Risto Stefov - Articles, Translations & Collaborations

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  • George S.
    Senior Member
    • Aug 2009
    • 10116

    About the Hellenization of Southern (Aegean) Macedonia - A Review of 'Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood'

    By Antonio Milososki
    Ph.D. Candidate
    University of Duisburg
    Germany

    printable version

    "Elsewhere in Greek Macedonia, the term [en-] dopyi ("local") is used to refer to Slavic-speakers who had inhabited the region prior its incorporation into Greece in 1913; in the Edessa and Florina prefectures, for example, the phrase dopyos Makedhonas ("local Macedonian") is used by many to signify a Slavic-speaker, and his descendants." Perhaps this quotation from the book of Dr Anastasia Karakasidou was the reason why the same passed through various troubles before it was published. Or, maybe this was the main motivation for certain Greek extremists to accuse Dr Karakasidou of "high treason". When in 1993 she published one part of her research in the periodical "Journal of Modern Greek Studies (vol.11, 1993)", she received several death threats from US-based Greek right-wing organizations, even before her colleagues had a chance to congratulate her. At the same time, the Greek newspaper "Stohos", describing her as a state-enemy, published both her address in Salonika and her car registration number.

    But she didn't give up, she continued with her research, and when the book was finished she made a publishing contract with Cambridge University Press. The surprise came when at the last moment Cambridge Press decided not to publish the book - allegedly because of the intelligence coming from the UK Embassy in Athens saying that such a step might endanger the security of British citizens who resided in Greece. The case has now gathered a great deal of world-academic attention. There were stories in the Washington Post and The New York Times. Three academic editorial board members resigned from the publishing house in protest at the decision. The "Karakasidou case" became known worldwide. Generating interest even before its publishing, the book was finally printed in 1997 by Chicago University Press. Today Dr Karakasidou is Professor at Wellesley College in the US, and her book "Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood" is one of the most circulated among the students of anthropology and Balkan history.

    This book, which is very readable and comprehensive, is an outcome of her fact-finding mission in the region of Assiros (originally Guvezna), a small town located twenty miles northwest from Salonika. In the research that covers the time period from 1870-1990, Dr Karakasidou describes the life of the region's inhabitants, their migration, their customs, professions, languages, as well as the impact of the numerous wars on the population. Particularly emphasized is the role of the local notables in the processes of shaping or rather reshaping the national identities of the inhabitants. The local notables, known as tsorbadjihi (local Christian elite), merchants, priests, teachers and state administrators, consisted of the lowest but obviously the most effective tool in the process of national assimilation. According to Dr Karakasidou, the key factor in this process, until 1913, were the local tsorbadjihi and the Greek Church - Patriarchate. The Patriarchate had cleverly used its privileged position in the Ottoman Empire in opposition to the recently re-established (1870) Bulgarian Church (Exarchate), even though the later had noticeably enjoyed stronger support among the "Slav-speaking" population all over Macedonia. After the partition of Macedonia, beside the Patriarchate, state-sponsored schools and the Army (through the army-obligation for adult males) undertook the leading role in the process of nation-building of the Greek national consciousness among the non-Greek inhabitants, which at that time consisted of the majority of the population in Southern (Aegean) Macedonia. Those were the main assimilation-levers for the realisation of the state-sponsored project for the Hellenization of that part of Greece. In that respect, speaking about the situation in Assiros in the war-periods (Balkan Wars, Word Wars, and the Civil War), the author, using both oral memory and written history, brings the destiny of the "ordinary people" closer to the eyes of the reader.

    Where in the region trade, agriculture, religion, common customs and mixed marriages had connected its inhabitants, it is easy to notice how, under the pressure of the neighbouring propagandas, year by year the differences (particularly in the language) became far more important than the similarities. For example, many "Slavic-speaking" women from the surrounding villages who had married into the Greek-speaking families in Assiros found themselves forbidden by their husbands or in-laws to speak their "native Bulgarian dialect" in their new households. At the same time, the author underlines that the labels "Macedonian" and "Bulgarian" represent synonyms, which, particularly today, are used in Greece interchangeably in reference to "Slavic-speakers", in respect both of their language and ethnicity.

    Further on, one can understand the significance of the refugees (prosfighas) and their immense importance in the process of "national homogenisation" of the young Greek state. Actually, Anastasia's father was a Turkish-speaking prosfighas himself, compulsory evacuated to Greece in the wake of the Asia Minor War in 1922. His life had been deeply affected by the Greek nation-building process. And, although after his settling in the region of Macedonia he had acquired some sense of belonging to the Greek collectivity, yet every evening he would tune his short-wave radio to an Istanbul station and sing along with the slow Turkish songs, explaining to his little daughter their verses. From the comprehensive analysis about the colonisation of this part of the country it becomes clear that the Greek nation, particularly in the regions of Southern Macedonia and Thrace, has derived from profoundly diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The next method that had accelerated this process of state sponsored assimilation was the so called "voluntary resettlement" of the native population, mainly to Turkey and Bulgaria, but also to the East-European countries during and after the Greek Civil War.

    All in all, the book represents a well-founded publication about the Hellenization of one small part of Southern (Aegean) Macedonia. Nonetheless, it gives us more than enough evidence to draw the conclusion that Macedonia has never been exclusively Greek. Moreover, at the beginning of the twenty-century, Southern Macedonia was a multiethnic region with an overwhelmingly non-Greek majority. As the Bishop of Florina (Lerin) Augostinos Kandiotis once said "If the hundreds of thousands of refugees had not come to Greece, Greek Macedonia would not exist today". The book is well worth reading. Unravelling the complex social, political and economic processes through which these desperate people become amalgamated within the expansionistic Greek identity, this book provides an important corrective to the developments of the "Macedonian Question".


    New Book
    A Girl From Neret by Lefa Ognenova-Michova and Kathleen Mitsou-Lazaridis. Childhood in an old Macedonian village, and a child’s view of war... more »


    Macedonian Spark

    Reprints of Makedonska Iskra (Macedonian Spark), the first Macedonian newspaper in Australia - 1946 to 1957... »

    New Article
    A Life in Macedonian Affairs - Interview with Mick Veloskey ... more »


    Life in Aegean Macedonia
    Original articles and essays on Aegean Macedonia, its politics, culture, history and diaspora... more »


    Macedonian Communities
    Profiles and information on Macedonian communities around the world... more »

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    Articles and reports on Macedonian human rights reprinted from other sources... more »


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    Articles and essays on Macedonian themes by the publisher of Pollitecon Publications... more »


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    "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
    GOTSE DELCEV

    Comment

    • George S.
      Senior Member
      • Aug 2009
      • 10116

      Makedonska Iskra Project Well Advanced

      By Victor Bivell

      July, 2006




      The project to reprint the Makedonska Iskra newspapers from the 1940s and 1950s is well advanced with two thirds of the editions now available for free on the internet.

      Sixty six of the 104 editions of Makedonska Iskra have now been scanned and uploaded to the 'Reprints' section of Pollitecon.com web site. All editions from October 1946 to December 1952 have been uploaded, leaving only the newspapers from 1953 through to January 1957 to be completed.

      Pollitecon Publications hopes to complete these in the next few months.

      Makedonska Iskra was the first Macedonian newspaper in Australia and is an invaluable record of early Macedonian immigration to Australia. It also gives extensive insights into the key political events of the times, particularly the newly established Republic of Macedonia, then part of Yugoslavia, and the War of Independence in Aegean Macedonia which was part of the Greek Civil War.

      A key feature are the several thousand Macedonian immigrants whose names are published in numerous and extensive lists of people who donated to Macedonian causes, including a hospital in Skopje and local causes such the newspaper itself.

      The newspaper reported not only on community events in the capital cities of Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide but on a surprising number of much smaller centres such as Manjimup, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie and Bridgetown in Western Australia, Shepparton, Werribee and Sale in Victoria, and Richmond, Crabbes Creek, Queanbeyan, Broken Hill, Newcastle, Forbes and Port Kembla in New South Wales. Even tiny Captains Flat near Canberra had some Macedonian settlers.

      The newspaper shows that the Macedonians of the times were surprisingly well organized politically, with national bodies and regular national conferences - a level of organization and unity not evident today. There is also early discussion about establishing the first Macedonian church in Melbourne.

      Many of the Macedonian community's early leaders - well known names such as Kiro Angelkov, Stoyan Sarbinov, RistoAltin, Michael Veloskey, Ilio Malco, Vasil Boshkov, and many others - feature regularly in the newspaper.

      Makedonska Iskra also contains numerous reports about the newly independent Republic of Macedonia within Yugoslavia and its political and economic development. There are also updates on developments in Pirin Macedonia and Albania, and even a letter from the Macedonian community in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

      Perhaps most moving is the regular news from Aegean Macedonia, where the Greek Civil War was raging and many Macedonians were fighting for independence or autonomy. The many news stories cover the Truman Doctrine in Greece, napalm bombing by the British, key battles around Mt Vicho, Mt Gramos and Lerin, the repulsion of the British soldiers who witnessed atrocities against the Macedonian population, and the evacuation of the "detsa begaltsi" (child refugees) which interestingly is called the Markos plan after the Greek leader of the Democratic Army.

      The newspapers also give some insight into the use of the "slav" terminology. The emigrant Macedonians always refer to themselves as Macedonians but there is widespread use of the term "slav" to refer to eastern Europeans. During this period in history the Macedonians were grouped under the "slav" umbrella by those whose political interests it suited, particularly the communists in Yugoslavia, Stalin and the Soviet Empire, and the communist led Greek Democratic Army. The term is clearly used by all these forces to create a sense of unity between the eastern European peoples, to give the Macedonians a sense of identification with these peoples, and as a differentiator from the Western capitalist powers.

      Most interestingly, the term "Slav Macedonians" emanates from Greece and is almost exclusively used in reports from and about the Greek Democratic Army where the leadership was Greek. The Greek influence is clear, highlighting both the long term nature of Greek attempts to denationalize the Macedonian people and also the two faced support of the Greek communists who were happy to use the discontent of the Macedonians to further political revolution but many of whom, despite promising autonomy to the Macedonians, did not respect them enough to call them by their name.

      So Makedonska Iskra makes interesting reading both at a personal level where people wish to look into their family history, and at a community level with a Macedonian perspective on key events in twentieth century Macedonian history.

      The newspapers can be accessed for free at www.pollitecon.com and then under Reprints.
      "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
      GOTSE DELCEV

      Comment

      • George S.
        Senior Member
        • Aug 2009
        • 10116

        A Life in Macedonian Affairs – Interview with Mick Veloskey

        Michael Veloskey was one of the first leaders of the Macedonian community in Australia . He has been active for over 60 years, and in that time has helped establish newspapers, churches, human rights groups and other community organizations. Now 82 years old, Mick Veloskey was interviewed by Pollitecon Publications editor, Victor Bivell.

        printable version

        Mick, when and where were you born and can you tell us about your parents and their life under the Ottoman Empire ?

        I was born in 1924 in the village Gradche, Aegean Macedonia. My father, my mother, my grandparents from both sides and the rest of the families were born under the Ottoman occupation and they were badly suppressed and when the Ottoman Empire collapsed we thought that the people would have a bit more freedom and a bit more choice for a better life but unfortunately this did not happen.

        My father left for Australia when I was about a year old. My grandparents, I remember, they used to put me on the knee and they used to say to me “Sinko” in Macedonian of course, “Nikogash nema da zaboravish sho nie sne Makedontsi. Nito Grtsi, nito Bulgari, nito Serbi, nito Albantsi.” [Little son, never forget that we are Macedonians. Not Greeks, not Bulgarians, not Serbians, not Albanians.] They were the words of my grandparents from both sides.

        My mother, my grandparents from both sides, could not speak a word of Greek. The only language they spoke was Macedonian, and also Turkish during the Ottoman occupation.

        During my youth... I can close my eyes now and picture the village the way it was, a small river dividing the upper and the lower village, and a hill to the west which is called Sveti Ilia and a little church up the top there and also a spring which was flowing out from the mountains. The water from that spring, summer and winter, was absolutely wonderful to drink and very very cool.

        How strong was your parent's sense of their Macedonian identity?

        My father, my mother and also the other relatives, every one of them, my uncle, everyone of them, felt that they were Macedonian but nothing else. Irrespective of what was taking place in the Balkans.

        Can you tell us about your childhood in the village?

        My childhood in the village was a very happy one because I had a lot of relatives and also young relatives who were my age and some a bit older. We had a wonderful time. At the age of six or going towards six and a half/ seven, we were forced to go to Greek school. We were not allowed to speak anything but Greek. If you were heard speaking Macedonian by the police or Korofilatsi as they called them in Macedonian, you were taken and punished. Even at the age of seven. As I grew older and older, I felt that our people were severely suppressed. They were not allowed to speak in Macedonian, sing in Macedonian or dance. The church services which were previously in Macedonian were forbidden. They were only allowed to have the sermons in Greek, in no other language. Even if people spoke to the animals in Macedonian they were taken to court and they were fined heavily and in some cases they were even gaoled.

        Things got worse and worse. My father was in Australia and we were in Macedonia. Life was beginning to get worse and worse because of the suppression that was carried out. At that particular time the prime minister of Greece was Venizelos. He put through legislation, draconian measures, which were anti-Macedonian. We thought he was bad but eventually he was replaced by Metaxas - who was a straight out fascist, he idolized Hitler, and he put through even worse legislation for the suppression of Macedonians.

        How did your family make a living?

        In those days, as I mentioned before, my father had come to Australia and my father used to send us some money so we were reasonably well off in comparison to the other villagers. We also had our plots of land which we could not work on but my uncles from both sides, they used to till the land and we used to get some of the products from it. So we lived reasonably well in comparison to the rest of the villagers.

        Was Gradche a Macedonian village and what were the other villages nearby?

        The villages nearby were Drenichevo which the Greeks changed the name to Kranohori; Chuka, they couldn't change it to anything else but to call it Chuka. Stensko, they couldn't name it, and they couldn't call it in Macedonian, so they changed the name from Stensko to Stena; and Tikveni, Tiolista, Papresko, Dumbeni, Kosenets, they are in the area of our village. During the Ottoman occupation our village was virtually a centre. 99.99 per cent of the people in the village were pro Macedonians and there's proof of that. During the years that went by, there were virtually no traitors in the village, so the villagers have lived a happy life.

        How did the Ottomans treat your family?

        Well, my grandparents and my mother and father, they said that during the Ottoman occupation they were actually better off than when Macedonia was divided into four parts. The Greek suppression was by far, by far, worse than the Ottoman suppression.

        As far as you are aware was there ever a Macedonian school in the village?

        As far as I am aware I believe that there was a Macedonian school in the village during the Ottoman occupation but after that this was forbidden by the Greeks.

        But was it a school, or were there just teachers?

        More or less teaching, yes, Macedonian teachings there.

        But not a school building?

        Not a school building as such. The Macedonian language was not prohibited by the Ottoman occupiers.

        Was there a Macedonian church in the village?

        Yes, there was a Macedonian church. As a matter of fact there were four – one main church, Sveti Naoum, was in the village, and there were about three smaller ones in the hills: Sveti Bogorodica, Sveti Ilia, and Sveti Nikola, they were the other three.

        And what happened to those churches?

        Unfortunately the icons were taken away by the Greeks. My father and my grandparents used to tell me that there were a lot of icons with Macedonian writing on them. I don't know exactly what happened to them, but apparently the Greeks took them away and they replaced them with icons with Greek writing.

        Were there Macedonian grave sites in the village?

        Yes, there were quite a number of them as a matter of fact. Not in one spot but there was about two or three spots and the scriptures on most of them were in Macedonian writing but unfortunately they were destroyed or replaced forcefully by the Greek regimes.

        You said that speaking Macedonian was prohibited under the Greek rule. What was your experience?

        During 1935 just before coming to Australia I spoke to my mother in Macedonian because my mother could only speak Macedonian and Turkish. A Greek policeman heard me and he reported me. What actually happened I was reported by the policeman to the teacher, and the teacher to make an example of me in front of the whole school, in front of all the pupils, said to me “You spoke that forbidden Bulgaromanski ezik” and I said “No, that's not Bulgaromanski, this is Macedonian”, “Makedonski ezik”. And in that case she said “Put your hands out” and she gave me ten strokes on each hand very very forcefully, and I couldn't close my hands for at least two or three weeks, they were swollen from the caning. I refused to cry and that was the reason I believe why I got the ten canes in each hand instead of the normal three.

        I was not the only one who was caned in the school, there were several others as well for the same reason. As you can see, there is no way that you could call this democracy or freedom and most of the people were unhappy of the situation that was taking place in the villages, not only in their village but in the villages around us as well.

        Why did you leave the village?

        My father was in Australia so he applied for us to come to Australia , and my mother, my sister and I came to Australia to join him. He was living in Perth .

        As I said before, my father left for Australia in late 1924-25. He came to Australia to earn money so he was sending it back to the village. He came back in 1931 and with the savings from Australia he built a two-storey home which was for us and his brother, that's my uncle. The house is still standing in the village. My father came back to Australia after a year and soon after that we came to Australia . That was in 1935 with an Italian ship which was called Asqualino. At that particular time there was a bit of a revolt in Greece between the Veninzelos group and the Metaxas group and we are caught in the cross-fire when we were at Port Piraeus, that's not far from Athens . That was the time when I met Ilia Malko, with his family; not his father though, because his father was in Australia like my father.

        Where did you live when you came to Australia and what was life like for the early Macedonian immigrants here?

        We arrived in Perth and my father was living in Perth . He had a very small business and there were not many Macedonians at that particular time. Things were very tough because the depression was on and a small number of Macedonians were in a very difficult situation because unemployment was very high and money was very tight. But also there was quite a lot of racism at that particular time in Australia . Even when I went to school there was racism amongst the children and some of the teachers, unfortunately. I was very fortunate to have a teacher called Mr De Garras and also a lady teacher. I'll never forget her. She was a tall lady, Crawford was her name, her brother was a tennis player. She had pitch black hair, blue eyes and was a wonderful person. They had a special class at the school called “Highgate Hill” mainly for new arrivals like Macedonians, Italians, Serbs, Croatians, Greeks etc.

        I went to school for three years and unfortunately my father passed away. So the burden was on my shoulders to look after my mother, who could not speak English and could not get a job anywhere, and my sister who is younger than me, to go to school. Things were very very tough.

        Some of us, the younger Macedonians who felt like Macedonians decided that we should form an organization or an association. We started to do that in late 1939. In Perth there were Bugaro-Makedontsi Organizatsi, Serbo-Makedontsi Organizatsi, Grko-Makedontsi Organizatsi but there was no clear Macedonian organization. So when we formed the organization we called it “Edinstvo”. “Makedonsko Edinstvo”. So the organization, the first one in Australia of true Macedonian background, was Edinstvo, Perth 1939-40. The main participants in the group were: Ilia Malko, John Pizarcoff, Naum Sharin; Vasil Boscov; Todor Petrov, who is my wife's father; Boris Mano, Naum Mano, Lazo Mano. Kiro Angelkov came into the organization later on, Stoian Sarbinov, he used to be at Manjimup, he came into the organization later on. Naum Kalchunov, a staunch Macedonian supporter. Stoiche Stoichev, who eventually went to Melbourne. There are many others, but I cannot remember all the names, who contributed towards the Macedonian cause in Perth. The organization took root and started to organize the Macedonian community. We had several picnics and we had virtually every Macedonian at the picnics. We also organized social evenings where we had Macedonian oro [dance], or Kolo if you like, and also Australian dancing.

        When and why did you become involved in Macedonian politics and community affairs?

        Well, as I mentioned, right from my early childhood my parents and my grandparents from both sides said we are Macedonians and nothing else, we can't be anything else. When we were in Perth, as I said, they had all these other organizations and we were the only ones who were not grouped together. So we believed, and we did, form the Macedonian organization in Perth, which was the first in Australia. And the main reason was to get our people together, to cement the roots; although we became Australian citizens, that we were of Macedonian descent, and we would never forget that.

        Can you tell us about the first meeting in Perth for the Makedonska Edinstvo?

        A group of us in 1939, most of us under the age of 20, decided to form the Macedonian organization in Perth which we called Edinstvo. Edinstvo was formed by about eight of us. Eventually we decided to call a meeting and the meeting was held at Ilia Malko's father's coffee shop or boarding house at 242 William Street, Perth. We decided to call the meeting there and we expected probably about 30 people to turn up. And much to our surprise and pleasure there was only standing room at the meeting. That was the beginning. The atmosphere was electric, great enthusiasm and great expectations were expected. The committee was elected, four members were selected to work on the constitution. The next committee meeting was held within a week. A mass meeting was called and the name Edinstvo was unanimously adopted. Edinstvo was inseparable with Iskra, that's the Macedonian paper, which ignited the Macedonians to unite throughout Australia.

        The slogan was Slobodna, Nezavisna , Ednokupna Makedonia [Free, Independent, United Macedonia]. Makedonia za Makedontsite [Macedonia for the Macedonians] as phrased by the late 19 th Century British prime minister Gladstone.

        What do you think Edinstvo achieved?

        Edinstvo was, I would say without hesitation, cemented the spreading of Macedonian organizations throughout Australia. So in my opinion it was the beginning of a true Macedonian movement in Australia, politically and also socially.

        What other organizations were there?

        Well as Edinstvo progressed and we got more and more of our people to join us, and virtually I would say that 99 per cent joined us. We formed a dancing group which was in Macedonian, and also in English; we also formed a Macedonian musical group which helped a lot with the Macedonian traditions regarding songs and dances; and a soccer team. And I believe that was one of the main reasons that the organization went ahead, although there were not many Macedonians in Perth at that particular time. But we were united.

        Other groups formed in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Crabbs Creek and Queanbeyan in NSW, and others

        During the Second World War you served in the Australian Air Force. Tell us your experiences?

        During the Second World War many of the Macedonian younger people in Perth joined the services, Ilia Malko and I were I believe the first two to join the Australian Air Force. There were others who followed and quite a number of the Macedonians were also in the Army and also some were in the Working Force. Every Macedonian contributed towards the war effort to defeat Fascism and Nazism that was spreading its wings and causing a lot of problems. Of course later on, as you know, Japan joined the Axis forces and bombed Pearl Harbour etc and we were in a very serious situation.

        I joined the Air Force in mid 1942 in Perth. I did three months basic training which was a toughening up course at Busselton. When that was over I did a short course in Perth then I was sent to Sydney to do a course on electronics. I was quartered at Bondi and did the course at the Ultimo Technical College which lasted several months. Having reasonably good results on the exams I was directed to do a higher course on high frequency radio in Melbourne. We were stationed at the Melbourne Exhibition Buildings at Fitzroy. The technical college was due west from there. I was there for several months also.

        But let's have a look just what happened before I got to Sydney. When I reached Melbourne I asked to have leave for about ten days, it was during Macedonian Easter. I was looking for a Macedonian who used to live in Perth, his name was Stoiche Stoichev , and his family. Stoiche Stoichev was one of the most staunchest Macedonian supporters and a very close friend from Perth. I dropped off at the railway station in Melbourne and being a stranger to Melbourne I went straight to the police station. I walked in, and as soon as I walked in the sergeant at the reception there said “What can I do for you, blue orchid”, because normally they used to call the servicemen in the Air Force blue orchids because of the uniform. I said “I've come here looking for a friend of mine. He used to live in Perth.” And I gave him the name, Stoiche Stoichev. I said “A Macedonian.” He said “As you know, Melbourne is a city of over 2.5 million people. It's not an easy place to know who and where they are.” I said “Do you know of any Macedonians at all?” He said “Yes, we know of a Macedonian who's got a hamburger bar in Queen Street”. And that was the first time that I met Risto Altin. I said to the policeman “Well, look I'm a stranger, I don't know where this place is, how will I get there?” He looked at me, and he said “Being in the Air Force, we'll do something for you”. I said “What can you do for me?” he said “We'll take you there”. So they put me in a police car, myself and two policemen, and we went straight to Risto Altin's hamburger bar. When the police car stopped there and I got out and the police stood by. It must have been a shock to Risto Altin and his partner. When I walked in and I said to him “Dali ste vie Makedontsi?. Are you Macedonian?” he said “Yes”. And I said “Do you know a man called Stoiche Stoichev?” Risto Altin's eyes lit up and he said “Of course I know him,” he said. “He's a good Macedonian.” So I said to Risto “I'll thank the policemen who brought me here and I'll come back”. I thanked the two policemen who brought me there and I stayed with Risto Altin and I said to him “I want you to take me to Stoiche Stoichev”.

        Eventually we went to Stoiche Stoichev. We hadn't seen each other for about four or five years. So I went back to the railway station with the intention of leaving but on second thoughts I thought we are close to the Macedonian Easter, maybe I should stay there. Risto Altin and Stoiche Stoichev came with me to the station and they implored me to stay there for the Macedonian Easter. So I decided to stay. I was invited to the Easter Vecherinka or gathering they had. It was in Fitzroy in Gertrude Street, first floor up, Only a very small hall, it was packed with Macedonians, young and old. Risto Altin and Stoiche Stoichev made a few short speeches and they insisted that I say something to the young people there and the old people. Being in uniform, it was more or less unbelievable that a Macedonian was in the Air Force. I got up and said a few words in Macedonian and also a few words in English and I asked the Macedonian people to stay united and we would achieve something. I stayed in Melbourne for about eight days. My leave time expired. I had to depart for Sydney but I enjoyed the evening and I will never forget the way I was received by the Macedonian people in Melbourne.

        What happened then?

        Actually, as I said, I was going all the way to Sydney. On completion of the course in Sydney I was transferred to Melbourne. On completing the course on high frequency radio, from Melbourne I was sent back to Perth on pre embarcation leave. I was home for only a week and from there went to Darwin, then a place called Batchelor , approximately 30 kilometres south of Darwin. Darwin had been bombed by the Japanese. Australia suffered a number of casualties but also quite a number of ships were sunk in the harbour. Batchelor was a very large base and the Japanese had tried to bomb Batchelor on a number of occasions but they couldn't locate it because of the low cloud or actually you could say perpetual fog. Once you got to about 10,000 feet up you cannot see the ground. Soon after that I was posted to Dutch Timor. The Japanese had surrendered and I was at Dutch Timor at the Panfooi Air Strip working on radio transmitters.

        As the war had finished and virtually all servicemen were on their way home, I was put on a plane from Timor back to Darwin. I was in Darwin for about eight or nine days and from Darwin I came to Sydney with a ship called Menora, which was a cargo ship but it had been converted to a troop carrier with a couple of guns in front. I arrived in Sydney in April 1946. It was very cold. I felt very cold because of the tropical conditions we were at before. I stayed in Sydney for approximately a week. There were some Macedonians in Katoomba so I decided to see them. One of them became my future brother-in-law, by the name of Jim Bonakey. I came back to Sydney and then from Sydney went to Melbourne. I met Macedonians again in Melbourne. We had a few discussions regarding the organizations. Risto Altin was very enthusiastic about spreading the organizations throughout Australia. Stoiche Stoichev, Todor Petrov and many others. From there I went to Adelaide and I met former friends who used to live in Perth, Vasil Boscov and his brother. I asked them how would they feel to form a Macedonian organization in Adelaide and they said they were willing to do it and soon after they formed the branch in Adelaide.

        So, back to Perth. As soon as I got back to Perth I participated in the activities of the Macedonian group Edinstvo. Soon we decided to have a radio session and after some discussion etc I was elected to be the speaker on the radio. It was a Labor station. The first session was on a Wednesday from quarter past seven till half past seven. I spoke in English on the Macedonian question - about the Macedonians in the Balkans and about the Macedonians in Australia. This caused havoc amongst the Greeks - they got a shock. And in Perth most of the Greeks came from one particular area, an Island called Castelorizo. They protested to the radio station and they even threatened us for putting on these radio sessions. These radio speeches continued for several weeks and eventually we decided that we'd have a paper as well. So Makedonska Iskra was born.

        Why was Makedonska Iskra launched and what did it achieve?

        Well, in those days the only paper that the Macedonians received was an American paper and I think it was Tribuna. And it was a pro Bulgarian paper. The Greeks had their own paper there, the Serbs had their own paper there, the Croats had their own paper there, the Italians had their own paper there, and we were the only ones without a paper or a journal of any kind to inform our people of what was going on. When Makedonska Iskra was published the first time, the people received it with great enthusiasm. Although it was not professionally done because we had never published a paper before, the people were thrilled. We posted a number of copies to Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Canberra and, as a matter of fact, we posted some copies overseas as well. To places like Skopje and other countries: Canada, United States of America. It was the beginning of the expansion of the Macedonians in Australia and Makedonska Iskra played a vital part to awaken the people of Macedonian origin in Australia.

