The Macedonian Question did not exist until 1877/78 - the war between Russia and Turkey for the liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule. According to the peace treaty, signed in San Stefano Bulgaria comprising three provinces - Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia was liberated and all the Bulgarian people united in one state. The revision of that treaty which followed at the Berlin Congress divided the new-born state and left Macedonia again under Turkish yoke.
All the foreign diplomats, missionaries and travelers crossing our land at that period were unanimous about the national character of the population of the three above mentioned provinces of Bulgaria - the inhabitants were Bulgarians.
For 30 more years Macedonia remained within the Turkish empire.
In 1912 Bulgaria entered into an alliance with Greece and Serbia against the Turks in order to liberate Macedonia.
The Bulgarian army /1912-1913/ advanced into Turkey and reached the outskirts of Constantinople defeating the Turkish ground forces. At the same time, however, the Greek and Serbian armies occupied Macedonia and divided it between themselves.
Bulgaria joined Germany in World War I in order to liberate Macedonia from the new conquerors - Greece and Serbia but was defeated in the war. Macedonia with its Bulgarian population was divided into three parts: 50% of its territory went to Greece, 40% to Serbia and only 10% to Bulgaria.
After World War I the Bulgarian population in that part of Macedonia which remained in Greece was expelled from the country and over 600 000 Macedono-Bulgarians emigrated to Bulgaria.
In the other part of Macedonia which was incorporated into the Serbian state the Macedonian Bulgarians were officially treated as ,,pure Serbs". All the Bulgarian schools were closed, Bulgarian books were burned, priests and teachers were banned from exercising their profession. The resistance of the Bulgarian population rose and the assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslav in Marseille by Macedono-Bulgarian member of IMRO /Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization/ was the highest point in the struggle for preserving the Bulgarian national identity.
After World War 2 the communist Federal State of Yugoslavia was created including the People's Republic of Macedonia. But what a miracle - the population was not Bulgarian not even ,,pure Serbs" any more but hat turned into ,,Macedonians" overnight! The geographical notion had to be formed according to the plans of the communist rulers in Moscow and their puppets in Belgrade and Skopie.
Our paper on the situation of Bulgarian population in the republic of Macedonia contains facts, figures and names, documenting the constant violation of human rights in that Yugoslav Republic.
Above 1500 scientific works exist, written by foreigners, which prove that the Slavonic population inhabiting Macedonia identifies itself as Bulgarians, and the concepts Bulgarian and Macedonian overlap and are equal in meaning. That basic tmth is suppressed and concealed by the authorities in Athens and Skopje nowadays. According to the official Turkish statistics from the year 1900, there were 1,181,336 Bulgarians, 28,702 Greeks and 700 Serbs in Macedonia. In 1912. in Vardar Macedonia existed 761 churches with 6 bishops, 833 priests, and 641 Bulgarian schools with 1013 teachers and 37,000 students. In Aegean Macedonia there were 378 Bulgarian churches with 300 priests, and 340 Bulgarian schools with 750 teachers and 19,000 students.
In 1912-1913 the Greek troops entered Aegean Macedonia as conquerors, although their history textbooks spoke about "liberation of Macedonia". These troops undertook a systematic ethnic cleansing of the conquered territories. In this respect, they preceded the Serbian racists in their actions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bulgarian people are hardly aware of the way the Greek Army liberated" Macedonia. In that respect, however, there are international documents testifying that the Greek troops, on their way into Macedonia, were not considered liberators at all. In the face of the Bulgarian population there they saw an alien people, and they behaved as occupiers to it.
On the explicit order of the newly crowned Greek King Konstantine, the town of Kukush was set on fire. In the villages of the same district 4725 Bulgarian houses were burnt down (Report of the Bulgarian Commission, p. 315). The Bulgarian houses were burnt in the villages of Negovan, Ravna, Bogorod; in the Doyran vilayet 11 villages were burnt, in Demir Hisar - 5 villages were burnt, in Seres district 5 villages were burnt, and in Gevgely region - 15 villages were burnt, etc.
According to the final data of the Commission, the Greeks had set on fire 161 Bulgarian villages with a total of 16,000 houses (see p. 315 of the above mentioned report). The population was subjected to all possible violence in order to proclaim itself Greek. All Regulations of the occupational Greek troops were published in Greek, Turkish and Jewish. Bulgarian language did not exist. The Bulgarian population was compelled to sign declarations claiming it was Greek since ancient times, but called itself ,,Bulgarian" under the influence of the Bulgarian propaganda. Other declarations claimed that up till 1903 all were Greeks but since 1903-1906 they were forced by the Bulgarian commits to claim themselves Bulgarians. Both theses ended with the same declaration that now the liberating Greek Army had come, the population wanted to receive the benevolence of ,,our great Orthodox Greek church". The Greek eusons played the role of ,,apostles" and converted the villagers with the help of the bayonets. As an example can serve the villages in the region of Kostour: Gabresh, Drenoveni, Chernovitsa, Turie, Zagoricheni, Dambeni. In the villages of Breznitsa, Gorno and Doino Nestrame all the village people were put to prison and then where released after having proclaimed themselves Greeks (p. 197). The Muhammadans from the village of Cherveny were also proclaimed Greeks, although they spoke Bulgarian, and not Greek (p. 198).
The Greek Army entered Voden in October 18-31. Ten days later the population was told: "Your tongues will be cut off if you speak Bulgarian." The property of the villagers was taken away. The churches and the schools were closed down. The Slavonic inscriptions were erased; the priests were beaten and expelled. All people of public power in the villages of Veshtitsa, Tsrmarinovi, Piskopia, and Arsen were arrested. They were told "if you want to be free, say that you are Greeks" (p. 199).
