CHAPTER NINE - NOF and AFZH’s historic end - Part 01

CHAPTER NINE - NOF and AFZH’s historic end

The true “victory” in the Greek Civil War was exactly what happened between 1945 and 1949. The NOF and AFZH revolutionaries achieved a double zero and on top of that failed to stop the ordinary and innocent Macedonian villagers from leaving their homes and from crossing the border into oblivion… without being able to return. It seemed like NOF and AFZH managed to create a totalitarian regime in Greek occupied Macedonia, but what they created was only an empty national nucleus that collapsed.

RELEVANT INFORMATION

It is important at this time to reveal some of the information relating to our destiny and to Macedonia which I personally discussed with Pavle Rakovski, of the actions and events that took place during the Greek Civil war in the period from 1945 to 1949, which gave me the incentive to write this book.

1 The Greek press and the Greek writers in the camp of the political right called the Greek Civil War an “Anti-bandit struggle” and not a “Civil War”. This struggle, led by the Greek government and its forces, did not begin to be called a “Civil War” until much later, years after DAG (Democratic Army of Greece) was defeated.

2 Macedonia’s partition by the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest took place in the aftermath of the Second Balkan War during the Bucharest Peace Conference, which lasted from July 17 to July 28, 1913 (according to the old calendar). The 1913 Treaty of Bucharest was signed by Greece and Serbia, the victors of this war which received 89.89 percent of Macedonia’s territory, and Bulgaria the defeated, received only 10.11 percent.

During the Conference, behind Greece and Serbia stood France and Britain, while Bulgaria hoped to gain the support of Russia and Austria - Hungary. At least half of the negotiations were spent on whether the port of Kavala should go to Bulgaria, behind which stood Russia, or to Greece as advocated by France and Britain. Russia wanted to gain access to the Aegean Sea and was hoping to get it through Bulgaria.

3 Dr. Risto Kiriazovski’s book “Five vital years in Aegean Macedonia (1945-1949)” was posthumously published by the “Association of Refugee Children from Aegean Macedonia”. Risto Kiriazovski was born on January 6, 1927 and participated in DAG. Then in 1949, before the Greek Civil War ended, he fled to the People’s Republic of Macedonia. In 1981 he received his PhD as a historian under the theme: “The National Liberation Front (NOF) and other organizations in Aegean Macedonia 1945 -1949.” He retired in 1987 and died in 2002 in Skopje. For me, analyzing Kiriazovski’s last book was another reason for taking on this project.

4 The Yalta Conference lasted from February 4 to 11, 1945. It was attended by Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt in the presence of their foreign ministers.

5 The beginning of the “Macedonian Question” was dated by some Western diplomats to 1870 when Russia forced the Ottoman Empire to allow the establishment of the Exarchate Church, a separate Orthodox Church, to take control over parts of Macedonia, then a province of the Ottoman Empire. Later the Exarchate Church, after Bulgaria became a state, was taken over by Bulgaria. Others hold the opinion that the “Macedonian Question” dates to 1878, to when the Berlin Congress revised the San Stefano Treaty, which Russia imposed on the Ottomans after the Russian - Turkish war. With the Treaty of San Stefano, Bulgaria was to receive most of Macedonia. This created the Bulgarian national dream of expanding Bulgaria’s territory to include the entire part of the Republic of Macedonia, Vranie, Kostur Region, Lerin Region, the islands and a small part of the Aegean Sea west of Solun. The Berlin Congress, however, did not agree and at the same time Russia gave up on the Treaty of San Stefano. So the Berlin Congress gave Macedonia back to the Ottoman Empire. (See Documents “Britain and Macedonia”)

6 The ELAS fighters and members of this army were called “Andartes” by the Greeks. The original “Andartes” were anti-Macedonian Greek armed gangs that existed around the Ilinden Uprising period or before Macedonia was partitioned in 1913. They wreaked havoc and committed horrible crimes against the Macedonian population and against the Macedonian organization. Their aim was to spread Greek influence in Macedonia by the gun and knife.

On April 6, 1941, at the same time Germany invaded Yugoslavia and Greece, there was a new master in Greece called fascism. On September 27, 1941 the organization EAM (National Liberation Front) was established and called on the entire population in Greece to stand up and resist fascism. At the same time the CPG Central Committee, together with EAM, looked for ways to organize an army. Then on February 15, 1942 the first ELAS (Greek People’s Liberation army) units began to appear. The first ELAS detachment

in Kostur Region was formed on December 7, 1942 and consisted of 10 Macedonians, 7 Greeks and 2 Vlachs.