        Who was behind the publication of the newspaper?

        Behind the publication was Ilia Malko, Stoian Sarbinov, Kiro Angelkov, Naum Sharin and myself. The first issue was published in Macedonian and also in English. And as I said it was very successful and the people accepted it enthusiastically.

        Also with the Macedonian Spark or Makedonska Iskra as we called it, it was very important to have it published in Australia, because as events took place there was no other way to inform the Macedonians in say Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, wherever they were. By publishing the paper, which was eagerly received and was passed from person to person so they could read and see what was happening. So it played a vital role to get our community together. Soon after that we launched a special campaign to get money to build a hospital in the Republic of Macedonia. In a very short time we managed to open branches throughout Australia. As a matter of fact within nine months we had 53 branches in Australia.

        Were they Edinstvo branches?

        No. Edinstvo was the original one and we gradually spread out.

        But what sort of branches were they?

        Actually we also formed an organization called Macedonian Australian People's League. And that was the main body or central body. Edinstvo was the body in Perth. When we formed this other organization, it spread throughout Australia and the branches were actually members of this organization, Makedono Avstraliski Naroden Sojuz.

        So when we decided to collect this money for the hospital, a committee was formed in Perth and also committees were formed in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney etc. In a very very short time we managed to collect £ 11,500. In those days, I'm talking about 1947, in Perth with eleven and a half thousand pounds you could have bought at least 20 three bedroom homes. So you can see, it's not the amount of money but the value. Our people were so enthusiastic. Although they were not financially well off, but they gave whatever they could. The money was collected and eventually sent to Skopje. We had receipts from the Red Cross. The way it was sent, also from the banks, and also acknowledged by the government of Skopje. So this is documented and I believe that the money was used together with the money that was sent from Canada and the United States of America and other places to build a wing at the Skopje Hospital.

        Makedonska Iskra was published just after the start of the Greek Civil War and the simultaneous Macedonian War of Independence in Aegean Macedonia. How strong was the Macedonian desire for freedom?

        The Macedonian desire for freedom was terrific, not only in one part of Macedonia but the total part of Macedonia - because as you know Macedonia was divided into four parts under Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs and part of it under Albania - so we were thrilled that we thought that this war could be won, with the communists and the other groups that were fighting in the civil war, and we were promised complete freedom. But unfortunately, in my opinion, I believe that some of the communists in Greece, in Bulgaria and even the Serbs were not honest enough and did not carry out the promises that they promised the Macedonian people. But the spirit of the Macedonian people in Australia was extremely high and I believe that the spirit in Macedonia itself was very high - hoping that at last we'll have a free Macedonia to be friends with all our neighbours. None of the Macedonian people wanted to be enemies with either Bulgarians, or the Greeks or the Serbs or the Albanians.

        How did the Macedonians in Greece divide in terms of those who fought for an independent Macedonia, those who fought for communism, and those who did not fight?

        I would say that the majority of the Macedonians, in Aegean Macedonia especially, all believed and fought for an independent Macedonia. I would say that at least 80-90 per cent of the people thought that way and believed that way and fought for this particular reason. The people who didn't fight probably were too old or didn't understand what was going on and they took no action. Unfortunately the greatest losses during that particular time were in Aegean Macedonia and the areas which suffered the most would be Kostursko okolia and Lerinska okolia. Many of the villages especially in the Kosturska okolia were devastated. Whole villages were either burnt by incendiary bombs, napalm bombs, that the children and the inhabitants had to flee the villages to save their lives. To me it's a tragedy that the world does not recognize or want to recognize; it's very sad.

        Were the Greek communists sincere in their promise of an autonomous Macedonia within Greece or did they trick and betray the Macedonians?

        I believe that's a very tricky question to answer accurately, but I do honestly believe that some of the true communists in Greece were sincere when they said they would give the Macedonians autonomy under Greece, but there were the others who were traitors, they used the Macedonians to do their hard battles and that's where the losses were very great and our people suffered heavily and paid the penalty for trusting people who they shouldn't have trusted. As you know, the war carried on and as I said before many many Macedonian villages were completely obliterated by Napalm bombs and also other bombings as well. The villagers had to flee, even today if you go to these areas of Kosturska okolia and Lerinska okolia, many of the villages are completely deserted.

        You were also one of the founders of the Macedonian Australian Ex-Servicemen's League. When did this form and what did it achieve?

        The Macedonian Australian Ex-Servicemen's League was formed in late 1947 and the founders were Ilia Malko, myself, and several others. It was a membership throughout Australia of Macedonians who were in the services. The main aim of that was to keep in touch and to help with any other work that was necessary. It was a voice that could be heard and it was a voice that did carry some weight when speaking to government officials. The Macedonian Australian Ex-Servicemen's League is still active. It was active been 1999 and 2003 when we took action against a Greek paper in Sydney which printed some nasty material which was provocative, which was not true and we took them to the Anti-Discrimination Board and Administrative Decisions Tribunal. We had reasonable success there, although we did not win the case, but this showed that we were prepared to fight for the rights of the Macedonians.

        In December 1947 you and your family left for an 11 month visit to the Republic of Macedonia. What was your purpose and what were your experiences there?

        As I mentioned before, the Macedonian nationalistic spirit was afire and I was one of them as well and also many other Macedonians. So in 1947, in December, my family and I returned to Macedonia on the ship Partizanka. There were 57 Macedonians aboard. 50 were Macedonians from Egejska (Aegean) Macedonia, Kosturska okolia and Lerinska okolia.

        The purpose was to help with the reconstruction of Macedonia, being trained technically in a position to help with radio, and it was one of the main reasons why I and the family went to Macedonia, in Skopje. We arrived there January 1948. It was winter time. We landed in Dubrovnik which is a tourist resort as most people know in the Adriatic Sea, Croatian territory. Dubrovnik had been devastated during the war but the people received us enthusiastically. We spent several days there. A delegation from Skopje came and met us and soon we boarded a train and we arrived in Skopje. I'll never forget it. It was winter, cold, but no snow. As we got off the train we had Macedonian flags. It was pouring rain and we marched from the railway station through the heart of Skopje to the Roman bridge, on the river Vardar. The streets were absolutely choc-a-bloc with people from Skopje receiving us. The rain didn't seem to worry them and it didn't seem to worry us; the spirit was so high, I'll never forget it. As I said, we marched with the Macedonian flag all the way from the railway station in pouring rain to the Roman bridge across the Vardar.

        How was the formation of the Republic of Macedonia seen by the Macedonians in Australia?

        Most Macedonians including myself, thought now this is the beginning, once we have a republic, which should be autonomous or free, then the push should come from there for the rest of Macedonia to be united. But unfortunately that did not eventuate and we feel betrayed, we feel let down by all the Balkan countries that promised us so much and gave the Macedonian people very little.

        What were your experiences in Skopje?

        After about two or three weeks being in Skopje I was allocated a job with a radio station in Skopje. The radio studio was in the heart of Skopje and the transmission station was about 10 kilometres outside Skopje. This transmitter was the most powerful and the best in the Balkans including Belgrade, Athens and Sofia and any other. It was used to transmit news throughout the Balkan areas. I enjoyed working in the radio station and also the radio studio. The group working there were terrific. One of the young boys, Blagoi Pekevski, was only about 20. His brother was a Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture in Skopje. He was a very proud young boy and a very good Macedonian. We met quite a number of people. There was one particular person I've got to mention who was from Canada. Her name was Mary Vasilova. She was a union delegate in Canada to the restaurant industry. She was a very bright young girl. We had quite a number of sessions talking about the Macedonian question. Also what we thought should happen to the Macedonians in Aegean Macedonia. She departed for Canada about six months later. I did not keep in touch with her and I don't know to this day whether this young lady is still alive or not.

        During my work in Skopje, when I was at the transmitting station, if I worked for three consecutive days it was classed as nine days, because you worked from eight o'clock in the morning till eight o'clock the next day – it was classed as three shifts although we did not work all the time, we had to have some sleep. That gave me the opportunity to travel throughout Macedonia and also through part of Serbia and Croatia. I went to Bitola and I had a look at the city or town of Bitola and also met some of the people there. In those days it was virtually impossible to travel freely because of the civil war. You had to have a special pass. I traveled with a British passport because in those days we had no Australian passports. I also went to a place called Bulkez, which is virtually on the border of Romania, Hungary and Serbia. At this particular place there were Greek and Macedonian partisans recovering from their wounds. It was virtually like a country within a country. They had their own money, they had their own hospitals, they had their own little factories and they also had schools there. There were quite a large number of young children, Macedonians and some Greeks as well. I met the committee there who welcomed me warmly. I stayed there for four days and then I came back to Skopje.

        For several weeks you visited Aegean Macedonia, what were your experiences?

        The experiences were devastating. I went down and the civil war was still in progress. I wanted to see my birthplace again, and I went down accompanied by experienced partisans who were Vera Baleva and Mihail Kermejidata , also Pascal Mitrovski from Chuka. They took me across the border. I accompanied them and eventually we reached our village but I was not able to get into the village. But I got as far as Sveti Ilia – which I mentioned in the earlier discussion, our little church was still there. From there I could virtually see with binoculars the village, people etc and also there were quite a few troops, Greek troops there, and they also had cannons there. It was very dangerous for me to venture into the village. Then we went to several other villages like Chuka and a few others as well and to my dismay I could see that the devastation amongst the Macedonian villages was very great. People had left the villages, children, elderly people, and they were crossing the border towards Albania, towards the Republic of Macedonia, and very few apparently, into Bulgaria.

        Now I only stayed in Aegean Macedonia for several days, not weeks, and eventually we got back. When I got back to Skopje I was able to get back to the job that I had. I met many of the young boys and girls who were going through Macedonia to the other republics like Czechoslovakia, Romania, even as far as Russia. They were the young children that were forced to flee their villages in the towns because of the terror and bombings etc.

        That's the detsa begaltsi [child refugees]?

        Yes, as we call it in Macedonian, detsa begaltsi, because I don't call it detsa begalstsi, I call it Detsa- forced -to-flee-their-homes-because-of-the-terrible-devastation. This was a tragedy to see hundreds and hundreds of young people, virtually barefooted young children, elderly people, virtually in rags and tatters fleeing their homeland. It was a devastating experience for me, I cried.

        Many of these people, youngsters and elderly people, you could call them refugees if you like, initially they were put into the Skopje stadium, the sports ground you could say. They were housed there for two or three nights. I visited them regularly. Then from there they were taken to a place called Matka. Matka is an area about 30 or 40 kilometres away from Skopje. It's a hydro centre, they have hydro electricity produced there, but there's also a number of monasteries there. So these people, these children and these elderly people in rags and tatters that needed clothing, also fumigating because they were full of lice, they were taken to these monasteries usually for about eight or ten days. They were fumigated, they were fed well, they were clothed and eventually they were put on their way to go to these other republics, which accepted them as refugees. It was heartbreaking to see all these young people go that way, without parents some of them, without a mother or a father. That's shocking.

        Soon after you decided to return to Australia. What did you do when you returned to Perth?

        We came back with the same ship that we came to Macedonia, with the Partizanka, but this time it was not a happy trip like the one when we were going there. There was a small number of people that were on the Partizanka and I was one of them with my family. From there we went to Malta and from Malta to Cyprus and from Cyprus to Australia. We stopped in Perth. My mother and my sister came to Sydney but I stopped in Perth because the people wanted me to tell them all about the situation in Macedonia. So a meeting was arranged in Perth for me. There were a large number of Macedonian people came to hear and to hear the truth about the situation in Macedonia. I also went to Manjimup. Another meeting was held there, the people were very enthusiastic to hear what was going on. Back to Perth for another meeting and from there to Kalgoorlie where a meeting was held and I also gave them the information of what was transpiring in the Republic of Macedonia and also of the tragedy of the civil war. From there I went to Adelaide, also a meeting in Adelaide. From there to Melbourne and eventually I came to Sydney where I have settled since then, since 1949. I've been active since returning from Macedonia in the Macedonian community and I am still active at my old age.

        You helped build the first Macedonian church in Sydney at Rosebery and later also at Cabramatta. What was your role and how did the project develop?

        Actually in Sydney we didn't have a Macedonian church and most of our people were going to weddings or christenings in Serbian, Russian or Greek churches because they were Orthodox. So we thought it was about time that the Macedonians in Sydney had their own church. In Melbourne a Macedonian church was already established. So we decided to build a church where it would be very central for the Macedonian community. We had a couple of meetings and in one of those meetings I was elected to be the president of the group with the plan to find a place and build a church for the Macedonians in Sydney. Before we built the church, there was a priest whose name was Mihail Gogov , he was also very active and participated with us. As a matter of fact he officiated in several sermons in Macedonian in the Catholic church and also a Church of England church in George Street. The people flocked to these sermons and we were thrilled with the response, so we decided it was definitely time to build a church in Sydney and we found a suitable place, which was at Rosebery. It was a Church of England church. The church was neglected because the parishioners from there had departed. So we got in touch with the Archbishop of the Church of England, his name was Gough. He was a fantastic person. Normally when you made an appointment to see the Bishop it was 10 to 15 minutes but our delegation, which included one of our bishops and Mihail Gogov and myself. We spent over one and a half hours with the Archbishop. He was exceptionally versed with the Macedonian history. As a matter of fact he knew more about the Macedonian uprising of Ilinden than I did; that was a surprise for me. He was a fantastic bloke, I'll never forget him. He helped us to negotiate to buy the church at Rosebery. As I said, it was only a very small church but in a very nice position with a park in front and a park behind with a reasonable amount of parking which helped us a lot.

        When we called a meeting to ask the people whether they agreed to buy the church property there or not, the response was terrific. The people unanimously decided that we should buy it and we called another meeting later on to collect the money. But in the meantime a group of two of us was elected to go and see the property managers of the Church of England in Sydney. We did that, it was only a verbal agreement or a contract you could say, the amount was just over $30,000, which was a very very good price for the property that we intended to build a new Macedonian church.

        There were no papers drawn, no contract drawn, just a verbal [agreement] and handshake to buy the property. The people who were very anti Macedonian - I'm not going to name any groups - we heard that they approached the Church of England property managers and offered them ten times more than the money we paid in order to stop us from having a Macedonian church. And what we did hear was this, that the people who managed the property of Church of England told them no money would change the contract; they would stick by their word because the Macedonians needed their church in Sydney.

        So, I was the first president elected by the people and we managed to get a certain amount of money and we borrowed a small amount of money from the bank. We bought the church and the people flocked to the church. There'd be big crowds of Macedonians going every Sunday. Weddings and christenings were performed. In a very short time we saved enough money to plan for the new church which is in the Rosebery property now. The cost was quite substantial. We tried to get different people such as architects to help us with the project and eventually, I must say this, it was a Serbian architect who gave us the best price to supervise the building of the church. Most of the other people including some Macedonians, what they asked was far too high. He supervised, planned and also attended every week, at least once, to supervise with the building. He only asked for $4,000, that was virtually a gift. So the church was built and within a short time we also had enough money to put a deposit and buy the property at Cabramatta. And eventually the property at Cabramatta was built and we had another church at Cabramatta.

        When the foundation stone was laid for Rosebery we had invited quite a number of prominent people in Sydney including government people, Premier of NSW, Neville Wran; Willis, the opposition leader of the Liberal Party; former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, and we also invited other members from the federal parliament and they attended. But also we invited other religious bodies. A Catholic priest was there, and a Syrian priest was there, Antioch priest was there, but unfortunately the Serbians refused to participate and so did the Greeks. We invited them as a religious body, so we didn't worry too much about that. Eventually when the actual church was opened it was opened by the then Premier of NSW, Neville Wran. Federal members who attended were Mr Whitlam, and Mrs McKellar representing her husband who was a Minister. There were a lot of other dignitaries from the state and federal sphere. It was a great day for the Macedonian people of Sydney to have their own church which eventually proclaimed a cathedral.

        I would also like to mention some of the Macedonian activists who helped build the Rosebery and Cabramatta churches: Dragan Razmovski, the second elected president; Kire Razmovski, a very staunch supporter; Todor Vlashis and his wife Elena, who both ceaselessly helped in the church for many years; Elena Kochofska, Mito Marinovski; Peter Marinovski, son of Mito; Slave Ristevski; Bill Velevski; and many others who contributed financially and physically. Thank you all.

        You knew many of the first Macedonian activists in Australia. Who do you think were the key activists and can you tell us a little bit about each one?

        First and foremost let us talk about Ilia Malko. Ilia Malko was my very closest friend. We came to Australia together on the same ship and we remained friends till his passing away. I would say that he contributed more than any other Macedonian in Australia to the Macedonian movement. He gave everything towards the Macedonian cause. He believed that Macedonians should live free, as many of us did as well. Unfortunately we lost Ilia Malko roughly about eight years ago.

        Risto Altin: he'd be another one who has contributed vastly to the Macedonian cause, he was in Melbourne; and Kiro Angelkov and several others.

        Now Ilia Malko was involved right from the very beginning in Perth in the organization Edinstvo, also the Macedonian Spark, Makedonska Iskra, and also in the formation of the Ex-Services League, Macedonian Australia Ex Servicemen's League. Also the Macedonian Australian People's League, which functioned and also helped a lot towards the unity of the Macedonians.

        Risto Altin was in Melbourne and as mentioned before I met Risto Altin in late 1942. He was involved in all the Macedonian activities in Melbourne. He was also involved in the Macedonian Spark, as the Macedonian Spark eventually was transferred from Perth to Melbourne. He was also involved with the Macedonian church in Melbourne, in Gertrude Street. He was a staunch Macedonian and still is.

        Kiro Angelkov joined the association or Macedonian organizations in late '45, '46. He spoke better Macedonian than I or Ilia Malko. He was a very staunch Macedonian and he also helped with the Macedonian Spark and also with the organization, and also helped with the Macedonian hospital campaign.

        Stoian Sarbinov. Stoian Sarbinov was a man from a village called Buf, Egejska Makedonija. He was at Manjimup. Originally he opposed us in Perth because he didn't think that we would be sincere but eventually he came around and he was very very helpful and he also helped a lot in the Macedonian Spark, he helped with the printing, he helped put the paper together. He also took a very active part in human rights in Macedonian affairs throughout Australia. Unfortunately Stoian Sarbinov passed away about fifteen years ago. We lost another good supporter.

        Vasil Boscov, he was an elderly man, he passed away about 20 years ago. He was involved right from the beginning. I knew Vasil Boscov from Perth. I also knew Vasil Boscov when he went to Adelaide and also helped to form the Adelaide branch of the Macedonian Australian People's League. He participated in helping with the printing of the paper, he also helped with the other social activities and he also was a secretary for some time.

        Stoiche Stoichev. He was a very ardent, staunch supporter of the Macedonian cause throughout his life. He used to be in Perth at the beginning. He brought his wife and family from Macedonia, eventually transferred from Perth to Melbourne where he participated in all the activities of the Macedonian life. He passed away unfortunately several years back.

        Todor Todorov and his father, they were both from Pirinska Macedonia, from Macedonia under Bulgarian occupation and rule. Right from the beginning Todor Todorov and his father helped with the formation of Edinstvo, helped with the formation of the Macedonian Dancing Group and also helped with the social activities.

        John Pizarkov was one of the first that helped with the Macedonian Edinstvo in Perth. Eventually he joined the army. When he joined the army he was transferred to the eastern states and eventually settled in Sydney where he participated in helping with the Macedonian Spark and also the other social activities of Macedonians throughout Australia.

        Naum Sharin, an elderly person, a very nice person who passed away several years ago. He was one of the first to join the Macedonian Edinstvo in Perth. He helped when most of us were in the services - he was an elderly bloke - to keep the organization alive. We've got to say thank you to him for doing that.

        Boris Mano, he was a younger person from Macedonian Prespa under Albanian rule. He was one of the first members. He helped with the social life and social activities in Perth.

        Naum Mano, related to Boris Mano, he was also from Prespa, Albania. He was one of the first members to join the Edinstvo organization.

        Lazo, the brother of Naum, he was also a member right from the beginning, who helped the social life and also in helping with the paper.

        Naum Kalchunov, he used to be in a city or town called York, about 100 odd kilometres away from Perth. He was a staunch Macedonian supporter. He helped by donating quite a bit of money towards the Macedonian hospital and also towards the Macedonian Spark or Makedonska Iskra.

        There's also many others who at present have slipped my memory, so I must say without hesitation - without the mentioned people our organization would have been much poorer, so vechno da bidi pametot na ovie lugje koi se pochinati [long may we remember these people who have passed away].

        You went back to your village in 1983. How long were you there for and what did you see?

        Let me give you a brief outline before I went to the village. On a number of occasions I tried to go to my village, my birthplace, but unfortunately I couldn't get a visa. You're aware, the Greek government refuses a visa to anybody with a Macedonian name. As my name was changed from the Greek name, which they called Eliopoulos , back to the original and present name, Veloskey, I was refused entry.

        When Greece joined the European Community, like many other European community countries no visa was required. So the wife and I, without telling anyone except our family, decided to board the plane and we landed in Athens. It was five o'clock in the morning. I showed my passport to the person in charge of the entry into the airport, and he looked at it and on my passport it says my name, Michael Veloskey, “Born Macedonia”, nothing else. He was rather stunned. He looked at it and he kept on looking at it. And I said “What's the trouble? It's an Australian passport,” in English. He said in Greek “No understand English.” I said “Can you speak Greek?” He said “Yeah”. So I said “Yes,” I spoke to him in Greek, I said “this is an Australian passport. That's [refering to Macedonia] where I was born.” It was early in the morning. I think they hadn't checked up the blacklist of my name, because it was a different name altogether, and he let us through.

        We stayed in Athens for several days. We saw the ruins, the congestion and the smog. 1983 was a warmest summer in Europe for 300 years. Many people in Athens suffered badly from the pollution and also from the heat. After leaving Athens we decided to go to the village that I was born. To go there, I went to a small office asking them for two air fares to go to my village. The nearest airport was Rupishta, which is adjacent to Kostur. The person there stared at me in amazement. I said “Rupishta, don't you know where it is?” He said “No.” He said “Never heard of it”. I said “Well, unfortunately” I said, “the Greek governments have changed the names of virtually all Macedonian towns and villages” and I said “If you give me a map I'll show you”. So he gave me the map and I showed him where it was. It was under a different name. So Rupishta is not called Rupishta any more.

        Eventually he gave us two tickets, our tickets. We boarded the plane and we landed at Rupishta. It was a boiling hot day, the temperature was well over 45 °. We called a taxi. We got in the taxi and we asked him to get us into Kostur, as the Greeks call it Kastoria, to a nice hotel. He took us to a reasonably nice hotel with views of the lake. Kostur is a very very picturesque town with a population of approximately 20,000. Many of the people in the Kostur area were engaged in the fur industry, which was thriving but gradually diminishing.

        Anyway we settled in the hotel and eventually we called for a taxi to show us around. He was a Macedonian who spoke both Greek and Macedonian but he insisted to speak more Greek than Macedonian because he was one of the unfortunate boys. He lost his parents and the Greeks took him and they made him like a Yanitsar, Yanitsar means extremely pro Greek, they instilled… they brainwashed him. So we said to him “Would you like to drive us around for the next fortnight, around the villages?”. He agreed. We said “We'll pay you for the whole day, you take us there and back, and any spare time you can utilize it”. So we engaged him for a fortnight.

        We went to quite a number of villages, to the village that I was born, and as we drove through there, Dolna Mala, as we call it, I saw a man with a stick in his hand and he was walking slowly and he was cursing in Macedonian and Greek. I remembered the name, his name was Lazo. I was rather surprised to see him still alive because he would be in his 85s or 90s. So I said to the taxi driver “Pull up here”. He pulled up, the wife and I were both together in the taxi. I got out of the taxi and I said “Lazo, me poznavash mene?” [Lazo, do you remember me?] He looked at me. “Koi vrak si?” [in Macedonian “Which devil are you?”]. “Diavolos” [in Greek ‘Devil”]. I said “Eh, jus sum Makedonets. (Eh, I am a Macedonian]. And he looked at me and he looked at me and he couldn't make me out. I said “You don't remember.” I said “I left in 1935” and I told him who I was. He put his arms around me and he started to cry.

        And this particular man Lazo said “I'm going to stay with you all day today.” So we took him with us in the taxi and he took us to my home that my father had built there and it was occupied by my uncle and his family. Unfortunately my uncle was not there but only his wife was there and she welcomed us and she said that her husband, Risto, Chris, was going to be there late this afternoon or the next day. So I asked the taxi driver to drive us to Gorna Mala and that's where my aunty lived from my mother's side, Teta Zoia. She welcomed us there and she insisted that we stay there for the night. My uncle, her husband, was tilling the land. Her son was in Kostur and he was involved in the fur industry as well but he spent most of his time in Germany trading between Germany and Greece. So we stayed there for the night and her son came home and also the husband came home. We were welcome there, they made us stay there for the night, they gave us a very nice meal.

        So, the next morning the son was driving us down to Dolna Mala, to the house my uncle occupied, and as we were going down the hill on the road there was an elderly person with a walking stick coming up. That was my uncle Chris. So the driver said “Do you know who that man is?” I said “No.” He said “We'll stop here”. So we stopped, he got out, and he went to my uncle Chris, that's my father's brother, and he said to him “Imam eden chovek tuka koj te poznava tebe.” [“I have a man here who knows you.”] He said to my uncle “There's somebody with me in the car who recognizes you and knows you and is also your relative”. I got out of the car and I went to meet him there. He looked at me. To me he seemed to have shrunken a lot, because as we get older we always lose a bit of weight, but the thing that I'll never forget is his sparkling blue eyes. I've never seen eyes like that. Anyhow I explained to him who I was. He wrapped his arms around me and we both cried.

        Anyhow we had a bit of a talk and I asked him where he was going. He said he was going to do a bit of shopping in Gorna Mala, that's where the stores were. So we drove him there. We had a bit of a talk and we drove him back and when we got back to the house he said “The house is still half yours.” I said “Uncle, you can have the lot.” I said “I don't think I'll be ever coming back to live here,” and he started to cry again. His wife was there. She welcomed us and saying that the house was still half ours. So we stayed there for quite a while and then we decided to go back to my aunty's place in Gorna Mala . Her son drove us up there. So we stayed there for the next day and the night.

        Eventually we decided to go to some of the other villages. Drenichevo. Drenichevo is the nearest village to Gradche. The Greeks had called it “Kranohori”. Unfortunately this particular village, before the war or actually before 1921 or '22, about 99 per cent of the people were Macedonians. But during the Greek-Turkish conflict when they exchanged nationals, quite a number of the Pontian Greeks were planted in the village Drenichevo . And I would say probably about 30 per cent of the village people of Drenichevo, of Kranohori , are Pontian Greeks and they were the eyes and the ears and they were the spies, not all of them, for the fascist Greek government during the civil war and before the civil war etc.

        We went there and we met some people there, also met some of my relatives there. Unfortunately my uncle from my mother's side had lost his life. His two sons, one of them got killed during the civil war, and the other was in Skopje. So we took the liberty of asking if they knew what part of Skopje. They didn't know. But eventually when we got to Skopje we met with my cousin there. Drenichevo is a fairly large village, and the population has actually increased to what it was pre war or pre civil war as well. But the village Gradche has diminished to a very very small number. I think the number at present or at the time when we were there in '83 it was about 48 only.

        So eventually we went to some other villages as well, but we went back again to my village after Drenichevo and I met with my uncle again, uncle Chris. And he told me a terrible terrible story. He told me how he called his donkey in Macedonian Choonksh [Stop!] and a Greek policeman or korofilakas heard him. So he took his name and they summonsed him to go to court in Kostur. Eventually the court case proceeded. My uncle could speak very little Greek because, he was my father's brother as I said, and he was born under the Ottoman occupation. He could speak very few words in Greek so they had to have an interpreter for him at the court. When the prosecutor asked the interpreter to ask my uncle why did he speak this forbidden language, and my uncle said “Well, it's like this, my animals can only understand Macedonian, therefore if I spoke another language they wouldn't know what I was saying to them.” Anyhow the prosecution pressed the case and eventually the judge said “Have you anything else to say?” and my uncle said “Yes,” he said “You should open schools for the old people to learn Greek and you should also open schools for the animals to learn Greek”. The judge was furious with his answer and sentenced him to five years in gaol. For a very elderly person to be in gaol for five years, you can imagine how terrible it must have been. But they never broke his spirit. That's very important. They never broke his spirit. And he said “They can do whatever they like. I was born a Macedonian and I'll die a Macedonian”. So as you can see, they'll never ever break the Macedonian spirit entirely, it doesn't matter what they do.

