15. XI. 1976 (S.P.) - Part 03

Above all the Macedonian struggle was a sacred struggle just like the struggle of any conquered people who fight for their survival and dignity. It is a crime to suppress such a struggle…

We also have to consider that no uprising ever erupts because it is given consent, or allowed to… The outbreak of the Macedonian national liberation movement was a historic event of inevitability. It was a natural consequence of general historical changes in all of Macedonia and not just in the Aegean (Greek occupied) part. It was a result of changes in the Balkans and generally changes brought about by the Second World War. The outbreak was unstoppable like any other occurrence in nature. If a rainstorm erupts and flood waters cause damage in the field of politics, only those who manage the field are at fault.

There were hundreds of thousands of Greek people in the “Greek interior”, who fled to save themselves when they came face to face with the Macedonian battalions. Why? The Macedonians posed no threat to them. They fled because they were misinformed as to who the Macedonians were. As a result these fleeing people found themselves in the cities which were controlled by the CPG’s enemy and collected and turned into reserves for the enemy. First, knowing

the situation in southern Greece, why did the CPG send Macedonians there and not Greeks? Second, why did the CPG not inform the local people that these “Slavic speaking” soldiers were Macedonians and friends of the local people? The CPG sent the Macedonian battalions south because it wanted to discredit and compromised both itself (CPG) and DAG. It wanted to prove to the Greek people that it had allied itself with the Slavs, that is, it allied itself with the bearers of the “Slavic danger” against Greece. This is precisely why DAG units with Macedonian soldiers were sent to the interior of Greece!

This did not happen by accident! The Macedonian battalions were sent there by order from the top CPG leadership. As a result this CPG act helped its enemy in two ways. One, it forced the local people to join the enemy camp and strengthen its opponent. And two, the CPG managed to destroy the Macedonian battalions which it feared were posing a danger to Greece. It should be obvious from all this that the CPG had no intention of allowing the Macedonian liberation movement to exist and grow or to develop a strong revolutionary force in Greece.

Namely, the CPG never planned in their practical policy to develop and affirm the struggle of the Macedonian people for their elementary freedoms and rights in the Greek state, but on the contrary:

As I said earlier, the CPG systematically suppressed the Macedonian struggle and prevented it from affirming itself in Greece. It did everything in its power to prevent the Macedonian people from developing revolutionary activities, Macedonian national organizations, Macedonian revolutionary publications, etc...

There was more to it than that: When the Macedonian national liberation movement erupted and began to organize and actively resist, the CPG tried to stifle it… but failed. It then, through CPG appointed leaders attempted to convert it into a Greek-supremacist movement, by representing the Macedonians as “Slavophone Greeks”, that is, a Slavophone part of the Greek people...

Here is another sequence of events:

- About two months after NOF for the Aegean (Greek occupied) part of Macedonia was formed, the Greek CPG leaders, through the CPG Central Committee Twelfth Plenum, declared that the Greek position and the northern Greek borders were uncertain and threatened.

- At the same time the CPG declared England as “a great friend” of Greece which allowed for English political and military presence in Greece. The CPG justified the English interference in Greek internal affairs as necessary “in order to secure our position in the north and to safeguard our northern borders…” (Zahariadis) At the same time England organized and financed the breakdown of the left democratic forces and, above all, the breakdown of the CPG itself.

- The CPG leadership refused to take advantage of the large masses of organized people and available reserves for DAG, because, according to Zahariadis, the armed struggle was only a bluff. The revolution reserves waited passively and in anticipation of the armed struggle… However, the CPG had no plans to take power with an armed struggle. And as it turned out, the CPG had no plans at all to take power in Greece.

- Even though DAG could have grown into a massive force, as was expected, and could have reached past the critical point of winning the war, it was held back because it posed a danger to the English presence in Greece. In other words, DAG and the revolution were condemned to fail well in advance… by none other than the CPG leadership itself.

- The years went by, and still DAG was held back. It was never allowed to grow to its natural limit or start an offensive against the enemy. It just stood back and absorbed attack after attack until the English finally lost their breath and could no longer continue to finance this endless war. But, instead of taking advantage of its real enemy, the CPG created the right conditions for the Americans to intervene.

- DAG, under Markos Vafiadis’s guidance, was doing well fighting a guerilla war based on hit and run tactics. But then Zahariadis

removed him and turned DAG into a sitting duck by converting it into a stationary army. DAG had no weapons to fight a fronted war, yet Zahariadis made it stand still so that it could be pounded by its massive opponent who possessed not only a huge army but also tanks, artillery and aviation. Thanks to Zahariadis DAG was forced to stand still so that the enemy could smash it.

- DAG was robbed of its real power when it was converted from a moving to a stationary army. Vafiadis insisted that DAG remain a partisan hit and run army but Zahariadis used his power to veto him, a result of which Vafiadis almost lost his head. It is not that Zahariadis did not know what he was doing, but rather Zahariadis chose to bring treachery to his own forces in order to give his opponent the opportunity to win.

When all this is taken into consideration, it is impossible to believe that the Macedonian people and their movement were somehow guilty of causing DAG’s destruction and bringing defeat to the revolution. On the contrary, the Macedonian fighters and people were the main driving force behind DAG and the revolution in the northern part of Greece… where these betrayals took place. The Macedonian people were the ones who were betrayed and fell victim to this war…

About a decade later, in a special interview with the Athens newspaper “TA NEA” and with the Solun newspaper “ELINIKOS VORAS”, General Markos Vafiadis finally said: “Zahariadis loved that catastrophe... He worked for it with a plan... We were betrayed by the Party leadership!” (See ELINIKOS VORAS, August 3, 1978.) Vafiadis also said: “At the time I still had not come to the conclusion that Zahariadis was a provocateur... Zahariadis played the English and American game…” D. Gusidis, a correspondent asked Vafiadis: “What evidence do you have for all the accusations you made today? Are there any documents…?” Vafiadis’s reply was: “I have documents... And the events speak for themselves…!” (See TA NEA, August 22, 1978)...

As a contemporary and participant in that war, I cannot forget the comment one of the enemy generals made soon after DAG was defeated. He said: The good god of Greece (the bourgeoisie of

Greece) wanted Zahariadis to defeat Markos! Otherwise, today Greece (bourgeois rule in Greece) would not exist!

That is correct. It is easy to recognize the many known alien dark forces under the good god of the bourgeoisie...

(1978/79)