By mid 1943 ELAS had grown to around 70,000 fighters. On July 16, 1943 the ELAS leadership and Colonel Eddie Myers, Chief of the English Military Mission in Greece, signed an Agreement by which ELAS was placed under Middle East British Command. On February 12, 1945 the Varkiza Agreement was signed, by which the resistance movement leaders virtually handed power to the political right in Greece.

7 SNOF (Slavo-Macedonian People’s Liberation Front) was created in October 1943 in the village Osnichani, Kostur Region, by Hristos Kalfas – Andreas, CPG District Committee Secretary for Western Macedonia, by Antonis Antonopoulos – Periklis, CPG District Secretary for Kostur Region, and by Thanasis Kartsounis, CPG District Committee Secretary for Kozhani Region. The purpose for creating SNOF was to liquidate the counter-bands in Greek occupied Macedonia, particularly those in Kostur Region. It was the CPG’s belief that an all Macedonian organization such as SNOF would attract the counter-bandits into the ranks of SNOF and eventually ELAS. For a short time SNOF was allowed to recruit Macedonians but they were limited to one detachment which was to remain under ELAS command. SNOF and its military arm SNOB were disbanded on September 26, 1944 by the Caserta Agreement. On September 26, 1944 the Caserta Agreement was signed between the CPG, EAM and ELAS on one side and by the Greek government in exile led by Georgios Papandreou and by the British Headquarters for the Middle East on the other. This Agreement called for “getting rid” of SNOF and everything that was Macedonian.

This Agreement definitely sealed the fate of the political left and the Macedonian people in Greece, especially those Macedonians who put their trust in the CPG.

8 The Party newspaper “Laiki Foni”, by announcing to the world through the famous Bekersdzhis interview, told the world that “Bulgarophone Greeks” lived in Greece. Then General Stefanos Sarafis, supreme commander of ELAS, in his famous book “O ELAS” (1946, 331) referred to the Macedonians as “Slavophone

Greeks”. And another thing that needs to be said: Greece, after the Balkan wars, with the Neuilly Convention signed with Bulgaria on November 27, 1919, and with the 1923 Lausanne (Switzerland) Peace Treaty signed with Turkey, and with the compulsory exchange of populations, changed the ethnic make-up in Macedonia to a point where the Macedonian people began to lose their ethnic-territorial status. Then, during World War II, Greece eliminated this issue when the ELAS, EAM and CPG leaderships signed the Lebanon Agreement on July 16, 1943, the Caserta Agreement on September 26, 1944 and the Varkiza Agreement on February 12, 1945 with the English Colonel Eddie Myers, so that the territory of Greece would remain as is.

As a matter of fact, the bi-weekly magazine “KOMEP”, organ of the CPG Central Committee, issue number 16, published in August 1943, beautifully explained the ethnic-territorial status in Greece as follows: “There is no national confusion in Greek Macedonia... The Slavo-Macedonian and Turkish population was removed in accordance with the signed conventions and the Greek population was collected from all countries in the Balkans and from Asia Minor and brought to Greek Macedonia... This population became so much Greek that it resembled the Greek population in Greece proper!” (p. 331.)

9 Naum Peiov was born in 1919 in the village Gabresh, Kostur Region. He was a member of the CPG before the war (WW II). In 1939 he was arrested by the Greek police. He joined NOV in 1941. He was the Commander of the Macedonian Partisan Detachment “Lazo Trpovski”. He was a member of the SNOF District Committee for Kostur Region. In May 1944 Naum led the group of fighters who fled ELAS and crossed over to Vardar Macedonia. He was appointed Deputy Commander of the First Aegean Brigade. After the war he took on various high level political and state positions in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia.

10 Basically, two SNOF organizations were formed: SNOF for Kostur Region, established in October 1943, and SNOF for Lerin Region, established in November 1943 in the village Belkamen. As proposed by Tempo, SNOF was created by EAM for the purpose of fighting together with ELAS in order to dissolve the Kostur Region

and other counter-bands. SNOF was strictly controlled by the Greeks in EAM and ELAS. SNOF was created to represent the organizational needs of all the Macedonian people living in Greek occupied Macedonia, and was not to operate independently but under EAM directives, which in turn were issued and supported by the CPG. We want to make it clear here that the CPG, in January 1944, also allowed the formation of the “Slavo-Macedonian People’s Liberation Army”, or SNOB, the military wing of SNOF, and placed it under direct EAM and ELAS command. Later the “Aegean Brigade” was created out of the SNOB composition which left ELAS and crossed the Yugoslav border and joined Tito’s army in Yugoslavia. Then, on April 23, 1945 in Skopje, at the initiative of the CPM/CPY, the Macedonian organizations NOF, AFZH and NOMS were formed and dispatched to Greek occupied Macedonia.

