UNDENIABLE FACTS

UNDENIABLE FACTS

We, the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia, were faced with a five year conflict that was imported to us and brought us nothing but tragedy and pain.

Fact 1

On May 5, 1949 F. MacLean met with Tito in Belgrade. Directed by the British government, MacLean asked Tito to guarantee the British a decisive Yugoslav reversal towards DAG in exchange for economic aid from the Western countries. Tito confessed to MacLean that Yugoslavia had helped DAG in the past but stressed that the situation had now changed. Still he could not refuse giving asylum to refugees from Greece, now that they could not return to their formations. Tito committed that in the future no Greek refugee would be allowed to re-enter the ranks of DAG and would not assist the partisans. Tito then asked MacLean not to disclose this obligation to anyone except to the Americans. F. MacLean, at the time, was head of the British military mission in NOV and POJ Headquarters.

Fact 2

On June 20, 1949 a meeting was held in a cave between the villages Orovo and Nivitsi in Prespa Region in a place called “Africa”. The meeting was opened by CPG General Secretary Nikos Zahariadis who, among other things, confirmed the following: “NOF is an organization of ‘agents’ who prevented the realization of the CPG line and thus inflicted damage and inconvenience on the democratic movement in the country. These agents still have roots in OZNA, in the Yugoslav army and in Kolishevski. All these agents are in the Yugoslav service and still provide written reports and consistently perform covert actions...”

Fact 3

In the fifties, the Greek communists were trying to change both the Macedonian alphabet and the Macedonian language. These initiatives were organized in Poland by representatives from

Tashkent. The initiative to accept the Bulgarian alphabet was organized by the new “Ilinden” organization.

Fact 4

According to a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report dated January 25, 1953, Copy no. 59. Approved for release in 2003/10/15 CIA-RDP79T00975A001000200001-7

The Greeks expressed interest in transferring the Macedonian Slavic minority to Yugoslavia. Among other things the report said:

“XXXXXXX has asked the United States for assistance in sounding out Yugoslavia on the possibility of transferring 50,000 ‘Macedonians’ from northern Greece to Yugoslavia. He explains these people assisted the Communists during the Greek Civil War and would be a serious problem in case of another war. They also form the basis for claims on the part of Yugoslav Macedonia to portions of Greek Macedonia.

Greece, however, does not wish to approach Tito directly since such a demarche could give him an excuse for again claiming minority rights for the Macedonians in Greece.

COMMENT: The transfer of this group would assist the Greek Government in solving its difficult minority problem. It would remove one of the primary impediments to closer Greek-Yugoslav cooperation, since Yugoslav support of a ‘free Macedonia’ has in the past been one of the major irritants in relations between the two countries.

Nevertheless, the problem is complicated by the fact the Greek Macedonians are not a homogenous group either nationally or ideologically. Further more, Yugoslav leaders still hope for the eventual integration of Macedonia, and hence would be adverse to loosing their future claims to northern Greece.”