As soon as the Second Balkan War broke out, over 200 Bulgarians from that region - priests, teachers, eminent figures and wealthy people - were arrested and sent to Salonica after assaults. In the beginning of July the whole population was compelled to sign the following declaration:
"Threatened by the rebels and under the influence of the Exarchate propaganda, we became Bulgarians. Now we profess the true faith and proclaim our Hellenic nationality."
The conduct of the Turkish Army on the territory of Aegean Macedonia was in no way different in its attitude towards the Bulgarians.
In its comprehensive report comprising 410 pages, the authoritative international commission established by the Carnegie Endowment for studying the reasons for conducting the Balkan Wars presented ample and incontestable evidence for the ethnic cleansing and assaults done by the Greek Army on the territory of Macedonia which was ,,liberated", by them. Appendix No 51, p. 307 (in the English issue) presents 28 letters sent by Greek soldiers who did their military service in the 19th Regiment of the Seventh Greek Division. These letters were meant to be sent to the soldiers' families but the post was captured and so these letters became evidence for the Commission of Inquiry. Below are given some excerpts from such letters:
Letter No3
Attn. Mr. Sotir Papanidou, distr. Itinou, Trikala Reka Nesto, 12 July 1913
"Here, in Rondu (Brodi) I took as captives five Bulgarians and a girl from Seres... I killed the girl. And I gouged the eyes of the Bulgarians while they were still alive".
Letter No5
The Bulgarian border, 11 July 1913
"Dear brother Mitso,... we put to fire every Bulgarian village from Seres to the border...".
Letter No9
Attn. Mr. Zaharia Kalivanis
"We put to fire every Bulgarian village we occupied, and we killed all Bulgarians we met".
Letter No11
The Bulgarian border, 12 July 1913
"Even the cats could not escape wherever we passed. We put to fire every Bulgarian village on our way".
Letter No13
Mr. Demetrius Tsigarida, Hipati Fitiotis
"I was given 16 captives to take to the division. And I bought there only two of them. I killed the rest in the darkness".
Letter No15
Attn. Georgi Karka, 1st Dept. Sanitary Corps, 9th Division, Argiroastro - Epir, 12 July 1913
Dear brother Georgi,
"On the King's orders, we put to fire every Bulgarian village. We rape every Bulgarian woman we meet".
Letter No16
Mr. Arisidi Tanasia Kampiati,
Municipality of Antama, Trikala, Thessalia, 14 July 1913
"We put the villages to fire and we kill the Bulgarians - women and children".
Letter No23
Anastas Patros, Independent Regiment of Crates 12th Company
"We had a small combat near Strouma with refugees from Kukush and Lahna. Our guns smashed them into pieces on their way". (while they were running away - author's note).
In conclusion, the International Commission claimed:
"The documents in the possession of the Commission allow to state that there has been a policy of assimilation of the Bulgarian population in Southern Macedonia. The methods of assimilation and physical extinction have been applied systematically and without any humanness" (p. 186).
The Chasing of Macedonain Bulgarians After 1919
After the Nei treaty was signed in 1919, according to article 56 of the same agreement Bulgaria was forced to sign the convention for free repatriation . The protocols, signed in Geneva in September 1924, in which the Bulgarian minority in Greece was placed under the supervision of the United Nations, could not be executed, because the Greek Parliament did not ratify them. An intensive chasing of the Bulgarians from Aegean Macedonia started. Ruthless terror and slaughtering of Bulgarian population took place. For example, in 1924 the Greek officer Doksaniks gave orders for the 19 local villagers, captured and brought to the district administration in the town of Ser, to be shot oh the road between Turnlis and Gorno Brodi. That was followed by countless executions of Bulgarians, refusing to be expatriated to Bulgaria. We will not mention all of the cases, because this shall be done in addition. We would like only to stress the fact that the blood of the Macedonian Bulgarians was shed again during the Greek Civil War (1945-1949).
Our compatriots became victims of the Greek Communist Party, that was manipulating and lying to our compatriots that it would recognize their minority status, if they fought on its side.
This manipulation was done in full coordination with the bolshevik governors of Skopje and Belgrade - Aleksandar Rankovich, Milovan Djilas, Lazar Kolishevski, Tzvetko Uzunov, Michajlo Apostolski and Paskal Mitrevski. On October 14th, 1946 they stated the password ,,Now you will go down (to Aegean Macedonia). The leader of your struggle will be the Greek Communist Party". This party got down to work and organized by force the whole Bulgarian population till the end of 1947. The ones, born in 1930-1931, were also mobilized to fight in the war, although they had not yet reached 17 years. In 1948 that party mobilized the whole population - men and women in the so called assisting units for digging trenches, fortifications etc., e.g. total mobilization of the whole population of Aegean Macedonia was carried out. The blood of our compatriots was ruthlessly shed for the accomplishment of foreign ideals. They were told that their national rights would be recognized.
This war took 30 to 40 victims from every village. The total number of Macedonian victims was 20000 persons. The supreme commander was the commander of the partisans Markos who said to the ,,Epikera" newspaper journalist: ,,We kill Slavs to keep Macedonia in Greece". His statement provided him with a visa for his return to Greece (see ,,New Macedonia" newspaper from February 25th, 1992). In September 1988 the Secretary General of the Greek Communist Party said in Thessaloniki that for the Greek Communist Party there is no Macedonian minority in Greece.
According to Greek Encyclopedia (Athens 1934), volume 1, page 405 and volume 16, page 532, on the basis of the Nei Treaty, the Kalafov-Politis protocol and the Molotov-Kafandaris Treaty from 1928, during the period 1913-1932 72000 Macedonian Bulgarians were resettled from Aegean Macedonia. That is only one part of the deported population. According to the Sever Treaty Greece has assumed the following international obligations concerning the minority groups in Greece:
a) Equality regarding the other nations in the field of protection of life, freedom, civil and political rights.
b) Free use of mother tongue, other than Greek, in the private and public life.
c) Right to their own humanitarian organizations, churches, schools.
d) the Government of the state in question must provide education in their language.