11 Tsvetko Uzunov - Abas was responsible for the military police in the Republic of Macedonia. According to Uzunov, during a CPM Central Committee Plenum, held in the summer of 1945, the CPM proposed to take a frontal attack against the group of people who broke away from the Party and caused Factionalism. Included in this group were Chento, Venko Markovski, Apostolski, Kiro Gligorov, Lazar Sokolov, Petre Piruze and Blagoi Hadzhi Panzov, all assisted by Dimitar Vlahov.

12 My aim in my long research is to determine who instigated the Macedonian expulsion from Greek occupied Macedonia after Macedonia was invaded in 1912, occupied, partitioned and annexed by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria in 1913. Who pushed the Macedonian people to leave their centuries-long civilization, traditional values and ethnic space? Who decided to attack and subdue the Macedonian people to a point of extinction?

13 On March 21, 1945, during its CPY Central Committee Politburo Session, the Yugoslav State Party leadership clarified its position for building socialism in Macedonia as referenced by Miha Marinko. Tito concluded the Session by emphasizing that: “Mihailoism in Macedonia has yet to be experienced because Mihailoism lives in the bourgeoisie and less among the peasantry. The party has popularized it. It should first, in concrete terms, be unveiled. Macedonia must hold on by its own strength. Chento should be

criticized in the Party and Vlahov must be called here. The fate of these people should be carefully decided... Macedonia has not yet given for this war and we must insist that it gives more, especially for rebuilding the country...” After that the CPM Central Committee Plenum was quickly selected. See paragraph on Tsvetko Uzunov -Abas.

14 Nikos Zahariadis was born on April 27, 1903 in Edirne (Adrianopolis), Eastern Thrace. His father was employed as a clerk, an expert, in the “Rezi” French tobacco trading company based in Istanbul. During 1911 and 1912 Nikos Zahariadis lived in Skopje, in the “Ibni Paiko” settlement, where his father worked as a representative of “Rezi”. Zahariadis attended school in Skopje and in 1913 moved to Solun. In 1922 and 1923 he spent time in the Soviet Union as a marine worker, during which time he joined the Communist Party. In 1924, during the exchange of populations between Turkey and Greece, Zahariadis’s family was moved to Greece. In 1924 he attended the famous University of Communist Nations for Eastern Europe (KUTVE) in Moscow. Zahariadis was the leader of the Greek communist movement and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (CPG) from 1936 to 1956. Zahariadis persistently treated the CPG like it was his own cult and had great confidence in the absolute infallibility of the CPSU and Stalin. He later admitted that this was an expensive mistake for which the Greek Communist movement, the Greek and Macedonian people and he himself had to pay a hefty price. Zahariadis committed suicide in 1973 while in captivity in the city Sorgun, Siberia.

As a result of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) and the signing of the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest on August 10, 1913, sanctioned by the Neuilly Peace Treaty signed on November 27, 1919, and the Sevres Peace Agreement signed on August 10, 1920, Macedonia was divided between Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Albania (which later received Dolna Prespa and Golo Brdo). Greece received 34,356 km2 or 51% of the Macedonian ethnic and historical territory, Serbia received 25,713 km2 or 39%, Bulgaria received 6,798 km2 or 9.5%, and Albania received 0.5% of Macedonia’s ethnic and historical territory.

15 See: A - Neuilly Peace Treaty.

16 See: B – Lausanne Peace Treaty.

17 In 1924 an agreement was made to create a VMRO (United) organization in all parts of occupied Macedonia with support from the left-wing political forces, primarily from the communist movement. In April or May 1924, a Declaration and a Manifesto were issued which, even today, have special interest. According to its program goals the “VMRO (United), as a truly revolutionary force, will struggle to free the torn up parts of Macedonia and unite them into a single complete autonomous (independent) political unit within its natural ethnographic and geographic borders”.

In March 1924 the 6th Balkan Communist Organization (BKO) Conference, recognized by the Comintern, formally accepted the Bulgarian proposal to create a “United and Independent Macedonia” within a “Balkan Federation”. In May 1924, during its 5th World Congress, the Comintern sanctioned the BKO decision. The CPG representatives, the likes of Pouliopoulos and Maximos, and the CPY representatives in these Conventions had no other choice but to accept these recommendations so that they would not be accused of being obstacles in the international communist movement. As a result of this, the CPY, during its June 1926 3rd Congress held in Vienna, accepted the Comintern decision for the creation of an “independent Macedonian state”. This view was then confirmed in October 1928 during the CPY’s 4th Congress.

