” for the sole purpose of removing them from the Macedonian core?

I read the sign a second time and said to myself: “Do you see how much evil fate has brought us…? Just by this sign alone…?!”

I then got my answer: “This is to confirm receipt of the application from Kochov Atanas Stoian, nationality “Aegean”, repatriated from the USSR, number 152/29., dated, October 17, 1957.”

Then in 1962 I received an answer numbered 6368, dated May 16, 1962, which advised me that I would receive a one-bedroom apartment. The advisement was sent to me from the department of housing allocation, signed by Risto Jankulovski.

As I recall, I don’t remember my parents at home, or anyone during the Greek Civil War (1945-1949), or during my time in the USSR ever calling me, calling us “Aegeans”.

For whatever reason, that “word” made me very angry, it made me feel “guilty” of something but I don’t know what. It alienated me and robbed me of my identity and history. But it was not just me, every Macedonian labeled “Aegean” was made to wonder: “Who am I?” It was scary!

But still I cannot explain what it was that made me want to reconstruct the whole truth about our Macedonian drama and prove that we are all “Aegeans” inside and that no one should be deprived of feeling joy, fear, pain, love, anger, hurt and abandonment. Inside we were all the same. But we inside the shelter, we thought that we were better because of the images instilled in our heads which told us that we were now living in a “communist world”, which should be heading towards a “perfect” communist society.

But later, as reality began to sink in, I began to understand that what we had experienced in the past was not real but pure communist propaganda. In fact by calling us “Aegeans” we were portrayed as the “evil” of Macedonia. The CPY’s UDBA had been working hard since 1948 to vilify us. And as Aleksandar Rusjakov said in his article entitled: “The End of the World: Holy War” published in “Nova Makedonija” on November 18, 2010, “... The CPY’s UDBA even today rules within the ranks of the two main Macedonian and Albanian Parties!”

After finding this out, in spite of personal risk, I had no intention of keeping quiet. I was among the first people to speak up through various settings, including writing articles and through the book “Sacrifices of the Macedonians under Greece”. I was among the first people to react and publicly protest against what was being done to us. As a result I was deprived of my privileges as a fighter, which I took to mean that I was accused of being anti-Macedonian and of working against our Macedonian interests.

The greatest and most passionate criticisms came from historian Kiriazovski who, in an attempt to silence me, gave me even more reason to delve deeper to seek the truth about our past. This was my life that he challenged and the life of my comrades who were now looked down upon by the very people who deserted the Ranks of DAG not too long ago. I fought back for my rights, for our rights and for the honour of those who left their lives behind.

It is well-known that “informing” on people is an important function in a totalitarian society. Those informed on lost their jobs, their reputation became tarnished and they were dishonoured. This was also typical of the Macedonian DAG fighters who fought in the Greek Civil War, some of whom stayed and fought to the end of the war and others who, at the expense of those who stayed, deserted to Yugoslavia.

Ideological flirtations - Fighters of NOF who deserted DAG

Out of Hell and on the red scaffold, to save their necks.

Sadly, many of these people had unrealistic expectations - they wanted to talk about our history but without accepting any fault. Unfortunately, consequences of war show the opposite. It is unreasonable to write and talk about Macedonian strategy and to say that it was determined by us the Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia when it was not true. But one thing is undeniable: the past never completely dies!

After our return to the Republic of Macedonia from the Eastern European countries, many of us veterans from the Greek Civil War were characterized as “unsupportive” of Tito’s political line and were to be investigated by those who had earlier deserted DAG and fled to Yugoslavia to save their own necks. The deserters gained their loyalty with the Yugoslav authorities by vilifying us in our years of absence. This created a great divide between us and them, which lasted until the Republic of Macedonia became independent.

