Macedonians in Greece
1939 - 1949
Part 10 - The Macedonian Battalions
November 2008
By Risto Stefov
rstefov@hotmail.com
click here for the Macedonians in Greece series
From the first day the Macedonian Kajmakchalan and Vicho battalions were formed there were questions about them from the Greek side no matter how well they performed and how loyal they were to the cause. Over time this created doubts in the Macedonian leadership about the NLAG leadership's "intentions" towards the Macedonians.
The massive enrolment of Macedonian youths in these Macedonian units should have given the Greek leadership reason to celebrate but instead most Greeks became steadily uneasy and before long their reactions came to expression.
Anyone wanting to join the Macedonian battalions had to pass by the medical clinic to be given a medical exam. The medical clinic for the Kajmakchalan battalion was located in the village Manastir about eight hours walk away from the headquarters. As a large number of Macedonian young men began to arrive the medical staff rejected almost all of them, telling them that they were "unfit" to become Partisans and that they should go home. Some took the doctor's advice and went home yet others, especially those who insisted they wanted to join the Kajmakchalan battalion, were lead to a far away place and forced to join alternate units in the 14th brigade.
Similar incidents were also taking place in the Lerin and Kostur Regions. When 200 Macedonian youths arrived in Dmbeni to join the Partisans, the medical staff categorically prohibited them from joining the Macedonian battalion and forced them to join Greek units.
But that was not all. As the Macedonian units were growing in size and number they were expected to be trained and armed. Unfortunately in all cases the Greek leadership would only allow one unit to be armed leaving the others to fend for themselves. This was done not because there was a shortage of weapons, but because these were the tactics of the so called Greek progressive leadership of the time. Ironically as the number of recruits increased so did the number of weapons. But instead of giving weapons to the Macedonian fighters, the Greeks stored them in warehouses. Such was the case in Pozdivishcha where a large number of rifles, machine guns, grenade throwers and ammunition were stored instead of being issued to Macedonians. This was unacceptable to the Macedonian leadership especially at a time when all forces in the world were mobilizing to fight against the occupier. Then another blow was delivered to the Macedonians when the leadership of the 28th brigade sent a letter to the Macedonian leadership in Kostur requesting that all officers and soldiers in the Macedonian battalion who were in possession of pistols, immediately surrender them because they were needed to be issued to the diversionists in Solun. This included all personal weapons which most of the fighters acquired on their own. The next order came from the divisional headquarters requesting that all automatic rifles possessed by the Macedonian battalion be returned.
By now it became obvious even to the soldiers of the lowest ranks that the Greek aim here was to completely disarm the battalion. No sooner had the orders been issued than another order arrived requesting that all remaining armed men be relocated to the village Flaviro (Negovan).
The reason for this behaviour, on the part of the CPG and NLAG leadership, becomes apparent when we examine the contents of a confidential letter sent to Zaharias, the commissar of the 28th brigade of NLAG, in which among other things the General Headquarters ordered Zaharias to move Ilija Dimovski - Gotse's battalion south where it could be isolated and fully disarmed, at any cost if necessary, because it posed a "danger". Before the contents of this letter became known, Ilija Dimovski - Gotse received another letter, this one from the divisional headquarters, ordering him to relocate his battalion south to Sjatista. No explanation was given.
By now the Macedonian leadership was well aware of the Greek tactics and had no doubt what the Greeks were planning. Now that all the Fascist counter-bands and threats from the Ohrana were put down the CPG and NLAG leadership felt that the Macedonians were no longer needed. Besides, the CPG and the NLAG Greek leaderships were still committed to the idea of "National Unity" in Greece and of course they did not want to disappoint the Papandreu government which only recently announced to the world by radio that "For Greece there is no Macedonian question".