18 On November 18, 1944 the “First Aegean Brigade” was formed in free Bitola, consisting of the fighters of the two battalions that had fled Greek occupied Macedonia. On December 28, 1944 the “First Aegean Brigade” was dispatched to the western part of the Republic of Macedonia, to Kichevo, Gostivar and Tetovo and tasked with eliminating Zhemo and Mefail’s Balist armed bands formed during the Italian and German occupation. On April 2, 1945, by strictly confidential special order number 236, issued by Marshal Tito himself, the “First Aegean Brigade” was dismantled.

19 An immigrant Macedonia was created in Canada, the United States and Australia, in the 20th century, after Macedonia was

partitioned in 1913 and up until the end of World War II. During the Greek Civil War (1945-1949) more than 20 thousand Macedonian people lost their lives and many more lost them across the prisons in Greece. A much larger number of Macedonians found themselves in Eastern European countries including the USSR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, etc., creating yet another immigrant Macedonia, but in their hearts and souls the people always carried their true Macedonia, forever wishing to return home and unite with their families.

The Macedonian people who found themselves exiled in the Eastern European countries began to return to the Republic of Macedonia as soon as relations between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union improved. On their return, the first Macedonian institution that welcomed them was “Idrizovo” Prison in Skopje. It was in this prison that the fate of many was decided. Their return to their homeland depended of how well their family was “Yugoslav-oriented”, meaning to which “Macedonian faction” they belonged (were they supporters of Stalin or Tito? And God help them if they said they were supporters of Stalin!) But in the years that followed what they said did not matter... Most said they were returning to Macedonia because they were Macedonians… but what truly mattered and was very important is that they followed the rules as set out by UDBA.

20 Counter-bands: The first armed counter-band in Kostur Region was formed on March 5, 1943. After that counter-bands quickly appeared in 54 villages and the number of rebels grew to 9,850. They were armed villagers called upon to defend against the armed Greek nationalist gangs which were terrorizing the Macedonian population in the region. In 1943 the Greek nationalist gangs distributed a leaflet in Western Greek occupied Macedonia in which, among other things, they threatened the Macedonian population, especially the Macedonian counter-band rebels. October 20, 1943, the CPG formed SNOF (Slavo-Macedonian National Liberation Front) for the purpose of destroying the counter-bands. In April 1944, after the counter-bands were destroyed, the CPG dissolved SNOF (and SNOV) and placed the Macedonian fighters in ELAS. A group of Macedonians serving in ELAS, in protest, separated themselves from ELAS, fled Greek occupied Macedonia, crossed

over the border into the Republic of Macedonia and joined Tito’s partisan army.

21 General Markos Vafiadis was a tobacco worker. He joined the CPG in 1928. He became a member of the CPG Central Committee in 1942. At the same time he was appointed CPG Second Secretary of the CPG Bureau for Macedonia and Commissar of the Group of ELAS divisions in Greek occupied Macedonia. Vafiadis, during the Greek Civil War, was military commander of the partisan armed forces and president of the Provisional Democratic Government of Greece. In the September 15, 1948 CPG Central Committee Politburo Resolution, it was said that Markos Vafiadis, as Commissar of the Group of ELAS divisions in Macedonia, followed a chauvinistic policy towards the Slavo-Macedonian fighters. (“Neos Kosmos”, August 1950, “Ten years of struggle”, p. 470.)

22 On June 4, 1956, during a Presidency Session of the organization “Ilinden”, a Macedonian organization established at Zahariadis’s initiative, Colonel Pando Vaina, leader of the organization, presented a paper on Macedonian persecution by the CPG, in which, among other things, he said: “...In the period of DAG’s history and after DAG was defeated, Zahariadis had carried out a policy of vilification and persecution of a good number of the Slavo-Macedonian cadres and popular fighters. It was easy for him to label the Slavo-Macedonian cadres and popular fighters with completely baseless accusations such as ‘enemy agents’ and so on. In 1948-1949 and later, many Slavo-Macedonians were arrested, and some liquidated, on the basis of these false accusations...” (Am, F-21/1600.)

23 On February 21, 1947 the British government informed the US government that on March 31, 1947, due to economic difficulties, it would stop helping Greece. The US government evaluated that if it did not take over responsibility from Britain to help Greece, it would face greater consequences in the future. So to avoid that from happening, US President Truman announced his so-called “Truman Doctrine”, which granted Greece 300 million dollars in aid in order to protect the Athenian regime.

24 On February 12, 1943 in Varkiza, a resort located near Athens, the Varkiza Agreement was signed between the CPG and EAM resistance leadership on one side and by General Plastiras of the Greek government and British General Scoby on the other. By signing this Agreement EAM and the ELAS fighters, numbering around 70,000 at the time, as of July 16, 1943, were placed under the command of Colonel Eddie Myers of the English Middle East military mission. By this Agreement the political left effectively handed power to the political right. This, basically, was the end of ELAS.