According to volume 10, page 405 of the same Encyclopedia from 1928 as a result of the accommodation of the Greek immigrants from Asia Minor, the composition of the population in Aegean Macedonia was changed and was reduced to 81 000 Slav speaking persons in the districts of Voden, Lerin, Kostour and Kozani. According to the Manual of the Greek Statistical Bureau from 1934, 81 984 persons speaking Slav language lived in Greece and 16 775 - speaking Bulgarian. These numbers were used to show the loyalty of the obligations assumed by Article 7 of the Sever Treaty, according to which the country is obliged to provide civil and political rights of the Greek citizens irrespective of their nationality or religion. In order to mislead the international organizations the Greek Ministry of education gave orders to a commission to publish a primer book for Macedonian children, named Abecedar. The book was written with Latin letters, using the dialect of Lerin-Bittolya. It remained only an unfinished project, because the obligatory education in Greek language was introduced in the schools.
On October 11, 1930 the Greek Prime Minister Elefteros Vanizelos made the following statement:
Of course, these were only words and actions to mislead the foreigners.
And the reality was:
1. ,,Eliniki Makedoniki Pigmi" - organization, fighting against Bulgarians. On January 26-27, 1926 the organization published the following regulation: ,,As from today we ban the use of Bulgarian dialect in allpublic places, in institutions, in trade relations, on meetings and gatherings, on festivities, receptions, weddings, etc. We order that the Greek language be spoken in all above stated cases. Police officers, authorities and governmental officials are not to speak with citizens in any other language but Greek".
2. During the dictatorship of Metaxas a law was passed that forbids the use of the dialect that's the way Bulgarian language was called. Here is an example:
The public prosecutor in the village of Kato Idzura (Doino Kotari), based on the Articles 143-145 of the Criminal procedures, summons Georgus Jovanis Mitrusis, citizen of Polipotamos village (Nere) to appear personally in the court hall on May 15th, 1939, Monday, at 9.00 A.M., to be put on trial because on February 19, this year was caught speaking with another person in Slav language - thus violating Article 697 of the Criminal Law and in reference to the instruction of the police No. 15/36. In case the person named above doesn't come he will be tried in absentia. During the period 1936-1940 about 5 250 Macedonian Bulgarians were prosecuted for using Bulgarian language on public places.
3. On September 9th, 1946 the commander of the National Guard in the village of Polipotamos issued the following announcement:
4. In the Aegean Macedonian schools the students, using Bulgarian language are punished as following:
All the foreign diplomats, missionaries and travelers crossing our land at that period were unanimous about the national character of the population of the three above mentioned provinces of Bulgaria - the inhabitants were Bulgarians.
For 30 more years Macedonia remained within the Turkish empire.
In 1912 Bulgaria entered into an alliance with Greece and Serbia against the Turks in order to liberate Macedonia.
The Bulgarian army /1912-1913/ advanced into Turkey and reached the outskirts of Constantinople defeating the Turkish ground forces. At the same time, however, the Greek and Serbian armies occupied Macedonia and divided it between themselves.
Bulgaria joined Germany in World War I in order to liberate Macedonia from the new conquerors - Greece and Serbia but was defeated in the war. Macedonia with its Bulgarian population was divided into three parts: 50% of its territory went to Greece, 40% to Serbia and only 10% to Bulgaria.
After World War I the Bulgarian population in that part of Macedonia which remained in Greece was expelled from the country and over 600 000 Macedono-Bulgarians emigrated to Bulgaria.
In the other part of Macedonia which was incorporated into the Serbian state the Macedonian Bulgarians were officially treated as ,,pure Serbs". All the Bulgarian schools were closed, Bulgarian books were burned, priests and teachers were banned from exercising their profession. The resistance of the Bulgarian population rose and the assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslav in Marseille by Macedono-Bulgarian member of IMRO /Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization/ was the highest point in the struggle for preserving the Bulgarian national identity.
After World War 2 the communist Federal State of Yugoslavia was created including the People's Republic of Macedonia. But what a miracle - the population was not Bulgarian not even ,,pure Serbs" any more but hat turned into ,,Macedonians" overnight! The geographical notion had to be formed according to the plans of the communist rulers in Moscow and their puppets in Belgrade and Skopie.
Our paper on the situation of Bulgarian population in the republic of Macedonia contains facts, figures and names, documenting the constant violation of human rights in that Yugoslav Republic.
Above 1500 scientific works exist, written by foreigners, which prove that the Slavonic population inhabiting Macedonia identifies itself as Bulgarians, and the concepts Bulgarian and Macedonian overlap and are equal in meaning. That basic tmth is suppressed and concealed by the authorities in Athens and Skopje nowadays. According to the official Turkish statistics from the year 1900, there were 1,181,336 Bulgarians, 28,702 Greeks and 700 Serbs in Macedonia. In 1912. in Vardar Macedonia existed 761 churches with 6 bishops, 833 priests, and 641 Bulgarian schools with 1013 teachers and 37,000 students. In Aegean Macedonia there were 378 Bulgarian churches with 300 priests, and 340 Bulgarian schools with 750 teachers and 19,000 students.
In 1912-1913 the Greek troops entered Aegean Macedonia as conquerors, although their history textbooks spoke about "liberation of Macedonia". These troops undertook a systematic ethnic cleansing of the conquered territories. In this respect, they preceded the Serbian racists in their actions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bulgarian people are hardly aware of the way the Greek Army liberated" Macedonia. In that respect, however, there are international documents testifying that the Greek troops, on their way into Macedonia, were not considered liberators at all. In the face of the Bulgarian population there they saw an alien people, and they behaved as occupiers to it.