        After visiting several other villages in our area we decided to go to my wife's village, which is called Konomladi (Makrohori in Greek). In Konomladi Helen's uncle was still alive, that is Helen's father's brother. And he also told us what happened to him. The Greeks hung him upside down by the legs and they beat him and they beat him and they left him for dead. The family cut him down. He was all black and blue from the severe beating that he had. They took him home and they wrapped him in sheep wool and also sheep skin and he was in that state for several weeks, hovering between death and life. His will must have been tremendous. He eventually got better but he never recovered from the terrible beating that he had. He is a man of great spirit, he is a man of understanding. He'll do anything to help people. We stayed there for two nights, we enjoyed our visit to his place and also meeting his family. It's very sad to see the terrible things that have taken place during the last 40 or 50 years in Aegean Macedonia.

        When did the Greeks beat him, and why?

        Well, I was informed by my wife, Helen, because she was still there before she came to Australia, they beat him because he was in a group which was organizing the Macedonians and apparently that was the reason why they beat him like that.

        This happened at the beginning of the Greek Civil War and what were the circumstances that led to him being caught?

        Well apparently what happened was that an informer that heard and knew that my wife's uncle was in a committee that was organizing the Macedonians for the Macedonian movement, Autonomous Macedonia, and also Macedonia for the Macedonians, and that was the main reason why they beat him and they left him for dead.

        Can you tell us a little about your wife's family?

        My mother-in-law, that is Helen's mother, during the civil war she was one of the persons who helped to carry the wounded partisans and when they found out about that my mother-in-law was gaoled for five years in an underground prison in Athens. It was a terrible hardship and something that virtually destroyed her life. Eventually, my father-in-law managed to bring his wife to Australia but she did not live much longer after arriving in Australia. It was part and parcel of the terrible tragedy of being in gaol for five years under tremendous, horrific pressures and degradation.

        Also my wife's brother, he was a partisan. He got wounded severely and the Greeks captured him and they threw him in the gutter for dead. In actual fact a Greek priest went by him, he saw him there, he spat on him, he kicked him, time and time again, tried to extinguish his life. Eventually a Greek soldier who was a bit more humane got hold of my brother-in-law and took him to hospital where they amputated his leg. When he got better they transferred him from the hospital to one of the islands and he was imprisoned for seven years for being a partisan. He was only doing his duty as a Macedonian and also as a duty for freedom and democracy - seven years in gaol. Eventually he was released and came to Australia. His experience and tortures and trauma ended his life at a premature age, that's all I've got to say.

        After visiting my wife's village, we came back to Kostur or Kastoria as the Greek call it and enjoyed the area and also I met some people that we knew from Sydney, and they took us to their home, we had a couple of meetings with them.

        Eventually we decided that we would go to Salonika but not by plane but by vehicle, by car or a taxi so we could see the countryside. So we engaged the taxi driver who we had with us for some considerable time by now. We got to know him and his name was Vane, John. He was driving a French car as a taxi and he kept on playing Greek music mainly, but every now and then he played a Macedonian cassette. I kept on talking to him about Macedonia and all that, both in Greek and Macedonian. What actually happened, he had been told by the Greeks that his father and mother had been killed by the partisans. He was only a very young boy at the age of about three or thereabouts, so the Greeks had taken this young boy and they made him a Yanitsar in other words, to be hateful of anything else but Greek. I kept on talking to him about Macedonia and Macedonians and all that and I was so interested that I decided to go back to the village and check up why his parents were killed and by whom. I was told that his parents were not killed by anyone because they stepped on a land mine and that killed them. So I kept on talking to this young taxi driver regarding Macedonia and all that and eventually he started to think. I didn't say anymore. I said “Now I want you to drive us from here to Salonika”, as I mentioned before.

        The first stop was at Voden. The Greeks had renamed the town Edessa. It's a beautiful town, 90 per cent Macedonians but afraid to speak Macedonian. When we got there, there was sort of like a coffee shop and also a little store selling a few groceries and also selling films. So I said to my wife “I'll go and buy another film because the one I have is used up”. As I went there I saw the person behind the counter. I spoke to him in English. He shook his head, naturally because he couldn't speak English, and I spoke to him in Greek. When he answered me in Greek I could see his Greek was only broken Greek and I said to him in a very low tone and very low voice so I wouldn't be heard “Dali si Makedonets?” [Are you a Macedonian?] He said “ Da, Makedonets sum, pa da ne zborvash, ke ne shtyue. ” Don't talk aloud because they might hear ustalking Macedonian and I'll get into trouble. He said “Come around the back”. So we went around the back and he opened up. It was absolutely disastrous what had happened to the Macedonians under Greek control. They've been devastated, they've been traumatized, they've been brutalized. And as far as the Greeks keep on saying that democracy was born in Greece, I wish they'd kept some of the democracy for themselves. Eventually I parted with him and I thanked him, and I said “Don't forget you're a Macedonian, it doesn't matter what happens.” He said “ Do koga disham, jas ke bidam Makedonets ”. “As long as I'm breathing,” he said “I'll never change from being a Macedonian”.

        So we left Voden, it's a beautiful place, as I mentioned before, and all the way from there to Salonika or Thessaloniki as the Greeks call it, the plain of Solun as I call it is very fertile. They can grow virtually anything – fruit, vegetables, wheat, corn, you name it. And we bought quite a bit of fruit because it was the right season and we kept on driving and got as far as Pella,. When we got to Pella, I said to the taxi driver, “I want to stop here.” He said “Why?” I said “Don't you know?' He said “Oh, I heard about it.” I said “These are areas which are of historical value regarding Macedonian history.” He said “What do you mean, Macedonian history?” I said “Well, this is Macedonia, this is not Greece”. So we stopped. We spent about four hours at Pella and looked at some of the ruins there and I said to him “These are ruins from Philip, Alexander's father, Alexander the Great.” “Oh yes,” he said. “Alexander the Great, Megas Alexandros . ” “No, no” I said “Not Megas Alexandros, Veliki Alexandar ,” I said to him.

        Anyhow we continued to Salonika. We got there. As we were driving I said to him “Now John or Vane, I want you to take us to the best hotel they've got in Salonika, Solun.” He said “Yes, the name is Makedoniko Palati.” Macedonian Palace. I said “John, you just kept on telling me there's no Macedonia and yet right inside the middle of Solun you tell me the best hotel is called Macedonian Palace. There you are,” I said. Anyhow, we reached the hotel, we booked in, so I called him up to our room, we got something to eat and I said “How much do we owe you?” So he made the calculations and I gave him a tip and I said “I'll walk you down to the reception”. As we went down in the lift I said “John, I have to give you some news which… you will probably be surprised and shocked”. He said to me in Greek “Le ye . ” In other words “Kazi” [Tell]. I said “When we get down, we'll sit down and I'll explain to you”. So we went down to the reception, there was a couch on the side. I said “Let's sit on the side so nobody can hear us.” And I explained to him what happened about his parents. I told him that his father and mother were not executed by the partisans or not murdered by the partisans but they died by stepping on a land mine. He got a shock. He got up, he wrapped his arms around me, and he started to cry. He said “I was never informed, but inside me I felt there was something wrong.” “So John, that is the reason,” I said. “You can't be anything else but what you are. You're a Macedonian”. He wrapped his arms around me, he started to cry.

        He had to leave to return to Kostur. We went out of the hotel and I wished him a safe journey back to Kostur, and we parted.

        Why was Vane unable to find out why his parents had died?

        Actually when I think back and consider the whole situation in regards to this taxi driver Vane, it comes to my mind that the Greeks had Graecized him to such an extent that the people around him were probably afraid to tell him the truth. And I feel that people of the village where John the taxi driver was born were scared to approach him and tell him the facts, what had happened to him, just in case he was still pro-Grkoman [pro- Greek] and informed on them and they could be actually brought to the courts and gaoled. So that is a sad sad situation that has taken place not only with this case but I assume with hundreds of other cases in the Macedonian area under Greek control.

        We stayed several days in Salonika. We visited the eastern part of Salonika along the seaside. It's a beautiful area. Salonika itself is by far, far superior as far as quality of life is concerned to Athens. Athens is a much larger city, very congested, very polluted, at the same time, being built virtually in a gully, it's a horrible atmosphere to live in. We stayed in Salonika for as I said for several days and then we decided from Salonika to go to Bulgaria, where my wife and I have relatives. So we decided to get on a bus. We got on a bus and as we reached the Greek-Bulgarian border the passports are collected and they are given to the Bulgarian officer who boards the bus. The Bulgarian officer checked the passports of all the passengers and they were all Greeks going to Sofia. Only the wife and I were Macedonians and I have a habit if I travel in a bus, on a tourist bus, I like to be right at the back of the bus so I can see what goes on in front of me. He checked all the passports from the Greeks and not a word was said, nothing was uttered. When he came to us the Bulgarian officer, he was a captain in a blue uniform, a man of about 40 or thereabouts or maybe a bit less. When he saw my passport, which said “Michael Veloskey born Macedonia” he started to yell, “Kakva ta Makedonia”. “There's no such thing as Macedonia, there's no Macedonians.” And I was rather surprised and shocked in a way. And I said to him, in simple words “Look here officer, your job is to see if our visas are valid or not. If there is no Macedonia for you, there is Macedonia for me. If you know you're Bulgarian, I know I'm a Macedonian. So I don't want to discuss this with you any further. You do your job - to check the visas, that's all that's required.” He didn't say much more after that. He took our passports. When we disembarked from the bus, there was a check on our luggage and they also kept our passports. So we lined up to wait for our passports and also our luggage. So we exchanged money from traveller's cheques into Bulgarian leva. This particular officer that checked us on the bus came to me and he said “What do you know about politics?” I said “Look here, we came here on a tourist visa, we are here as tourists,” and I said “I don't want to discuss politics with you but if you insist” I said “ask me”. He said “You don't know anything about politics.” I said “Well, maybe I don't know but I'll ask you a couple of questions, and if I'm wrong I'll seek your pardon and I'll bend down on my knees and seek your pardon, but if you are wrong what would you do?” And he said to me in Bulgarian “Kazee, kazee” [Tell me, tell me]. That's how the Bulgarians talk. And I said in Bulgarian “Ke kazeem, ke kazeem”. And then in Macedonian “Kogato Dimitrov ga pozna Makedonia i Makedontsite, sho stoj pred tebe?” He understood me. I said “If Dimitrov recognized and acknowledged that there's Macedonians and Macedonia, what stands between you and him. He was a world figure in politics, so what are you going to say?” He had nothing to say. His face went red and he turned around to my wife and he said “You've got an angel husband” and I said to him in Macedonian “Tia bugarashki tatarashki, druk da mu kazish.“ “These Bulgarian words that you're saying, tell them to your villagers, not to me”. And I asked him not to interfere anymore.

        In 1993 you were the founding president of the Aegean Macedonian Association of Australia. What were the Association's objectives and what do you see as its main achievements?

        Well as the name implies, Aegean Macedonian Association of Australia, Aegean Macedonians of Australia, a group of Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia plus a couple of others from the Republic of Macedonia, we decided to form the Association with our aim to pursue human rights for the Macedonians not only in Macedonia but also in Australia. We lobbied the parliamentarians of federal parliament and even some of the state parliamentarians and our main aim was to help achieve human rights for the Macadonians in Greece, and that we should be recognized as Macedonians, not as Serbo-Macedonians, not as Fyrom, not as Greek Macedonians. We are what we are, we are Macedonians, proud citizens of Australia, and we should be known and accepted as being Australian citizens of Macedonian background.

        Let me mention some of the people who contributed to the Macedonian cause via the Aegean Macedonian Associatoin of Australia. Apart form myself as president, Paul Stephen, founder and vice president; Bill Vlassis, secretary; Victor Bivell and Mile Donevski, great contributors as “think tank” resources; Bill Manos, financial contributor; Steve Malco; Boris Minovski; Atanas Strezovski and many others. Let me convey my sincere thanks to the Kotori Cultural Club of Richmond for the great financial support and also to many individuals from there.

        Much of the Association's work was towards promoting human righs in Greece. What is your view of the Greek government's policy towards the ethnic Macedonians in Aegean Macedonian both in the past and at present?

        Unfortunately the past and the present Greek governments, whether socialist or capitalists or whatever they call themselves, have been hypocritical. In my opinion, going back say 70 years the Greek parliaments continuously have frustrated the Macedonian desire to be free, to live in a democratic country in a democratic environment. When you are restricted from speaking your own language, when you are restricted from singing your own songs, when you are restricted from having your own church and sermons in the Macedonian language, how could you call that freedom, how would you call Greek democracy, how could you call the Greek governments democratic governments? To me they are the complete opposite. They always have been, they continue to be hypocritical. They have closed the borders to Macedonians who left during the civil war. If you go back and try to cross the borders even up to today you are refused entry if you have a Macedonian name. If you change your name to a Greek name they'll let you through. I think it's a very sad stage in our era to have this type of government anywhere, let alone in the Balkans. I feel very sad to see what's happening in the Balkans. Not only in Greece but unfortunately similar things are happening in Bulgaria.

        What would you like to see happen in Aegean Macedonia?

        What I would like to see is that the borders should be completely pulled down, throughout the Balkans, throughout Macedonia, throughout Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Croatia and all the other countries - to be joined in a European community where freedom of travel, freedom of speech, freedom of religious services, freedom of worship, whatever you have, should be for all the people in all of Europe. That is my wish, that is my thought, and I hope that it will come to fruition before I pass away.

        How do you see the future of the Macedonian minorities in Greece, Bulgaria and Albania?

        Unfortunately, and I'll say it again, unfortunately, as far as I can understand it they have not achieved the freedom they deserve; because Macedonia and Macedonian history dates back longer than any of the other countries that are surrounding them and it's a very sad thing that the world has closed its eyes and does not see what is actually happening to the Macedonian minorities in those countries. It's about time the European Council and the European Union start to shift the pages back and allow the Macedonians to enjoy true freedom with free movement throughout Europe.

        What would you like to see happen in the Republic of Macedonia?

        In the Republic of Macedonia what I would like to see is this: that the government which is supposed to be for the people, by the people, to stand firm, to stand firm on the constitution which they originally had which gives freedom to all the peoples in the Republic of Macedonia, even the Albanians. But not to the terrorists; I cannot understand how the Republic of Macedonia has elected members into parliament who were the leaders of the terrorist group of Albanians which caused all these troubles in the Republic of Macedonia. I feel disillusioned, disheartened at what they've done: how can a country declare itself a republic by denying its own flag, by denying its own constitution, or altering its constitution to please some of the neighbours which are undemocratic? In my way of thinking it's this: it's free when you decide to declare yourself independent, you choose a name which you stick to, you choose a flag and if it's a new flag you stick by it. But we have our flag, which dates back over 2,000 years, that's the sun, a rising sun which the Macedonians used to worship in those days. And that is a proper Macedonian flag, not the “ventilator”, which they've adopted as our national flag. I'll never accept that and any Macedonian who is a true Macedonian will never accept that. Nor will they accept a constitution where they watered it down saying that the Republic of Macedonia has no right to ask what's taking place in Aegean Macedonia where Macedonians are treated as third or fourth class citizens, denied their rights of religion, of culture, and everything else that goes with freedom. That is my opinion.

        What sort of future would you like to see for the Macedonian people?

        I would like to see a happy, prosperous future for the Macedonians in the years to come. I would like to see the Macedonians, Serbs, Croatians, Bulgarians, Greeks, even Albanian terrorists realize that they live in that part of the world, that it's better to be friends than to be enemies. You have nothing to gain by being enemies and fighting each other, you have everything to gain by resolving your problems peacefully and in an equal basis, in an equal basis. Respect each other, respect each other's views, respect for what you are. If you're a Macedonian the others should respect you as being a Macedonian. If you are a Serb you should be respected to be a Serb and vice versa. The same with the Greeks. If the Greeks want the Macedonians to respect them as Greeks they should respect the Macedonians and Macedonia. And the Bulgarians and the other ethnic groups around the area, they should have the choice of what they are and nobody should deny them that right.

        What are your current involvements in Macedonian affairs?

        I am politically active by attending meetings, and also trying to put some input, whatever I can, but at my age, I'm well over 80, I think it's about time that I stepped aside and I think the younger people should take the reigns and I'm quite sure that we have quite a lot of young people in Australia, in Sydney and elsewhere, who are very capable and they're going to do a good job. So I am prepared to help wherever I can from the knowledge that I have gained from the years that have gone by. Therefore I earned and deserve to have some rest.



        © Copyright Michael Veloskey and Pollitecon Publications 2005
        "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
        GOTSE DELCEV

        Comment

        • George S.
          Senior Member
          • Aug 2009
          • 10116

          Speech for Book Launch of A Girl From Neret

          By Victor Bivell

          printable version

          Sunday, 25 March 2007

          A Message From the Publisher

          Guests, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for taking the time to come here today to help launch this new book, A Girl From Neret, by Lefa and Kathy. I wish I could be there to thank you but Sydney is a long way away, and if all goes well I do hope to be in Perth for the New Year.

          A Girl From Neret is the eighth Macedonian book published by Pollitecon Publications. While I am proud of all of them, I am particularly proud of this book because my own family, both my mother and my father, come from Neret, and because it is the first book about our village.

          I remember many years ago sitting in a park in Sydney thinking that although up until then I had read several thousand books, I had never read any book, indeed nothing at all, about the village where my mother and father came from. This realization shocked me. I started to look for books and any written material about our village, but I could not find anything, in English or Macedonian.

          I realized that while many people from other countries and other towns and villages around the world can pick up and read any number of books about their homeland, I could not. There was nothing about where my parents lived, what the village was like, how they lived as children and as adults, and what life was like.

          Now, Lefa and Kathy have given us such a book. Now everyone from Neret and the surrounding villages can read about what life was like for our parents and grandparents who came from the village. For this I am very grateful, and I hope that everyone from our village can appreciate what they have done.

          As we know, those cultures that write their own history are more likely to survive and prosper, while cultures that do not create quality cultural objects, such as books, can one day vanish without a trace.

          Lefa and Kathy's book is such a high quality cultural object. It is a valuable thing that reinforces our identity and culture, and can make up proud to be Macedonian, proud of our history and who we are.

          We should also thank Lefa for her bravery in telling her story. Because life in the village was not easy. The war period was hard on every one including the children. There were many child refugees from Neret, and what Lefa experienced and how she overcame those difficulties are well told in this book.

          So thank you Lefa for telling us your story and a little bit about the people and history of our village. And congratulations to Lefa and Kathy for writing this excellent book. I am confident it will do very well and make us all proud.

          Best Wishes

          Victor Bivell
          Sydney

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          "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
          GOTSE DELCEV

          Comment

          • George S.
            Senior Member
            • Aug 2009
            • 10116

            The Ancient and Modern Macedonians are Related, says Author

            By Victor Bivell

            2 April 2004

            printable version

            Ladies and gentlemen, firstly I'd like to thank everyone for being here tonight, and I'd particularly like to thank Dushan Ristevski and the Grigor Prlichev Literary Association for the opportunity to launch this very interesting book, The Descendants of Alexander The Great of Macedon, by Alexander Donski. I'd like to speak for a few minutes in Macedonian and then for a few minutes in English. I hope that everyone here as well as the Macedonian people in general will have a good discussion about the book, the many ideas it covers, both historical and modern, and the political implications of the book for Macedonians everywhere.

            It is not possible to say everything I'd like to say about this book in a few minutes so let me pick a few key points.

            The Descendants of Alexander the Great of Macedonia is an important book because it starts to address some of the key questions that all Macedonians would like to know - are we descended from the ancient Macedonians, are there real links between the ancient Macedonians and the modern Macedonians, what are those links, and how strong are they?

            And I think it is also important that the author, the person asking the questions and looking for the answers, is himself a Macedonian. For hundreds of years we have had other people telling us who we are, some friendly, most unfriendly. Finally, with this book, Macedonians can start to work out these questions for ourselves and to make up our own mind.

            Mr Donski strongly believes that the modern Macedonians are descended from the ancient Macedonians, not purely but mostly, and also that many elements of the culture of the ancient Macedonians are alive today in the culture of the modern Macedonians.

            In this book he has assembled a very substantial amount of evidence from a wide variety of sources that supports this thesis. Much of the evidence is drawn from the customs and folklore of the ancient Macedonians and how these have survived to become part of the customs and folklore of the modern Macedonians. If we want to see the ancient Macedonians, we should look at ourselves, he says. The influence of the ancient Macedonians is with us here and now in our everyday lives - in our language, in our weddings ceremonies, in our funeral ceremonies, in the stories we tell our children, in our traditional clothing, our superstitions, our dances, our customs and rituals, and so on. Mr Donski says all these can be shown to have some influence from the ancients.

            So not only do we have a Macedonian finally leading the investigation, but much of the source material and evidence is drawn from the Macedonian people themselves. This is an approach that many foreign investigators simply do not have the skill and knowledge to adopt, and one that others have pointedly never used.

            The evidence itself is quite accessible to the public and to public scrutiny, and there are many independent experts who would be able to comment on the quality of the evidence that falls within their respective fields of research. My own impression is that, overall, the quality of the evidence seems very good.

            Also important is that Mr Donski has assembled such a large amount of evidence. He does not base the book, and his thesis, on one or even a handful of points, but gives example after example after example, so many examples in fact that the sheer volume of material and evidence is quite impressive and becomes a factor in itself. Even if some of the evidence is refuted, there is enough material here that even if only a portion of it were corroborated or proven it would be enough to maintain the credibility of the thesis.

            The history of the Macedonian people is a subject of longstanding dispute, particularly with the neighbours - the Greeks, Bulgarians, Albanians and Serbians, and also with eastern Slavists and some very pro-Greek western historians, so in many circles to claim that the modern Macedonians are related to the ancient Macedonians is not an everyday statement but is in fact a radical concept.

            So this is also a challenging book. The book challenges the version of the history of the Macedonian people as it was presented by the pro-Serbian and later pro-Communist and pro-Slavic governments of Vardar Macedonia. Mr Donski argues that during the Serbian and the Socialist eras, the history and influence of the ancient Macedonians was deliberately ignored or significantly understated, and certainly never explored. It is only with the independence of the Republic of Macedonia in 1991 that the question of the origin of the modern Macedonians could begin to be addressed openly by Macedonians.

            Mr Donski also challenges the view that the modern Macedonians are completely unrelated to the ancient Macedonians and that they are purely descended from the "Slav" invaders of the sixth century. This view is most prominent among the modern Greeks, Bulgarians and Slavists for whom it is politically convenient. Mr Donski argues that the evidence for this view is unconvincing and that those who propagate it fail to give the full story, for example that Greece was also invaded by the same Slavs, and that the Byzantine empire removed a significant number of these Slavic people, allowing the indigenous population to remain dominant.

            Mr Donski's attack on the theory of descent from the Slav invaders is in fact quite strong. Among other points he asks, why is Macedonian folklore rich with material that can be sourced from the ancient Macedonians but is lacking in similar material about the supposed homeland of the Slavs somewhere "beyond the Carpathian Mountains"?

            Mr Donski also challenges another mainstream western belief - that so called "Greek mythology" is Greek. He argues that much of it is sourced from non-Greek writers and can be traced to other countries. "Mediterranean mythology" or "ancient mythology" as he prefers to call it, was an international phenomena to which many countries and cultures contributed, including the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, the Abyssinians, the Persians, the Romans, the Jews, the Anatolians, the Thracians, the Ethiopians, and, among them, the Macedonians. The idea that the ancient Greeks borrowed or adopted or simply took over a lot of other people's ideas is not new, but Mr Donski adds his voice to what is a serious challenge to a longstanding idea that has served the Greeks well politically to the detriment of other peoples including the Macedonians.

            To conclude, let me say why this is a good book. The Macedonian people have as much right as any other people to posit a hypothesis about themselves: in this case that the modern Macedonians are related to the ancient Macedonians. The real issue is the integrity and the honesty with which the evidence is identified, assembled and tested. I'm sure most Macedonians feel, as I do, that many Greeks do not approach their own hypotheses, particularly about the ancient Macedonians, in an honest and fair way. They look for the supporting evidence but ignore or misrepresent the contrary evidence. Such an approach is not self discovery, nor is it history. Simply it is either propaganda or self-delusion.

            On the integrity scale I think Mr Donski does very well. He acknowledges the opposing arguments and their sources, and he presents his own arguments in a straightforward way and without the impression of guile. Certainly he is enthusiastic for the Macedonian cause, but this is tempered with wide research and his extraordinary knowledge of Macedonian folklore.

            The Descendants of Alexander The Great of Macedon is an exciting book. It opens up new areas for research and I suspect it will be the beginning of a whole series of similar books. For me, one of the most exciting parts of the book is on the cover where it says "Part One - Folklore Elements". I believe the author is working on a Part Two and possibly a Part Three, while there are many other Macedonian writers capable of producing Part Four and Part Five and so on.

            If I can finish with this quote: "Part of the Macedonian public seems to expect someone from outside to announce to them who the Macedonians are: yet it should be the opposite. Macedonians are the ones who should announce to the world details about their ethnic cultural roots."

            With this book Macedonians can start to do that.


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            "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
            GOTSE DELCEV

            Comment

            • George S.
              Senior Member
              • Aug 2009
              • 10116

              The Human Rights Situation of Macedonians in Greece and Australia

              Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade: Human Rights Sub-Committee
              By Aegean Macedonian Association of Australia
              July 1993

              printable version

              Published in: Parliament of The Commonwealth of Australia Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Human Rights Sub-Committee, (Reference: Australia's Efforts to Promote and Protect Human Rights), Submissions and Incorporated Documents, Volume 2, Canberra 19 August 1993


              CONTENTS
              Recommendations
              Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade: Human Rights Sub-Committee
              Section 1: Overview
              Section 2: Examples of Human Rights Abuses Between 1913 and the Present
              Section 3: The Situation in Australia
              List of Enclosures
              Appendix 1: Freedom of Expression: the Case of Hristos Sideropoulos and Tasos Boulis
              Appendix 2: The Case of Archimandrite Nikodemos Tsarknias
              Appendix 3: The Case of Michael Papadakis
              Appendix 4: The Case of the Macedonian "child refugees"
              Appendix 5: The Situation of the Macedonians in Greece
              Appendix 6: The Situation in Australia
              Appendix 7: Various Books and Reports
              NOTE: The above mentioned supporting documents are with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Human Rights Sub-Committee in Canberra

              Recommendations
              As a democratic and multicultural country, Australia has an important role to play in the promotion of human rights around the world. The Association requests the Australian Government to use its good standing with the international community and the Greek Government in particular to raise the following matters with the Greek Government:
              1. To allow the free choice of national identity in accordance with international principles.
              2. To officially recognize the existence of a Macedonian minority in Greece and cease its perennial policy of non-recognition of the many ethnic minorities in Greece.
              3. To improve the availability of human rights to Macedonians in Greece, in particular the right to use the Macedonian language; the right to have the Macedonian language taught at all levels of the school system; the right to freedom of religion including the establishment of Macedonian churches; and the right to have Macedonian language radio, television, newspapers, and other cultural media.
              4. To allow Macedonians to use their proper Macedonian names and to cease the mandatory use of Greek versions.
              5. To allow Macedonian representatives at all levels of public life, including elected office.
              6. To end the persecution of Macedonian human rights campaigners in Greece, including the internationally known cases of Hristos Sideropoulos, Tasos Bulis, and Archimandrite Nikodemos Tsarknias. We request the Australian government to monitor the appeal of Hristos Sideropoulos and Tasos Bulis, the April 1994 trial of Archimandrite Nikodemos Tsarknias, other current cases, and new cases as they arise.
              7. To cease State discrimination whereby Macedonians and Macedonian activists have been dismissed from employment.
              8. To implement United Nations Resolution 193C (III) of November 27, 1948 which calls for the free repatriation of all child refugees from the Greek Civil War of 1946-49.
              9. To repeal the Greek laws 106841 and 1540 which discriminate against Macedonians who fled from Greece during the Greek Civil War and are still unable to repatriate to Greece or to reclaim their property.
              10. To return Greek citizenship and its attendant rights to all Macedonians whose Greek citizenship has been revoked.
              11. To allow the 550 child refugees resident in Australia to return to Greece, to reclaim their Greek citizenship if desired, and to reclaim their ancestral property.
              12. To legislate for the nationalistic elements in the Greek media to cease their persecution of the Macedonian minority and to require these media to give Macedonians a right of reply.
              13. For Greece to comply with all international human rights agreements to which it is a signatory, particularly the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
              14. For Greece to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political, the Optional Protocol on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.
              The Association's remaining recommendations concern Australia. There are a number of areas in this country where Australian citizens of Macedonian background, including Macedonians from Greece, receive less than fair treatment that can be seen as a denial of human rights.
              As these areas fall within the influence of the Australian government, the Association recommends that the Australian Government implement measures to:
              15. Increase the amount of Macedonian language programing on SBS Television in proportion to the size of the Australian Macedonian population.
              16. Investigate why SBS Television broadcasts an average of 156 hours of Greek language programing per year, year after year, while it broadcasts an average of only 2.75 hours of Macedonian language programing per year, year after year. The investigation should also examine why SBS Television employs a vastly disproportionate number of personnel of Greek background, including on screen identities, compared to other nationalities, including Macedonian.
              17. Allow the Australian Bureau of Statistics to create a country code for Macedonia for use in the next Census.
              18. Instruct the Australian Bureau of Statistics to collate credible statistics on the number of Macedonians in Australia, something it cannot do at present despite having had credible figures on other nationalities for many decades.
              19. Instruct the Australian Bureau of Statistics to devise a methodology for the next Census that will allow Macedonians who have emigrated from Greece to be counted as Macedonians. At present the Birthplace and Birthplace of Parents questions in the Census force these Macedonians to place Greece as their country of origin or their parents birth and thus to be counted as Greek. This situation overstates the number of Greeks in Australia and understates the number of Macedonians, a situation that is politically and morally abhorrent to many of our members, as well as casting serious doubts on the credibility of the ABS data.
              20. Investigate why Telecom politicized itself and denied the Republic of Macedonia the right to self identify by placing the country under the letter F in the White Pages rather than under the letter M.
              21. Investigate why the Australian Customs politicized itself by requiring an Australian importer of Macedonian background to re-label goods imported from the Republic of Macedonia.
              22. Request the Australian Labor Party to disassociate itself from a December 10, 1991 letter written by the Greek Central Committee of the Australian Labor Party and addressed to all Federal and State Labor parliamentarians. This letter explicitly denies the existence of a Macedonian minority in Greece.
              23. Investigate the level of Greek influence in the formulation of Australian foreign policy. This should include the excessive influence on the policy on Cyprus and other matters as evidenced in the paper The Role Of The Greek Communities In The Formulation Of Australian Foreign Policy: With Particular Reference To Cyprus, which was authored by a Greek-Australian parliamentarian and presented at the Institute of International Relations Conference "The Greek Diaspora in Foreign Policy", held in Athens.

              Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade: Human Rights Sub-Committee
              from the Aegean Macedonian Association of Australia
              July, 1993
              The Aegean Macedonian Association of Australia welcomes the opportunity to put before the Human Rights Sub-Committee the long standing concerns of Australia's Aegean Macedonian community regarding the intense and continuous suppression of the human rights of ethnic Macedonians in Greece.
              The Aegean Macedonian Association of Australia represents the interests of an estimated 90,000 Macedonians in Australia who originate from the part of Macedonia which is now incorporated into Greece. We emphasize, however, that our ethnic origin is Macedonian, not Greek: we speak Macedonian, identify as Macedonian, and have a separate, wholly Macedonian culture.
              The Aegean Macedonian community is ethnically related to the Macedonian immigrants from the Republic of Macedonia, which was formerly part of Yugoslavia. In addition the estimated 90,000 Aegean Macedonians in Australia, there are another estimated 100,000 immigrants from the Republic of Macedonia.
              Many of the members of the Aegean Macedonian Association of Australia are political refugees from Greece, others are economic refugees due to the Greek policy of not developing Macedonian areas, and the majority still have family members in Greece. Therefore the Association cannot overstate the strength of feeling from our members on the matter of human rights abuses in Greece.
              Overview
              At the end of the Second Balkan War in 1913 the original Macedonia was divided between Greece, which obtained 51 per cent of the territory, Serbia, which obtained 39 per cent, and Bulgaria which obtained 10 per cent.
              At the time of the tri-partition, the population was predominately Macedonian, with well established Turkish, Bulgarian, Vlach, Thracian, Jewish and Greek minorities.
              The Greek takeover of Aegean Macedonia was quickly followed by a ruthless campaign of ethnic cleansing of much of the non-Greek population.
              The Bulgarian and Turkish minorities were largely ethnically cleansed between 1923 and 1926 with the official exchange of populations between Greece and Bulgaria and Greece and Turkey. Among those resettled were many Bulgarian Macedonians and muslim Macedonians.
              However, close to a million Macedonians remained and in regard to these a policy of denationalization and hellenization was instigated. The process of political repression and denial of human rights included:
              * The compulsory changing of Macedonian first and family names to Greek versions.
              * The banning of the use of the Macedonian language.
              * The banning of Macedonian schools.
              * The banning of Macedonian churches.
              * The banning of Macedonian newspapers, books, radio programs, dancing and other cultural expression.
              * A massive population transfer of 632,000 Greeks from Turkey into Aegean Macedonia during the 1920s. This saw a major change in the ethnic composition of the region, and the Macedonians suddenly found themselves a significant national minority within what was previously their own country.
              These facts, together with active encouragement from the Greek government, saw the commencement of large scale Macedonian emigration from Greece, with many of these people settling in Australia, Canada and the US.
              This anti-Macedonian policy was particularly ruthless during the Metaxas dictatorship of the 1930s and included prison camps where Macedonians were killed in their thousands. Their only crime was to be Macedonian and/ or speak their native language.
              Writing in 1938, Australian author Bert Birtles in his book, Exiles in the Aegean, said "If Greece has no Jewish problem, she has the Macedonians. In the name of "Hellenization" these people are being persecuted continually and arrested for the most fantastic reasons. Metaxas' way of inculcating the proper nationalist spirit among them has been to change all the native place-names into Greek and to forbid use of the native language. For displaying the slightest resistance to this edict - for this too is a danger to the security of the State - peasants and villagers have been exiled without trial." (see appendix 5)
              A second period of intense repression followed the Greek Civil War of 1946-49 when the Macedonian minority sided with the Greek communists who had promised them national autonomy and human rights if they won the war. Their loss saw another wave of emigrants from Aegean Macedonia. Many of these also came to Australia.
              Among the refugees were 28,00 Macedonian children between the ages of two and 14. These were mostly the children of the Macedonian freedom fighters whose parents were fearful for their safety after the war.
              The children were evacuated to the Eastern bloc countries. Although the children of Greek fighters were officially pardoned in the 1980s and allowed back into Greece, this human right has not been extended to the Macedonian children. Today there are 550 such children, now adults, living in Australia. These are among the many thousands who are not allowed back into Greece and have never been reunited with their families. (Appendices 4 and 7)
              The Greek government's policy of ruthless denationalization of the Macedonian minority has continued to the present day. The estimates of the number of Macedonians in Greece today are between 300,000 and one million. However most of these are too afraid to admit to their Macedonian ancestry.
              Several specific cases of current human rights abuses have attracted the attention of Amnesty International. The following examples of repression between 1913 and the present, which are by no means exhaustive, put the current situation into perspective.
              Examples of Human Rights Abuses Between 1913 and the Present
              * In 1913 following its victory in the First and Second Balkan Wars, Greece officially annexed 51 per cent of Macedonia. This was against the desire of the population of Macedonia for an independent and autonomous country.
              * In 1916 the author John Reed in his book, The War in Eastern Europe, wrote about the aftermath of the First Balkan War and how the Greeks and Serbians tried to legitimize their takeover of the territory while also trying to wipe out the Bulgarian influence.
              He wrote "A thousand Greek and Serbian publicists began to fill the world with their shouting about the essentially Greek or Serbian character of the populations of their different spheres. The Serbs gave the unhappy Macedonians twenty four hours to renounce their nationality and proclaim themselves Serbs, and the Greeks did the same. Refusal meant murder or expulsion. Greek and Serbian colonists were poured into the occupied country...The Greek newspapers began to talk about a Macedonia peopled entirely with Greeks - and they explained the fact that no one spoke Greek by calling the people "Bulgarophone" Greeks...the Greek army entered villages where no one spoke their language. "What do you mean by speaking Bulgarian?" cried the officers. "This is Greece and you must speak Greek"."
              * The Carnegie Report on the Balkan Wars indicated that 161 villages were burned down and more than 16,000 houses were destroyed in the Aegean part of Macedonia.
              * On August 10th, 1920 at Serves, Paris, the countries of Britain, France, Italy and Japan concluded an agreement with Greece On the Protection of Non?Greek Nations. Greece pledged full protection of the Macedonian national minority, its language and culture and the opening of Macedonian schools.
              In Section 2 Greece pledged to extend full care over the life and freedom of all citizens irrespective of their origin, nationality, language, faith.
              Clause 7 reads: "All Greek citizens will avail themselves of the same civic and political rights irrespective of nationality, language and faith... and to legally guarantee the freedom of use by each citizen of any language in personal, trade and religious contacts, in print and publications or meetings..."
              Clause 8 states: "Greek citizens belonging to national, religious or language minorities will be treated on a par with native Greeks."
              Clause 9 reads: As regards education, the Greek government will create appropriate facilitations and will safeguard the possibility of learning one's own language in schools of towns and areas inhabited by citizens speaking a language different than Greek."
              On September 4, 1925, the office of High Commissioner for National Minorities was established at Salonika, northern Greece, for the observance of international agreements concerning national minorities.
              However, none of these assurances were put into practice. Instead the Greek government adopted a policy of denationalization and assimilation while simultaneously denying the existence of a Macedonian minority.
              * In 1925 the ABECEDAR booklet was published in Athens. This was an elementary book for teaching the Macedonian language and was written in the Latin alphabet. It was designed for Macedonian children. However, it was never distributed to them. After the departure of the representatives of the League of Nations, the booklets were destroyed.
              This booklet was republished in Perth in 1993 by the Macedonian Information Centre to prove the booklet's existence and the fact that Greece was once accountable to the world for its Macedonian minority.
              * In the 1920s Macedonian schools were closed, not opened. Kindergartens were established in Macedonian localities so children could be inculcated in a Greek spirit and to limit the influence of parents. This was despite a November 11, 1930 press conference in Athens at which prime minister Eleaterios Venizelos said, "The problem of a Macedonian national minority will be solved and I will be the first one to commit myself to the opening of Macedonian schools if the nation so wishes."
              * On March 30, 1927 the Greek newspaper Rizospastis wrote that 500,000 Macedonians were resettled to Bulgaria.
              * On the basis of a Greek thesis: "the faith determines the nation", hundreds of thousands of Turks and Macedonians of Muslim faith were resettled to Asia Minor. They were replaced by 638,253 Greeks brought in from Asia Minor.
              * November 1926: a legal Act was issued to change Macedonian geographic names into the Greek version. The news of the Act was published in the Greek government daily Efimeris tis Kiverniseos No. 322 of November 21, 1926. The same newspaper in its No. 346 published the new, official, Greek names. The names of the people were changed too. First names as well as family names were changed to Greek versions. These are still officially binding to this day.
              * In 1929 a legal Act was issued On the Protection of Public Order, whereby each demand for nationality rights was regarded as high treason. This law is still in force.
              * On December 18, 1936 the Metaxas dictatorship issued a legal Act On the Activity Against State Security. On the basis of this Act, thousands of Macedonians were arrested, imprisoned or expelled from Greece.
              * On September 7, 1938 the legal Act 2366 was issued. This banned the use of the Macedonian language. All Macedonian localities were flooded with posters that read "Speak Greek". Evening schools were opened in which adult Macedonians were taught Greek. There was not a single Macedonian school at the time. It is estimated that nearly 5,000 Macedonians were imprisoned or sent to prison camps for having used the Macedonian language.
              * During the Greek Civil War, the Headquarters of the Democratic Greek Army reported that from mid?1945 to May 20, 1947 in Western Macedonia alone 13,529 Macedonians were tortured, 3,215 were imprisoned and 268 were executed without trial. In addition, 1,891 houses were burnt down and 1,553 were looted. 13,808 Macedonians were resettled by force.
              * During the war, Greek-run prison camps where Macedonians were imprisoned, tortured and murdered included: the island of Ikaria near Turkey, the island of Makronis near Athens, the jail Averov near Athens, the jail at Larica near the Volos Peninsula, and in the jail at Thessaloniki. Among other places, there were mass killings on Vicho, Gramos, Kaymakchalan, and at Mala Prespa in Albania.
              * In 1947, during the Greek Civil War, the legal Act L?2 was issued. This meant that all who left Greece without the consent of the Greek government were stripped of Greek citizenship and banned from returning to the country. The law applied to Greeks and Macedonians, but in its modernized version the Act is binding only on Macedonians. It prevents Macedonians but not Greeks who fought against the winning side to return to Greece and reclaim property. Among those not allowed to return to Greece are the 28,000 child refugees who have not renounced their Macedonian ethnicity.
              * On January 20, 1948 the legal Act M was issued. This allowed the Greek government to confiscate the property of those who were stripped of their citizenship. The law was updated in 1985 to exclude Greeks but it is still binding on Macedonians. * On November 27, 1948 the United Nations issued resolution 193C (III) which called for the repatriation of all child refugees back to Greece. However, discriminatory laws introduced by the Greek government have prevented the free return of many thousands of the Macedonian child refugees. This is still the case in 1993.
              * On August 23, 1953 the legal Act 2536 was issued. This meant that all those who left Greece and who did not return within three years' time could be deprived of their property. This facilitated the confiscation of Macedonian property.
              * Around the same time a decision was taken to resettle Macedonians. A wide ranging media campaign was launched to induce the Macedonians to leave their native areas voluntarily and to settle in the south of Greece and on the islands. The Greek intention was to separate Macedonians living in Greece from their relatives, living in the Republic of Macedonia in Yugoslavia, and to create a 60 kilometre?wide belt along the border with then Yugoslavia where "the faithful sons of the Greek nation" could be settled.
              A firm reaction from Yugoslavia saw the cancellation of the plan.
              * In 1959 the legal Act 3958 was issued. This allowed for the confiscation of the land of those (Macedonians) who left Greece and did not return within five years' time. The law was amended in 1985, but it is still binding on Macedonians.
              * In 1960 the first secretary of the Greek Communist Party, H Florakis, was brought to court charged with high treason for supporting the Macedonian national minority.
              In September 1988 at the press conference in Salonika, the same Florakis said that the Greek Communist Party had changed its views and that it now recognized neither the Macedonians nor the Macedonian national minority.
              On August 30, 1989, the same H Florakis demanded from the Greek parliament the eradication from the currently legally binding Acts the term "Greek by origin" which made it impossible for the Macedonians to return to their homeland and to recover their property and damages. He branded this term as racist.
              The Greek press charged him with treason in order to win the electorate, implying the existence of Macedonian electors.
              * In 1961 Gramatnikowski Michal saw his mother on the Greek frontier from a distance of 100 metres. The Greek border guards would not permit them to come closer.
              Filip Wasilew Dimitris from Pozdivista (official Greek name: Halara) of Moscow made repeated attempts to obtain a Greek visa in the Greek embassy in Moscow. The last application, in August 1989, was to no avail.
              Georgios Nicolaos Cocos, a Macedonian political refugee who fought against German armoured divisions in the defence of Greece, was living in Tashkent (former Soviet Union) and wished to return to Greece. Despite his repeated attempts the Greek authorities did not give him a visa. Not even direct request from the death bed and addressed to the prime minister Andreas Papandreou helped. He died without seeing his family, his home and his homeland.
              Cinika Sandra twice tried to go to her home village in Greece on an excursion for old aged and disabled pensioners. Each time the Greek embassy in Warsaw would give visas only to Greeks by origin. Cinika as well as other Macedonians, including mixed Greek?Macedonian couples, were refused visas.
              * In 1962 the legal Act 4234 was issued. Persons who were stripped of their Greek citizenship were banned from returning to Greece. A ban on crossing the Greek border also extended to spouses and children. This law is still in force for Macedonians, including those who left Greece as children.
              * Macedonians abroad believed that Greek diplomatic posts have a ban on issuing visas to Macedonians and have compiled lists of Macedonian refugees from Greece to enforce this.
              * In 1969 a legal Act was issued to allow the settlement by ethnic Greeks of Macedonian farms left behind.
              * The Greek government has continued its ethnic restocking program with the relocation in Aegean Macedonia of over one hundred thousand immigrants of Greek origin from the ex?Soviet Union. These are termed Pontiac Greeks.
              * In 1978 the consul of the Greek embassy in Warsaw, Poland trampled underfoot a travel document issued by Polish authorities and which had the Polish national emblem. The reason: the name of the applicant was written in its Macedonian/ Polish version? Aleksowski Mito and not in Greek, Aleksiu Dimitris.
              * In 1980 the Macedonian Michal Gramatnikowski sent a letter to the Greek prime minister asking him to grant a visa so that he could visit his ill mother. He received neither a reply nor a visa.
              * In early 1982 a confidential report by the security branch of the Greek police in Salonika came to light. Dated March 8, 1982, the report contained highly controversial and inhuman recommendations about strategies to deal with the "Macedonian problem".
              * On December 29, 1982 the legal Act 106841 was issued by the government of Andreas Papandreou. This allowed Greeks by origin who had fled during the Civil War to return to Greece and reclaim their Greek citizenship. Macedonians born in Greece and their families were excluded and remain in exile. Heads of various State administration departments received the right to use property left in Greece by Macedonian refugees.
              Greek authorities frequently reject the requests by Macedonians for the recovery of their Greek citizenship. This is despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which says that "Everyone has the right to leave every country, including one's own and to return to his own country," that "Each man has the right to have a citizenship," and that "No one can be freely dispossessed of his citizenship."
              * In 1983 the Greek government decided that it would no longer recognize university degrees from the Republic of Macedonia. Its stated reason was that "the Macedonian language is not internationally recognized." This is incorrect and hides the real motive.
              * On October 17, 1983 Lazo Jovanovski wrote a letter to the Minister of Internal Affairs asking for the restoration of his citizenship. He has never received a reply.
              The same happened to Spiro Steriovski and Kosta Wlakantchovski, also both in 1983.
              * In 1983 Toli Radovski, who was living in Gdynia, Poland, wrote a letter to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Athens asking for the restoration of his citizenship. He did not receive a reply. The lack of reply forced him to ask the Centre for Human Rights in Geneva for help. Thanks to the intervention of the Centre, after four years a reply from Athens arrived. Quoting the relevant legal Acts, the Ministry of Internal Affairs rejected his demand for the recovery of citizenship.
              In 1984 Toli Radovski wrote a letter to the Ministry of Internal Affairs asking for a visa. He did not receive the visa nor a reply.
              * In 1984 the Movement for Human and National Rights for the Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia, operating in Greece illegally, issued a Manifest for Macedonian Human Rights. This states "In Greece human rights are openly disregarded and our human existence is cursed. We, in the Aegean Macedonia, are determined to carry our struggle on various levels, employing all legal means until our rights are guaranteed."
              * On April 10, 1985 legal Act 1540/ 85 was issued. This amended the previously issued Acts regulating property relations so as to make it impossible for Macedonians to return. This discriminatory Act limits the definition of political refugees to ethnic Greeks and permits the recovery of illegally seized property to "Greeks by origin" only. Once again, the Macedonian refugees from Greece are denied the same rights.
              * In 1986 former Minister for Northern Greece, N Martis, addressed a letter to the Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, entitled Falsification of the History of Macedonia, in which he denied the existence of a Macedonian nation.
              * Several times during the 1980s Greek officials have admonished overseas officials for recognizing a Macedonian nationality. Minister for Macedonia and Trakia (previously for Northern Greece) Stelios Papatamelis sent a letter to Pope John Paul II admonishing him for having uttered his Christmas and New Year greetings in the "non?existent Macedonian language." Greek authorities protested to the US ambassador in then Yugoslavia for having uttered a few sentences in the "non?existent Macedonian language" while visiting the Republic of Macedonia.
              * In June, 1986 at its 49th Congress, the international writers' organization, PEN, condemned the denial of the Macedonian language by Greece and sent letters to the Greek PEN Centre and the Greek Minister for Culture. The Greek response was a denial of the existence of a Macedonian minority.
              * In 1987 the Encyclopedia Britannica put the number of Macedonians in Greece at 180,000. This is considerably more than the Greek government will admit to, which is around 80,000, but considerably less than what the Macedonians themselves believe, which varies between 300,000 and one million.
              * In 1987 Macedonian parents in Aegean Macedonia were forced to send their 2 and 3 year old children to "integrated kindergartens" to prevent them from learning the Macedonian language and culture. The ruling was not implemented elsewhere in Greece.
              * The far right Greek newspaper Stohos has written: "Everyone who will openly manifest his views concerning the Macedonian minority will curse the hour of his birth."
              * In February 1988, the Athenian newspaper Ergatiki Alilengii criticized the discriminatory policy of Greek authorities towards Macedonians. It also criticized the anti?Macedonian hysteria in certain mass media.
              * In June 1988, Gona and Tome Miovski of Perth were on their way to Yugoslavia and wished to visit Greece. They were arrested at Athens airport, beaten up and locked in separate underground rooms. They were beaten up again the next day. They were released 24 hours later, after the intervention of the representative of Yugoslav Airlines and were expelled from Greece.
              * On July 5 and 6, 1988 two groups of Macedonian refugees who had come from Australia and Canada wanted to visit their homeland in Greece. Both coaches were stopped on the Greek frontier. Surrounded by armed policemen the coaches stood in the open air at 42 degrees Centigrade: one for two hours and the other for four hours. Opening of the windows was prohibited. The passengers had a seal stamped in their passports which forbade them to cross the Greek frontier. The vehicles and their passengers had to return. There are photographs and videofilm of this incident.
              * During late June and early July 1988 a large demonstration of Macedonians who had left Greece as children in 1948 took place in Skopje, capital of the Republic of Macedonia. The demonstration was attended by several thousand Macedonians from all over the world. A petition to the United Nations and many national governments was addressed.
              * On August 10, 1988, on the 75th anniversary of the division and partition of Macedonia, a large demonstration by Macedonians was held outside the UN building in New York.
              * On September 4, 1988 Mito Aleksovski addressed an open letter to the Greek embassy in Warsaw asking for a visa. He received no reply.
              * In the northern autumn of 1988, the Alagi newspaper in Lerin (Greek name Florina) wrote that the Macedonians do exist and that they should have the full rights of a national minority. The newspaper pledged to fight for those rights until victory.
              * In November 1988 the same newspaper published the statement by one of the leaders of the Greek Communist Party, Mr Kostopulos, who said that it was a fact that the Macedonian minority existed in Greece.
              * In its issue No 1/89 the Athens monthly Sholiastis published an article by Mrs Elewteria Panagiopoulou entitled Nationalists and the Inhabitants of Skopje ? the Gypsies, in which she demands a halt to the discriminatory policy of authorities and abolition of the inhuman legal acts aimed against the Macedonians. In another article the same author calls Macedonians "the Palestinians of Europe".
              * In the northern spring of 1989, 90 Greek intellectuals addressed a note of protest to the Greek government in connection with the common violation of human rights in Greece.
              * In 1989 during the Bicentenary of Australia, Greece organized an exhibition in Sydney entitled Ancient Macedonia: the Wealth of Greece. The Greek President Sardzetakis toured various Australian cities and disseminated anti?Macedonian propaganda. After a sharp reaction from Macedonians in Australia, the Greek government protested to the Australian government for letting the Macedonian protests occur.
              * On May 11, 1989 a Macedonian folk ensemble was expelled from Greece without reason. The ensemble had come to the locality of Komotini for a "Festival of Friendship" at the invitation of its organizers. A similar occurrence took place in 1988.
              * On May 20, 1989 Minister for Macedonia and Trakia (Northern Greece) Stelios Papatemelis appealed to the Greeks to wage a sacred war against Macedonians.
              * On May 28, 1989 the Association of Macedonians in Poland sent to the Greek embassy an invitation for its first congress. There was no representative from the embassy and there was no answer to the invitation. On June 10, 1989 the participants of the First Congress of the Association of Macedonians in Poland addressed a petition to the Greek government concerning the situation of Macedonians. There was no reply. On June 26, 1989 the Association of Macedonians in Poland sent a letter to the Greek embassy in Warsaw concerning visas for Macedonians. The embassy informed the Polish Post Office about the receipt of the letter. Despite this there was no reply.
              * In May 1989 an international delegation of Macedonians from Australia, Canada and Greece presented the problem of the Macedonian national minority in Greece to the Centre for Human Rights in Geneva. They also met with representatives of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
              * On June 22, 1989 the Helsinki Committee in Poland addressed an appeal to the state cosignatories to the CSCE Final Act concerning the situation of Macedonians in Greece.
              * In summer 1989 the New York Times printed an article entitled Macedonians are not Greeks.
              * Between June 26 and 30, 1989 at Columbia University in New York, Greeks held a symposium entitled History, Culture and the Art of Macedonia. The purpose of the symposium was to convince American society that Macedonia is Greek. The symposium occasioned strong protests from Macedonians in the United States and Canada.
              * In the summer of 1989 the Atika, the Munich?Athens?Munich express train serviced by Greeks would not take ? despite available places ? passengers from Skopje, capital of the Republic of Macedonia.
              * In June 1989, the prime minister A Papandreou said at a pre?election meeting in the Macedonian locality of Lerin (Florina in Greek) that if he won the election he would build a factory in which only the locals (that is how he described the Macedonians) would be employed.
              He also said that he would abolish law 1540. This law was issued during his own rule and of his own initiative in 1985 and deprived the Macedonian refugees of the right to the property they had left behind in Greece.
              * In July 1989 the Athens Information Agency issued a leaflet in English entitled The So Called Macedonian Problem. This leaflet denies the existence of a Macedonian minority in Greece.
              * At a rally in Salonika on July 29, 1989 President Sardzetakis said "Macedonia was, is and will always be Greek."
              * After parliamentary elections in 1989 thousands of leaflets were found in the ballot boxes in the area of Macedonia in Northern Greece which contained protests against the disregard for human rights in Greece.
              * On August 30, 1989 a legal Act rehabilitating the participants in the Greek Civil War of 1946?49 was issued. The Act granted damages and disability pensions to fighters in the civil war who now have Greek citizenship. By this measure the Macedonian fighters living in exile ? who earlier had been stripped of their citizenship ? were rendered ineligible.
              * In September 1989 the Athenian newspaper Avriani wrote that the demands of some members of parliament for the abolition in Greek law of the term "Greek by origin" creates a serious threat to the national unity and territorial sovereignty of Greece.
              The newspaper also wrote that the "second group" of refugees i.e. Macedonian refugees as opposed to refugees of Greek origin, could return to Greece under the condition that they unambiguously declare their Greek origin, i.e deny their Macedonian ethnicity.
              * In September 1989 the Ta Maglena newspaper asked "Why are the Macedonians discriminated against?" The newspaper also asked "Why does Greece not observe international legal acts?" At the same time it warned Macedonians against the agents of the Greek Security Service whose number in Macedonian localities is unimaginable.
              * In November 1989 the Sholiastis monthly published an interview with several members of the illegal Movement for Human and National Rights for Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia.
              * In December 1989, during a period when there was public discussion about the Macedonian problem, the Greek press warned "The enemy is at the door."
              * On January 29, 1990 The Times newspaper published an ethnographic map of Europe which shows that Macedonians are living in Greece, Bulgaria, Albania and the Republic of Macedonia.
              * In February 1990 The Guardian newspaper wrote "the Macedonian problem is knocking on the door of Europe. It must be solved before the Balkans join the united Europe."
              * In 1990 a feature film entitled Macedonia was made in Sweden. It is a six part TV series and presents the homeless and wandering lot of the Macedonian nation.
              * On February 21, 1990 Constantinos Mitsotakis, then leader of the New Democracy party, said at a press conference in the town of Janina that he is increasingly convinced that the Greek policy in relation to national minorities should be more aggressive. He said "We have nothing to fear. We are clean because Greece is the only Balkan country without the problem of national minorities." He added "The Macedonian minority does not exist, neither is it recognized by international agreements."
              * On March 7, 1990 Nocolau Martis, former Minister for Northern Greece, declared that the Macedonian nation is an invention of the Communist party of Yugoslavia.
              * On March 25, 1990 in a television address, President Sardzetakis said "Only native Greeks live in Greece."
              * The Greek government warned the former Yugoslavia that should it not stop discussing the problem of the "so called Macedonian national minority" Greece will not render it support in cooperating with and eventually joining the EEC.
              * In 1990 the High Court of Florina under decision 19/33/3/1990 refused to register a Centre for Macedonian Culture. An appeal on August 9 the same year against the decision was also refused. In May 1991 a second appeal was refused by the High Court of Appeals in Thessaloniki. In June 1991 the Supreme Administrative Council of Greece in Athens dismissed a further appeal.
              * In June 1990 at the Copenhagen Conference on Human Rights (CHD), the Greek delegation requested that the executive secretary of the conference remove the Macedonian Human Rights delegation's literature from the non-government organization's desk. The request was refused.
              * Later, two Macedonian human rights campaigners from Aegean Macedonia who participated in the CHD experienced official State harassment upon their return to Greece.
              One, Hristo Sideropoulos, was transferred through his work to Kefalonia, several hundred kilometres from his homeplace. The other participant, Stavros Anastasiadis, was given discriminatory tax penalties and dismissed from his job.
              * On July 20, 1990 at the village of Meliti near Lerin (Florina) a Macedonian folk festival was broken up by force by Greek authorities and police.
              * In its June, 1991 edition the Atlantic Monthly magazine ran an extensive story detailing many of the atrocities committed in Macedonian during the Balkan Wars and following the partition of Macedonia.
              The author, Robert Kaplan, also said "Greece, for its part, according to a Greek consular official whom I visited in Skopje, does not permit anyone with a "Slavic" name who was born in northern Greece and now lives in Yugoslav Macedonia to visit Greece, even if he or she has relatives there. This means that many families have been separated for decades."
              * On December 10, 1991 the Greek Central Committee of the Australian Labor Party in Victoria sent a letter addressed to all Victorian Labor Federal parliamentarians and all State Labor parliamentarians. The letter explicitly denies the existence of a Macedonian minority in Greece. Point 4 refers to "Misinformation claiming that an ethnic "minority" of Macedonians in Greece is being denied its cultural rights. Greece has no ethnic minority other than a Moslem religious minority." (Appendix 6)
              * In January, 1992, six members of the OAKKE anti-nationalist group were condemned to 6 and a half months imprisonment for putting up posters for the recognition of Macedonia.
              * In February, 1992 the Guardian newspaper published an article about the town of Florina in Greece and the struggle of its Macedonian inhabitants to maintain their identity in the face of Greek repression.
              * On March 12, 1992 the Canberra Times ran an article, What's in a Name? For Greeks a Great Deal, by Peter Hill, the author of the section Macedonians in the official Australian Bicentenary encyclopedia the Australian People. The article affirmed the existence of a large Macedonian minority in Greece and the existence of official discrimination and the denial of human rights.
              Mr Hill said "The claim by the Greek Republic that their part of Macedonia has "one of the most homogenous populations in the world (98.5 per cent Greek)" is quite absurd. In fact, some parts of it, such as the county of Florina (Lerin), do not have any indigenous Greek inhabitants at all."
              * In March, 1992 the organizers of the Moomba Festival in Melbourne asked the Macedonian community participants not to use the name Macedonia on its float after representations were made to the Moomba organizers by the Greek lobby in Australia and by the Victorian Minister for Ethnic Affairs. The Macedonians refused. The ministry later said that threats to the Macedonians' safety had been received.
              * On April 2, 1992 the Ambassador of Greece to Australia, VS Zafiropoulos, wrote a letter to the Canberra Times newspaper in which he said "Macedonia, Greece's most northerly province, does not contain "a significant minority who are ethnically related to the Slavs across the border"."
              "In fact, Greece has the most homogenous country in Europe and if a small number of Greeks on the border speak, beside Greek, a Slavic idiom, this bilingualism does not constitute a minority."
              * In May, 1992 Australian journalist Richard Farmer visited Aegean Macedonia and published an article in the Sunday Telegraph, Sydney entitled Freedom Fragile in Macedonia. The article described numerous examples of human rights abuses witnessed by Farmer, including the jamming by Greek authorities of Easter services broadcast in the Macedonian language from the Republic of Macedonia and listened to by Macedonians in Greece.
              The Greek lobby in Australia subsequently took Farmer to the Press Council but were unable to deny him his right to publish.
              * In July, 1992 the Archimandrite Nikodemos Tsarknias, a priest with the Greek Orthodox Church and a well known Macedonian human rights campaigner, and a parishioner, Photios Tzelepis, were issued with a Writ of Summons to appear in the Magistrate's Court of Thessaloniki. The priest was charged with insulting his Archbishop. He is also accused of being a homosexual and a Skopjan (Republic of Macedonia) spy.
              However, a KYP (Greek Secret Service) report published in a Greek newspaper revealed that the minor charge in the Summons was a pretext to harass the priest for his human rights activism. The report says the authorities "did not find the courage to say that they kicked him out of the church for his antihellenic stance and to ask for his committal to trial for high treason but instead they removed him with the lukewarm "justification" which we reveal today so that it will stain with shame all those who contributed to it."
              The priest's trial is set for April 1994.
              * In July 1992 the Macedonian Human Rights Association of Newcastle (Australia) published the book The Real Macedonians by Dr John Shea, an Irish academic at Newcastle University. The book gives a great number of reference sources about the ethnicity of the Macedonian people, the partition of Macedonia, the ethnic cleansing and repopulation of Aegean Macedonia, and the Greek Civil War. Chapter 13 is titled Denial Of Human Rights For Macedonian Minorities.
              * On August 15, 1992 The Spectator magazine published an article, The New Bully of the Balkans, by Noel Malcolm. The article discusses the plight of the main ethnic minorities in Greece including the Macedonians, the Vlachs, and the Turks.
              On the Macedonians, Mr Malcolm asks "How many of these Slavs still live in Greece is not known. The 1940 census registered 85,000 'Slav-speakers'. The 1951 census (the last to record any figures for speakers of other languages) put it at 41,000; many who had fought on the losing side in the civil war had fled, but other evidence shows that all the censuses heavily underestimate the Slav's numbers. The lack of a question on the census-form is not, however, the only reason for their obscurity."
              Mr Malcolm says "One group of these Slavs has started a small monthly newsletter, with an estimated readership of 10,000. But they have great difficulty finding a printer (even though it is in Greek), and they say that if copies are sent through the post they tend to 'disappear'. "Even if we find a sympathetic printer," one told me, "he's usually too scared to take the work: he's afraid of losing his other contracts, or perhaps of getting bricks through his window"."
              * In 1992 a spokesman for the Pan Macedonian Association of Victoria, a Greek organization, was interviewed on SBS television. The spokesman said that there are no Macedonians in Florina. This was a direct lie as Florina (formerly Lerin in Macedonian) is well known to have an almost exclusively Macedonian population. In fact a large number of Macedonian immigrants now living in Melbourne and Perth are from Florina. This organization has on other occasions made similar claims on SBS television.
              * In November, 1992 Amnesty International published a report entitled Greece: Violations of the Right to Freedom of Expression. This gave details on a number of human rights abuses by Greece including the repression of the Macedonian human rights campaigners, Hristos Sideropoulos and Tasos Boulis.
              * In November, 1992 Pollitecon Publications of Sydney published the book What Europe Has Forgotten: The Struggle Of The Aegean Macedonians. The book was written by the Association of Macedonians in Poland and was one of the first English language books to detail human rights abuses against Macedonians in Greece.
              * On December 5, 1992 The Sydney Morning Herald published an article titled The Balkan Dance of Death by Bob Beale. Mr Beale says "Greece's record of dealing with its Greek Macedonian minority is poor. A specialist in Balkan ethnic minorities, Hugh Poulton, has noted that in the wake of the bitter civil war - during and after World War 11 - Greece actively sought to remove Slav Macedonians from its north as "undesirable aliens"."
              "At various times since, it has forbidden Greek Macedonians from using the Slavonic forms of their names, removed them from official posts in Greek Macedonia and suppressed their language - measures that led many to emigrate to places like Australia."
              * In January, 1993 Amnesty International published another report - Greece: Violations of the Right to Freedom of Expression: Further Cases of Concern. This report detailed the case of Michail Papadakis, a 17 year old school boy who had been arrested on December 10, 1992 for handing out a leaflet that said "Don't be consumed by nationalism. Alexander the Great: war criminal. Macedonia belongs to its people. There are no races; we are all of mixed descent."
              * In January, 1993 the Macedonian Movement for Prosperity in the Balkans held its first congress, in Sobotsko, Greece. The MMPB issued a statement highlighting Greece's discriminatory policy towards its Macedonian minority and in particular the denial of basic human rights.
              The MMPB said ethnic Macedonians in Greece and Macedonians in the diaspora should cooperate closely to further ethnic, religious, linguistic and social freedoms for all minorities in Greece. The organization urged the Greek government to allow Macedonian political and economic refugees to return to Greece if they desired.
              * In February 1993 a meeting was held between the Macedonian Forum for Human Rights and the Greek Balkan Citizens' Movement to open up dialog to help solve existing problems between the two countries.
              * In February, 1993, president of the Republic of Macedonia, Kiro Gligorov, speaking at the United Nations on the possible admission of Macedonia to the body, criticized Greece for its treatment of its Macedonian minority.
              Mr Gligorov said "It is surprising that the Republic of Greece disputes article 49 of our Constitution which refers to the care of the Republic of Macedonia for our minority in the neighbouring countries. It should be pointed out that there is a similar provision in the Greek constitution. It is a well known fact that the Republic of Greece does not admit the existence of a Macedonian minority there. From this derive the following logical questions."
              "A. If such a minority does not exist in the Republic of Greece, then this article does not refer to this country and their reactions are surprising."
              "B. If such a minority does exist, which is indisputable, why does Greece not fulfil at least the basic rights of this minority provided in the UN Charter, the Helsinki Document, the Charter of Paris, etc of which it is a signatory party."
              "C. "Most important of all, is this the reason that the Republic of Greece opposes the recognition of the Republic of Macedonia under its constitutional name?"
              * In March 1993, the Archimandite Nikodemos Tsarknias was defrocked and expelled from the Greek Orthodox Church for his human rights activism.
              * On March 26, 1993, five members of the OSE organization were put on trial for publishing and distributing a pamphlet entitled Crisis in the Balkans: the Macedonian Question and the Working Class. They were charged with exposing the friendly relations of Greece with foreign countries to risk of disturbance; spreading false information and rumours that might cause anxiety and fear to citizens; and inciting citizens to rivalry and division leading to disturbance of the peace.
              * On April 1, 1993 Macedonian human rights campaigners Hristos Sideropoulos and Tasos Boulis were put on trial after their comments about the existence of the Macedonian minority were published in ENA magazine in March 1992. They were charged with spreading false information and rumours that might cause anxiety and fear to the citizens. They were sentenced to five months imprisonment.
              The World Macedonian Congress said that the defence counsel was not allowed to present its views. An appeal was launched to the higher court in Athens.
              * In April, 1993 the Macedonian Information Centre in Perth republished the booklet the ABECEDAR, originally published by the Greek government in 1925 as a teaching aid for Macedonian children, but which was never distributed.
              * In April, 1993 the Belgian press was quoted as saying that Greece was quickly losing its democratic reputation. The press was quoted as saying that "Greece, undermining the European principles of respecting basic human rights, is placing itself at the margins of Europe."
              * In May, 1993 the Macedonian Movement for Balkan Prosperity, based in Arideja, Greece, said that it wanted to participate in the Macedonian-Greek dialog underway under the auspices of the United Nations to settle the issue of the name of the Republic of Macedonia. The Movement said the participation of the Macedonians in Greece was imperative and that it was time to determine the status of the Macedonians in Greece as well as those forced to leave during the Greek Civil War.
              The Situation in Australia
              There are a number of aspects about the position of Aegean Macedonians in Australia and of the activities of the Greek lobby in Australia that are cause for concern.
              These concerns are fourfold in regard to:
              * The Australian Bureau of Statistics Census.
              * The influence of the Greek lobby on the Federal Government and parliamentarians.
              * The Greek influence in multicultural organizations such as SBS.
              * General harassment of the Macedonian community in Australia by the Greek community.
              The Census
              The Association is concerned that the treatment of Aegean Macedonians in the Census grossly underestimates the number of total Macedonians in Australia, with profound political and social consequences.
              Country code
              The under-estimation is partly caused by the lack of an Australian Bureau of Statistics' country code for Macedonia.
              This means that the true number of Macedonians in Australia is not known, as Macedonians from the Republic of Macedonia have previously been counted as Yugoslavians and Macedonians from Greece have been counted as Greeks. To this day, the ABS cannot say with any accuracy how many Macedonians there are in Australia. Nor can it say how many Aegean Macedonians there are.
              In addition, the lack of a country code denies Aegean Macedonians and Macedonians from the Republic of Macedonia of the human right to be classified under the nationality with which they self identify.
              Birthplace questions
              A second reason for the under-estimation lies with the questions on Birthplace and Birthplace of Parents. One's country of birth does not necessarily indicate one's ethnic origin and identity, and this is the case with the Aegean Macedonians.
              Many of the Association's members were born in Macedonia but in a region that has since become a part of Greece. Nonetheless, their ethnic identity is Macedonian, not Greek, and they deeply resent the fact that if they answer the Birthplace question they will be classified as Greek.
              Likewise, first and second generation Australians of Aegean Macedonian background resent the fact that if they answer the Birthplace of Parents question they will be identified as Greek rather than Macedonian origin.
              The lack of a country code for Macedonia and the lack of a method for distinguishing Aegean Macedonians from Greeks in previous Censuses has had, and continues to have, devastating political consequences for Aegean Macedonians in Australia. The effect is to increase the apparent number of Greeks in Australia and reduce the apparent number of Macedonians in Australia. This has allowed the Greek lobby in Australia to use past Census figures indicating a large Greek population and a smaller Macedonian population to exert political influence over Australia's federal parliamentarians.
              This influence has often been to the detriment of the Macedonian and Aegean Macedonian communities in this country.
              Although the Macedonian community is one of the largest in Australia, the lack of credible ABS data means it is unable to prove its size, with a consequent loss of political and social influence.
              The consequences have included:
              * The dissemination of inaccurate Greek and Macedonian population figures for Australia.
              * The fact that the Australian Bureau of Statistics has yet to classify the Republic of Macedonia as a separate country with its own country code.
              * The delay of recognition of the Republic of Macedonia by the Australian government. The Greek government's foreign policy on this issue has been vigorously adopted by the Greek community in Australia, and has lead to the Australian government adopting a policy on the issue consistent with Greek government policy.
              * The over provision of Greek language and other ethnic services and the under provision of Macedonian language and other services.
              * Under-representation of Macedonians in the area of broadcasting time on SBS television. An examination of SBS annual reports over the past five years shows that the station broadcasts around 160 hours per year of Greek language programs compared with 2 and three quarter hours per year of Macedonian language programs. Such a discrepancy would be unbelievable, were it not happening year after year.
              The Aegean Macedonian community of Australia would like to see an investigation of SBS. The enquiry should focus on the SBS staff and their ethnic backgrounds to determine if any groups are disproportionately represented. This is necessary if the human rights of groups oppressed outside of Australia are to be protected inside Australia.
              * There are many other examples that illustrate the suppression of Macedonian identity in Australia.
              In 1992, for example, the participants in the Macedonian float in the Moomba festival were asked by the promoters, after Greek lobbying, not the use the name Macedonia on their float. The organizers later admitted that members of the Greek community had threatened the Macedonians with violence. Most Macedonians living in Melbourne are from Aegean Macedonia.
              Another example is the existence of the Pan Macedonian Association of Victoria, a Greek organization that claims there is no Macedonian minority in Greece. This organization has on occasion made this claim on SBS television.
              * The requirement that imported foodstuffs from the Republic of Macedonia have stickers placed on each item to cover the "Product of Macedonia" labels.
              * Inclusion by Telecom of the Republic of Macedonia under the heading of Yugoslavia although Macedonia has been independent since 1991 and every other country of former Yugoslavia is listed under its own heading.
              * There are many other examples.
              The Association believes that Aegean Macedonians in Australia should have the human right to identify themselves by their own self perceived nationality, and not by the constrictions of a Census form.
              The Association has proposed to the Australian Bureau of Statistics that the 1996 Census should contain a method for allowing Aegean Macedonians to identify as Macedonian in origin and thus be distinguished from Greeks.
              Our suggestion is that the Place of Birth question be followed with a supplementary question along the lines of "If your ethnic origin is different from your country of birth, please state your ethnic origin." This approach has several advantages over a general ancestry question as only a proportion of people will need to answer it, streamlining processing time and costs as well as improving accuracy.
              Aegean Macedonians can then distinguish themselves from Greeks, Kurds can distinguish themselves from Turks, Basques can distinguish themselves from Spaniards and the French, Palestinians can distinguish themselves from Israelis, East Timorese can distinguish themselves from Indonesians, Tibetans can distinguish themselves from Chinese and so on. Surely this is fairer as well as more accurate.
              This right is particularly important for all of these groups. It is an intolerable degradation for a conquered people to be unwillingly counted among their oppressors and thereby add to their oppressor's political power.
              Yet it is an unrecognized fact of Australian life that the first wave of Macedonian immigrants from Greece during the 1920s were political refugees and economic refugees fleeing a deliberately undeveloped economy.
              A second period of intense repression during and after the Greek Civil War of 1946-49 saw another wave of immigrants to Australia from Aegean Macedonia.
              It is a humiliating degradation for these people to be forced to put Greece as their country of birth in the knowledge that they will be counted as Greeks and will add to the power of a Greek lobby that has worked so assiduously against the interests of the Aegean Macedonians.
              It is within the power of the Australian Government to rectify this appalling situation.
              The Association requests the Australian government to implement all of the above mentioned recommendations.
              End
              The Aegean Macedonian Association of Australia is pleased to participate in this important Australian human rights initiative, and trusts that this submission will clarify the position of Aegean Macedonians in Greece and Australia.
              Yours faithfully
              The Committee
              Aegean Macedonian Association of Australia