25 The British government had engaged a sizable force in Greece. In Solun alone the British had concentrated a force of about 80 thousand soldiers and a large number of vehicles, tanks and cannons. At Seres Airport, located about 12 km from Solun, the British had concentrated about 200 British fighter planes and about 60 bombers.

26 Most of the literature used to compile the chronology of events has been obtained from materials found in official archives and records listed at the end of the book.

27 Shatorov, Metodia – Sharlo was born in Prilep in 1897 and died in Bulgaria in September 1944. Shatorov immigrated to Bulgaria at the end of World War I. In 1920 he joined the Communist Party of Bulgaria (CPB). In 1929 he immigrated to the Soviet Union. From the spring of 1940 to September 1941 he was secretary of the CPY Political Committee for Macedonia. He advocated for the establishment of a Macedonian state and for the unification of Macedonia, emphasizing the Macedonian National uniqueness. He was removed from office as Secretary at Tito’s discretion and replaced by Kolishevski by resolution of the dispute between the CPY - CPB - Comintern regarding the Political Committee’s affiliation.

28 The revolt in Shtip and Skopje Fortress took place on Sunday morning January 7, 1945 during Orthodox Christmas. The 2nd Congress of the National Youth of Macedonia was held at the “Officer’s Home” in Skopje Square. Hundreds of armed soldiers disembarked from the fortress, crossed over the Stone Bridge and

entered the “Officer’s Home”. They were carrying banners and shouting: “We don’t want to go to Srem, we want to go to Solun” and “No to Berlin, but to Solun”. OZNA, the military police, cracked down on them and began to arrest them. (See: “Focus”, May 2009, p. 24.)

29 In early February 1945 Paskal Mitrevski, Secretary of the Political Commissariat for the Macedonians in Greece, following a decision made by the CPM Central Committee, was sent to Belgrade to attend the “quarterly political party school”, organized by the CPY Central Committee. (See: “Paskal Mitrevski and his time 1912–1978”, 1992.)

30 The great revolutionary Georgi Dimitrov was head of the Comintern and Bulgaria. Georgi Dimitrov, whose name is found in all world encyclopedias, comes from a Macedonian family. He was head of the Communist International in Moscow and in the postwar became head of the Bulgarian state.

31 In December 1944 the British provoked an armed conflict with ELAS units in Athens. On February 12, 1945 the Varkiza Agreement was signed, under which the political left capitulated to the political right and opened the way for liquidating all ELAS units throughout Greece, even though only some of the units in Athens, mainly ELAS reserves, were defeated by the British and by the domestic reactionary forces.

The Cold War: Many historians dealing with recent European and world history have concluded that the meeting of the “Big Three”, held from July 17 to August 5, 1945 in Selienkof Palace in Potsdam near Berlin, basically led nowhere and opened the way to the so-called “Cold War”. Since then the allies fighting against the anti-Hitler coalition, Britain (Winston Churchill), the USA (Harry Truman) and the Soviet Union (Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin), managed to beat down German fascism but stopped loving each other, opening the historic stage for the Cold War and dropping the Iron Curtain on Europe. The term “Iron Curtain” was coined by Winston Churchill in Potsdam with which he marked the division of Europe into spheres of influence.

32 The Soviet Union’s policy towards the “Macedonian Question” was a function of global politics and strategy in general, like it was towards Greece in particular. Stalin treated the “Macedonian Question” in the same manner that the English, Americans and Greeks treated the Macedonians in Greece, he used it as cover for his politics that he implemented in countries that fell under his influence after World War II. During the Second World War the communist parties in the various countries, including in Macedonia, were firmly divided and respected the Great Power declarative principles for not altering pre-war borders. It should be known that the Comintern was dissolved under Stalin’s initiative. The Comintern formally recognized the right of independence of each Communist Party and supported the thesis that each state should have its own party. One State one Party! When Stalin, together with the Great Power leaders, divided the Balkans into spheres of influence, in October 1944, the Balkan borders remained intact. This should have been ringing bells for everyone who saw salvation in Russia. This was the first blow to our spiritual desire to re-unite our Macedonia and, as a Macedonian nation, we were left on our own and without a strategy for our spiritual survival in our ethnic space in the Balkans.

33 The leading Macedonian activists who were convicted of treasonous crimes by the CPG were accepted by the CPM/CPY. A Political Commission for Aegean Macedonia was constituted in October 1944 with public support from the CPM/CPY. Then the First Macedonian Aegean Brigade was created in November 1944. Later, in April 1945, the popular political organization “People’s Liberation Front” (NOF), the “Anti-Fascist Women’s organization” (AFZH) and the “Youth Organization” (NOMS) were formed from the same group of people convicted by the CPG.