Under these circumstances there was only one thing for the Macedonians to do and that is to implement measures to save themselves. Without breaking away from the fight with the Germans, the sought after Lerin-Kostur Region battalion disobeyed orders and imbedded itself in the strategic heights of Bigla Mountain where it waited to be pursued by NLAG. Sure enough so as not to be disappointed, a few days later the NLAG 28th brigade under the command of Yanoulis was dispatched in pursuit. The 28th brigade was no match for the Macedonians and they could have decimated it but cooler heads prevailed and the Macedonians decided to use diplomacy instead of violence. It was obvious that NLAG was not going to give up and would have sent more troops to fight which would have escalated the conflict between Macedonians and Greeks. Since this conflict would have occurred in Macedonian territories it would have also involved the Macedonian civilian population as casualties, which no Macedonian was willing to see happen.
So before a large concentration of NLAG forces had a chance to amass and to avoid bloodshed, on October 13th, 1944 the Macedonian battalion crossed over the Greek-Yugoslav border in Prespa and entered the Republic of Macedonia where it was put to good use fighting against the Germans who had entered Bitola-Prilep from Lerin.
The Voden Region Macedonian battalion also facing similar prospects of being disarmed and destroyed, on October 16th, 1944 left Kozhuf Mountain and also crossed over the Greek-Yugoslav border in Kavadartsi Region and entered the Republic of Macedonia.
On November 17th, 1944 the two Macedonian battalions from Greek occupied Macedonia came together in the liberated territory of Bitola and joined forces to create the first Macedonian Shock Brigade. Ilija Dimovski - Gotse was appointed commander and Mihail Keramidchiev became its commissar. A few days later the brigade was dispatched to Mount Shar to put down the Balisti, an Albanian group of German allies.
A couple of things were done wrong which forced the Macedonians to abandon their struggle in Greek occupied Macedonia. The first was the flawed tactics of the CPG and NLAG owing to opportunism and blind and chauvinistic attitudes towards the Macedonian question. The communist Greeks it seems were no different than the common fascist Greeks when it came to the Macedonians. The only difference was that the fascists had an open attitude in their hatred for the Macedonians while most communists kept theirs hidden. The second thing done wrong is the way the Macedonians showed their displeasure about how they were treated and left in protest. Not being there and not knowing the situation under which they picked this option leaves me wondering why they didn't put their faith in their own abilities and fight harder to negotiate a better deal for the Macedonian people. By leaving Macedonia not only did they abandon their own families and put them at risk, but proved to the Greeks that they had some sort of special relationship with the Macedonians in the Republic which made the Greeks even more suspicious. This was made plain and clear by the CPG Regional Committee when it was asked to investigate what had happened and when a directive was given to the regional committees in Lerin, Kostur and Voden Regions to call the act "anti-revolutionary" and brand the fighters "traitors". The communist Greeks took the situation even further by openly calling the Macedonian leaders "sell-outs", "autonomists" and whatever derogatory and damaging term they could think of that existed in the Greek dictionary and publicized it in their newspapers and pamphlets.
On November 13th, 1944 the CPG Regional Committee for Kostur Region in its citation regarding the Macedonian situation among other things said: "Many Slavo-Macedonians from the 'Gotse' battalion consciously or unconsciously continued with the separation tactic, which is condemned by our party. They separated the struggle of the Slavo-Macedonians from the Struggle of the Greeks and as such became the organs and supporter of domestic and foreign Fascism. With that they did damage to the Greeks and sunk the Slavo-Macedonians. They continued the old acts of the Komitadzis in the Region." "One more time we charge these people as traitors in the unified struggle." "We invite all members of the party, everyone from EAM (GNLF), all decent Greek patriots and Slavo-Macedonians to turn against them, against their lies and propaganda against their traitorous plans, against the ugly 'adventurous clique' which leads them..."
The Greeks, true to their cruelty, unfortunately did not stop with demonizing just the fighters who had fled; they also took revenge on their families. Parents, brothers, sisters, wives and even more distant relatives were jailed and abused. The families and wives of the Macedonian battalion leadership were surrendered to the National Militia and sent to the dreaded Greek concentration camps together with the occupier collaborators. One can only imagine the abuse, torture and cruelty exercised on these civilians, especially the women, who themselves had committed no crimes.
