(For more information on the plight of the Macedonian children please read cha - Part 01

(For more information on the plight of the Macedonian children please read chapter twenty-eight of my book “History of the Macedonian people From Ancient times to the Present”, published in 2005.)

Emptying the Macedonian children out of their Macedonian homes freed their mothers to join the war effort to go and fight at the front. The added incentive for this was that “if they wanted to see their children again they would have to win the war”.

Unfortunately it would have been impossible to win the war because behind their enemies stood England and the United States. Unbeknown to them, the only “real” option those mothers had was to fight and die or flee and never return to their homes.

The child evacuation program must have been part of the plan to get rid of the Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia because

later, when the war was over, these children too were not allowed to return. Most have not been allowed to return to this day.

Years later some tried to return but Greece (act L-2) would not allow it. Even innocent Macedonians who had not participated in the conflict, including the evacuated refugee children, were refused entry (again act L-2). Years passed and still they were refused entry again and again. They were not even allowed to visit ailing relatives. Finally in 1985 a repatriation policy was introduced and amnesty was given but only to those of “Greek origin”. This again excluded the Macedonians.

As the war escalated the communists must have changed their mind about saving the Macedonian children and decided to secretly bring some back and have them “killed” by sending them to the front to fight against the Greek army backed by English and American support.

By the spring of 1949 the Greek Civil War became a “killing field” consuming the Macedonian population. Some of the children who were previously evacuated were brought back to fight against the battle hardened Greek army. Children who were strong enough to carry a rifle, regardless of age, were snatched from the child refugee camps in Romania and brought back to Greece. Two of the three groups that were brought back were instantly massacred upon engaging the Greek Army. They were all under the age of fifteen, had no combat training and no idea of what to expect. The third group was spared only because mothers protested against such barbaric acts. The Partisans demobilized the third group before it reached the battlefields and sent the children home.

“About three hundred thousand Macedonian people, organized in NOF from the youngest to the oldest, were actively involved in this titanic struggle between the democratic forces of Greece and the domestic and international reactionaries.

Three and a half thousand Macedonian women dedicated their lives to building fortifications on Mount Vicho under enemy artillery shelling and air bombardments. There were thousands of Macedonian women who supplied the DAG fighters with food and

ammunition carried in bags and sacks around their waist or on their backs, from Lerin and Kostur to the Gramos front. There were also Macedonian women, and even young girls, mobilized into DAG through several mobilizations who, after a short preparation, were sent to the front to fight in the frontlines. Tens of thousands of Macedonian children were evacuated alone and without their parents and sent to friendly European socialist countries.

The first woman to be sentenced to death by a Greek military court and executed was a Macedonian. Her name was Mirka Ginova, an AFZH activist during this struggle.

The men who served in DAG’s ranks from the villages in the border territory were all Macedonian. More than ten thousand fighters who fell at the front were Macedonians.

According to official statistics from the 1940 and 1951 Greek censuses, the Macedonian population in 179 Macedonian villages dropped to half, while 46 other Macedonian villages were completely devastated during the Greek Civil War and were not even mentioned in the 1951 census.

Over sixty thousand Macedonians were forced to flee to Yugoslavia and other European socialist countries.

The only people who experienced similar devastation, compared to the Macedonian people, were the Spanish and Vietnamese people. The Spanish people fought epic battles against fascism and the Vietnamese people fought epic battles against imperialism and neo-colonialism. During the Greek Civil War, the Macedonian fighters represented about half of DAG’s effective forces. At its peak DAG numbered about 40,000 fighters. And if we compare this to the total Macedonian and Greek population, it turns out that, percentage wise, seventeen or eighteen times more Macedonians fought in the war than Greeks.

It was one of the most massive revolutionary movements in the recent history of our people...” (Pavle Rakovski)

There are many more things that can be said in support of the Greek Civil War being a perpetrated and controlled war, including the fact that Zahariadis refused to expand DAG into its full potential when it was possible and the fact that Zahariadis turned DAG from a successful hit and run partisan army into a frontal army, opening it up for destruction. On the other hand there are fewer things that can be said to support the Greek Civil War being a war of “Greeks fighting against Greeks” in a bid to change the political system in Greece than a war to get rid of the Macedonians from Greece. Facts speak for themselves.