34 See point # 29. (“Paskal Mitrevski and his time 1912 – 1978” by T. Mamurovski, 1992.)

35 Karaivanov was Tito’s special intelligence agent. He was also an agent of the Soviet NKVD and an instructor in the Comintern. In his book entitled “Tito and the secret of the Century”, the Macedonian edition “TOPER”, Skopje 2009, p. 240, Pero Simich wrote: “Also elected during the CPY Central Committee 5th Congress was the

extremist Ivan Karaivanov Shpiner. Three years earlier this Bulgarian extremist, who did not receive the position he was expecting from the communist government in Sofia, turned to Tito in order to achieve his ambitions in Yugoslavia. From the train station in Belgrade he went directly into Tito’s residence in Dedinie where Walter asked him: ‘Have you proof that our Party (CPY) is loyal to the revolution and to the Comintern?’

‘Even more than is needed!’ replied Karaivanov.

...Tito gave Karaivanov - Shpiner a villa in Dedinie, took him into his Central Committee and helped him become an MP in the Federal Assembly of Yugoslavia. He declared him ‘a hero of the Socialist works’ among the leaders of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and addressed him with the words ‘you are a revolutionary whose homeland is the world’…”

36 Markos Vafiadis’s immediate associates and instructors were Giuza Radovich, Obrad Trninich, Misho Vrbitsa, Velimir Dotsnich, Svetislav Stoianovich and Petar Lutsich, all KOS agents from Serbia. (See: KOS and UDBA – Secret Service actions and documents.)

37 – See point # 22

38 According to the CPG, implementation of the “Truman Doctrine” meant Greek subordination to American interests. The CPG believed that Greece, under American leadership, would serve as a bridgehead against the Balkan people’s republics and against the Soviet Union. The Greek-American Agreement, which allowed the implementation of the “Truman Doctrine”, was signed on June 20, 1947. The Agreement provided for the strengthening of terror through the application of “mass arrests”, many of which took place on June 9 and 10, 1947.

39 In the spring of 1947, NOF scored many major political and organizational points by increasing the personnel involved in the ranks of NOF, AFZH and NOMS to 16,349. More than 16 thousand Macedonian men and women fought in the DAG regular units. The so-called “free territory” was created mainly in the all-Macedonian

territory of Greek occupied Macedonia, where everything was converted to workshops and where young and old, men and women worked for DAG’s needs.

40 A Memorial service was held in Shtip for 150 young Macedonian people who were forcibly taken from sovereign Yugoslavia and sent to sovereign Greece, in the arms of death in the Greek Civil War, just because they were born in Greek occupied Macedonia. On May 29, 1994 the newspaper “Nova Makedonija” published an article in which it openly identified those who did this; who showed them the way to freedom in Gramos where these young people left their bones… It was Sindrofos Mitchos who saw himself as a politician, revolutionary and recruiter. He said: “...I came to Skopje for four months and managed to send hundreds of fighters to fight in DAG’s ranks…”

41 There is a bust in Kostur of General James A. Van Fleet, head of the US military mission in Greece. He did a lot to end the Greek Civil War and for the Greek government army to succeed.

42 According to an UNSCOB report from August 1949 (A/935, p. 16), which gave a more accurate and acceptable figure than other reports, “about 25,000 ‘Greek’ children left Greece in a short period in 1948 and relocated in the territories of Greece’s northern neighbours…” In January 1950 a representative from the Greek Red Cross reported that: “The cumulative number of Greek children who received asylum in the countries north of Greece, as per the January 1950 figure, had reached 28,296.” At the same time he gave an overview and analysis of the aggregate number of children and to which countries they were sent. According to this report 2,000 children were sent to Albania, 2,600 children were sent to Bulgaria, 3,000 children were sent to Hungary, 3,000 children were sent to Poland, 3,801 children were sent to Romania, 2,235 children were sent to Czechoslovakia and 11,600 children were sent to Yugoslavia. (UNSCOB report A/1307, 1950, p. 23.) In a book about the upbringing of the children, Thanasis Mitsopoulos, said: “There were more than 25,000 children…” (See: 1979, p.15, also see Vasilis Bardzhiotas’s comments where he said that “we moved 25,000 children and the government in Athens increased that number to 28,000”.)

43 In my opinion the CPG did keep the promise that it made to “return” the children back to Greece but it only returned those children who were “Greeks by genus”. More than a half a century later, the only lamentations we hear are those of the Macedonian parents whose children have become “wanderers of the world”. Why didn’t the CPG show similar concerns for the Macedonian children and help them return? Why has the CPG forgotten the thousands of mothers and fathers who fought for the CPG’s interests and left their bones in Gramos?!