On the explicit order of the newly crowned Greek King Konstantine, the town of Kukush was set on fire. In the villages of the same district 4725 Bulgarian houses were burnt down (Report of the Bulgarian Commission, p. 315). The Bulgarian houses were burnt in the villages of Negovan, Ravna, Bogorod; in the Doyran vilayet 11 villages were burnt, in Demir Hisar - 5 villages were burnt, in Seres district 5 villages were burnt, and in Gevgely region - 15 villages were burnt, etc.
According to the final data of the Commission, the Greeks had set on fire 161 Bulgarian villages with a total of 16,000 houses (see p. 315 of the above mentioned report). The population was subjected to all possible violence in order to proclaim itself Greek. All Regulations of the occupational Greek troops were published in Greek, Turkish and Jewish. Bulgarian language did not exist. The Bulgarian population was compelled to sign declarations claiming it was Greek since ancient times, but called itself ,,Bulgarian" under the influence of the Bulgarian propaganda. Other declarations claimed that up till 1903 all were Greeks but since 1903-1906 they were forced by the Bulgarian commits to claim themselves Bulgarians. Both theses ended with the same declaration that now the liberating Greek Army had come, the population wanted to receive the benevolence of ,,our great Orthodox Greek church". The Greek eusons played the role of ,,apostles" and converted the villagers with the help of the bayonets. As an example can serve the villages in the region of Kostour: Gabresh, Drenoveni, Chernovitsa, Turie, Zagoricheni, Dambeni. In the villages of Breznitsa, Gorno and Doino Nestrame all the village people were put to prison and then where released after having proclaimed themselves Greeks (p. 197). The Muhammadans from the village of Cherveny were also proclaimed Greeks, although they spoke Bulgarian, and not Greek (p. 198).
The Greek Army entered Voden in October 18-31. Ten days later the population was told: "Your tongues will be cut off if you speak Bulgarian." The property of the villagers was taken away. The churches and the schools were closed down. The Slavonic inscriptions were erased; the priests were beaten and expelled. All people of public power in the villages of Veshtitsa, Tsrmarinovi, Piskopia, and Arsen were arrested. They were told "if you want to be free, say that you are Greeks" (p. 199).
As soon as the Second Balkan War broke out, over 200 Bulgarians from that region - priests, teachers, eminent figures and wealthy people - were arrested and sent to Salonica after assaults. In the beginning of July the whole population was compelled to sign the following declaration:
"Threatened by the rebels and under the influence of the Exarchate propaganda, we became Bulgarians. Now we profess the true faith and proclaim our Hellenic nationality."
The conduct of the Turkish Army on the territory of Aegean Macedonia was in no way different in its attitude towards the Bulgarians.
In its comprehensive report comprising 410 pages, the authoritative international commission established by the Carnegie Endowment for studying the reasons for conducting the Balkan Wars presented ample and incontestable evidence for the ethnic cleansing and assaults done by the Greek Army on the territory of Macedonia which was ,,liberated", by them. Appendix No 51, p. 307 (in the English issue) presents 28 letters sent by Greek soldiers who did their military service in the 19th Regiment of the Seventh Greek Division. These letters were meant to be sent to the soldiers' families but the post was captured and so these letters became evidence for the Commission of Inquiry. Below are given some excerpts from such letters:
Letter No3
Attn. Mr. Sotir Papanidou, distr. Itinou, Trikala Reka Nesto, 12 July 1913
"Here, in Rondu (Brodi) I took as captives five Bulgarians and a girl from Seres... I killed the girl. And I gouged the eyes of the Bulgarians while they were still alive".
Sincerely yours, Kosta
Letter No5
The Bulgarian border, 11 July 1913
"Dear brother Mitso,... we put to fire every Bulgarian village from Seres to the border...".
Jonnah Hristo Tsigaridis
Letter No9
Attn. Mr. Zaharia Kalivanis
"We put to fire every Bulgarian village we occupied, and we killed all Bulgarians we met".
S. Z. Kalivanis
Letter No11
The Bulgarian border, 12 July 1913
"Even the cats could not escape wherever we passed. We put to fire every Bulgarian village on our way".
Your loving brother: corp. George
Letter No13
Mr. Demetrius Tsigarida, Hipati Fitiotis
"I was given 16 captives to take to the division. And I bought there only two of them. I killed the rest in the darkness".
Niko Theofilados
Letter No15
Attn. Georgi Karka, 1st Dept. Sanitary Corps, 9th Division, Argiroastro - Epir, 12 July 1913
Dear brother Georgi,
"On the King's orders, we put to fire every Bulgarian village. We rape every Bulgarian woman we meet".
Regards, Nikos Zarvas
Letter No16
Mr. Arisidi Tanasia Kampiati,
Municipality of Antama, Trikala, Thessalia, 14 July 1913
"We put the villages to fire and we kill the Bulgarians - women and children".
Anastas Patros
Letter No23
Anastas Patros, Independent Regiment of Crates 12th Company
"We had a small combat near Strouma with refugees from Kukush and Lahna. Our guns smashed them into pieces on their way". (while they were running away - author's note).
Anastas Patros
In conclusion, the International Commission claimed:
"The documents in the possession of the Commission allow to state that there has been a policy of assimilation of the Bulgarian population in Southern Macedonia. The methods of assimilation and physical extinction have been applied systematically and without any humanness" (p. 186).