One last thing:

As I said before, after the Second World War ended the Greek Civil War was a new test for the Macedonian people. The war had a dual purpose; one, to expel the Macedonian population out of Greece, and for that reason the war was located inside Greek occupied Macedonia; and two, to liquidate the Communists who obviously were grossly misinformed and wanted to create socialism inside the British Protectorate of Greece.

If we are to accept the “strategic objective” that the CPM/CPY actually cared about the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia, then why did the highest Yugoslav bodies oppose the slogan: “Turn all weapons towards Solun…” i.e. “To Solun and not to the Srem front!” All Macedonian soldiers and officers who demonstrated for going to Solun were ruthlessly punished, jailed and many murdered. This was done by the Yugoslavs against their own army, the army that Tito himself created. This, obviously, was done because Tito and Yugoslavia were “well-aware” of the Yalta Agreement and the division of spheres of influence and that Solun was untouchable because it had already been decided by the Great Powers that Solun would stay in Greece and that Greece fell under the British sphere of influence. Knowing all this, then why would Tito, through the CPM/CPY, only three months later change his position and approve a plan for the Macedonians “…to struggle to attain national rights and the right to self-determination for the Macedonian people living in Greek occupied Macedonia” being fully aware of the consequences that may result from the Yalta Agreement and the division of spheres of influence?

Just knowing “what happened” does not explain the absurdity of what our Yugoslav supported Macedonian mainstream history has recorded, mainly that NOF was created “…to struggle to attain national rights and the right to self-determination for the Macedonian people living in Greek occupied Macedonia”. Our mainstream history has led us to believe that this was NOF’s “actual” objective, when in fact this was incorrect. The fact of the matter is that the architects and planners of the Macedonian people’s demise, since the beginning, needed NOF to rally the Macedonian people. They needed NOF to re-awaken the Macedonian people’s old national feelings and rally them to join the struggle quickly and in massive numbers. The real objective for NOF was to involve the entire Macedonian population in the war effort in Greek occupied Macedonia, so that Greece and its allies England and the United States would deal with them appropriately in accordance with their interests. During this period until November 21, 1946, according to our scant information, NOF managed to organize 5 large regions, 10 districts, 3 urban areas and 32 small regions and staff them with 120 professional NOF, NOMS and AFZH people. In the entire region of Greek occupied Macedonia, NOF managed to organize 220 villages with more than 170 rural and urban organizations staffed by 4,832 NOMS members and 2,201 AFZH Macedonian and Vlach women members. In August, over 100 fighters were acting in the area of Vicho and more than 500 NOF partisans acted in Central and Western Greek occupied Macedonia. The NOF partisans were deployed as follows: 200 in Kaimakchalan, 80 in Paiko, 120 in Vicho and 80 in Gramos. The Macedonian fighters were divided into small units of 10-15 and larger units numbering 40-50 partisans. A larger group, a battalion, was also formed in Voden Region. (Kiriazovski, 1985/143.)

We simply don’t know whether the NOF leadership believed it or not, or whether anyone in NOF had any reservations about its objective “…to struggle to attain national rights and the right to self-determination for the Macedonian people living in Greek occupied Macedonia”, but from the events that followed, NOF would, in part, be responsible for creating a local hotspot for a future war in Greek occupied Macedonia. How this war was going to be started was yet

unknown. NOF’s initial task was to establish itself in Greek occupied Macedonia.

At this point we need to ask ourselves: “Why would the CPM/CPY encourage NOF to prepare for war in Greek occupied Macedonia in order “…to struggle to attain national rights and the right to self-determination for the Macedonian people living in Greek occupied Macedonia”, when Tito and the CPM/CPY communists were fully aware of the signed Varkiza Agreement under which the political left had handed over power to the political right? Why would the CPM/CPY encourage NOF to prepare for war in Greek occupied Macedonia when, on October 1944, Stalin and Churchill decided that Greece would fall under British and American influence? We Macedonians, including NOF, may not have known about these agreements but the CPM, CPY and the CPG certainly knew. They certainly knew that what they were proposing: “…to struggle to attain national rights and the right to self-determination for the Macedonian people living in Greek occupied Macedonia” would be impossible under the conditions that existed at that time. And, of course, there was that “surprise” statement made by Marshal Tito in Moscow for the New York Times during which he said: “If the Macedonians in Greece express a desire to unite with the Macedonians in Yugoslavia, then we will respect their wishes.” And how should we interpret this statement made by Tito when, at a meeting with Stergios Anastasidis, member of the CPG Central Committee Politburo, held in Belgrade on September 15, 1944, Tito himself said: “Yugoslavia has no pretensions and no claims on Greek Macedonia and the whole campaign about this unification has nothing to do with anything, it is just an opinion. You can share this news with the Greek people and let them know that we have no claims on Greek Macedonia. The question of changing borders is now in international hands and we should not be rushing that issue…”