44 DAG’s partisan newspaper “Eksormisi”, published every fifteen days, was edited and printed in Gramos.

45 On June 16, 1949, the AFZH Macedonian women’s Executive Board for Greek occupied Macedonia adopted a resolution to activate the Macedonian women to defend the Vicho front line.

46 Slavo-Macedonians?! Did we Macedonians, under the will of the CPG, accept to call ourselves “Slavo-Macedonians”? How and why did we agree to slap ourselves with such a “tribal attribute” that compromised our true identity as Macedonians. Was this “tribal attribute” concocted by the Greek communists intentionally to bring us harm during the Greek Civil War (1945-1949)? And did we agree to accept it and even be proud of it?

The question is: Was the first person of NOF, which historiography tells us accepted the idea that NOF was a military and political factor, completely ignorant of what he was doing? It cannot be because this same first person was also in the formation of SNOF in Kostur Region in October 20, 1943. He was also leader of NOF in Skopje in April 23, 1945 and knew very well that the letter “S” in “Slavo” did not mean “glory”.

After Macedonia’s invasion, occupation and partition (1913-1919) and after the ethnic changes that took place from 1920 to 1940, Greek society (state), more or less, developed explicit rules and modalities for political intervention in order to deal with the cultural diversity and plurality of the ethnic identity changes that occurred in the two major groups in Greek occupied Macedonia:

1. The real Macedonians, and 2. The false national members who were deposited in Macedonia from Asia Minor and other places.

The attitude and aim of the Greek government, throughout that period of time, had been to destroy the Macedonian identity by all possible means. And it was not by coincidence that Greek occupied Macedonia was renamed “Northern Greece”.

Greeks knew very well that by renaming the Macedonians to “Slavo-Macedonians” and by giving them a tribal attribute, to associate them with the “Slavs”, could easily allow the Greeks to label the Macedonians as “newcomers” to the region and then the Greeks could rob them of their Macedonian heritage. There was already a corresponding historic period during which there was a great Slav migration southward and it was alleged that the “Slavs” migrated to Macedonian during the 6th century AD. The Greeks immediately jumped at the idea that the Macedonians were “Slavs” and newcomers to the Balkan regions and had nothing to do with the Ancient Macedonians. So the Greek goal was to “inform” the world that Ancient Macedonia was not the birthplace of these Slavs. Even today this “lie” and Greek propaganda is being promoted worldwide, not only by the Greeks but also by some of the world’s media.

For over a century now, being misrepresented by this Greek lie propagated around the world has caused great suffering for the Macedonian people. In addition to being tormented by the Greeks and called “Bulgarians”, “Old Bulgarians”, “Slavs”, “Greeks”, “Serbians”, “Old Serbians”, “Skopjans”, “Gypsies”, and so on, all at the same time, the Macedonian people have also experienced an identity crisis of their own. There are Macedonians to this day who see themselves as Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbians, Albanians, Muslims, Slav Macedonians, indigenous Macedonians with Ancient Macedonian roots, and so on. For more information on this subject see my (Stoian Kochov’s) book: “Ideological activism over the Macedonians in Greece”, published by “Matitsa Makedonska”, Skopje, 2000.

47 See report by the United Nations Special Commission to the Balkans submitted to the General Assembly, located in the official records: Third Meeting Annex. 8 (A /574), June 30, 1948, p. 18 and 29.

48 Inquiry Commission report to the Security Council concerning the alleged incidents at the Greek border: “Before we release our findings, the Inquiry Commission feels that it would be useful to briefly recap the situation along Greece’s northern border. Our findings are directed at improving and rectifying the situation. First, the Greek government has leveled accusations that its three northern neighbours are helping the partisans in Greece to wage the war. Second, the situation in Greece today is abnormal, which is largely a legacy of the past. The cause for this can be found in the tragic Greek experience during the war, its occupation by the Italians, Germans and Bulgarians in a guerrilla war that was conducted during the occupation. This was a time of political turmoil and economic difficulties caused by the war.

The next thing we need to mention is that a large number of the above-mentioned countries refuse to accept their final borders, the way they are defined today. Some of the complaints are quite legitimate and have been raised to the United Nations or to other international bodies, but raising these issues undoubtedly exacerbates the already dangerous situation.

Furthermore, with regards to the ‘Macedonian Question’, those requests have been submitted to the United Nations. Information given out to the press by individual governments or by government authorities must be controlled by those governments. Utilization of the ‘Macedonian Question’ in this regard, in the Commission’s opinion, poses a threat to the peace in the Balkans and will only further contribute to the existing tensions and suspicions and will increase ‘nationalist passions’ which will lead to increased military intervention.