              Enclosures:
              Appendix 1: Freedom of Expression: the Case of Hristos Sideropoulos and Tasos Boulis:
              * Hansard extract: speech in the Australian Senate by Senator Sid Spindler.
              * The Economist: Greece and Macedonia: Do Not Disagree, an article, August 14, 1993.
              * Helsinki Watch report: Greece: Free Speech on Trial: Government Stifles Debate on Macedonia, July 1993.
              * Amnesty International: Section on Greece in Amnesty International Annual Report 1993.
              * Amnesty International: Worldwatch article: Greece: Government Critics Face Prison, June 1993.
              * Amnesty International: Greece: Violations of the right to freedom of expression. London, November 1992.
              * Translation of the Summons for the Arrest of Hristos Sideropoulos and Tasos Boulis.
              * Four newspaper articles.
              * Section on Greece from Amnesty International 1993 Annual Report.
              Appendix 2: The Case of Archimandrite Nikodemos Tsarknias:
              * Statement by the Archimandrite at the October 1993 CSCE Implementation Meeting on Human Dimension Issues.
              * Press release for function organized in Sydney in February 1993.
              * Statement by Archimandrite Nikodemos Tsarknias on his sacking and derobing by the Greek Orthodox Church.
              * Translation of Writ of Summons for Archimandrite Nikodemos and Photios Tzelepis.
              * Translation of a Greek newspaper article containing a "Top Secret" Information Bulletin from the Greek Secret Service.
              * Four newspaper articles.
              Appendix 3: The Case of Michael Papadakis:
              * Amnesty International: Greece: Violations of the right to freedom of expression: further cases of concern. London, January 1993.
              Appendix 4: The Case of the Macedonian "child refugees":
              * Article.
              * Common Decision of the Ministers of Internal Affairs and Public Security
              * Application form to enter Greece from Macedonia
              * Memorandum to Greek prime minister
              * Letter from Greek Department of Citizenship refusing application for return of citizenship
              * Information in connection with the demands for property and other rights realization of the Yugoslav citizens in the Republic of Greece.
              * Declaration by Australian citizens and residents who were child refugees
              Appendix 5: The Situation of the Macedonians in Greece
              * Manifest For Macedonian Human Rights, by the Movement for Human and national Rights for the Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia. Salonica, 1984.
              * Open letter to elected representatives from Region Pelas
              * Title page of confidential report from European Community regarding Greek application for funding to resettle Greeks in Aegean Macedonia.
              * Is the CSCE Really Serious About Human Rights In Europe?, by Macedonian Human Rights Movement, Europe, Canada, Australia and USA.
              * "The Conspiracy Against Macedonia", a report by the Office of Security, Greek Ministry of Public Order, 1982.
              * The Real Macedonians, Chapter 13, Denial of Human Rights: Macedonian Minorities, by Dr John Shea. Newcastle, Australia, 1992.
              * Photograph from The Terror In Aegean Macedonia Under Greek Occupation, by the Macedonian Cultural and Educational Society of Australia, Perth, 1980.
              * Map of Greece showing settlement of Greeks from Turkey in Aegean Macedonia during the 1920s.
              * Two translations from the Greek newspaper Stohos
              * Extract from Exiles in the Aegean by Australian author Bert Birtles, published 1938.
              * Full Text of (president of Macedonia) Gligorov's Letter to United Nations (see section 8).
              * Letter from European Bureau of Lesser Used Languages and article titled Multilingualism in Greece from Contact Bulletin
              * Newspaper article: An Act of Discrimination
              * Various newspaper and magazine articles:
              Freedom fragile in Macedonia.
              Extract from The Balkan Dance of Death, Sydney Morning Herald, December 5, 1992.
              OSE five on trial in Greece.
              Slav search for identity stirs historic passions.
              Letters to The Economist and The Independent. First congress of ethnic Macedonians in Greece.
              Aegean Macedonians want to take part in negotiations.
              Second meeting between Macedonian and Greek intellectuals.
              Greece: Balkanised. The Economist, April 18, 1993.
              The New Bully of the Balkans, The Spectator, August 15, 1992.
              Letter, Stamp on Greece, in response to The New Bully of the Balkans.
              History's cauldron, The Atlantic Monthly, June 1991.
              Exodus from Bosnia: a repeat of the exodus from Aegean Macedonia.
              Editorial: Macedonia is Macedonian.
              Setting the scene for the third Balkan War.
              What's in a name? For Greeks a great deal.
              Greek dinosaurs wallowing in deep trouble.
              Appendix 6: The Situation in Australia:
              * The Sunday Times article: Perth Group In Border Block, July 17, 1988.
              * Letter to newspaper by Greek ambassador to Australia denying the existence of a Macedonian minority in Greece.
              * Letter from the Greek Central Committee of the ALP Victoria to all Victorian Labor federal parliamentarians and all state Labor parliamentarians.
              * Various newspaper articles:
              Moomba Macedonians threatened, says adviser.
              Macedonians angry over pressure on Moomba float.
              BHP worker 'harassed' over badge.
              Macedonians protest.
              Tensions deepen on Macedonia.
              Advertisement placed by the Macedonian Community of Victoria.
              Appendix 7: (in back flap):
              * What Europe Has Forgotten: The Struggle Of The Aegean Macedonians, A Report by the Association of Macedonians in Poland. Pollitecon Publications, Sydney, 1992.
              * Human Rights Abuses Against Macedonians In Greece, a report by the Aegean Macedonian Association of Australia, July 1993.
              * Paper: The Role Of The Greek Communities In The Formulation Of Australian Foreign Policy: With Particular Reference To Cyprus; by Andrew Theophanous and Michalis Michael, May 1990.
              NOTE: The above mentioned supporting documents are with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Human Rights Sub-Committee in Canberra

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              "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
              GOTSE DELCEV

              Comment

              • George S.
                Senior Member
                • Aug 2009
                • 10116

                Greek Proposal for a Sovereign Macedonia

                By Aleksandar Donski

                Translated and Edited by Risto Stefov

                (This article was taken from the Macedonian magazine
                “Makedonsko Sonce” 531 / 3.9.2004, pages 52 and 53)
                First Greek President Yannis Kapodistria calls for a sovereign and independent Macedonian State! Imperial Russia was in favour of the creation of a contemporary Greek State!

                It is interesting to note that Imperial Russia, in October 1829, during a leadership meeting with Czar Nikolai I, decided that it was in Russia’s best interests to preserve the Ottoman Empire.

                It is also interesting to note that during the same meeting the Russian leadership considered the eventual breakup of the Ottoman Empire and reviewed the proposal put forward by the then Greek national advocate Yannis Kapodistria. This proposal (in which Macedonia was considered as an independent state), at the same meeting, was brought forward by Dashkov, the Russian minister of foreign affairs. In his proposal, the Greek Kapodistria envisioned the formation of five Balkan states. These are:

                Dachia (which consisted of the principalities of Moldavia and Vlachia, i.e. the closest territories to present day Romania and Moldavia);
                Serbia (which consisted of the territories of the then Serbian State, along with parts of the territories of Bulgaria and Bosnia);
                Macedonia (which consisted of the entire territories of the then Rumelia together with the surrounding islands, i.e. the entire territory of ethnic Macedonia and parts of today’s Bulgaria, Thrace and Thessaly);
                Epirus (which consisted of the territories of upper and lower Albania); and
                Greece (with the name “Territory of the Hellenes”, which consisted of the territories south from the river Pena in Thessaly including the city Arta and the entire Archipelagos). (For more details about this consult Blazhe Ristovski’s “Istoria na Makedonskata Natsia”, MANU Skopje, 1999, page 10.)
                From this Greek proposal we can clearly see that the then nationally conscious Greeks considered Thessaly to be the most northern part of their Greek territories. Epirus was not considered to be part of the Greek territories and Bulgaria was not even considered to be a country.

                This proposal carries even more weight if we consider that it was put forth by Yannis Kapodistria, the first president of the Independent Greek State!

                Before becoming president of Greece, Kapodistria was a Russian Count and served in the Russian State as secretary of foreign affairs. Afterwards he became President of the newly formed Peoples Greek Assembly and at the end he was chosen as the first president of the Greek Independent State.

                Russian Proposal for a Macedonian State

                At the same Russian leadership meeting one more proposal was put forth, this one from the Russian Count Bulgari who proposed the following states for the Balkans:

                Greece (with the Archipelagos, Samos and Crete);
                Macedonia (together with the northern part of Albania and part of Thrace up to the river Maritsa);
                Serbia (together with Bosnia), for which he asked to become a protectorate of the Great Powers; and
                The Territories of Moldavia, Vlahia and Bulgaria (as one state), to become a protectorate of Russia.
                The Academic Ristovski (from whose book this information is obtained), justifiably concluded that during that time in Europe, and in the Balkans, there was no clear representation of ethnic boundaries in the Balkans and in these combinations Bulgaria was only mentioned as part of Serbia, Romania and Russia.

                And now we will return to the history of the creation of the then Greek State, its development and territorial expansion.

                During the period between 1453 and 1460, most territory of present day Greece was captured by the Sultan Mohamed II and annexed by the Ottoman Empire. In the following two centuries the Ottomans fought against the Venetians and other City States who had remaining colonies in Greece. In 1669 the Ottomans succeeded in taking the island of Crete but lost Peloponnesus to the Venetians. In 1718 the Ottomans recaptured the Peloponnesus and the Greek territories remained under Ottoman rule up until the 19th century.

                A great number of Greeks suffered from the Ottoman regime, however it is a fact that many of them also enjoyed a variety of privileges in the Ottoman State. This, above all, was carried out by the Greek Church whose high ranking officials (with the Patriarch in charge) enjoyed great privileges and influence in the politics of the Ottoman Empire. Actually, the worst suffering was felt by the Macedonians, when under the influence of the Patriarch, the Sultan ordered the abolishment of the Ohrid Eparchy.

                Many Greeks took important positions in the Ottoman administration and served as officials and political advisers (for more information on this consult the world famous Microsoft Encarta CD encyclopedia, 1988, re: Greece).

                The first signs of serious and significant Greek nationalism surfaced in the mid 18th century directly initiated by Russia. Being a Pravoslav (Orthodox Christian) State, Russia incited the Pravoslav (Christian Orthodox) Greeks to rebel against Ottoman rule. Unfortunately these first attempts at creating a Greek consciousness were unsuccessful. In 1770 the Russian Count Orlov came to the Peloponnesus with warships aiming to start a Greek rebellion, but without success.

                Another factor that played an important role in the awakening of the Greek ethnic consciousness and its desire for liberation was the French Revolution. Then again under Russian influence, the Russian prince of Greek descent, Alexander Ispilanti, in 1814 formed a secret organization under the name “Filiki Heteria” (friendly association) and in 1821 started a rebellion, which was quickly put down. In the next three years the Greeks again began to actively arm but in their fight they were almost entirely alone. They did receive material help from a number of European countries but that help was self serving in the eventual creation of the Greek State.
                "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
                GOTSE DELCEV

                Comment

                • George S.
                  Senior Member
                  • Aug 2009
                  • 10116

                  The Great Lie – Chapter 17



                  By Petre Nakovski

                  Translated and edited by Risto Stefov

                  [email protected]

                  March 18 2013



                  The area near the seat of the Democratic Army of Greece’s (DAG) General Headquarters and the area in front of the cave and everywhere around it were secure and tightly guarded. It was two o’clock in the morning and the Military Council was gathering for a meeting. Included among it were members of the Military Council, the General Staff and the commanders of major military units deployed in Vicho. Zahariadis was chairing the meeting. Inside, hanging on the front wall was a large map.