These outrageous Greek claims filed against the Macedonians however did not go unchallenged. The leadership of the Macedonian battalions, which clearly left Greek occupied Macedonia to avoid bloodshed, sent a protest letter in reply to the CPG, GNLF and NLAG slanderous campaign aimed against it. The protest letter addressed to the CPG Regional Committee for Macedonia spelled out their reasons for leaving. "...We did not leave so that we can be transformed into servants of Fascism - like your fiendish propaganda claims. We left because we are fighters, Macedonian fighters, because we wanted to fight against fascism, because we asked, based on the principles of a unified struggle, for the recognition of our peoples' national rights and to be free to pursue the realization of our national destiny. Unfortunately everywhere and at each turn we ran into obstacles, denials, hate, disrespect and undemocratic treatment with regards to all issues concerning the Macedonian people."
Following are some examples of how Macedonians were treated by their Greek communist partners in Greek occupied Macedonia:
In 1941 when Macedonians came out to join the first Partisan movement, the CPG not only did not help them organize but completely ignored them and left them on their own without leadership to be cut down by the Italian and German occupiers. This was the case all through 1941 and 1942 particularly in the Kostur Region under the leaderships of Athanasios Ziogas, secretary of the Regional Committee of Kostur Region, Periclis, Lefteris and others.
In 1943 when the first Greek Fascist counter-bands were forming fanatical nationalistic anti-Macedonian movements under the leadership of the likes of Kolaras, Baskakis, Captain Stefos, Kirchilakis and others, the Macedonian people yet again were ignored by the CPG and left to fend for themselves. Frightened by the terrorist acts of these traitors and executioners the Macedonian people ran to anyone who would offer them help. No wonder the Bulgarian Fascist propaganda found fertile soil in these people. Having said that, however, the vast majority of the Macedonian people still found it in their hearts to take their place in the anti-fascist camps, struggling side by side with the so called "progressive Greeks".
The CPG promised the Macedonian people that it would take the road to unity but instead it took the road to violence and the destruction of the Macedonian people who were poisoned by enemy propaganda. In March 1943 Periclis and Lefteris, both progressive Greeks, burned down the Macedonian village Starichani and executed 35 people because 2 of them were guilty. In April 1943 the Fascist Captain Kolaras executed 8 Macedonians from the village Gonenits while they were on their way to join NLAG and the NLAG and CPG leaderships did nothing.
In March of 1943 the same Pericles, under the influence of his right hand man Yannis Dailakis a known German collaborator, sentenced to death and executed five innocent Macedonian people from the village Ludovo. During the same month in the village Breshtani the homes of Macedonians falsely accused of belonging to Fascist counter-bands were plundered and burned down. During the same period Papaflesas's unit jailed everyone in the village Galista, men and women, and beat them to death; his gangsters stripped the women naked and had their way with them, they even tortured under age minors. The same group of gangsters blockaded the Macedonian villages Zhuzheltsi, Moleni, Ezerets and Nestime and tortured the innocent villagers for absolutely no reason at all.
In May 1943, five Macedonians from the village Kalevishta were detained and later executed because two of them had been influenced by Bulgarian propaganda.
Daras, Renos and Kiriakos, all being "responsible" leaders, willfully on their own accord jailed and killed ten Macedonians from the villages Tresino, Sobotsko, Prevadishta and Chegan in Voden and Meglen Regions without giving any reason or explanation for why they did that.
Again during this period NLAG officers and fighters were unleashed in Greek occupied Macedonia to conduct anti-Macedonian raids. These chauvinists crisscrossed through Macedonian villages, swearing at, slandering and putting down Macedonians in a derogatory manner remnant of the Metaxas years. These people were Metaxas's protégés and for them the Macedonians were "Paleovulgari" the lowest form of creatures known to Greeks. At another time an unknown group of Greeks entered the village Dobrolishta and killed an old Macedonian man whose son had just joined the ranks of NLAG.
Greeks came to Greek occupied Macedonia and terrorized people by calling them "Bulgars" and sarcastically made the point that this was Greece now and that forever they (Macedonians) would be "under Greece". These thugs pushed their weight around plundering homes, breaking windows and intimidating people simply for the fun of it. These same thugs were later employed by the Greek state to round up Macedonians and jail them in its concentration camps. They became Greece's best protectors and thrived in both the left and right side of the Greek equation all through the war years. Most joined the army and police force and some even rose to the ranks of commanding officers and police chiefs. Even at the lower military and police ranks, these people had higher authority and carried more clout than their superiors at the highest rank. Everyone feared them.
