CHAPTER EIGHT – Yugoslavia closed its borders

CHAPTER EIGHT – Yugoslavia closed its borders

Someone in the back, perhaps the same man, piped up again and said: “What a dramatic turnaround… Yugoslavia closed its borders and the Macedonian authorities in the Republic of Macedonia said nothing...”

Suvogorski again began to feel that burning sensation in the pit of his stomach. Thinking about what happened and what was done to the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia made him uneasy. He found it very difficult to speak without becoming emotional and upset. He took another gulp of water from his glass, rolled the papers that he was holding in his hands into a roll and, in a loud voice, continued:

“Well, Tito and Yugoslavia’s politics left the NOF and AFZH leaders with their eyes and mouths wide open in disbelief. Our Macedonian brothers and sisters in the Republic of Macedonia had abandoned us… This means that our Macedonian brothers in the Republic of Macedonia closed the border on the Macedonians fighters from the Greek occupied part of Macedonia. They closed the border on the same Macedonian fighters who had been mass mobilized into DAG units by NOF at the request of Lazo Kolishevski and Tsvetko Uzunov, who said they were needed for the revolution because they were exemplary revolutionaries…

And what was their political message?

1. Kolishevski ordered the NOF and AFZH leadership to ‘listen and trust the Greek Communists!’

2. Tsvetko Uzunov-Abas gave the NOF leadership his guarantee that ‘behind them stood Yugoslavia’, just as they were marched out and surrendered to their new stepfathers Markos and Zahariadis. And what happened after that? NOF continued with business as usual, agitating and recruiting more Macedonians to fight in the Greek Civil War and to make more sacrifices… What happened to Uzunov’s guarantee when Yugoslavia closed its border on us? Where was Uzunov then? Did they forget that NOF and AFZH were created in Skopje to follow and fulfill CPM/CPY directives?

This dramatic reversal was one of the most difficult experiences for the Macedonian nation… It was madness… real madness! It happened to us Macedonians and it confirmed that the Republic of Macedonia was tightly controlled by the CPM/CPY and Tito was our stepfather in Yugoslavia…” concluded Suvogorski.