                  In a confident voice of a sure winner, Zahariadis began with his opening speech.



                  “Great battles are coming to Vicho. Unwilling to admit their defeat, the Monarcho-Fascists are now forced to fight by initiating a major offensive at Vicho because otherwise they will lose ‘the eggs and the basket’.” This was one of Zahariadis’s favourite sayings that he would express whenever someone wanted to undermine him or present him as incapable.



                  He paused for a moment and looked at his audience. There were shadows of smiles on people’s faces with a touch of intense looks. He continued:



                  “Our enemy is losing the war and the peace. In places where he wanted to show courage and claim victory, he must admit that he was incapable of overpowering the Democratic Army. And precisely for that reason he is forced to come to Vicho. It is now a matter of pressing need, political and military, as well as moral. And therefore whether he wants to or not, he will have to drink from the bitter cup called Vicho. We need to take this to the end; the destruction of Monarcho-Fascism in Vicho which will be the beginning of his end. The Monarcho-Fascists are incapable of carrying out intense and continuous military actions this year not like they did last year - four months of continuous Gramos and Vicho campaigns.



                  This year all winter long and during the spring we will not allow them to rest. There are all kinds of indications that their morale is low to the final frontier... Now more than ever, military morale will be very low because they are in a state of worry... Here lies one of the most important reasons as to why they will not lead any battles in Gramos this year. They will not again open themselves to significant bleeding or expose themselves to trauma like fear frozen soldiers when they hear the word ‘Gramos’.



                  Based on the above, I came to the following conclusion: despite the poor state of morale the Monarcho-Fascist is forced to lead a major campaign at Vicho. If he does not undertake such a military campaign he will have to accept defeat. We have but one task to accomplish here - destroy him at Vicho. And we will destroy him. To achieve this, it is imperative that we engage him in small battles to further erode his morale. In that regard Gramos gives us fantastic daily examples, but it should be mentioned that the major achievements will be at Vicho. There, with a strong defense when it is needed, we will force him to bleed to exhaustion. With a firm defense we will hold him back and then with an element of technical reversal we will counterattack.



                  We also need to acquire more troops. We can do this by providing enhanced education, organizational and political work inside the Monarcho-Fascist army, where events will be taking place because exactly there is one of our most crucial reserves. Anyone who today does not understand this is making a big, a giant mistake. Can anyone imagine what it would be like when, at a critical moment, an entire enemy battalion rebels?



                  Having a battalion rebel today is not an abstract concept but a possibility. We have many examples of this. A soldier refusing orders to go to battle is a daily occurrence for the simple reason that the soldier is already soaked in blood. He does not want another war. His view is directed towards his home not towards a coffin.



                  We know what the soldiers thought when they put a time bomb in the luggage of Kotsalu and he was liquidated together with the plane in which he was traveling. They thought that for the duration required to replace him with his deputy they would have 15 to 20 days rest. And that was gain for them. And that is the way the soldiers thought. Why not find hundreds and even thousands of soldiers in Vicho who would try to gain 15 to 20 days of peace, life and a return to their homes? They can be found. Suffice it to say that we will help them.



                  With a strategic counterattack from all sides, and we do have such abilities, it is okay to believe in the fact that we will firmly hold Gramos and at the right moment, perform a twist on the Monarcho-Fascists.



                  The enemy will come to Vicho, mainly with Search and Destroy units (LOK) and with a great aviation and artillery force. But, unlike last year, the question now is whether they can endure more than a month of fighting. Meaning, the great battle will have to be settled in 20 to 30 days. That is why we need to be ready all around, militarily, practically, technically, politically, morally and materially. And in fact, we are ready. We anxiously await our enemy. There is a need for intense effort from all of us. We all need to take part in the great battle. We all need to be active. Everyone needs to respond with great honour in the protection of Vicho, accordingly, all without any distinction. We will break the enemy on Vicho and we will not let him pass...”



                  The last words spoken by Zahariadis aroused the audience into a hand clapping frenzy. Gusias stood by the military map, tapped the map handle several times with his pointer and when the audience calmed down, he began his presentation:



                  “Comrades, the General Headquarters, in close cooperation with the Military Council, has prepared a plan in defense of Vicho and set the following objectives to be achieved in two phases.



                  The first phase will provide defense of the free territory in the spirit of the slogan ‘the enemy will not pass Vicho’. In its good judgement, DAG Headquarters, in March of this year, issued an order to build strong fortifications in Mali-Madi, more precisely on the Buchi-Orlovo-Sveti Atanas line (elevation 1,186) continuing on the hills between the villages Kosinets and Labanitsa along the Albanian border. The line continues west of Orlovo establishing a link to Rabatina and Buchi extending up to the rocks above the village Smrdesh.



                  The aim, at all costs, of this section of the front is to prevent enemy penetration into the village Smrdesh from where - this can only be an unreasonable assumption – the enemy would try and take the Smrdesh-Zhelevo-Psoderi road with military vehicles and tanks.



                  This will mean cutting the free territory into two parts with disastrous consequences for us. We are well established north of Mali-Madi in the Polenata-Kula-Plati line of hills extending to the Roto-Baro and Iamata line. This is our central front behind which, similarly, we have built strong fortifications in Lisets and its southern approaches and in Moro, Chuka and Iorgova Glava north of Lisets. This is the second defensive line that should ensure free flow of communications and supplies to the front along the road Smrdesh-Zhelevo-Psoderi.



                  At the north end, at the Yugoslav border, which as you know is now closed, is the chain of hills called Bela Voda. The fortifications here connect the Bigla-Lundzer line to Kulkuturia hill, elevation 1,694, northwest of the village Neret. This is our northern front whose aim is to stop enemy attacks from Lerin. The area west of the road Smrdesh-Zhelevo-Psoderi is not without significance.



                  Here is our third line of defense whose aim is to protect the approaches to the valley of Prespa. But, comrades, the stated facts are not our main strength. Our main strength is well established in the field and it is very important, and perhaps more important is our fighting spirit and strong belief in victory.



                  Behind us is the great practical experience that we gained from last year's struggles. The Gramos retake in April, the successful struggles in Mali-Madi in September, the destruction of the 22nd enemy brigade, the deep penetration behind our opponent and the capture of the strongly defended cities Karditsa-Karpenisi-Negush, the reorganization of our troops, the improvement of our clothes, food and weapons supplies. These are all factors that will ensure our victory.



                  In regards to the upcoming battle for Vicho we will need about twenty days to endure the enemy blow. We will need to nail him down at his starting position and force him to lead positional warfare during which, with our defensive-offensive tactics, we will deal him a huge blow in manpower, material and technical losses which will break his morale, then when we are good and ready we will go on the attack.



                  I visited all our positions. I visited and spoke with all the commanders of the larger units and with some commanders of the smaller units. I found the entire sector to be ready. I want to underline with acknowledgement that there is not a dot anywhere that is not under our watchful eye. Everything that needs to be seen from the bunker gunhole is at the centre of our view. When I observed the terrain and everything that is there, I had a serious thought - is it possible for anyone living to pass unnoticed? Is it possible to break such a defense as this? Is it possible for even a bird to fly unnoticed? The experience in Gramos has taught us how to defend ourselves, how every hill, how every stone and boulder, every corner, are literally, to make a point... the Vicho sector, comrades, is a large fortress.


                  It is now up to all the command units, from the smallest to largest, to make this fortress invincible. We have all the opportunities here to break the enemy and, at the appropriate moment, switch to a counter offensive,” concluded Gusias confidently, taking a sip of water from his glass he asked: “Are there any questions?”



                  “Comrades,” replied Bardzotas, Political Commissar of General Headquarters, “Zahariadis’s report is sufficient guarantee of our victory. Any question you pose now would take valuable time…”



                  Gusias, who was still standing beside the operational map, spoke:



                  “I have only presented the actual state of our defense. But I have the impression, comrades, that we haven’t sufficiently analyzed all possibilities from where the enemy may strike. According to my observations and assessment, the most likely place our opponent will first attack is Bela Voda, elevation 2,156, from the direction of Lerin in order, of course, to break down our defense of Prespa. This is the shortest route to Prespa. Here,” Gusias hit the map with his fist, “this is where our opponent will close the road to stop us from our eventual departure...”



                  “Will this be a scheduled departure?” asked the XIV Brigade commander in charge of the defense line Lundzer-Bigla-Bela Voda.


                  “Of course not, but...” replied Gusias as they all noticed his chin trembling.


                  “Continue!” requested Zahariadis.


                  “Yes. Comrades, the opponent will consider whether to attack here or to target other sectors. According to my thinking, I came to the conclusion that because the Mali-Madi sector would be a hard nut to crack for the opponent and because we made an impenetrable defensive wall at Bela Voda, which no doubt would be further from the opponent’s consideration, then the question to ask is ‘where will he strike?’



                  Take a look,” continued Gusias covering that part of the map with his palm, “here is Bigla and Lundzer. It is not difficult to see that this is the middle, the middle between Mali-Madi and Bela Voda. Here,” Gusias raised his voice and hit the map with his hand, “he will attack exactly here! Why exactly here?! Because if he breaks through the Bigla defense, where we have situated a Positional Battalion, think of our battalion, composed of experienced and hardened fighters, all lost, then the loss of this defence will introduce tanks and they will occupy the Lerin-Psoderi-Zhelevo road...”



                  When Gusias spoke about Lerin, the audience noticed that he was losing his voice. For him Lerin was a nightmare and the mere mention of that name gave him chills. He was one of the architects of the Lerin battle in which DAG suffered catastrophic losses. The approach to Lerin was a slaughter house, a suicide mission with horrific consequences.



                  “Bigla-Lundzer, elevation 1,922,” Gusias continued, “needs to become the new strong fortress. The opponent needs to be made to bleed here. I repeat, if our opponent breaks through Bigla and Lundzer then he will break our entire defense. Therefore we should devote most of our attention…”



                  “And Lisets? What about Lisets hill?” interrupted the commander of Division X.



                  “Lisets? Look at the map,” suggested Gusias. “Do you see how far it is from the first line of defense? There are well established defences before Lisets located on the hills in the Plati-Kulata-Roto-Polenata-Baro-Iamata line and south to Mali-Madi…”



                  Zahariadis halted Gusias’s explanation, slowly stood up, turned to the map and, after tapping it with his finger, began to count:



                  “We need to break the enemy here, here, here and here. And you, why do you worry so much about Lisets, what about Lisets?”



                  “I comrades,” the Division X Commander straightened himself, “do not know all the hills from the map which comrade Zahariadis just pointed out, but every hill and brook, stone and boulder I have traveled and I know them by sight, I have passed over them on foot. It is very important for our defense, I would say most important, to know where our opponent will attack and exactly why there…”



                  “Here, here, here and here,” Zahariadis again tapped the map with his finger.



                  “I don’t doubt you, but why there?” asked the Division X Commander. “My thinking is that he would attack at the centre but his main goal will be to take Lisets. He will do everything to take Lisets. And if he succeeds in taking it he will have us in his palm. The entire region is visible from the top of Lisets. He who holds Lisets under his control holds everything around it…”



                  “That is your opinion,” interrupted Gusias, “you’ve had your say and we understand your concerns. So, comrades, we have a very strong defense, that is why it will be very hard for our opponent to take that damn Lisets. Isn’t that right?”



                  “Maybe it’s like that,” continued the Division X Commander, “but I still say Lisets is the key. If Lisets falls then our entire solid defense will fall, comrades and…”



                  Zahariadis interrupted before the commander could finish what he was saying.


                  “Comrades, in these trying days we don’t need faintheartedness. Are there any more questions and opinions?”



                  There were no more questions and no one answered the questions already asked.
                  "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
                  GOTSE DELCEV

                  Comment

                  • George S.
                    Senior Member
                    • Aug 2009
                    • 10116

                    The Great Lie – Chapter 17



                    By Petre Nakovski

                    Translated and edited by Risto Stefov

                    [email protected]

                    March 18 2013



                    The area near the seat of the Democratic Army of Greece’s (DAG) General Headquarters and the area in front of the cave and everywhere around it were secure and tightly guarded. It was two o’clock in the morning and the Military Council was gathering for a meeting. Included among it were members of the Military Council, the General Staff and the commanders of major military units deployed in Vicho. Zahariadis was chairing the meeting. Inside, hanging on the front wall was a large map.



                    In a confident voice of a sure winner, Zahariadis began with his opening speech.



                    “Great battles are coming to Vicho. Unwilling to admit their defeat, the Monarcho-Fascists are now forced to fight by initiating a major offensive at Vicho because otherwise they will lose ‘the eggs and the basket’.” This was one of Zahariadis’s favourite sayings that he would express whenever someone wanted to undermine him or present him as incapable.



                    He paused for a moment and looked at his audience. There were shadows of smiles on people’s faces with a touch of intense looks. He continued:



                    “Our enemy is losing the war and the peace. In places where he wanted to show courage and claim victory, he must admit that he was incapable of overpowering the Democratic Army. And precisely for that reason he is forced to come to Vicho. It is now a matter of pressing need, political and military, as well as moral. And therefore whether he wants to or not, he will have to drink from the bitter cup called Vicho. We need to take this to the end; the destruction of Monarcho-Fascism in Vicho which will be the beginning of his end. The Monarcho-Fascists are incapable of carrying out intense and continuous military actions this year not like they did last year - four months of continuous Gramos and Vicho campaigns.



                    This year all winter long and during the spring we will not allow them to rest. There are all kinds of indications that their morale is low to the final frontier... Now more than ever, military morale will be very low because they are in a state of worry... Here lies one of the most important reasons as to why they will not lead any battles in Gramos this year. They will not again open themselves to significant bleeding or expose themselves to trauma like fear frozen soldiers when they hear the word ‘Gramos’.



                    Based on the above, I came to the following conclusion: despite the poor state of morale the Monarcho-Fascist is forced to lead a major campaign at Vicho. If he does not undertake such a military campaign he will have to accept defeat. We have but one task to accomplish here - destroy him at Vicho. And we will destroy him. To achieve this, it is imperative that we engage him in small battles to further erode his morale. In that regard Gramos gives us fantastic daily examples, but it should be mentioned that the major achievements will be at Vicho. There, with a strong defense when it is needed, we will force him to bleed to exhaustion. With a firm defense we will hold him back and then with an element of technical reversal we will counterattack.



                    We also need to acquire more troops. We can do this by providing enhanced education, organizational and political work inside the Monarcho-Fascist army, where events will be taking place because exactly there is one of our most crucial reserves. Anyone who today does not understand this is making a big, a giant mistake. Can anyone imagine what it would be like when, at a critical moment, an entire enemy battalion rebels?



                    Having a battalion rebel today is not an abstract concept but a possibility. We have many examples of this. A soldier refusing orders to go to battle is a daily occurrence for the simple reason that the soldier is already soaked in blood. He does not want another war. His view is directed towards his home not towards a coffin.



                    We know what the soldiers thought when they put a time bomb in the luggage of Kotsalu and he was liquidated together with the plane in which he was traveling. They thought that for the duration required to replace him with his deputy they would have 15 to 20 days rest. And that was gain for them. And that is the way the soldiers thought. Why not find hundreds and even thousands of soldiers in Vicho who would try to gain 15 to 20 days of peace, life and a return to their homes? They can be found. Suffice it to say that we will help them.



                    With a strategic counterattack from all sides, and we do have such abilities, it is okay to believe in the fact that we will firmly hold Gramos and at the right moment, perform a twist on the Monarcho-Fascists.



                    The enemy will come to Vicho, mainly with Search and Destroy units (LOK) and with a great aviation and artillery force. But, unlike last year, the question now is whether they can endure more than a month of fighting. Meaning, the great battle will have to be settled in 20 to 30 days. That is why we need to be ready all around, militarily, practically, technically, politically, morally and materially. And in fact, we are ready. We anxiously await our enemy. There is a need for intense effort from all of us. We all need to take part in the great battle. We all need to be active. Everyone needs to respond with great honour in the protection of Vicho, accordingly, all without any distinction. We will break the enemy on Vicho and we will not let him pass...”



                    The last words spoken by Zahariadis aroused the audience into a hand clapping frenzy. Gusias stood by the military map, tapped the map handle several times with his pointer and when the audience calmed down, he began his presentation:



                    “Comrades, the General Headquarters, in close cooperation with the Military Council, has prepared a plan in defense of Vicho and set the following objectives to be achieved in two phases.



                    The first phase will provide defense of the free territory in the spirit of the slogan ‘the enemy will not pass Vicho’. In its good judgement, DAG Headquarters, in March of this year, issued an order to build strong fortifications in Mali-Madi, more precisely on the Buchi-Orlovo-Sveti Atanas line (elevation 1,186) continuing on the hills between the villages Kosinets and Labanitsa along the Albanian border. The line continues west of Orlovo establishing a link to Rabatina and Buchi extending up to the rocks above the village Smrdesh.



                    The aim, at all costs, of this section of the front is to prevent enemy penetration into the village Smrdesh from where - this can only be an unreasonable assumption – the enemy would try and take the Smrdesh-Zhelevo-Psoderi road with military vehicles and tanks.



                    This will mean cutting the free territory into two parts with disastrous consequences for us. We are well established north of Mali-Madi in the Polenata-Kula-Plati line of hills extending to the Roto-Baro and Iamata line. This is our central front behind which, similarly, we have built strong fortifications in Lisets and its southern approaches and in Moro, Chuka and Iorgova Glava north of Lisets. This is the second defensive line that should ensure free flow of communications and supplies to the front along the road Smrdesh-Zhelevo-Psoderi.



                    At the north end, at the Yugoslav border, which as you know is now closed, is the chain of hills called Bela Voda. The fortifications here connect the Bigla-Lundzer line to Kulkuturia hill, elevation 1,694, northwest of the village Neret. This is our northern front whose aim is to stop enemy attacks from Lerin. The area west of the road Smrdesh-Zhelevo-Psoderi is not without significance.



                    Here is our third line of defense whose aim is to protect the approaches to the valley of Prespa. But, comrades, the stated facts are not our main strength. Our main strength is well established in the field and it is very important, and perhaps more important is our fighting spirit and strong belief in victory.



                    Behind us is the great practical experience that we gained from last year's struggles. The Gramos retake in April, the successful struggles in Mali-Madi in September, the destruction of the 22nd enemy brigade, the deep penetration behind our opponent and the capture of the strongly defended cities Karditsa-Karpenisi-Negush, the reorganization of our troops, the improvement of our clothes, food and weapons supplies. These are all factors that will ensure our victory.



                    In regards to the upcoming battle for Vicho we will need about twenty days to endure the enemy blow. We will need to nail him down at his starting position and force him to lead positional warfare during which, with our defensive-offensive tactics, we will deal him a huge blow in manpower, material and technical losses which will break his morale, then when we are good and ready we will go on the attack.



                    I visited all our positions. I visited and spoke with all the commanders of the larger units and with some commanders of the smaller units. I found the entire sector to be ready. I want to underline with acknowledgement that there is not a dot anywhere that is not under our watchful eye. Everything that needs to be seen from the bunker gunhole is at the centre of our view. When I observed the terrain and everything that is there, I had a serious thought - is it possible for anyone living to pass unnoticed? Is it possible to break such a defense as this? Is it possible for even a bird to fly unnoticed? The experience in Gramos has taught us how to defend ourselves, how every hill, how every stone and boulder, every corner, are literally, to make a point... the Vicho sector, comrades, is a large fortress.


                    It is now up to all the command units, from the smallest to largest, to make this fortress invincible. We have all the opportunities here to break the enemy and, at the appropriate moment, switch to a counter offensive,” concluded Gusias confidently, taking a sip of water from his glass he asked: “Are there any questions?”



                    “Comrades,” replied Bardzotas, Political Commissar of General Headquarters, “Zahariadis’s report is sufficient guarantee of our victory. Any question you pose now would take valuable time…”



                    Gusias, who was still standing beside the operational map, spoke:



                    “I have only presented the actual state of our defense. But I have the impression, comrades, that we haven’t sufficiently analyzed all possibilities from where the enemy may strike. According to my observations and assessment, the most likely place our opponent will first attack is Bela Voda, elevation 2,156, from the direction of Lerin in order, of course, to break down our defense of Prespa. This is the shortest route to Prespa. Here,” Gusias hit the map with his fist, “this is where our opponent will close the road to stop us from our eventual departure...”



                    “Will this be a scheduled departure?” asked the XIV Brigade commander in charge of the defense line Lundzer-Bigla-Bela Voda.


                    “Of course not, but...” replied Gusias as they all noticed his chin trembling.


                    “Continue!” requested Zahariadis.


                    “Yes. Comrades, the opponent will consider whether to attack here or to target other sectors. According to my thinking, I came to the conclusion that because the Mali-Madi sector would be a hard nut to crack for the opponent and because we made an impenetrable defensive wall at Bela Voda, which no doubt would be further from the opponent’s consideration, then the question to ask is ‘where will he strike?’



                    Take a look,” continued Gusias covering that part of the map with his palm, “here is Bigla and Lundzer. It is not difficult to see that this is the middle, the middle between Mali-Madi and Bela Voda. Here,” Gusias raised his voice and hit the map with his hand, “he will attack exactly here! Why exactly here?! Because if he breaks through the Bigla defense, where we have situated a Positional Battalion, think of our battalion, composed of experienced and hardened fighters, all lost, then the loss of this defence will introduce tanks and they will occupy the Lerin-Psoderi-Zhelevo road...”



                    When Gusias spoke about Lerin, the audience noticed that he was losing his voice. For him Lerin was a nightmare and the mere mention of that name gave him chills. He was one of the architects of the Lerin battle in which DAG suffered catastrophic losses. The approach to Lerin was a slaughter house, a suicide mission with horrific consequences.



                    “Bigla-Lundzer, elevation 1,922,” Gusias continued, “needs to become the new strong fortress. The opponent needs to be made to bleed here. I repeat, if our opponent breaks through Bigla and Lundzer then he will break our entire defense. Therefore we should devote most of our attention…”



                    “And Lisets? What about Lisets hill?” interrupted the commander of Division X.



                    “Lisets? Look at the map,” suggested Gusias. “Do you see how far it is from the first line of defense? There are well established defences before Lisets located on the hills in the Plati-Kulata-Roto-Polenata-Baro-Iamata line and south to Mali-Madi…”



                    Zahariadis halted Gusias’s explanation, slowly stood up, turned to the map and, after tapping it with his finger, began to count:



                    “We need to break the enemy here, here, here and here. And you, why do you worry so much about Lisets, what about Lisets?”



                    “I comrades,” the Division X Commander straightened himself, “do not know all the hills from the map which comrade Zahariadis just pointed out, but every hill and brook, stone and boulder I have traveled and I know them by sight, I have passed over them on foot. It is very important for our defense, I would say most important, to know where our opponent will attack and exactly why there…”



                    “Here, here, here and here,” Zahariadis again tapped the map with his finger.



                    “I don’t doubt you, but why there?” asked the Division X Commander. “My thinking is that he would attack at the centre but his main goal will be to take Lisets. He will do everything to take Lisets. And if he succeeds in taking it he will have us in his palm. The entire region is visible from the top of Lisets. He who holds Lisets under his control holds everything around it…”



                    “That is your opinion,” interrupted Gusias, “you’ve had your say and we understand your concerns. So, comrades, we have a very strong defense, that is why it will be very hard for our opponent to take that damn Lisets. Isn’t that right?”



                    “Maybe it’s like that,” continued the Division X Commander, “but I still say Lisets is the key. If Lisets falls then our entire solid defense will fall, comrades and…”



                    Zahariadis interrupted before the commander could finish what he was saying.


                    “Comrades, in these trying days we don’t need faintheartedness. Are there any more questions and opinions?”



                    There were no more questions and no one answered the questions already asked.
                    "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
                    GOTSE DELCEV

                    Comment

                    • George S.
                      Senior Member
                      • Aug 2009
                      • 10116

                      The Great Lie – Chapter 18



                      By Petre Nakovski

                      Translated and edited by Risto Stefov

                      [email protected]

                      March 25, 2012



                      Last year, all through the fall, at the foothill of Lisets, opposite the village Kolomladi, in the thickest clump of old oak trees, secretly at night, around one hundred trusted villagers from the surrounding villages, in shifts and under the leadership of Risto, dug a large network of bunkers with branching tunnels.



                      Again during the night for months, caravans of horses and mules driven by old women and men, transported weapons, ammunition, clothing and food from warehouses in Rula, Trnava and Oshchima and filled the tunnels in Lisets.



                      The approaches to the tunnels were well guarded by crippled fighters brought there from the hospitals in Albania and Yugoslavia. Their commander was also crippled.



                      On the other side of the road, between Dolna Statitsa and Kolomladi, under the shade of a branching walnut tree was a water spring. A man kneeling on his one knee filled his palm with water and splashed it on his face. Risto got closer, and before removing his backpack from his shoulder, he greeted the man.



                      “Good day” said Risto.



                      The man raised his head and looked at Risto.



                      “Good day” he answered and continued to look at Risto with a surprised look in his face. “Do we know each other or am I wrong?” the man spoke slowly without taking his eyes off Risto’s face. “You look familiar… Wait… the mustache… I used to know someone with a fancy mustache… like yours… is that… is that you Risto?!”



                      “Yes it is me…” answered Risto.



                      They hugged and in their long and tight embrace memories began to unfold…



                      “Do you remember, Risto, you carrying me when I was wounded at Ivan Mountain? I am in your debt. You saved my life.” said the man.



                      They were in the same unit fighting the Italians in 1940 at the Albanian front during the Greek-Italian war.



                      “And you Stoian, do you remember looking after me at the prison camp when the Greek gendarmes beat me to pulp?” replied Risto.



                      A year after the war ended, in gratitude for fighting to save Greece from the Fascists at the Albanian front, the heroic fighters were sent to prison at the concentration camps on the island Ai Strati. Then after the coronation of king Konstandinos to the Greek Royal Throne, the sick, the invalid and the adolescent prisoners were amnestied. Among them were Risto and Stoian.



                      They sat down. Risto noticed that Stoian’s left sleeve was empty. Pointing at it with his eyes, Risto asked: “And that?”



                      “That is my reminder of last year…” replied Stoian.



                      “Where?” inquired Risto.



                      “At Gramos… more precisely at Gorisha… yes…” Stoian exhaled noisily a long sigh. “When they released us from the prison camps, I didn’t go home. Ever since the police in Kostur interviewed me and gave me a mandatory order to report to them every third day, I left the city, and during the night, I took the road to the mountains, to the Partisans.



                      There too they asked me many questions and kept me under watch. They didn’t believe my story, and here I thought they would welcome me with open arms. I guess they finally realized I was not the person who they thought I was, the heavy machinegun gunner they were looking for, so they gave me a job to lead horses.



                      I led horses for a long time sometimes loaded with ammunition, other times with food, pots, caldrons and sometimes I held the horses steady so that the unit commanders can get on them.



                      One night, the second platoon had returned from battle during which they had seized a heavy machine gun. So now the unit had a heavy machinegun but not a gunner. The unit commander admired the big gun and caressed it with both hands, complaining: “Ah, dam, now if I only had a gunner!”



                      “I approach him and quietly asked: ‘Comrade Commander, will you allow me?’ He looked at me menacingly, took out his pistol and yelled: ‘If you wreck it I will kill you!’



                      ‘Don’t worry’ I said quietly, kneeled down, lay my coat on the ground and, like a miracle, rapidly dismantled the entire machinegun into pieces. I then took my shirt off and with it I cleaned all the parts and rapidly put the pieces back together. And from that day forward the commander took away my horse strap, promoted me to machinegun gunner and hurried to inform high command that he now had a heavy machinegun and a smart gunner. My promotion was approved and I was transferred to Gramos.



                      We loaded the heavy gun on a horse and ten of us left that evening. They sent us to a battle position at Kopanche. There were bunkers there to the left and to the right everywhere with five, six and even more rows of thick logs. They were well camouflaged. It was a well established defense line spanning along Sveti Ilia, Gorusha and Krusha hills and beyond up to the Albanian border.



                      On June 16th, last year, before dawn, we were attacked by airplanes. They pounded us for twenty minutes and just as they left we came under cannon fire. They pounded us at a fast rate in rapid fire volleys. The artillery barrage lasted thirty five minutes and just as they were done, we were attacked by the infantry. During the course of that day we repelled four attacks. By the evening, before sunset, it was all quiet again.



                      Orders came from Command to repair the damaged bunkers and trenches. In the night we were again pounded by cannon fire. In the morning, precisely at 5 o’clock, the airplanes came back and pounded us again, same as the previous day. By the afternoon we were forced to withdraw to the second line of defense at Sveti Ilia and Krusha.