Civil War in Greece – An outsider’s perspective

In order to understand the events of the year 1947, which proved to be the decisive turning point of the post-war period, it is necessary to view them against the background of the civil war in Greece. For it was this civil war which provided Truman with the occasion to declare that the world was divided between alternative ‘ways of life’ and to proclaim an ideological crusade against the un-American way.

When the Second World War ended in Greece in 1944, the EAM, or National Liberation Front, was in control of nearly the whole country. In the words of one recognized authority:

By the time of liberation, EAM numbered about two million members, out of a total population of over seven million. They were incomparably superior to all rivals in their organization and enthusiasm, and had every reason to suppose that once the Germans were out of the way that they would be able to take over undisputed control. There seemed nothing that could hope to stand against them. (William H. McNeill, The Greek Dilemma 1947, p. 111. cf. also L. S. Stavrinos, The Balkans Since 1453, 1961, p. 807)

Among the leaders of EAM were many liberals and social democrats, but the Communists were clearly dominant. Had the issue of Greek sovereignty been left to be contested between this force and the returning Greek Army (controlled by monarchist officers), the outcome would have been an EAM victory. But EAM was not allowed to reap this victory. For aligned against them were not merely the discredited monarchists, but also the British forces. ‘The decisive factor in the ensuing struggle for power was the British Army, which entered the country as the Germans left.’ (Smith, op. cit., pp. 232-4. cf. also Hugh Seton-Watson, The Pattern of Communist Revolution, 1960. ‘This was a defeat for the Greek Communists, and it was not due to factors within Greece, but to British intervention: without British action Greece would have had the same regime as Yugoslavia’ (p. 217).) EAM had entered the cabinet of a government of National Unity in 1944, and only resigned (on 2 December) when an order was issued by the British commanding general (Scobie) for all resistance movements and

most pointedly the largest of these, EAM, to disarm. On 4 December, police fired on an authorized public demonstration by EAM supporters in which ‘women and children predominated’ killing several of the demonstrators. This act triggered the civil war. (McNeill, ibid, pp. 132, 138) Reinforced by two divisions from North Africa, the British mounted an all-out offensive using tanks and planes and on 12 February 1945, the beaten Greeks surrendered and yielded up their arms.

One would prefer to be generous to the British and say that they attempted to bolster what middle-way and democratic forces there were in order to create compromise and a basis for democracy. Unfortunately there seems little evidence to support this, and one is forced to conclude that the British were determined to break EAM and install in power the discredited monarchy and its blindly vengeful rightist supporters. (Howard K. Smith, The State of Europe, 1949, pp. 232-4) In the panic of the fighting, Premier Papandreou had opened the ranks of the National Guard. ‘The whole force of the Nazi “security battalions” enlisted…’ A British military commission placed monarchist officers in control of the Greek Army which it was to help rebuild, while a British commission assigned to re-form the Greek police failed to do so with the result that ‘largely it remained the police force that had served the Nazis’. Then, with the left subdued, the British sent troops through the country, followed by the pro-Nazi National Guard, to ‘pacify’ it. ‘Thousands of young men fled to the mountains; others fled into Yugoslavia for protection. Revulsion abroad to the right-wing excesses was such that Prime Minister Attlee felt constrained to issue a public protest.’ (ibid., pp. 234-5, McNeill, op. sit., p. 150)

With the country thus pacified, elections were held on 31 March 1946, against the objections of Premier Sophoulis, and in the face of a boycott by the left. The monarchists won (although only 49 per cent of the registered voters cast ballots), and seven months later a referendum restored King George to the throne, making the renewal of civil war ‘inevitable’.