The Chasing of Macedonain Bulgarians After 1919
After the Nei treaty was signed in 1919, according to article 56 of the same agreement Bulgaria was forced to sign the convention for free repatriation . The protocols, signed in Geneva in September 1924, in which the Bulgarian minority in Greece was placed under the supervision of the United Nations, could not be executed, because the Greek Parliament did not ratify them. An intensive chasing of the Bulgarians from Aegean Macedonia started. Ruthless terror and slaughtering of Bulgarian population took place. For example, in 1924 the Greek officer Doksaniks gave orders for the 19 local villagers, captured and brought to the district administration in the town of Ser, to be shot oh the road between Turnlis and Gorno Brodi. That was followed by countless executions of Bulgarians, refusing to be expatriated to Bulgaria. We will not mention all of the cases, because this shall be done in addition. We would like only to stress the fact that the blood of the Macedonian Bulgarians was shed again during the Greek Civil War (1945-1949).
Our compatriots became victims of the Greek Communist Party, that was manipulating and lying to our compatriots that it would recognize their minority status, if they fought on its side.
This manipulation was done in full coordination with the bolshevik governors of Skopje and Belgrade - Aleksandar Rankovich, Milovan Djilas, Lazar Kolishevski, Tzvetko Uzunov, Michajlo Apostolski and Paskal Mitrevski. On October 14th, 1946 they stated the password ,,Now you will go down (to Aegean Macedonia). The leader of your struggle will be the Greek Communist Party". This party got down to work and organized by force the whole Bulgarian population till the end of 1947. The ones, born in 1930-1931, were also mobilized to fight in the war, although they had not yet reached 17 years. In 1948 that party mobilized the whole population - men and women in the so called assisting units for digging trenches, fortifications etc., e.g. total mobilization of the whole population of Aegean Macedonia was carried out. The blood of our compatriots was ruthlessly shed for the accomplishment of foreign ideals. They were told that their national rights would be recognized.
This war took 30 to 40 victims from every village. The total number of Macedonian victims was 20000 persons. The supreme commander was the commander of the partisans Markos who said to the ,,Epikera" newspaper journalist: ,,We kill Slavs to keep Macedonia in Greece". His statement provided him with a visa for his return to Greece (see ,,New Macedonia" newspaper from February 25th, 1992). In September 1988 the Secretary General of the Greek Communist Party said in Thessaloniki that for the Greek Communist Party there is no Macedonian minority in Greece.
According to Greek Encyclopedia (Athens 1934), volume 1, page 405 and volume 16, page 532, on the basis of the Nei Treaty, the Kalafov-Politis protocol and the Molotov-Kafandaris Treaty from 1928, during the period 1913-1932 72000 Macedonian Bulgarians were resettled from Aegean Macedonia. That is only one part of the deported population. According to the Sever Treaty Greece has assumed the following international obligations concerning the minority groups in Greece:
a) Equality regarding the other nations in the field of protection of life, freedom, civil and political rights.
b) Free use of mother tongue, other than Greek, in the private and public life.
c) Right to their own humanitarian organizations, churches, schools.
d) the Government of the state in question must provide education in their language.
According to volume 10, page 405 of the same Encyclopedia from 1928 as a result of the accommodation of the Greek immigrants from Asia Minor, the composition of the population in Aegean Macedonia was changed and was reduced to 81 000 Slav speaking persons in the districts of Voden, Lerin, Kostour and Kozani. According to the Manual of the Greek Statistical Bureau from 1934, 81 984 persons speaking Slav language lived in Greece and 16 775 - speaking Bulgarian. These numbers were used to show the loyalty of the obligations assumed by Article 7 of the Sever Treaty, according to which the country is obliged to provide civil and political rights of the Greek citizens irrespective of their nationality or religion. In order to mislead the international organizations the Greek Ministry of education gave orders to a commission to publish a primer book for Macedonian children, named Abecedar. The book was written with Latin letters, using the dialect of Lerin-Bittolya. It remained only an unfinished project, because the obligatory education in Greek language was introduced in the schools.
On October 11, 1930 the Greek Prime Minister Elefteros Vanizelos made the following statement:
"The issue of the Macedonian minority in Greece will be solved and I will be the first in Greece, who will engage himself to open of Macedonian schools if that is requested by the people".
Of course, these were only words and actions to mislead the foreigners.
And the reality was:
1. ,,Eliniki Makedoniki Pigmi" - organization, fighting against Bulgarians. On January 26-27, 1926 the organization published the following regulation: ,,As from today we ban the use of Bulgarian dialect in allpublic places, in institutions, in trade relations, on meetings and gatherings, on festivities, receptions, weddings, etc. We order that the Greek language be spoken in all above stated cases. Police officers, authorities and governmental officials are not to speak with citizens in any other language but Greek".
2. During the dictatorship of Metaxas a law was passed that forbids the use of the dialect that's the way Bulgarian language was called. Here is an example:
The public prosecutor in the village of Kato Idzura (Doino Kotari), based on the Articles 143-145 of the Criminal procedures, summons Georgus Jovanis Mitrusis, citizen of Polipotamos village (Nere) to appear personally in the court hall on May 15th, 1939, Monday, at 9.00 A.M., to be put on trial because on February 19, this year was caught speaking with another person in Slav language - thus violating Article 697 of the Criminal Law and in reference to the instruction of the police No. 15/36. In case the person named above doesn't come he will be tried in absentia. During the period 1936-1940 about 5 250 Macedonian Bulgarians were prosecuted for using Bulgarian language on public places.
3. On September 9th, 1946 the commander of the National Guard in the village of Polipotamos issued the following announcement:
"As from today I most strictly forbid all of the citizens from age of 2 to 50 years to use any other language but Greek."