We have allowed outsiders to manipulate us and divide us resulting in our submissiveness and years of silence, especially after what we had endured…

* * *

According to facts revealed in his latest book, historian Kiriazovski is now using the same facts and arguments his critics used as counter arguments to his work while searching for the truth. In other words, Kiriazovski is now in agreement with his critics. I was among those authors who was harshly criticized by Kiriazovski for writing my books entitled “Sacrifices of the Macedonians under Greece”, 1994, and “Ideological Activism over the Macedonians under Greece”, 2000, and others. One reason why I became involved in researching and writing history about the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia was to right the wrongs written by Kiriazovski in his book “Five vital years (1945-1949)”.

But when I read his latest book I was flabbergasted, I felt like a “born again Christian” and began to cross myself in wonderment (even though I am an atheist!)!

Did he forget the lies he had told and the people he had bullied over the years? Did he finally realize that we were right and he was wrong? Did he suddenly become conscious of reality? Did he finally realize that you answer criticism with counter-criticism and not with opening a file on those criticizing your work? Or was it the change in times? With the old Yugoslav guard now gone there was no one to protect?

I suppose the days when a “historian” could tell you to “Shut your mouth! Stop talking! And be grateful for the bread that we are giving you!” are gone! I suppose opening a communication line with his critics was his way of defending himself in this “new world”.

One of the most brutal examples of how Kiriazovski and others like him destroyed the fate of many prominent Macedonian fighters, for purely political reasons, was given back in 1976. Then, I read a confidential review which I believe was written by Dr. Kiriazovski, because it was written in his style of writing and with his intentions and political views. In the review, marked “Sk.4 686 inv.br.1419/76 archive of INI”, he wrote: “Pavle Rakovski’s effort is of no benefit to us because the text he wrote contains provocative claims against the Yugoslav leadership; I recommend that his work not be published or given wider readership. (November 15, 1976).” Curious indeed!

Many of Rakovski’s articles, which had important historical significance, along with his personal destiny, found themselves in oblivion…

Pavle Rakovski was an author and a top scholar but was faced with many “judgments” in life after he returned to the Republic of Macedonia from the Siberian prison camps. Instead of receiving a warm welcome, he received nothing, not even a grave after he died. He devoted his life to the Macedonian cause and to the defense of Macedonia. He was a member of the top NOF leadership. He wrote the first Macedonian alphabet for his Region, consisting of 24 letters, with which the “proclamation of the Macedonian people in Pella Prefecture” was written. He also wrote many songs and even a march for the Voden battalion. But after his return he was anathematized and rehabilitated for 30 years, right up to his death.

Pavle Rakovski (along with many others) suffered terrible treatment in the “internal prison”. And what is “internal prison”? Internal prison is when the government and other authorities create an atmosphere of permanent fear in a person. A person is then afraid of expressing themselves, afraid of making a mistake, afraid of being humiliated, even afraid of their own shadow! It is a condition of the soul, a state of mind and of feelings.

When a person finds no meaning in life, he or she starts looking for death. Being imprisoned in an “internal prison” is much more than just lying in a dark, damp, moldy cell.

* * *

Now about my book: “Sacrifice of the Macedonians under Greece” 1994. My attempts to “think differently”, to think outside of the usual totalitarian prescribed methodology, were not interpreted by Dr. Kiriazovski as a way of contributing to the promotion of freedom of intellectual thought, as I had intended. He and his kind saw my book as an attack against their totalitarian ideology that has always played the role of “master of the truth”! So, to counter my attempts, he wrote a 41 page report (with premeditated attempts to vilify me) and instead of publishing it, he distributed it among the “guards” of Aegean Macedonian history and instructed them to rewrite the entire passage and send it to the newspaper “Nova Makedonija” for publishing in the column under “letters to the editor”. This was Kiriazovski’s traditional method of responding to the “free thinkers” of our society. Some accepted blame. Some did not! As time has shown, not all people who can read and write are necessarily literate. They are just not illiterate. Real literacy needs a lot more work and effort!

The material written by Kiriazovski was archived on April 8, 1994 under the title “Memoirs” no. SK. 1118, in the INI Department of Documentation.

In the “Macedonian Sun” FORUM magazine dated December 14, 2001, Kiriazovski himself wrote the following about my book “Ideological activism over the Macedonians under Greece” (2000):