The ground on which this civil war gained a footing was the incredible social and economic misery of the Greek people and the failure of the monarchist rulers to take steps to alleviate it. The

programme which the newly elected Prime Minister Tsaldaris announced ‘put major emphasis on the restoration of the King’. Everything else was subordinated to this issue. In foreign affairs he promised strenuous efforts to secure the annexation of new territory to Greece from Albania and Bulgaria. Economic recovery he passed over lightly…’ (McNeill, op. sit., p. 197) In the first three post-war years the British poured $760 million worth of supplies into Greece, but ‘no stone was laid atop another to repair the dreadful damage of war’. While ‘75 per cent of all Greek children were suffering from malnutrition’, the governments fostered by the British placed ‘all tax burdens on the poor’, and one government by selling Greece’s gold reserves to private buyers at the rate of 500,000 gold sovereigns a month depleted Greek capital by huge amounts. ‘UNRRA reckoned that more wealth was leaving the country at the time than UNRRA was bringing in to save the Greek people from starvation.’ (Smith, ibid., pp. 227-8.)

‘Half the Tsaldaris Government’s expenditures was on army and police, only six per cent on reconstruction.’ (ibid., pp. 234-5, McNeill, op. sit., p. 198.) Typical of this government’s methods was its treatment of the labour unions:

…At the end of the war, union elections were held throughout Greece under the watchful eyes of British trade-union leaders. Leftists, with the Communists in the lead, swept the board. On assuming power, the royalist government removed the whole elected administration and set up an executive for the Greek Confederation of Labor with sixteen hand-picked rightists dominating five leftists and with Fotios Makris, a union official of the wartime quisling government, as chief. The five leftists rejected their appointments. With its organization crippled, labor’s position was miserable… There are few modern parallels for government this bad. (Smith, op. cit., p. 236.)

This was the Greece Truman described to Congress in his ‘Doctrine’ speech in March 1947 as one of the ‘free peoples’ that it ‘must be the policy of the United States to support’. ‘Greece and Turkey,’ he later wrote, ‘were still free countries’ at this time, ‘being challenged by Communist threats both from within and without. (Foreign aid for the rebels was, of course, ‘an uncontested fact’. Both Yugoslavia

and Bulgaria were offering them supplies and the safety of their territory ‘whenever pinched by a Greek Government offensive’. This was considerably less aid, however, than that given by the British to the rightists. Moreover, the rebels had widespread popular support. When the Greek Communist Vafiadis (later purged as a ‘Titoist’) launched his rebellion in the autumn of 1946, “Time” estimated his forces at 2,500. By 1948, though the Greek Government claimed to have killed or captured many times that number, the ELAS (military arm of the EAM) was estimated to have 25,000 troops or ten times the original number (Smith, op. cit., pp. 236-7)). These free peoples were now engaged in a valiant struggle to preserve their liberties and their independence.’ (Truman, Memoirs, II, p. 101.)

With this background in view, it becomes possible to assess the critical events of 1946-7 which surrounded the promulgation of the Truman Doctrine and the formation of two hostile world camps.

The above was written by David Horowitz

(Horowitz, David. From Yalta to Vietnam, American Foreign Policy in the Cold War, Penguin Books, 1971.)

I decided to include the above piece by David Horowitz as background information to show that “greater forces” were indeed involved in “guiding” the so-called Greek Civil War, forces of “epic” proportion, to ensure that communism was “killed” in Greece and that the Macedonians were “exterminated” to such a degree that they would never again raise their heads. But it did not end there.

Post Greek Civil War life in Greek occupied Macedonia

By 1950 Greece was taking extreme measures to close its borders with Albania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Trusted Albanians from Epirus were brought into Greek occupied Macedonia and seeded throughout the border villages to act as eyes and ears for the Greeks to make sure the exiled Macedonians did not return home illegally. Greek authorities clamped down on the remaining population and no one was allowed to travel without permission. There were strict rules of conduct put into effect, including curfews. Anyone caught wandering outdoors past dusk was shot on sight. Many shepherds quit their jobs for fear of being killed and left their sheep wandering aimlessly. One little boy had an argument with his stepfather and ran away. The authorities were not at all sympathetic and wouldn’t allow the family to go looking for him. The boy’s mother and sister went looking for him anyway and brought him home safely at great risk to their own safety.