4. In the Aegean Macedonian schools the students, using Bulgarian language are punished as following:
- by pricking on the tongue with needle
- by taking by force of castor-oil
- by feeding by force with salted fish, salted herring, after which the drinking of water is not permitted
5. The Greek newspaper ,,Katimerini" from August 11th 1959 stated: ,,A celebration was held out in the village of Atropos (Karpeshina, - Lerin), at which the inhabitants gave an oath that they will not speak any more in their Slav dialect in the future."
6. ,,Elenikos Voras" newspaper from August 11th, 1959 informed of the same ,,event":
,,The inhabitants of Atrapos - men, women and children by raising their right hand repeated the oath which was read by the mayor:
I promise before God, the people, and official state authorities that from today I shall stop speaking the Slav dialect, which only serves as a motive for incorrect interpretation by our enemies, the Bulgarians, and that always and everywhere I shall speak only the official language of my fatherland, the Greek language in which the Holy Bible of our Jesus Christ was written."
These reports were published also in the following Greek newspapers: ,,Elinikos Voras" Thessaloniki, 4.8.1959; ,,Vima" - Athens, 78.7.1959; ,,Elpheteria" - Athens, 7.7.1959; Elinikos Voras, 8.8.1959.
The persecution of the Bulgarian language was the priority task. But other activities of Bulgarian national consciousness were also persecuted:
1. Prohibition for the use of local folk dances
Stohos newspaper, 16 .4.1987:
"We made a list of all persons, singing in a dialect (e.g. Bulgarian) at fairs, weddings, etc. Do not sing in another language or „ idiom " but Greek, because you will curse the day you were born. "
Stohos newspaper - 21.8.1986:
"The perfect danced in the rhythm of horo on the sounds ,,Free Macedonia" and,,Eleno, girl, Eleno" is mentioned that on Ascension Day in the village of Atrapos the perfect danced ring dance in the rhythm of Macedonian Slav Songs and appeals as follows: Speaking and singing on any other language but Greek is not allowed. Cut their tongues off so we can save Greece".
Mahitis newspaper - 6.8.1987:
"There was a wedding with folk music in the village of Melitis (Vostarevo). Four cars with members of KIP (Greek Intelligence) blocked the wedding from all sides and recorded the music sind the speaking of the wedding".
Stohos newspaper - 5.7.1990:
"In the information about the wedding of the granddaughter of Kostidis (Kacibanov) the newspaper is fascinated that this was the only wedding on which Slav songs were not sung".
Destroying the graves of the local population
With the aim to wipe out any evidence for the existence of Slav minority the newspaper ,,Stohos" from 13.08.1987 writes:
"Search well around and whenever you see in a village or in a city a grave with Slav idols - destroy it! Do not be afraid. If someone tries to stop you tell him that the nation has ordered it. Place Greece, Orthodoxy and the Armed Forces in your hearts! You are Greek! Do not forget it".
Depravity of Other Rights
From an article in ,,Ta Moglena" newspaper, May-June 1989 can be clearly seen which other rights the local population was deprived. The article is published under heading ,,Why".
- Why files with our /Slavonic/ names are opened every day;
- Why they part us and do not promote us on important posts?;
- Why the Macedonians do not reached the ranks of ,,general"?;
- Why Macedonians are not promoted for Secretary General and Prefects Macedonian?;
- Why they do not become Macedonian Bishops or priests?;
- Why recently there is a tremendous exile and the Macedonian employees are moved from their offices?
Referring this it gives the local country men the following advice: ,,To be able to keep yourself you have to be informed. If you see ,,BMW" or Mercedes cars stopped in front the cafe you have to know that these are the gorillas of KIP and EUP /Intelligence services of Greece/, so be careful what you speak in this cafe".
Arbitrary Depravitation of Property
In the first issue and unfortunately the last one of the published in Greek ,,Zora" newspaper from October 1993 (an attempt for publishing a paper for protection of Bulgarian population in Lerin region) there is an article ,,Inquire of the Minister of Finance and Agriculture" in which the fact is revealed that about 300 ha of land belonging to the ,,St. Pantaleimon" community is distributed without any lawful grounds among Greeks coming from USSR (Pontian Greeks). At the meeting between the countrymen and the Lerin prefect they received the following astonishing answer: ,,Let them take not only your land but your houses as well and I will do nothing because these people - citizens ofVetora village are Pontian Greeks andyou are Slavofons. Go to search your rights in Skopje and Sofia".
,,Niki" newspaper from 9.3.1946 published an article under the title: ,,Let the terror against Slavo-Macedonians stop" : "So, with the arrival of the National Guard in our District, more than three thousand Slavo-Macedonians were arrested. Over one thousand were brought into court with the stereotype accusation of being member of the OHRANA and most of them were sentenced to death, long term imprisonment and confiscation of property.
Over 500 rotted in the four jails in Florina, Casandra and Salonica. More than four thousand persecuted and terrorized abandoned their homes and families and were forced to run abroad. Many families in Banica, Aminteo and others were thrown out of their homes. The property of hundreds of families was confiscated. The chasing squadrons hounded the Slavo-Macedonians. They were arrested without a reason, were tortured until they were unconscious and then loaded on mules were taken to the prisons. Whole villages like Rigono, Oksia, Nanica, Setina, Trijantafilija and others were thrown in the jails and brought into courts for cooperation with the Bulgarians."
Anti-Bulgarian Law Regulations and Decrees
Several more important acts, depriving the citizens of Aegean Macedonia of Greek citizenship and property during the years 1946-1949.
1. Decree No.LZ/47 from 1947 with headline: ,,To deprive of Greek citizenship persons who act anti-nationally". By this decision all persons, supporting ,,the Democratic army of the Greek Communist party" were deprived of Greek citizenship.
2. Decree M/48 with legal power from January 198 for "confiscation of the entire or part of the property of the participants in the guerilla war and their assistants".