                      They did this everyday until June 22nd but could not remove us. That day the airplanes came shortly before noon. They did not drop bombs or fire on us with their machine guns. First they flew low then high and we could see barrels being dropped from not too high above our positions which exploded about fifty to a hundred meters above us. Fire and flames fell on us. Everything began to burn. Everything burned, the ground, the trees, the rocks, the mountain, we were burning too… Those people, who unfortunately got splashed by this never before seen burning fluid, caught fire and burned like candles.



                      There was squealing, screaming and many sounds of horror as people rushed out of the trenches looking to the sky and begging for help. All you could see are flames running at you screaming and begging for help, flames that you had to put out with your bare hands?! We fought the flames all day, then, at night, under the light of a full moon, we buried the burned corpses in mass graves.



                      The aircraft attacked us in this manner, with that damn fire, several more times, but we quickly learned we could avoid being burned by burying ourselves deep into the ground. We dug tunnels in the bunkers and trenches and before the barrels fell we hid underground like moles.



                      It is one thing to see a cut tree falling down and another to see it burning. And how does a man fall when he is shot compared to being burned? This is something that no one should never even think about never mind see it…



                      And as long as we were burning, our opponent, step by step, came closer, about 100 to 200 meters bellow us and dug himself in. Perhaps that was the reason why the aircraft stopped dropping barrels on us, and the cannons began firing behind our positions.



                      Suddenly there was silence, no cannon shelling, not even a bullet was fired. There was no movement at all, not from our side and not from theirs. We waited patiently in silence. Then the silence was broken by the roar of airplanes. There were six of them and flew in three’s. The first three made a circle above us and didn’t drop anything, not even a burst of machinegun fire. The other three did the same.



                      They kept circling above but we didn’t dare fire at them in fear of uncovering our exact positions. I don’t know how many times the aircraft circled but suddenly the sky was filled with colourful leafs of paper. There was no wind to blow them so the clouds of paper fell directly on top of us. The sun was shaded and the earth became covered with paper. I took a few and began to read:



                      ‘Communists, bandits surrender! Tito has come to our side. There is no salvation for you Slavo-Macedonians! Surrender! Tito gave you up! Stalin and Tito had a fight! Tito has come to the American and English side! Tito has closed the border! Tito is our Ally now! You are all alone! Gramos is done! Don’t expect any help from Tito! You will die of hunger!’



                      The entire front, all combat positions were covered with leaflets like this… It was June 29th. They dropped the same leaflets the next day and several days after that… These leaflets had the effect of large and scary bombs falling… They were an assault on our spirit, our faith and our hopes… They made our effort seem fruitless and empty, they seized our soul, torn our hopes apart and killed our dreams. This is how I felt and so did many Macedonians… Most of us were at the north-eastern front… The political commissars kept telling us that the leaflets were only enemy propaganda but still that didn’t help ease our fears.



                      The front was peaceful for three days and during those three days our opponents on the other side ridiculed us and profanely swore at us.



                      One day the political commissars were invited to go to high command. They returned late at night and explained to us that one of the communist party information bureaus in power, under Soviet Union control, accused Tito of not following Informburo rules, as the others did, so it sent him a message, a letter, asking him to reconsider and leave things to comrade Stalin because comrade Stalin knows best and for Tito not to think himself smarter than Stalin.



                      Tito replied to this by saying he will do as he pleases. In other words, Tito became disobedient and because of this the advanced and progressive communist and workers’ parties, shunned him and called on the Communist Party of Yugoslavia to fight against him and his associates.



                      The commissar also told us that the Communist Party of Greece (CPG) on account that today it is leading a merciless struggle against Anglo-American imperialism, silently agrees with Stalin, and will openly state its position under better conditions. That’s why the Party is inviting all fighters to fight more vigorously to break the enemy at Gramos. That’s when we learned that the enemy Division XV, considered to be elite, after six days and nights of un-relentless bitter fighting, despite the major air and artillery support, failed to break us at the northern front and close the door to the Albanian border.



                      On August 2nd, after forty-one days of lying in trenches in a defensive position, I returned to the starting point and saw action after the fall of Kleftis Hill at the south end of the front. Our east side resiliently held Sveti Ilia, Gorusha, Krusha, Bel Kamen and Kula on top of the village Koteltse for forty-five days and nights.



                      In the course of the heavy fighting for every inch of ground, few of the fighters thought as to why Tito and Stalin had a fight. But the worm of doubt began to eat away, scratch and dig deep. And the planes, in addition to dropping bombs, continued to drop leaflets inviting us to surrender, continuously reminding us of what awaits us because of what Tito did.



                      One morning, at the top of the hill, our side opened a white cloth on which written with large red letters was the message:



                      ‘Your leaflets are printed on thick and hard paper. Print them on thinner and softer paper so that it would be easier for us to wipe our asses with!’”



                      Stoian stopped talking. He felt like he was loosing his voice. The silence was broken by Risto who asked: “And what happened next?”



                      “The aircraft continued to fly and drop rockets and bombs on our bunkers and trenches and…” Stoian moved his arm and shook his empty sleeve “a piece of a bomb like a knife…” he then pointed with his eyes at the empty sleeve. During the silence that followed the men broke eye contact, immobile and dazed they silently thought about their bitter experience in which they left part of themselves and wondered where all this was going to take them. Stoian took a deep puff from his cigarette made from strong and thickly cut tobacco twisted in a paper ripped our of a newspaper, and began a long stretched out caught.



                      “The tobacco is no good for you” said Risto with a sad voice while gently tapping Stoian’s back.



                      Stoian spit out after he coughed and added: “Up there in the tunnels” pointing with his head at the foot of the mountain “I have loads of it in paper bags but it’s too weak for me. It’s not just plain tobacco. It is beautifully rolled up in thin paper without markings. You smoke it and nothing. Only smoke. I take the cigarettes up to the positions at night along with other provisions.”



                      “In paper bags you said?” Risto asked with a surprise in his voice. “And do you have any empty paper bags?”



                      “Piles of them…” answered Stoian.



                      “What do you do with them?” asked Risto.



                      “I burn them” replied Stoian indifferently. “I always burn them. By order, I have been ordered to do so. I have a written order on which it clearly says ‘the sacks from sugar, rice and all other papers must be burned to leave no trace of them…’ A few days ago a man from Military Intelligence came here, allegedly to inspect the place, and when he saw a whole bunch of empty bags of paper, he threatened me with court martial. ‘Did you know’ he said to me ‘you jack ass, you villager’ yelling at me ‘if the enemy came in possession of these bags, he would discover our military secrets?’ After that he opened a great big book and wrote an order for me and in accordance with that directive I had to order my people to burn the papers…”



                      “And what about up there at the positions how do you deliver the rice, sugar, flower, cigarettes?” asked Risto.



                      “In bags… I load them on donkeys and horses, but mostly on the backs of the village men and women from the surrounding villages…” answered Stoian with a heavy, long and protracted sigh. “I have to load them on the backs of old men and women like on beasts of burden and send them uphill to way up there.” Stoian pointed in the direction of the surrounding hills with his good arm.



                      “Self composed they go up quietly and carry the load, along with their broken souls, to the destination. I feel like crying when I look at them. The poor people, on their backs they carry crates of ammunition, of food, and when they return they carry back wounded.



                      They carried me the same way to the main hospital in Gramos where they amputated part of my arm and later they amputated the rest of my arm at the hospital in Elbasan, a reminder of my fate… When my wound was closed they took me to Suk. And there, what can I tell you! In the barracks there were people recovering, crippled, blind, deaf, mute, they were all our people, there were also epileptics, crazy people, informants and some sly and sneaky people.” Stoian stopped talking for a moment, looked around and, shortly afterwards, whispered: “There was also one among them from the 2nd Bureau…”



                      “I didn’t hear you.” said Risto and leaned his ear towards Stoian. “What did you say?”



                      “They say, Risto, the walls have years… and here even the mountains have ears, and that’s why I am whispering to you, understand?” replied Stoian.



                      “Of course, I understand” said Risto, raised his eyebrows and closed his mouth.



                      “I thought you should know…” replied Stoian, spit on the side and continued. “At Suk, once a week they brought recovering patients by truck from the hospitals for a short rest and upon return they took them to the battle lines. We, the ones with one leg, one arm, one eye, mute, deaf, were asking to also return to the formations but the camp commander, some Thessalian, also with one leg, was telling us there is no more formations for us.



                      So, we waited there with our idle time being filled with lectures about what Marx said, what Lenin did in Russia but mostly about Stalin. Our teacher was a former long time prisoner from Rumeli. He wore glasses with thick lenses and his hearing was not very good. People said that he studied in Moscow with Zahariadis and that he was imprisoned by the dictator Metaxas. They said he was in Bulkesh and that many became political commissars under his tutelage. But he was not just our teacher. In time we found out that the man established an entire network of spies, informants, whistle-blowers and other undesirables with whose help he placed us all in his book and pegged some of us as nationalists, other as chauvinists, opportunists, autonomists, Titoists…



                      The last two categories were considered the most dangerous. So, we, the Macedonians were the most dangerous. But that was not all, not enough for him. He infiltrated our group with a spy and a provocateur. They too were our people. We quickly uncovered the spy and brought him into line. He told us about the book. And look what happened. That book began to work on our minds. Every time we came near the man, day or night, all we could think about was which one has he fingered now? Which one has he labeled autonomist or Titoist, or both…”



                      “And the spy?” inquired Risto.



                      “The poor guy slipped on a watermelon peel and broke his neck. We all felt sorry for him… So I tell you, we all began to wonder how we can get our hands on that book. We thought about it but nothing good came of it. Then one day one of the so called ‘marked man’ spoke up: ‘brothers, I can see that you have heads on your shoulders but I have to wonder what they’re filled with, straw or hay’. So I casually remarked… why don’t we outfox the bugger…? Let’s do it! I will go inside the clinic and take an alcohol bottle. You know the man has a passion for drinking? I have seen him mix half a glass of alcohol with half a glass of water. At knight when he finishes making notes he will drink and pass out. Without him knowing, I will leave the bottle on his table. I will be damned if he does not plaster himself. Then, quietly I will enter and finish the job. Smart, don’t you think?”



                      Stoian took a puff from his cigarette, spit after coughing and continued:



                      “We were not sure if it was a smart thing to do, but we accepted it because our fellow countryman often entered the storehouse unnoticed and returned with pockets full of the type of food the chiefs of staff ate.



                      The next morning, after waking up, the public announcement speakers went silent for a moment. The blazing songs praising the struggle were finally interrupted for an announcement from the commander: “Προσοχη! Προσοχη! Αμεσος ολοι στην πλατεια!” (Attention! Attention! Everyone report to the square immediately!)



                      “We line-up. Those without legs were wheeled there on wheel chairs. We stood there and waited. Fifteen minutes later the commander and the teacher who taught us about Marx, Lenin and Stalin and fingered us in his notebook, arrived. They frowned, looked hostile and had malice in their eyes. They climbed on the stage.



                      “Comrade fighters…” began the commander, but at the same moment the teacher pushed his way in front of him, all red from anger and malice, swung his right arm, pulled out a wrapped newspaper from under his arm, quickly unwrapped it with his trembling hands and low and behold, the book fell out of it on the floor!



                      With his finger pointing to the book on the floor the teacher, like a crowing crow, yelled out with a pounding voice that worked its way up from his neck: “The person that defecated in my book report here immediately!”



                      “At that moment everyone thundered with a loud and elongated laugh. Unfortunately our laughing made things worst. Days afterwards they called us in, one by one, at the chief’s office at headquarters. They interrogated us, threatened us with court-martial and took away our privileges. At the end we endured that too.



                      After the battles for Negush, Voden and Lerin an order was issued recommending to those who wanted to ‘volunteer’ for various behind the scenes services to signup.



                      At the end of May the trucks came and everyone left except those with no legs, the blind and the mad. All others, some missing two or three fingers, some missing hands, arms, a leg, an eye, those who were deaf or half deaf, were all free to go. A little later in May the trucks came again and during the night took us to Breznitsa. There we received military deployment orders. They sent me here and appointed me commander of the storehouses…” concluded Stoian.



                      “And what happened to the provocateur?” asked Risto.



                      “He came with us. He sat at the end on the truck. The truck took a curve too fast and he, the poor man, was not hanging on very tight, and fell off into an abyss and disappeared in the darkness. We yelled at the driver to stop but he could not hear us and continued to drive. Later, when we asked why he did not stop, he said he did not hear us, the engine of the old American truck was too loud.



                      Yes… That’s that brother. A bit of carelessness and you are swallowed by the abyss. What a misfortune… He was one of ours too, that idiot… a sly dishonest fellow.



                      Sown in the pocket of his backpack we found the names of thirty of our boys written on a list. They were all accused of planning to escape to Yugoslavia. And you know what happens to those accused of desertion? They get buried under a wall…” concluded Stoian.



                      While Risto listened to Stoian telling his story, he kept wondering what happened to the paper bags, so he asked again: “What do they do with the paper bags up there?”



                      “I don’t know what they do with them up there, but I know what I need to do with them down here when they are empty… I burn them… Those are the orders. And why are you so interested in the paper bags?” asked Stoian.



                      “Well… what can I say.” responded Risto.



                      “So direct… so open.” replied Stoian.



                      “Listen, Stoian… My work involves digging trenches and building bunkers.” remarked Risto.



                      “Oh, so that means you are in command of the women?” mockingly replied Stoian.



                      “Not me, I am not in command of the women. Others are in charge of them.” answered Risto.



                      “Okay then, you are not in command but you do tell them how to dig and how to carry logs from the forest.” jokingly remarked Stoian.



                      “Something like that…” answered Risto.



                      “And…” inquired Stoian.



                      “And those who don’t know how to write, I write letters for them when they want to send a letter to their friends and relatives in the units, but mostly to their children in the [Eastern European] countries. But…” paused Risto.



                      “But what?” inquired Stoian.



                      “There is no paper to write on…” replied Risto with a complaining tone of voice.



                      “I don’t have that kind of paper in my storehouses.” answered Stoian.



                      “I am not asking you for paper from the storehouses…” remarked Risto.



                      “Ah, you want the paper from the bags?” commented Stoian.



                      “Yes. Can I have it?” asked Risto.



                      “To take with you? Go ahead” replied Stoian “but remember; I saw nothing, I heard nothing!”



                      “Me too Stoian…” added Risto.



                      They both looked into each others eyes and a barely visible smile appeared on their faces.
                      "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
                      GOTSE DELCEV

                      Comment

                      • George S.
                        Senior Member
                        • Aug 2009
                        • 10116

                        The Great Lie – Chapter 18



                        By Petre Nakovski

                        Translated and edited by Risto Stefov

                        [email protected]

                        March 25, 2012



                        Last year, all through the fall, at the foothill of Lisets, opposite the village Kolomladi, in the thickest clump of old oak trees, secretly at night, around one hundred trusted villagers from the surrounding villages, in shifts and under the leadership of Risto, dug a large network of bunkers with branching tunnels.



                        Again during the night for months, caravans of horses and mules driven by old women and men, transported weapons, ammunition, clothing and food from warehouses in Rula, Trnava and Oshchima and filled the tunnels in Lisets.



                        The approaches to the tunnels were well guarded by crippled fighters brought there from the hospitals in Albania and Yugoslavia. Their commander was also crippled.



                        On the other side of the road, between Dolna Statitsa and Kolomladi, under the shade of a branching walnut tree was a water spring. A man kneeling on his one knee filled his palm with water and splashed it on his face. Risto got closer, and before removing his backpack from his shoulder, he greeted the man.



                        “Good day” said Risto.



                        The man raised his head and looked at Risto.



                        “Good day” he answered and continued to look at Risto with a surprised look in his face. “Do we know each other or am I wrong?” the man spoke slowly without taking his eyes off Risto’s face. “You look familiar… Wait… the mustache… I used to know someone with a fancy mustache… like yours… is that… is that you Risto?!”



                        “Yes it is me…” answered Risto.



                        They hugged and in their long and tight embrace memories began to unfold…



                        “Do you remember, Risto, you carrying me when I was wounded at Ivan Mountain? I am in your debt. You saved my life.” said the man.



                        They were in the same unit fighting the Italians in 1940 at the Albanian front during the Greek-Italian war.



                        “And you Stoian, do you remember looking after me at the prison camp when the Greek gendarmes beat me to pulp?” replied Risto.



                        A year after the war ended, in gratitude for fighting to save Greece from the Fascists at the Albanian front, the heroic fighters were sent to prison at the concentration camps on the island Ai Strati. Then after the coronation of king Konstandinos to the Greek Royal Throne, the sick, the invalid and the adolescent prisoners were amnestied. Among them were Risto and Stoian.



                        They sat down. Risto noticed that Stoian’s left sleeve was empty. Pointing at it with his eyes, Risto asked: “And that?”



                        “That is my reminder of last year…” replied Stoian.



                        “Where?” inquired Risto.



                        “At Gramos… more precisely at Gorisha… yes…” Stoian exhaled noisily a long sigh. “When they released us from the prison camps, I didn’t go home. Ever since the police in Kostur interviewed me and gave me a mandatory order to report to them every third day, I left the city, and during the night, I took the road to the mountains, to the Partisans.



                        There too they asked me many questions and kept me under watch. They didn’t believe my story, and here I thought they would welcome me with open arms. I guess they finally realized I was not the person who they thought I was, the heavy machinegun gunner they were looking for, so they gave me a job to lead horses.



                        I led horses for a long time sometimes loaded with ammunition, other times with food, pots, caldrons and sometimes I held the horses steady so that the unit commanders can get on them.



                        One night, the second platoon had returned from battle during which they had seized a heavy machine gun. So now the unit had a heavy machinegun but not a gunner. The unit commander admired the big gun and caressed it with both hands, complaining: “Ah, dam, now if I only had a gunner!”



                        “I approach him and quietly asked: ‘Comrade Commander, will you allow me?’ He looked at me menacingly, took out his pistol and yelled: ‘If you wreck it I will kill you!’



                        ‘Don’t worry’ I said quietly, kneeled down, lay my coat on the ground and, like a miracle, rapidly dismantled the entire machinegun into pieces. I then took my shirt off and with it I cleaned all the parts and rapidly put the pieces back together. And from that day forward the commander took away my horse strap, promoted me to machinegun gunner and hurried to inform high command that he now had a heavy machinegun and a smart gunner. My promotion was approved and I was transferred to Gramos.



                        We loaded the heavy gun on a horse and ten of us left that evening. They sent us to a battle position at Kopanche. There were bunkers there to the left and to the right everywhere with five, six and even more rows of thick logs. They were well camouflaged. It was a well established defense line spanning along Sveti Ilia, Gorusha and Krusha hills and beyond up to the Albanian border.



                        On June 16th, last year, before dawn, we were attacked by airplanes. They pounded us for twenty minutes and just as they left we came under cannon fire. They pounded us at a fast rate in rapid fire volleys. The artillery barrage lasted thirty five minutes and just as they were done, we were attacked by the infantry. During the course of that day we repelled four attacks. By the evening, before sunset, it was all quiet again.



                        Orders came from Command to repair the damaged bunkers and trenches. In the night we were again pounded by cannon fire. In the morning, precisely at 5 o’clock, the airplanes came back and pounded us again, same as the previous day. By the afternoon we were forced to withdraw to the second line of defense at Sveti Ilia and Krusha.



                        They did this everyday until June 22nd but could not remove us. That day the airplanes came shortly before noon. They did not drop bombs or fire on us with their machine guns. First they flew low then high and we could see barrels being dropped from not too high above our positions which exploded about fifty to a hundred meters above us. Fire and flames fell on us. Everything began to burn. Everything burned, the ground, the trees, the rocks, the mountain, we were burning too… Those people, who unfortunately got splashed by this never before seen burning fluid, caught fire and burned like candles.



                        There was squealing, screaming and many sounds of horror as people rushed out of the trenches looking to the sky and begging for help. All you could see are flames running at you screaming and begging for help, flames that you had to put out with your bare hands?! We fought the flames all day, then, at night, under the light of a full moon, we buried the burned corpses in mass graves.



                        The aircraft attacked us in this manner, with that damn fire, several more times, but we quickly learned we could avoid being burned by burying ourselves deep into the ground. We dug tunnels in the bunkers and trenches and before the barrels fell we hid underground like moles.



                        It is one thing to see a cut tree falling down and another to see it burning. And how does a man fall when he is shot compared to being burned? This is something that no one should never even think about never mind see it…



                        And as long as we were burning, our opponent, step by step, came closer, about 100 to 200 meters bellow us and dug himself in. Perhaps that was the reason why the aircraft stopped dropping barrels on us, and the cannons began firing behind our positions.



                        Suddenly there was silence, no cannon shelling, not even a bullet was fired. There was no movement at all, not from our side and not from theirs. We waited patiently in silence. Then the silence was broken by the roar of airplanes. There were six of them and flew in three’s. The first three made a circle above us and didn’t drop anything, not even a burst of machinegun fire. The other three did the same.



                        They kept circling above but we didn’t dare fire at them in fear of uncovering our exact positions. I don’t know how many times the aircraft circled but suddenly the sky was filled with colourful leafs of paper. There was no wind to blow them so the clouds of paper fell directly on top of us. The sun was shaded and the earth became covered with paper. I took a few and began to read:



                        ‘Communists, bandits surrender! Tito has come to our side. There is no salvation for you Slavo-Macedonians! Surrender! Tito gave you up! Stalin and Tito had a fight! Tito has come to the American and English side! Tito has closed the border! Tito is our Ally now! You are all alone! Gramos is done! Don’t expect any help from Tito! You will die of hunger!’



                        The entire front, all combat positions were covered with leaflets like this… It was June 29th. They dropped the same leaflets the next day and several days after that… These leaflets had the effect of large and scary bombs falling… They were an assault on our spirit, our faith and our hopes… They made our effort seem fruitless and empty, they seized our soul, torn our hopes apart and killed our dreams. This is how I felt and so did many Macedonians… Most of us were at the north-eastern front… The political commissars kept telling us that the leaflets were only enemy propaganda but still that didn’t help ease our fears.



                        The front was peaceful for three days and during those three days our opponents on the other side ridiculed us and profanely swore at us.



                        One day the political commissars were invited to go to high command. They returned late at night and explained to us that one of the communist party information bureaus in power, under Soviet Union control, accused Tito of not following Informburo rules, as the others did, so it sent him a message, a letter, asking him to reconsider and leave things to comrade Stalin because comrade Stalin knows best and for Tito not to think himself smarter than Stalin.



                        Tito replied to this by saying he will do as he pleases. In other words, Tito became disobedient and because of this the advanced and progressive communist and workers’ parties, shunned him and called on the Communist Party of Yugoslavia to fight against him and his associates.



                        The commissar also told us that the Communist Party of Greece (CPG) on account that today it is leading a merciless struggle against Anglo-American imperialism, silently agrees with Stalin, and will openly state its position under better conditions. That’s why the Party is inviting all fighters to fight more vigorously to break the enemy at Gramos. That’s when we learned that the enemy Division XV, considered to be elite, after six days and nights of un-relentless bitter fighting, despite the major air and artillery support, failed to break us at the northern front and close the door to the Albanian border.



                        On August 2nd, after forty-one days of lying in trenches in a defensive position, I returned to the starting point and saw action after the fall of Kleftis Hill at the south end of the front. Our east side resiliently held Sveti Ilia, Gorusha, Krusha, Bel Kamen and Kula on top of the village Koteltse for forty-five days and nights.



                        In the course of the heavy fighting for every inch of ground, few of the fighters thought as to why Tito and Stalin had a fight. But the worm of doubt began to eat away, scratch and dig deep. And the planes, in addition to dropping bombs, continued to drop leaflets inviting us to surrender, continuously reminding us of what awaits us because of what Tito did.



                        One morning, at the top of the hill, our side opened a white cloth on which written with large red letters was the message:



                        ‘Your leaflets are printed on thick and hard paper. Print them on thinner and softer paper so that it would be easier for us to wipe our asses with!’”



                        Stoian stopped talking. He felt like he was loosing his voice. The silence was broken by Risto who asked: “And what happened next?”



                        “The aircraft continued to fly and drop rockets and bombs on our bunkers and trenches and…” Stoian moved his arm and shook his empty sleeve “a piece of a bomb like a knife…” he then pointed with his eyes at the empty sleeve. During the silence that followed the men broke eye contact, immobile and dazed they silently thought about their bitter experience in which they left part of themselves and wondered where all this was going to take them. Stoian took a deep puff from his cigarette made from strong and thickly cut tobacco twisted in a paper ripped our of a newspaper, and began a long stretched out caught.



                        “The tobacco is no good for you” said Risto with a sad voice while gently tapping Stoian’s back.



                        Stoian spit out after he coughed and added: “Up there in the tunnels” pointing with his head at the foot of the mountain “I have loads of it in paper bags but it’s too weak for me. It’s not just plain tobacco. It is beautifully rolled up in thin paper without markings. You smoke it and nothing. Only smoke. I take the cigarettes up to the positions at night along with other provisions.”



                        “In paper bags you said?” Risto asked with a surprise in his voice. “And do you have any empty paper bags?”



                        “Piles of them…” answered Stoian.



                        “What do you do with them?” asked Risto.



                        “I burn them” replied Stoian indifferently. “I always burn them. By order, I have been ordered to do so. I have a written order on which it clearly says ‘the sacks from sugar, rice and all other papers must be burned to leave no trace of them…’ A few days ago a man from Military Intelligence came here, allegedly to inspect the place, and when he saw a whole bunch of empty bags of paper, he threatened me with court martial. ‘Did you know’ he said to me ‘you jack ass, you villager’ yelling at me ‘if the enemy came in possession of these bags, he would discover our military secrets?’ After that he opened a great big book and wrote an order for me and in accordance with that directive I had to order my people to burn the papers…”



                        “And what about up there at the positions how do you deliver the rice, sugar, flower, cigarettes?” asked Risto.



                        “In bags… I load them on donkeys and horses, but mostly on the backs of the village men and women from the surrounding villages…” answered Stoian with a heavy, long and protracted sigh. “I have to load them on the backs of old men and women like on beasts of burden and send them uphill to way up there.” Stoian pointed in the direction of the surrounding hills with his good arm.



                        “Self composed they go up quietly and carry the load, along with their broken souls, to the destination. I feel like crying when I look at them. The poor people, on their backs they carry crates of ammunition, of food, and when they return they carry back wounded.



                        They carried me the same way to the main hospital in Gramos where they amputated part of my arm and later they amputated the rest of my arm at the hospital in Elbasan, a reminder of my fate… When my wound was closed they took me to Suk. And there, what can I tell you! In the barracks there were people recovering, crippled, blind, deaf, mute, they were all our people, there were also epileptics, crazy people, informants and some sly and sneaky people.” Stoian stopped talking for a moment, looked around and, shortly afterwards, whispered: “There was also one among them from the 2nd Bureau…”



                        “I didn’t hear you.” said Risto and leaned his ear towards Stoian. “What did you say?”



                        “They say, Risto, the walls have years… and here even the mountains have ears, and that’s why I am whispering to you, understand?” replied Stoian.



                        “Of course, I understand” said Risto, raised his eyebrows and closed his mouth.



                        “I thought you should know…” replied Stoian, spit on the side and continued. “At Suk, once a week they brought recovering patients by truck from the hospitals for a short rest and upon return they took them to the battle lines. We, the ones with one leg, one arm, one eye, mute, deaf, were asking to also return to the formations but the camp commander, some Thessalian, also with one leg, was telling us there is no more formations for us.



                        So, we waited there with our idle time being filled with lectures about what Marx said, what Lenin did in Russia but mostly about Stalin. Our teacher was a former long time prisoner from Rumeli. He wore glasses with thick lenses and his hearing was not very good. People said that he studied in Moscow with Zahariadis and that he was imprisoned by the dictator Metaxas. They said he was in Bulkesh and that many became political commissars under his tutelage. But he was not just our teacher. In time we found out that the man established an entire network of spies, informants, whistle-blowers and other undesirables with whose help he placed us all in his book and pegged some of us as nationalists, other as chauvinists, opportunists, autonomists, Titoists…



                        The last two categories were considered the most dangerous. So, we, the Macedonians were the most dangerous. But that was not all, not enough for him. He infiltrated our group with a spy and a provocateur. They too were our people. We quickly uncovered the spy and brought him into line. He told us about the book. And look what happened. That book began to work on our minds. Every time we came near the man, day or night, all we could think about was which one has he fingered now? Which one has he labeled autonomist or Titoist, or both…”



                        “And the spy?” inquired Risto.