When the violence in Greece subsided, parents and relatives began to inquire about repatriating their children. Those who displayed some loyalty to the Greek cause were told that their children would be allowed to return if decreed by the Greek Queen Fredericka. Unfortunately this process required connections with the local Greek authorities and a lot of money, money that most Macedonians did not have. Those considered for repatriation had to meet a number of conditions including a willingness to accept permanent Hellenization. In other words they had to swear loyalty to the Greek state and embrace the Greek cause. Children from Partisan families were automatically disqualified. Those who weren’t willing to change their names or weren’t liked for some reason or another were also disqualified. As the years passed fewer children were allowed to return and requests for repatriation continued to be ignored. Parents and relatives died and still their children were not allowed to return, not even for a visit. All this took place under the watchful eye of the Great Powers yet no one from the west did anything to help the Macedonian children. No human rights violations were ever recorded against Greece by the competent authorities. In fact, outside of the Red Cross in various countries, no one gave a damn about the Macedonian children. It leaves one to wonder why Greece was allowed to exile its own innocent children without cause.

After travel restrictions to countries behind the iron curtain were lifted, parents, in spite of the expense, old age and ill health, made their way out of Greece to visit their exiled children in the various countries where they were living. One woman on her deathbed made her husband promise her that he would visit their daughter in Poland before he died. Feeling his own mortality the man, in poor health, made the long trek and after thirty years of separation saw his daughter for the first time. She said she would never forget her father’s sacrifice.

Another woman who let all four of her children (two sons and two daughters) leave during the dreaded May 1948 evacuation also made the trek to Poland to see them. The woman was crippled from a war wound and could hardly walk but knew that soon she would die and wanted to see her children one last time. She traveled by train and in spite of her condition made it to Poland in good spirits. When she arrived, two of her children, a son and a daughter, came to greet her. The daughter recognized her mother and after a long and emotional hug asked her if she knew which daughter she was. Her mother would not answer because she didn’t know and didn’t want to make a mistake. That deeply troubled the adult daughter who began to weep uncontrollably. She did recognize her son and called out his name but would not answer her daughter’s pleas. After a while she finally recognized her, wiped her tears and with a wide smile called out her name. It was an emotional but happy ending for that family. Unfortunately for every happy ending there were dozens of sad ones. One old couple did not have enough money or the strength to make the trip to visit their children. Since then both have passed on heartbroken, with their desire to see their children unfulfilled.

Many of the people I interviewed don’t know why the Greek authorities wouldn’t allow the children to return. In spite of pleas, even on humanitarian grounds, Greece, decade after decade, government after government, maintains the same policy and will not allow the Macedonian refugee children to return home. All kinds of pleas and petitions have been filed and yet the western world, including the United Nations, is silent on the issue.

After the Greek Civil War was over and all the remaining Partisans were captured or killed, people who were evacuated from the remote villages by the Greek authorities on American General Van Fleet’s orders were slowly allowed to go back home to their own village. While many returned to their old homes a few families decided to make the new village where they were evacuated their home. While being evacuated and away from their homes many people lost their furniture, farm equipment, tools, livestock and personal belongings to looters. For most of these people life had to start all over again. As tensions began to ease, the people held in concentration camps were released and began to arrive home only to find their property gone. The Greek authorities, in addition to confiscating the properties of many of those who fled as refugees during the mass exodus of 1949, also confiscated the properties of those held in concentration camps.

My father was one of those people who, at age seventeen, was sent to the Greek prison camps. I often asked him why he was sent to prison, but to the day he died he did not know.

(To learn more about my father’s story please read the chapter “The Greek Prison Camps - Nikola’s Story” in my book “Macedonians in Greece 1939 – 1949” published in 2009.)

As I mentioned earlier, on March 1, 1947, U.S. President Harry Truman announced the decision to proclaim the “Truman Doctrine” for engaging the U.S. in Greece. Greece was granted credit and advanced military equipment to equip its government army. At the same time Van Fleet, an American General anti-guerrilla specialist, was made available to the Greek government.

With Van Fleet’s strategy and tactics applied in the last battles fought in the Vicho and Gramos battlefields, DAG was defeated and ejected outside of Greece.

So, what exactly was Van Fleet’s strategy and how did it involve my father?

Van Fleet was familiar with the concept of how to starve a guerrilla army. In order to do that, he said, you will have to rob it of the ability to feed itself and recruit new fighters.

Most of the food and recruits that supplied the partisan army (DAG) came from the Macedonian mountain and remote villages.