3. Decree No.48 from April 1948 for "losing property due to anti-state activities".
In the following years many decrees were passed, such as Nos. 944, 258, 800 from April 3 and July 20th 1951, for the application of Decree No.976/46 for repatriation of the persons, living near the borders. Later new laws were adopted, because these were considered insufficient.
The Official Denationalization Policy
According to the denationalization policy, adopted in 1913, the use of Macedonian names was forbidden. The names received the typical Greek endings or were changed entirely. The use of the word ,,macedonian" was forbidden in order to avoid the possibility for claiming another ethnocultural identity than the Greek one.
Renaming Towns and Villages
Until several years ago Aegean Macedonia was officially called "Northern Greece" and only since August 1988 in the existing new circumstances has adopted the name ,,Macedonia". In the Greek state newspaper ,,Efimeriostis Kivemistos", issue 332 from November 21,1926 was published the law for obligatory change of the names of all of the villages and the towns, as well as the names of the rivers, mountains and regions. That way 588 towns and villages received names totally different from the Slav names that had existed for more than 12 centuries. The perfidious purpose of that action was the family memory to be razed to the ground.
Genocide of Macedonain Children
The Struggle Against the Bulgarian Church
There were 378 Bulgarian churches with 300 priests in Aegean Macedonia. Enemy No.1 of the fighting Greek phanariots was the Bulgarian Orthodox church. The leading role played by the Greek church in winning the so-called "Macedonian Struggle" was stated above.
As early as July 31 1913, the Governor of Kostour invited the Head of the Bulgarian Orthodox church and all priests and told them about the Greek Government order that they were to leave Greek territory within 48 hours. The expelled priests, all born in Macedonia, were presented with a document which stated that they were returning to Bulgaria because they were Bulgarians. ,,There cannot be Bulgarians in Greek Macedonia! any more" /,,Report..... " p.199/
On July 3 and 4 1913, 200 Bulgarian priests and teachers were arrested and sent to the Thessaloniki prison. On June 30 the last Bulgarian church was confiscated and occupied. All icons of ,,St. Cyril and Metodius" were either burnt or covered with manure. Most of the priests were sent in exile on various Greek islands. Their ups and downs are described in the ,,Mir" newspaper from October 30 1913 /,,Report....... " p.199/
At present there are no Bulgarian churches in Macedonia and no place where a divine service is carried in Bulgarian. It is made clear below what is the attitude of the Greek state towards any attempt to deliver Gods words in the local Slavo Bulgarian language.
Arbitrary Depravitation of Property
In the first issue and unfortunately the last one of the published in Greek ,,Zora" newspaper from October 1993 (an attempt for publishing a paper for protection of Bulgarian population in Lerin region) there is an article ,,Inquire of the Minister of Finance and Agriculture" in which the fact is revealed that about 300 ha of land belonging to the ,,St. Pantaleimon" community is distributed without any lawful grounds among Greeks coming from USSR (Pontian Greeks). At the meeting between the countrymen and the Lerin prefect they received the following astonishing answer: ,,Let them take not only your land but your houses as well and I will do nothing because these people - citizens ofVetora village are Pontian Greeks andyou are Slavofons. Go to search your rights in Skopje and Sofia".
,,Niki" newspaper from 9.3.1946 published an article under the title: ,,Let the terror against Slavo-Macedonians stop" : "So, with the arrival of the National Guard in our District, more than three thousand Slavo-Macedonians were arrested. Over one thousand were brought into court with the stereotype accusation of being member of the OHRANA and most of them were sentenced to death, long term imprisonment and confiscation of property.
Over 500 rotted in the four jails in Florina, Casandra and Salonica. More than four thousand persecuted and terrorized abandoned their homes and families and were forced to run abroad. Many families in Banica, Aminteo and others were thrown out of their homes. The property of hundreds of families was confiscated. The chasing squadrons hounded the Slavo-Macedonians. They were arrested without a reason, were tortured until they were unconscious and then loaded on mules were taken to the prisons. Whole villages like Rigono, Oksia, Nanica, Setina, Trijantafilija and others were thrown in the jails and brought into courts for cooperation with the Bulgarians."
Anti-Bulgarian Law Regulations and Decrees
Several more important acts, depriving the citizens of Aegean Macedonia of Greek citizenship and property during the years 1946-1949.
1. Decree No.LZ/47 from 1947 with headline: ,,To deprive of Greek citizenship persons who act anti-nationally". By this decision all persons, supporting ,,the Democratic army of the Greek Communist party" were deprived of Greek citizenship.
2. Decree M/48 with legal power from January 198 for "confiscation of the entire or part of the property of the participants in the guerilla war and their assistants".
3. Decree No.48 from April 1948 for "losing property due to anti-state activities".
In the following years many decrees were passed, such as Nos. 944, 258, 800 from April 3 and July 20th 1951, for the application of Decree No.976/46 for repatriation of the persons, living near the borders. Later new laws were adopted, because these were considered insufficient.
The Official Denationalization Policy
According to the denationalization policy, adopted in 1913, the use of Macedonian names was forbidden. The names received the typical Greek endings or were changed entirely. The use of the word ,,macedonian" was forbidden in order to avoid the possibility for claiming another ethnocultural identity than the Greek one.
Renaming Towns and Villages
Until several years ago Aegean Macedonia was officially called "Northern Greece" and only since August 1988 in the existing new circumstances has adopted the name ,,Macedonia". In the Greek state newspaper ,,Efimeriostis Kivemistos", issue 332 from November 21,1926 was published the law for obligatory change of the names of all of the villages and the towns, as well as the names of the rivers, mountains and regions. That way 588 towns and villages received names totally different from the Slav names that had existed for more than 12 centuries. The perfidious purpose of that action was the family memory to be razed to the ground.