                        “The poor guy slipped on a watermelon peel and broke his neck. We all felt sorry for him… So I tell you, we all began to wonder how we can get our hands on that book. We thought about it but nothing good came of it. Then one day one of the so called ‘marked man’ spoke up: ‘brothers, I can see that you have heads on your shoulders but I have to wonder what they’re filled with, straw or hay’. So I casually remarked… why don’t we outfox the bugger…? Let’s do it! I will go inside the clinic and take an alcohol bottle. You know the man has a passion for drinking? I have seen him mix half a glass of alcohol with half a glass of water. At knight when he finishes making notes he will drink and pass out. Without him knowing, I will leave the bottle on his table. I will be damned if he does not plaster himself. Then, quietly I will enter and finish the job. Smart, don’t you think?”



                        Stoian took a puff from his cigarette, spit after coughing and continued:



                        “We were not sure if it was a smart thing to do, but we accepted it because our fellow countryman often entered the storehouse unnoticed and returned with pockets full of the type of food the chiefs of staff ate.



                        The next morning, after waking up, the public announcement speakers went silent for a moment. The blazing songs praising the struggle were finally interrupted for an announcement from the commander: “Προσοχη! Προσοχη! Αμεσος ολοι στην πλατεια!” (Attention! Attention! Everyone report to the square immediately!)



                        “We line-up. Those without legs were wheeled there on wheel chairs. We stood there and waited. Fifteen minutes later the commander and the teacher who taught us about Marx, Lenin and Stalin and fingered us in his notebook, arrived. They frowned, looked hostile and had malice in their eyes. They climbed on the stage.



                        “Comrade fighters…” began the commander, but at the same moment the teacher pushed his way in front of him, all red from anger and malice, swung his right arm, pulled out a wrapped newspaper from under his arm, quickly unwrapped it with his trembling hands and low and behold, the book fell out of it on the floor!



                        With his finger pointing to the book on the floor the teacher, like a crowing crow, yelled out with a pounding voice that worked its way up from his neck: “The person that defecated in my book report here immediately!”



                        “At that moment everyone thundered with a loud and elongated laugh. Unfortunately our laughing made things worst. Days afterwards they called us in, one by one, at the chief’s office at headquarters. They interrogated us, threatened us with court-martial and took away our privileges. At the end we endured that too.



                        After the battles for Negush, Voden and Lerin an order was issued recommending to those who wanted to ‘volunteer’ for various behind the scenes services to signup.



                        At the end of May the trucks came and everyone left except those with no legs, the blind and the mad. All others, some missing two or three fingers, some missing hands, arms, a leg, an eye, those who were deaf or half deaf, were all free to go. A little later in May the trucks came again and during the night took us to Breznitsa. There we received military deployment orders. They sent me here and appointed me commander of the storehouses…” concluded Stoian.



                        “And what happened to the provocateur?” asked Risto.



                        “He came with us. He sat at the end on the truck. The truck took a curve too fast and he, the poor man, was not hanging on very tight, and fell off into an abyss and disappeared in the darkness. We yelled at the driver to stop but he could not hear us and continued to drive. Later, when we asked why he did not stop, he said he did not hear us, the engine of the old American truck was too loud.



                        Yes… That’s that brother. A bit of carelessness and you are swallowed by the abyss. What a misfortune… He was one of ours too, that idiot… a sly dishonest fellow.



                        Sown in the pocket of his backpack we found the names of thirty of our boys written on a list. They were all accused of planning to escape to Yugoslavia. And you know what happens to those accused of desertion? They get buried under a wall…” concluded Stoian.



                        While Risto listened to Stoian telling his story, he kept wondering what happened to the paper bags, so he asked again: “What do they do with the paper bags up there?”



                        “I don’t know what they do with them up there, but I know what I need to do with them down here when they are empty… I burn them… Those are the orders. And why are you so interested in the paper bags?” asked Stoian.



                        “Well… what can I say.” responded Risto.



                        “So direct… so open.” replied Stoian.



                        “Listen, Stoian… My work involves digging trenches and building bunkers.” remarked Risto.



                        “Oh, so that means you are in command of the women?” mockingly replied Stoian.



                        “Not me, I am not in command of the women. Others are in charge of them.” answered Risto.



                        “Okay then, you are not in command but you do tell them how to dig and how to carry logs from the forest.” jokingly remarked Stoian.



                        “Something like that…” answered Risto.



                        “And…” inquired Stoian.



                        “And those who don’t know how to write, I write letters for them when they want to send a letter to their friends and relatives in the units, but mostly to their children in the [Eastern European] countries. But…” paused Risto.



                        “But what?” inquired Stoian.



                        “There is no paper to write on…” replied Risto with a complaining tone of voice.



                        “I don’t have that kind of paper in my storehouses.” answered Stoian.



                        “I am not asking you for paper from the storehouses…” remarked Risto.



                        “Ah, you want the paper from the bags?” commented Stoian.



                        “Yes. Can I have it?” asked Risto.



                        “To take with you? Go ahead” replied Stoian “but remember; I saw nothing, I heard nothing!”



                        “Me too Stoian…” added Risto.



                        They both looked into each others eyes and a barely visible smile appeared on their faces.
                        "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
                        GOTSE DELCEV

                        Comment

                        • George S.
                          Senior Member
                          • Aug 2009
                          • 10116

                          Greece Struggles to Stay Afloat as Debts Pile On

                          Aris Messinis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
                          Garbage piled up on a street in central Athens on Thursday because of a municipal worker strike.
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                          By RACHEL DONADIO and NIKI KITSANTONIS
                          Published: December 11, 2009
                          ATHENS — Ever since Greece’s credit rating was downgraded last week, its new Socialist government has fought back, saying it has the mettle to tackle the soaring deficit and structural woes that have earned the country a reputation as the weak link in the euro zone.

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                          DealBook: Too Greek to Fail

                          “We will reduce the deficit, we will control the debt and there will be no need for a bailout,” the Greek finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, said in an interview in his office here this week. “We are not Iceland; we are not Dubai.”

                          But Mr. Papaconstantinou may have good reason for the traditional Greek metal worry beads he fingered during the interview. Outside his office, garbage was piled high in Syntagma Square, a result of a two-week strike by trash collectors that ended Friday.

                          A student demonstration was advancing on the square a day after pensioners had taken to the streets. This week, protests for the first anniversary of the death of an Athenian teenager shot by the police turned violent, but did not cause as much damage as disturbances last year.

                          Common in Greece even during better times, such protests are expected to increase drastically once the government introduces austerity measures in its 2010 budget, including wage freezes and measures to scale back public sector hiring, steps it says are needed to bring Greece’s finances under control.

                          As Mr. Papaconstantinou suggested, the problem is not Greece’s alone: heavily indebted countries, including Ireland, Britain and Spain, are under pressure to show that they can stimulate growth and grapple with debt burdens at the same time. Investors and European monetary officials are skeptical.

                          Greece, in particular, has to transform a culture with a low tolerance for change and a high tolerance for protest, no easy task for a two-month-old Socialist government that says it is committed to sustaining social spending. While convincing European Union leaders in Brussels, the new government also has to win over Greece.

                          The president of the civil servants’ union Adedy, Spyros Papaspyros, said the union was prepared to strike if cutbacks were unilateral and severe. “If funding cuts are made in critical sectors such as health or welfare, we create a serious risk of destabilization,” he said.

                          The political and social challenges are intense. “It will be a very tall order for any country to pull off the fiscal rescue they’ve now got to pull off,” said Simon Tilford, the chief economist at the Center for European Reform in London, a research group. In light of Greece’s political challenges, he added, “I find it at this point difficult to see how Greece is going to manage this without some kind of fiscal crisis.”

                          Certainly, the bond markets think Greece is a risky bet. Yields on the country’s two-year bonds soared to 3.09 percent from 1.9 percent this week — the worst for the markets here in more than a decade — and were about 3 percent on Friday, while the 10-year bond rose to 5.3 percent this week from an already elevated 4.99 percent. In the United States, by contrast, a 10-year bond yields 3.55 percent, and a two-year bond 0.81 percent.

                          The dire economic situation has prompted the question of what went wrong in a country that was once seen as a model for European Union membership and that enjoyed 15 years of sustained growth, coming from behind to host the 2004 Summer Olympics.

                          “We didn’t use the Olympic spirit well,” said Elias Clis, a former Greek ambassador. “The previous government took the safe way, and the safe way is a very dangerous path.”

                          After winning by a wide margin in October, the Socialist government of Prime Minister George Papandreou announced that the country’s budget deficit was 12.7 percent of the gross domestic product, more than four times the 3 percent ceiling set by the European Monetary Union.

                          Mr. Papandreou last week estimated the national debt at $430 billion, calling it Greece’s worst crisis in three decades and blaming his conservative predecessors for the economic state. Greece’s national debt is expected to rise above 110 percent of its gross domestic product.

                          Last week, the ratings agency Fitch downgraded Greece’s credit rating based on fears that the deficit might cause the country to default, and the change sent Greek shares plunging and made the markets jittery. Standard & Poor’s has said it will reserve judgment until it sees the plan the government is expected to announce in January.

                          On Friday, Mr. Papandreou stressed the need for drastic measures. “We acknowledge the scale of the problem that we are faced with, and we are determined to make the shift toward a sustainable and healthy economy,” he said in Brussels.

                          He called for a “merciless crackdown on the corruption that is endemic in society and on widespread tax evasion.”

                          Yet that is not expected to be easy. The underground economy, which some estimates place as high as 30 percent of gross domestic product, helps people in countries like Greece that have European prices but salaries below the European average.

                          As he sat in a cafe with friends in the chic Kolonaki area on a recent afternoon, Antonis, 33, who disclosed only his first name, proudly announced that he refused to pay taxes.

                          “Why should I pay?” he asked with a grin. “I don’t care about my government; I don’t care about my country,” he added. He conceded, however, that he did care about soccer and women.

                          Such views, while not always so vehement, are common in Greece, where the government is widely seen as corrupt, regardless of who is in power. Few people expect much from the state — except highly coveted public sector jobs. Today, one in four Greek workers is employed by the state, a result of decades of public hiring to stave off social unrest.

                          The Papandreou administration has said that in 2010 it will hire only one new state worker for every five who retire. But that, too, poses problems. Savas Robolis, a member of the main labor union, the Greek General Confederation of Labor, who serves on a government committee on pension reform, called the pension situation a “time bomb.”

                          He said Greece had only enough money to pay pensions for one more year. If the country does not replenish the pension funds, “then we will face a huge social crisis in 10 years,” Mr. Robolis said.

                          Fears of cutbacks are causing widespread anxiety. Lambrini, who works in the Health Ministry and would give only her first name, said a possible freeze on her $1,300 monthly salary was a real concern for her and her husband, a municipal worker.

                          “We want to plan a family, but I don’t see how we can with such low incomes and with prices going up all the time,” she said.

                          She said she had never joined a labor protest before, but would take to the streets if her salary was frozen or cut. “I’ll be there,” she said. “And so will half the population.”
                          "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
                          GOTSE DELCEV

                          Comment

                          • George S.
                            Senior Member
                            • Aug 2009
                            • 10116

                            Cause of Greek Fears and Paranoia
                            Risto StefovJanuary 04, 2010
                            What causes Greece´s fear and paranoia? Why does Greece appear to be afraid of the Republic of Macedonia and the Macedonian people? A very interesting question!

                            A relative of mine believes Greece is getting anxious because the year 2013 is soon approaching and like Great Britain, which gave up Hong Kong, Greece will have to give up the 51% of Macedonia it illegally acquired in 1913. Not that he doesn´t know this but I had to remind him that Hong Kong was rented out for 100 years and its lease expired. That´s why Britain had to give it up. But in Macedonia´s case the division was permanent and final, at least according to what I know from history. Besides it was I who started the rumour about the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest expiring. I did this to get some attention for the plight of the Macedonian people living in Greece, especially from the Macedonians from other parts of Macedonia. I even wrote a book about it entitled "Recovering Macedonia Expiration of the Bucharest Treaty of 1913". But as I said the book´s title was intentional to capture peoples´ attention. The Treaty does not expire. Here is what I wrote about it on page 3 of my book;

                            "Even though the title of this book makes reference to the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest expiring, in reality this Treaty has no expiration date.

                            The Treaty of Bucharest is one of the most tragic and significant event in the twenty-eight centuries of Macedonian history. It is the conclusion to a number of preceding bilateral agreements between the Balkan States and an end not only to the Balkan Wars, but also to the many and continuous armed conflicts that took place in Macedonia such as the 1902 Gornodjumajsko uprising, the 1903 Ilinden uprising, the 1908 Young Turk uprising, the so called 1910 and 1911Magareshki assassinations.

                            At the end of all these conflicts the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest was drafted as a means of partitioning the Macedonian territory with intent to eradicate the name "Macedonia" and permanently divide the Macedonian national unity.

                            The desire to see this treaty expire is symbolic and will be used as a means to bring attention to the plight of the Macedonian people and their condition after being divided for almost a century." (Stefou, Chris. Recovering Macedonia Expiration of the Bucharest Treaty of 1913. Toronto: Risto Stefov publications, 2007, page 3)

                            Knowing that the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest does not expire still left us puzzled as to why Greece is behaving so anxiously lately. I have no answers and neither did my relative but that did not stop us from speculating.

                            We agreed that Greece´s fears must be about something we don´t know. But what?

                            Looking at history for the last 100 years from the day Macedonia was illegally invaded, partitioned and annexed by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria in 1912, 1913, in spite of many attempts by the international community to bring these states to accept universal human rights standards, we can see that nothing has been done to address the Macedonian question. In fact every request made of Greece and of Bulgaria to "do something" for the Macedonians living in their respective countries has been ignored. Why? What could Greece and Bulgaria possibly lose by recognizing and giving some basic human rights to a few thousand or even to a few hundred thousand Macedonians? How could these Macedonians be a threat to these large, well established countries, recognized world wide with populations numbering in the tens of millions?

                            I believe, and my relative agrees with me, that we are missing some vital information here, perhaps some secret agreement made by the powers that divided Macedonia and by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. We believe some information contained in these Treaties was kept secret from the general public. We believe the powers that allowed the division and annexation of Macedonia by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria were aware that Macedonians existed. We also know that Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria insisted that Macedonians did not exist. To prove these Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian allegations all you have to do is look at the Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian demographic statistics that these countries produced over the last 100 years about the people living in Macedonia and you will see that all three countries made claims that NO Macedonians were present in Macedonia during those times. That was no accident or coincidence, there were secret agreements made between Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria to keep the Macedonian identity secret and out of the hands of outsiders until they could permanently deal with it.

                            The powers that allowed the division of Macedonia, fortunately for us, did not believe Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria assertion that Macedonians did not exist so a "secret compromise" was reached. The powers, we believe, agreed with Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria that "If no Macedonians surfaced after 100 years of Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian occupation of Macedonia then Macedonia would be theirs permanently. If Macedonians however did surface after 100 years, Macedonia would be given back to them." Serbia lost Macedonia, so at this point it has nothing at stake. Greece and Bulgaria however still occupy Macedonian territories that don´t belong to them and that is why they still insist NO Macedonians exist.



                            Despite Greek and Bulgarian attempts to eradicate the Macedonians, the Macedonian ethnic identity has survived and is now thriving not only in the Republic of Macedonia but also in Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, the USA, Canada, Australia and the world over.

                            No wonder the Greek and Bulgarian governments are feeling anxiety and paranoia.

                            Knowing that Macedonians existed at the time of Macedonia´s invasion, occupation and annexation by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria, the governments of these three countries had to "do something" to eradicate the Macedonian presence.

                            This explains why Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria introduced radical and brutal assimilatory policies and practices that forcibly attempted to assimilate the Macedonian population into their fold. This also explains why Greece was quick to remove every trace of Macedonian presence in the Macedonian territory it occupied from renaming every person, village, town, city, lake, river, mountain, etc., to forcibly expelling, punishing, torturing and murdering those who refused to be Hellenized; not to mention the eradication of Macedonian books and the Macedonian writing on public buildings, cemetery headstones, church icons, etc.

                            This explains why Greece has used every possible measure to remove and eradicate all traces of Macedonia from its territory, including the name "Macedonia", which until yesterday was loathed, and today is cherished by every Greek. This is Greece for you, please get to know it. Get to know it like we the Macedonians who lived and still live there know it!

                            Here is another question for you. If you are still not convinced that Macedonians do exist then please explain how a million or so Macedonians exist today in the Republic of Macedonia when Serbia, less that a century ago, reported that NO Macedonians existed in that very same territory? (A) Did Tito "create" the Macedonians as Greeks readily claim, or, (B) did Serbia lie about its demographics? If you said (A) you are probably a Greek or a Bulgarian with a complex, experiencing high anxiety. If you said (B) you are correct, which should lead you to the next question. If Serbia lied about its demographic what makes you think Greece and Bulgaria didn´t? Of course Greece and Bulgaria did lie! These two countries are not beyond lying when it comes to protecting their interests. And that´s all this is all about, isn´t it?

                            If there are no Macedonians as the Greeks, with no shame, like to claim then why does the Greek government spend so much money on anti-Macedonian propaganda? Just recently another Greek scandal was revealed with headline news that the Greek government bribed Greek journalists to promote anti-Macedonian propaganda. And if those journalists refused to accept bribes they were automatically labeled "traitors", something that notorious nationalist Greeks are known to do. Unfortunately the scandal did not end inside Greece, it apparently "spilled over" into the Republic of Macedonia. There too Greek government money was used to bribe Macedonian journalists to promote anti-Macedonian Greek propaganda.

                            It seems, to me at least, that the Greek government in spite of its money woes has money to spare for producing and spreading propaganda against an enemy it claims does not exist.

                            Another interesting phenomenon about Greece is the amount of money it spent lately on purchasing military equipment; money it doesn´t really have. Did you know that Greece is the 5th biggest purchaser of military equipment in the entire world? What is Greece planning to do with all this expensive state of the art military equipment? Defend itself against the Republic of Macedonia? Or is there something else, something more sinister that Greece knows that we don´t know about? Is Greece, a NATO member and member of the European Union and of every world institution in existence, preparing for war? But with whom, who does Greece see as its enemy?

                            No matter how you look at it Greece´s irrational behaviour defies logic.

                            If we look at Greece from the inside, everyone is an enemy; the Slavs, the Americans, the Turks, you name it. But there is one group that stands out in its xenophobic and bigoted hatred and that is the Macedonian people, the very same people Greece claims do not exist. The sixty-four thousand dollar question here is why does Greece hate the Macedonians so much? What does Greece know that we, the general public, don´t know?
                            "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
                            GOTSE DELCEV

                            Comment

                            • George S.
                              Senior Member
                              • Aug 2009
                              • 10116

                              ]MAKEDONIKI TRADITION IN GREECE
                              Live view is now planned by our Web Tv "Macedonians Tradition" with 1 hours tribute the first "reunion" in Florina Sitara! - Direct broadcast with Web Tv His blog Delivery Macedonians in Greece-Macedonian Culture webTv http:/ / www.livestream.com / aegeanmacedonianculture aege ...
                              Macedonian Abecedar - Reading Makedoniko
                              The Truth About the first reunion in Sitara - * ==== * Direct Broadcast with * Web Tv His blog Delivery Macedonians in Greece - Macedonian Culture webTv * http://www.livestream.com/aegea ...
                              belomorska macedonia
                              Makedoniko nation recognized in 1620 by the Vatican - In 1619, the Dalmatian bishops asked Pope Paul V decide to return to Loreto College, and also provide test positions, ...
                              Ilinden Makedonia
                              The Message of the locals. . . for 100 years by the annexation of Macedonia -
                              "GREEK" ANTIMAKEDONIKOS STRUGGLE
                              Call the newspaper Nova Zora Makedonikis-Nova Zora-Нова Зора (New Dawn), the annual dance of two thousand and twelve то! - The HOVA http://novazora.gr/arhivi/4541 3OPA (NOVA ZORA), Journal of ethnic Macedonians in Greece invites you to the annual dance with the orchestra ...
                              Macedonians in Greece
                              Bridges of dialogue Makedonoellinikou DICTIONARY-presentation in Brussels - Dear readers, users of the Dictionary, the Dictionary of Greek-language Makedonikis is essentially the first comprehensive dictionary of two modern languages ​​...
                              MA.KI.BE
                              GREEK LOGIC - Left: Macedonia is one and is in Greece! Right: Macedonia is a region!
                              Wednesday, November 18, 2009
                              Ethnic Macedonians in Greece
                              Websites in modern Greek:
                              (Use translate.google.com to read in English)
                              (Користете translate.google.com да читате на македонски)
                              Educational and Cultural Movement of Edessa
                              Macedonian Abecedar - Reading Makedoniko
                              MAKEDONIKI TRADITION IN GREECE
                              "GREEK" ANTIMAKEDONIKOS STRUGGLE
                              Belomorska Makedonia
                              Ilinden Makedonia
                              MA.KI.BE-Macedonians Balkan Prosperity Movement
                              Mladini-Makedonci
                              Maknews Forum-Discussions in Greek
                              NovaZora.gr
                              Sites in English :
                              (Користете translate.google.com да читате на македонски)
                              (Use translate.google.com to convert to Greek)
                              European Free Alliance-Rainbow Political Party (Macedonian Minority in Greece)
                              Greek Helsinki Monitor
                              Macedonian Human Rights Movement International (MHRMI)
                              Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC)
                              Maknews Forum
                              Macedonian Truth Organisation (MTO) forum
                              United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD)
                              World Macedonian Congress (WMC)
                              Documents-MK
                              Македонски страници:
                              (Use translate.google.com to convert to Greek)
                              (Use translate.google.com to read in English)
                              Nova Zora (Нова Зора)
                              Mladini-Makedonci Младини-Македонци
                              Posted by mkdgr at 7:59 PM the 4th comments
                              "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
                              GOTSE DELCEV

                              Comment

                              • George S.
                                Senior Member
                                • Aug 2009
                                • 10116

                                The EU Circus: Greece, France, Macedonia and Turkey

                                Ireneusz A. Slupkov, Ph.D. candidate - 1/27/2010

                                Discussion regarding the accession of Macedonia into the European Union was postponed until June 2010. Two countries have delayed this process, the first of course being Greece which cannot accept Macedonia being a member of the EU. Neither can it accept the name ´Macedonia´ nor the Macedonian idenity or language. In other words, everything that has any connotation to ´Macedonia´ and ´Macedonian´ is unacceptable to Greece.

                                The other country that opposes Macedonia by supporting Greece in this endeavour is France.

                                Why is France doing this?

                                Perhaps because Greece has signed a contract to purchase military supplies from France or perhaps because, similar to Greece, France does not recognize minorities in its own territory.

                                What about indigenous minorities like the Alsatians, Basques, Bretons, Catalans, Corsicans and Occitans (Provencals) who today exist in France? Unfortunately all of these national minorities, and the languages they speak, are not formally recognized by France.

                                France, like Greece, has "specialized" in signing but not ratifying resolutions for the protection of minorities and their languages. If there is any doubt as to the existance of minority languages in France, let me remind you that all manifestos written just before and after the great French Revolution of 1789-1799 were written in these so-called local languages.

                                After the Revolution was over authorities withdrew from this linguistic pluralism and took advantage of a single obligatory language and that was ´French´. The methods used to discourage the use of local languages was to make fun of adults and young children who spoke them, a similar method was used by Greece against the Macedonians.

                                Greek State-Promoted Terror and Persecutions

                                In addition to making fun of people, Greek authorities also employed terror tacticts, beatings, imprisonment and expulsion to prevent Macedonians from speaking their native language even on their own native Macedonian territories.

                                This is why these two so-called ´democratic´ countries allied themselves to block Macedonia´s accession into the European Union. Thus the paradox; if other countries are willing to accept Macedonia into the Union they cannot because current EU law allows any single member country to veto and block the other 26. This shows how fragile and abnormal the foundation of this Union is.

                                Can this be called democracy? No, definitely not!

                                This is a dictate of one, or in this case, of two countries dictating to the rest. Also there is little logic in this. In this situation we cannot say all countries are treated equally.

                                This is nothing more than a European circus.

                                The European Union, which does not hesitate to mentor and teach others about democracy and human rights, harbours two countries which care nothing about human rights or democracy, worse, they can´t even be punished for this. New countries with aspirations of joining the European Union and have fulfilled all requirements put before them, for ´some reason´ are being blocked while ´old´ European Union countries, like France and Greece, which have broken every minority law, are not only allowed in, but are treated like the proverbial ´holy cows´.

                                Macedonia

                                Macedonia, the only ex-Yugoslav country in the Balkans able to meet all European standards since 1991, has not been allowed entry into the EU. Macedonia comparing to other Western Balkan's countries is ahead of reforms . Even today, attempt after attempt to gain entry has been obstructed by Greece and all obstructions have been accepted without question by the EU.

                                Where have we ever seen or heard of a situation where a paranoid country like Greece ´forcibly imposed´ a name on a normal country like Macedonia? How is it possible for the majority of democratic European countries to accept and come to terms with such dictates from a small economically and morally bankrupt country like Greece?

                                The Merciless Persecution of Macedonians in Greece

                                A country which after its unlawful seizure of Macedonian territories in 1913 has issued a number of racist laws against its own citizens. A country which after its Civil War in 1949 exiled both Greeks and Macedonians and in 1982 and 1985 allowed only Greeks by birth to return. How long will the EU allow Greece, which does not recognize the 250 thousand strong Macedonian minority living on its territory, a minority already recognized by international organizations, to break European and international laws? When will the fools of Brussels move their heavy bottom and go to Northern Greece and see and hear for themselves the Macedonians living there?

                                When will decision-makers from the EU understand that it is not Macedonia but Greece that is a destabilizing factor in the Balkans? It is not Macedonian but Greek nationalism and the Greek Orthodox Church that inflames other Balkan nationalisms.

                                Fake "Greek History"

                                Another idiotic idea that inflames hatred and nationalism is Greece´s claims of having 4000 years of cultural continuity and being ethnically pure, which are nothing more than a myth. The Greek nation is an artificial creation invented in the XIX century by the Philhellenic English and German fans of Classical Greece. The Greek language is also an artificial creation which survived only because it was a language of Eastern Christianity and not the langauge spoken by the Greek people.

                                In the XIX century the language spoken in Athens, a small Ottoman village, was Albanian, called Arnautian or Arvanitika. The Greek language was revived by academics and taught in schools and in this way it became the official language of the Greek state. These facts are not taught in school.

                                The so-called ´Greek studies´ offered to students are no more than fictional concepts promoting an invented continuity and an invented language. It is enough to read the 19 century memoirs of scientists and travelers in order to learn that they were not able to communicate with the people of Greece in Greek. Macedonia was incorporated into Greece in 1913 against the will of the Macedonian nation which dwelt in these territories from times immemorial.

                                EU support to Turkey's Kurds - but not to Greece's Macedonians

                                Turkey is constantly being accused by the EU for not respecting minority rights, particularly those of the Kurdish people.

                                Why has no one in the EU accused Greece of doing the same with regards to the Turkish and Macedonian minorities living there?

                                Why isn´t criticism directed at Greece?

                                Why this anti-Turkish obsession, not justified by the way, because racism is present in the EU and nobody in Brussels is asking questions about that?

                                There are more liberties for minorities in Turkey than in Greece.

                                It is a result of the very nature of Turkey which was an empire and was comprised of many nations and religions. While Turkey left all Christian Churches intact in its territory, Greece on the other hand after 1915 destroyed all Turkish minarets in the Greek territory.

                                Do Turks from Thrace have guaranteed rights as a minority? No, they, as well as the Macedonians have no minority rights and are discriminated against to no end in Greece. But do you see anyone writing about this, particularly in Europe? No, not at all! And why is Turkey presented in such bad light and not Greece?

                                Greeks living in Istanbul enjoy full religious freedom but not Turks living in Thrace.

                                These people are called Muslims because Greece forbids them to call themselves Turks. This says a lot about how the EU operates and how much member nations like Greece respect the rights of their citizens who cannot call themselves what they are but need to be called as deigned by governments!

                                If we are to speak frankly, Turkey, not Greece, is a stabilizing factor in the Balkans even though a small part of Turkey exists in the Balkans.

                                It seems that political correctness has taken European politicians away from common sense. They look at one thing and call it something else. The EU has taken a dogmatic approach to things like an aparatchik and preposterously dictates instead of using sound logic and reasoning. In theory a EU is a sound idea but it does not practice what it preaches. Instead of being a union governed by citizens, the EU is a union run by nonchalant bureaucrats.

                                Accepting countries like France and Greece which have committed serious human rights violations and imposing unjust conditions on countries like Macedonia will cause that the EU sooner or later, will get the hiccups which it deserves. It is not a union of equal nations. It seems that some are more equal than others in the EU and that is not right.
                                "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
                                GOTSE DELCEV

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