To stop the food supply all residents from the small villages were removed and placed in towns and large villages, places guarded by the Greek army and the Greek police. Curfews and restrictions of movement were then placed so no one could move without authorization. This cut off most of the food supply to the partisans.

To stop the partisans from recruiting new fighters, the Greek government arrested basically every man, capable of carrying a gun, who was not loyal to the government or was affiliated with the partisan movement and sent them to the Greek island prison camps.

My father was affiliated with the partisan movement. All his brothers and sisters were partisans and fighting in the war. He was the only young person left home to look after the farm and his aging mother and father, so he became a target of Van Fleet’s strategy.

So, to starve the partisans out, Van Fleet basically emptied all the small villages of their population and arrested every man who might be a potential partisan.

The people from the small villages were moved to the large ones because the Greeks didn’t have enough policemen to guard every village. The move, of course, was done by force.

In time people became demoralized and lived in constant fear of the authorities and retribution from their collaborators. There was a certain stigma attached to the relatives of partisans or their supporters that caused them to withdraw from society and keep to themselves. Those who served in the Greek concentration camps were constantly harassed with curfews, their mobility was restricted and they were treated like spies. Many were followed by plainclothes policemen and pressured to become informants and spy on their neighbours. Strangers were viewed with suspicion and

automatically assumed to be foreign spies. Those who served prison sentences, even though they were not criminals, were treated like criminals and with contempt.

As radios became affordable people began to purchase them and listen to various programs, including broadcasts from Eastern Europe and the Federal Republic of Macedonia. The Greek police became vigilant and on many occasions were observed outside people’s yards listening to hear what programs the people were listening to. Those caught listening to foreign programs were accused of espionage. The Macedonian language was once again banned from use and the “M” (Macedonia and Macedonian) word became a dirty word even if it was spoken on the radio. Ever since Greece invaded the Macedonian territory in 1912, successive Greek Governments refused to acknowledge the existence of the Macedonian language.

One by one, all those who came back from the Eastern European countries and who were released from prison left for Canada, the USA and Australia because they could no longer stand the Greek oppression imposed on them. Those who came back from the Eastern European countries had tasted freedom and wanted more even if it meant abandoning their beloved ancestral homes. They remembered how life was before the latest Greek clampdown and now it had become worse. The people had also changed, they were afraid. They were still courteous and kind but suspicious of one another and their spirits were broken. Everyone was afraid, careful not to say anything incriminating as if every word was going to be judged and they were going to be punished. Children born during this time were brought up believing that this was how life was and that it was supposedly the best life one could have. They were taught to understand that Greece was the cradle of democracy and no one in the world was freer than the Greeks. Those who knew better did not dare say anything to contradict it. There were certain things that could not be done or discussed, especially the Greek Civil War. Children were taught Greek chauvinist songs in school and they sang them at home in front of their parents who didn’t dare say anything because even their own children could unwittingly betray them.

The Macedonian language again became known as “our” language and could only be spoken in secrecy with relatives and trusted friends. The word “Macedonia” or “Macedonian” was banned from the peoples’ vocabulary and could not be spoken, especially in public. Pre-school children who learned “our” language at home from their grandmothers spoke Greek with a heavy accent and were constantly teased and scolded for not knowing how to speak Greek properly. If a child was caught speaking “our” language in class or in the yard, punishment ensued which varied from being publicly humiliated and told not to speak “those filthy words” to being given a good dose of castor oil.

Macedonian children often sang the Greek songs they were taught in school at home. These were chauvinistic and anti-Macedonian songs about the deeds of the Greek heroes who killed many “terrible Bulgars” (Macedonians)… Listening to their children sing such songs broke their parents’ hearts. Their precious children were unknowingly idolizing the vile criminals and murderers who became heroes by indiscriminately slaughtering Macedonians, their own people…

Some parents, when their children were old enough to keep a secret, taught them that they were a different people, that they were Macedonian, not Greek. Other parents, thinking that it was in the best interest of the children not to know their true identity, allowed them to believe that they were Greek. Their loyalties, however, were never rewarded since it was very rare for a Macedonian child to be accepted as a Greek. They were humored but never accepted as equals. It was not because of lack of loyalty but because they could not be trusted. Discrimination was common practice especially at the individual level. Macedonians were constantly put down and as a result kept to themselves. Sometimes, however, during heated discussions or unavoidable arguments Macedonians did show discontentment but arguments always ended with the Greeks insulting the Macedonians by calling them “Bulgars”, the lowest form of life known to Greeks.