Genocide of Macedonain Children
"One early morning a small ship arrived from which 50 boys between 13 and 17 were forced off. Everybody brought a basket or a bag with his old clothes. The camp commandant - the bloodsucker colonel Toma Silu started his speech: We brought you here for re-educating. You are children of Mother Hellene and everybody must sign a declaration that he is not ,,Bulgarico guriny" (Bulgarian swine) but is aproud Orthodox Greek". As if by miracle all children answered in chorus ,,We are Bulgarian" . The commandant tried more time again promising liberty and good meal but all children struck up again „We are Bulgarian". Then the commandant started crying like mad: "0li sti talassa" (Everybody into the sea). They were thrown stones at. Half an hour later the commandant ordered them to come out but not all,children came out some of them were drowned. Still the same night the children had been put to terrible tortures. This went on for 10 more days, then they went on board half-dead to be moved to a hospital in Athens. Before that the children had taken down different sharp objects like forks, knives, etc. in order to kill themselves. These children were from the Kostour region".
Christo Lagadinov
The Struggle Against the Bulgarian Church
There were 378 Bulgarian churches with 300 priests in Aegean Macedonia. Enemy No.1 of the fighting Greek phanariots was the Bulgarian Orthodox church. The leading role played by the Greek church in winning the so-called "Macedonian Struggle" was stated above.
As early as July 31 1913, the Governor of Kostour invited the Head of the Bulgarian Orthodox church and all priests and told them about the Greek Government order that they were to leave Greek territory within 48 hours. The expelled priests, all born in Macedonia, were presented with a document which stated that they were returning to Bulgaria because they were Bulgarians. ,,There cannot be Bulgarians in Greek Macedonia! any more" /,,Report..... " p.199/
On July 3 and 4 1913, 200 Bulgarian priests and teachers were arrested and sent to the Thessaloniki prison. On June 30 the last Bulgarian church was confiscated and occupied. All icons of ,,St. Cyril and Metodius" were either burnt or covered with manure. Most of the priests were sent in exile on various Greek islands. Their ups and downs are described in the ,,Mir" newspaper from October 30 1913 /,,Report....... " p.199/
At present there are no Bulgarian churches in Macedonia and no place where a divine service is carried in Bulgarian. It is made clear below what is the attitude of the Greek state towards any attempt to deliver Gods words in the local Slavo Bulgarian language.
The difference between a Bulgarian and a Macedonian national sentiment since 1800 seemed to follow the dialect that the person spoke as well as the church one attended. Patriarchist Macedonians were more likely to declare themselves 'Makedontsi' than 'Blgarski'. It was somewhat subjective. The dialectology of Macedonia and Thrace in those times has been well-studied and not open to conjecture. Eastern Macedonian dialects blended into Bulgarian. I am not a Bulgarian or Macedonian, so I look at the nationalism issues as a neutral outsider. Author John Shaw wrote in 'Macedonia and Greece': "A national consciouness of some sort within Macdonia was clearly visible at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries...a Macedonian Slav national consciousness was developing concurrently with a Greek national consciousness. Evidence of a distinct Macedonian national consciousness can be seen in the Constantinople bulgarian newspaper Pravo of November 30, 1870, referring to the idea 'that a bulgarian and the Bulgarian language is one thing and a Macedonian and the Macedonian language is another...By the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the European powers were well aware of a spirit of national consciousness, based on ethnic and language differences from other Balkan areas, within Macedonia. The slogan 'Macedonia for the Macedonians' was adopted by the English politician Gladstone in this period."
ReplyDeleteIn 1888, Temko Popov claimed that 'The national spirit in Macedonia today has reached such a degree that if Jesus Christ himself came down from heaven he could not persuade a Macedonian that he is a Bulgarian or Serb.' In 1903, Krste Misirkov called for 'the recognition of the Slavs in Macedonia as a separate nationality, Macedonians.'
While Macedonians and Bulgarians claim to understand 80% of the other language, it is significant to misunderstanding speech if one misses 20% of the content! Four million people speak Macedonian in the world. There are only one million who speak Slovenian.
Bulgarians missed more than one opportunity to reach out to Macedonians and offer them semi-autonomy within a greater Bulgaria or Switzerland of the Balkans, but that was never promised in so many words. The subsequent abandonment of the Macedonians to the Turks and Greeks led to a permanent rift.
Much of the confusion in Macedonian identity would never have occurred if the Ochrid Archdiocese had not been suppressed in 1767.
Further to the story of the Kostur children declaring 'We are Bulgarian'...the school board in Kostur had decided as early as 1892 to begin teaching the children in Macedonian. It was the first 'Bulgarian' school district to do so. A Serbian diplomat found out about it and wrote to his bosses.
ReplyDeleteDIMITRIJE BODI TO VLADAN DORDEVICH
20th August 1892
Consulate of the Kingdom of Serbia No. 786 20th August 1892 Bitola To the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Vladan Dordevic Belgrade
Dear Sir,
I have to inform You, dear Sir, that some intellectualist movement among the local teachers has recently appeared in the town of Kostur, which insists upon rejection of Greek and Bulgarian propaganda, and the introduction of the Macedonian dialect as the language of teaching in the schools. This initiative has in fact been started, Sir, by several town teachers hostile to Hellenism and Bulgarianism, due to their policies concerning education, and especially due to the discrimination of the local teaching staff.
I was particularly intrigued by these events, since “where two are quarrelling, the third profits,” so that I found out through my confidential agents on the spot that there had been a secret meeting of six teachers, They decided to propose to the local Church and school community that the vernacular be introduced in the town school instead of Bulgarian.
If You are interested in these matters, Sir, please answer me with a ciphered telegram.
Dimitrije Bodi