Another thing that needs mentioning is the presence in Greece, on one hand, and in Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Albania, on the other, of the large number of political refugees from the various territories who have participated in political struggles but have been driven out

during and after the war. Some of these refugees are located near the borders of the country from which they were driven out. Others, during their exile, are being used in political and military activities and many of them “have hopes” that the violent situation will end so that they can return to their homes under conditions of their choice. Other refugees are victims of the panic being spread and, if given free choice, would gladly return to their homes. However, under the current conditions that exist today, quite clearly a serious situation, a contributing factor to the problem, people cannot return to their homes.

Finally, although the Inquiry Commission witnessed some of the violence and level of propaganda used by some of the protagonists in their relations with each other during its stay in the four countries, much of it was not investigated. This kind of propaganda is used to stir up passions, which already are rather fueled... The Commission is suggesting that the Security Council make it clear to the Greek government that it is prepared, if that government requires it, to make itself available and to find all necessary funds to implement this.

The Inquiry Commission provided the following suggestions:

A. The Inquiry Commission proposes to the Security Council that it inform the Greek government, on one hand, and the Albanian, Bulgarian and Yugoslavian governments, on the other, that they must do everything in their power to establish normal neighbourly relations and refrain from all direct or indirect actions... The Commission believes that, in the sphere of its investigation, no further support should be provided for the armed bands created in the territory of one state crossing the territory of another. Despite requests made by the affected state, all possible measures must be taken in its territory to deprive those bands of all kinds of assistance or protection. The Security Council must treat this as a threat to peace in the sense of the United Nations Charter.

B. In order to provide effective machinery for regulating and controlling common borders, the Commission proposes to the Security Council that it inform the governments concerned to conclude new conventions following the example of the 1931

Greek-Bulgarian Convention, taking into account the needs of the existing situation. (The so-called 1931 Greco-Bulgarian Convention was about exchanging populations. In other words, the Commission was offering the exchange of minorities.)

C. The Commission recommends the establishment of a special body to assist with the restoration of normal conditions along the borders between Greece on the one hand, and between Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia on the other. This should establish good neighbourly relations.”

49. The Soviet Union delegation objected to the Inquiry Commission’s presented proposals:

“1. The above proposals have not in any way arisen from facts and documents gathered by the Inquiry Commission during its investigation of the situation in Northern Greece and its northern borders. The proposals are based on unsubstantiated Greek government assumptions that Greece’s northern neighbours are assisting the guerrillas.

2. The proposals accept the possible existence of border incidents, conflicts and even acts of aggression in the future in the relations between Greece on the one hand and Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Albania on the other, even though the Commission has no grounds for providing a proposal of this nature.

3. The proposals envisage measures relating not only to Greece but also to Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Albania even though, based on the documents available to the Commission, it is quite obvious that the tense situation exists in Greece and that local disturbances do not occur only in the north but in the whole country. And so the tense situation and riots in Greece are due to internal reasons.

4. Establishing a permanent Border Commission or body that would constitute the Security Council, in the manner envisaged by the proposals, as well as the conclusion of conventions and agreements between Greece, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Albania, in huge measure, constitutes an infringement on the sovereign rights of these countries in deciding their mutual relations.”

50. The Polish delegation also objected to the Inquiry Commission’s presented proposals:

“1. The measures presented are completely ineffective because they take into account only the symptoms and not the causes of the problems that exist in northern Greece and along its northern border. The fact that these proposed measures are ineffective can easily jeopardize the prestige of the United Nations.

2. Some of the measures proposed do not seem to take into account the fact that there are no diplomatic relations between Greece, on the one hand, and Bulgaria and Albania on the other.

3. With regard to the proposal made under B, which suggests the establishment of a permanent control body, this measure seems unsuitable for the following reasons:

(a) Such a controlling body would endanger the sovereign rights of Greece as well as of Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.

(b) It will be a measure of coercion with regard to Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. This measure can, in no way, be justified by the results obtained by the Commission’s investigation. Therefore, rather than improving on the existing difficulties, this could lead to opposite results.”

51 See point 49.

52 See point 50.

53 “Repatriation of the Greek children.” First Joint Report by the International Red Cross and the League of Red Cross Societies, Geneva, October 5, 1949, p. 2.

54 On March 23, 1949 the CPG created KOEM (Communist Organization of Aegean Macedonia) and said that the Macedonian people represented a “bright spot” in history. Then KOEM, in a resolution, declared that: “The CPY created the national -democratic bloc and that it has surrendered the people of