The highest level of education a Macedonian child could achieve was grade six, no matter how bright they were. Junior high was

possible only for the children of those who had shown and continued to show loyalty to the Greek state and Greek cause.

One young man, whose Macedonian parents fought on the partisan side and were killed during the Greek Civil War, had joined the Greek military and afterwards considered the army to be his only family. He was very loyal, studious and hardworking but was constantly denied promotions. He did not know he was Macedonian or how his parents had died. During a military exercise he saved a high-ranking Greek officer from drowning. For saving his life the officer promised to help him if he ever needed any help. After years of frustration finally the young soldier went to the Greek officer with his complaint about being refused promotions. After some investigation the officer advised him that his requests for a promotion were turned down because he was not Greek, more specifically because his parents were of Slav origin. This unfair treatment angered the young soldier enough to leave the Greek military, the only family he had ever known. Disheartened he left Greece altogether and joined his aunt in Toronto, Canada where he is currently learning to speak Macedonian. Even though he speaks no other language, he refuses to speak Greek.

After the fall of the dictatorship in Greece, in the mid-sixties, many Macedonians were publicly encouraged by Greek politicians to leave Greece because “there was no future for them there”. Naturally there was a “future” for others because as the Macedonian villages in Greek occupied Macedonia were emptied of the Macedonians they were filled with Albanians from west central Greece who were loyal to the Greek cause. Also, the Vlachs who originally lived in the highlands of Thessaly and spent their summers in the Macedonian mountains moved into the Macedonian villages and took up permanent residence there. Many of these newcomers applied for and were granted the properties of the Macedonians who left or were exiled during the Greek Civil War.

Macedonians who immigrated to Canada, the USA and Australia at the start of the 20th century organized village associations to assist fellow immigrants in adjusting to their new countries. As post-Greek Civil War immigration accelerated, these village associations became a haven for new immigrants and their membership grew.

Encouraged by their newfound freedoms, many of the new émigrés enjoyed their Macedonian culture and speaking their Macedonian language freely in the Diaspora. This, however, was perceived as a threat to Greek influence both at home and abroad. As the associations grew in strength so did their threat to the Greek chokehold. To counter this, with help from the Greek Embassies and Consulates, pro-Greek factions began to infiltrate the Macedonian associations. The weaker associations were overpowered and rendered ineffective. Those that resisted managed to survive and preserve their unique Macedonian identity. For the ones that the Greeks could not subdue, parallel and competing pro-Greek associations were formed. The day a Macedonian association held an event the pro-Greek association held a similar event. The Greeks did this to divide the people. Many Macedonians who participated in Macedonian events and who had relatives still living in Greece were threatened not to go to these events or harm would come to their relatives living in Greece. On top of that they were blackmailed to join the pro-Greek organizations and attend their events. To avoid being harmed many Macedonians felt it was safer to stay away from all organizations. As a result many Macedonian voices were silenced in the Macedonian communities in the Diaspora. This suited the Greeks perfectly and left the Macedonians frustrated and disappointed.

The most anti-Macedonian organization to surface from all the Greek associations is the Pan Macedonian Association, which aims to not only divide the Macedonian Nation but also destroy everything that is Macedonian. To this day this organization preys on the weak, innocent, naïve and those who can be bought and continues to spread hatred and lies at every opportunity. The Pan Macedonian Association is a “false organization” fully financed by Greek taxpayers, most of whom are unaware of its discriminatory practices and the friction it creates between fellow Greek citizens.

In addition to disseminating anti-Macedonian propaganda and lobbying for “the Greek cause”, many of these so-called “Greek-Macedonian” organizations spy on Macedonian organizations and individuals, reporting their activities to the Greek authorities. Many activists and supporters of the Macedonian cause, even though they are Greek citizens, are barred from returning to Greece. Their cause

is noble if they serve the Greeks at their own expense but as soon as they attempt to serve their own interests they suddenly become traitors.

Macedonians are refused entry into Greece at the border points without any explanation. Without consent their passports are stamped “void” and thrown back at them. They do the same to individuals with foreign passports without respect for the foreign state’s property.

After years of living in Australia one Macedonian man decided to visit the Republic of Macedonia. Upon entry his passport was stamped with a beautiful red symbol, a real treasure, which made him very proud and happy to be Macedonian. His visit to Macedonia was so wonderful that he decided to cross over into Greece and visit Nered, the village where he was born. Unfortunately the Greek customs officials would not allow him entry. No explanation was given. But the man already suspected he would not be allowed entry because he was Macedonian. What was most unbelievable and unexpected, however, was that the Greek border officer who took the man’s Australian passport would repeatedly stamped it “void”. The border guard literally destroyed the Macedonian symbol on the man’s passport by repeatedly stamping “void” over it many times until the Macedonian symbol was no longer visible. No explanation or apology was given. The man was not only refused entry, to visit his birthplace, but was left very bitter wondering what he had done to deserve such cruelty.

In search of the Modern Greek

Before we continue with our story as to how the Macedonian people fare in the free and independent Republic of Macedonia, let us have a look at Greece one more time.

According to official Greece, Macedonia, particularly the Republic of Macedonia, is occupied by Slavs who came to Macedonia during the 6th century AD. Neither justified nor proven, this claim is used by Greece to negate the Macedonian identity and deny the Macedonian people their human rights. By this Greece is in violation of international norms and standards particularly in regards to the freedom of Macedonians to self-identify.

If the Macedonians are “Slavs” as Greeks claim then what are the Greeks, particularly in view that they both existed side by side as neighbours without borders for over 2,000 years?

How will the Modern Greek identity stack up to the Modern Macedonian identity if placed side by side?

Before answering the above questions, however, let’s examine “Who are the Modern Greeks?”

Edward Blaquiere Esq. author of the book “The Greek Revolution; Its Origin and Progress” on page 21 says: “Among the numerous islands of the Aegean, arise several barren rocks, some of which are however gifted by nature with small and commodious heavens. Of this number are Hydra Spezzia and Ipsara, the two first close to the Eastern shore of the Peloponnesus, and the later not far from Scio, on the Asiatic coast. Tyranny and want had driven some families, whose origin like that of nearly all the peasants, who inhabited proper Greece, was Albanian, to take refuge on the desolate crags, where they built villages, and sought a precarious existence by fishing.”

What is Edward Blaquiere trying to tell us in regards to the origins of the Modern Greeks, “whose origin like that of nearly all the peasants, who inhabited proper Greece, was Albanian”. By the

words of Edward Blaquiere nearly all the peasants inhabiting “proper” Greece were Albanian!

William St. Clair author of the book “That Greece Might Still Be Free” on page 9 says: “The Roman Catholic Greeks, who lived in the islands which had been under Venetian or Genoese rule, regarded themselves as a separate community. The Albanians of Hydra and Spetsae, many of whom could not even speak Greek, regarded themselves as Greek because their allegiance was to the Orthodox Church.”

William St. Clair says “The Albanians of Hydra and Spetsae regarded themselves as Greek” which implies that the Modern Greeks living in Hydra and Spetsae have Albanian origins.

Constantinos Papparigopolous in “History of the Hellenic Nation” on page 73 says: “The concept of the ‘Hellenic’ state as elaborated in Western Europe presupposed that this was to be the heir of the Ancient Greek (Hellenic) world. Since it occupied the same territory and this territory has been liberated after the uprising of the Christian populations claiming to be their descendants, it should -it was assumed- share the same culture and the same language as its ancient ancestors. Indeed, the newly born ‘Hellenic’ state originally based its legitimacy on this heritage. However, it had to undertake a difficult struggle to convince European public opinion of the validity of its claims. Moreover, the German historian Jacob Philip Fallmerayer argued that the ancient Greeks had been annihilated during the Slavic invasions of the Greek lands and the creation of new settlements in the seventh century AD. By this account the so called Neo-Hellenes were nothing more than a mixture of Slavic and Albanian populations.”

Here again we have references that the Modern Greek or Neo-Hellenic population living in the region where the Peloponnesus is today was once a mixture of Slavs and Albanians.

Ironically and despite the 20th century adjustments of borders, Modern Greeks today do not hesitate to call their northern neighbours “Slavs” but adamantly reject Jacob Philip Fallmerayer’s arguments which imply that they too are the descendants of Slavs.