With people like that running Greece what chance did the Macedonians have? In retrospect one might argue that the Macedonian question was impossible to bring forth by political means and the Macedonians had absolutely no chance of gaining any rights. For the moment however the left continued to appease the Macedonians by giving them some slack so that they could use them to their advantage. When issues came to a head about the "Macedonian question" all these so called progressive Greeks could offer was to say that "the Macedonians are only a minority in Greece and they will achieve equal rights as one of the peoples in democratic Greece". There were no longer offers of "self determination". The Atlantic Decree and self determination may have existed for the Dodekanis and Cyprus but they no longer existed for the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia even at the moment when work began to create a Macedonian State in Yugoslavia.
Even though they fulfilled the Atlantic charter requirements for self determination by willfully and voluntarily fighting against the occupiers and disarming the Fascist groups inside Greece, the Macedonian Partisans in Greek occupied Macedonia received no recognition and no rewards. No one can dispute the fact that it was the Macedonians who disarmed and disbanded the Fascist counter-bands just as no one can dispute that proportionally more Macedonian fighters joined the struggle and fought harder than the Greeks to drive the occupier out. Yet still the Macedonians received no recognition and no reward; not even a mention for their effort.
Macedonian fighters from the NLAG reservist units in Kostur Region were responsible for disarming 45 villages and confiscating about 3,000 rifles without a mention. But worse than that, after the reservists did their job NLAG disarmed them and broke up their units.
The MNLF(G) (Macedonian National Liberation Front (in Greece)) was formed not only because of the necessity to protect its people but also because it had popular support from the Macedonian people. However as soon as this organization was formed the Greek side, especially its so called "Greek allies" had nothing good to say about it. In fact the opposite was true. The Greeks, including the CPG, NLAG and GNLF leaderships, were very hostile towards it, slandering it at every opportunity. Then when slander no longer worked and the organization kept growing the Greek leadership tried to block the Macedonian people from joining it. Trijantafilis, one of the Greek leaders, openly and publicly ridiculed the Macedonians by saying that "only the stupid ones join the MNLF(G)...". Not much later the same Greek leaders dismantled the MNLF(G) and jailed its leaders.
The formation of the MNLF(G) was controversial from the start yet at some of the conferences it was cheered with pompous slogans like "Forward with the formation of an MNLF(G) all Macedonian army" and wishing that the newly formed "Trpovski" detachment "grow to become a brigade...". In retrospect all this turned out to be a trick concocted to give the impression that it was none other than the CPG that was responsible for the formation of the MNLF(G). In retrospect the CPG leadership yet again lied to the Macedonians to get into their hearts and minds and use and abuse them when it needed them and then cast them away when it didn't.
The last part of the protest letter addressed to the CPG Regional Committee for Macedonia explaining why the battalions left said:
"As a people it is not our way to surrender even when we are found it such circumstances. We are the descendants of a revolutionary line of people just like your own Greek people." (The original document can be found at Ilija Dimovski - Gotse's archives. Ilija Dimovski - Gotse was Commander of the first Macedonian shock brigade in charge of the Macedonian Partisans from Greek occupied Macedonia.)
In addition to sending a protest letter to the CPG, the Lerin and Kostur Region battalion leadership also sent a communiqué to the Macedonian population to tell its side of the story and why it left. The communiqué was dated October 15th, 1944 and said:
"We can no longer remain silent on this issue and need to answer to allegations made against us. We have fought against the Hitlero-Fascists along side the Greeks and have fulfilled our part of the obligation. We now must speak for our oppressed people and expose the lies and accusations the 28th regiment has charged against us. Every Partisan among us is fighting for his rights and knows that our struggle is for our freedom. Everyone knows that our struggle is the same struggle as the one the Partisans of NLAG are fighting and never, until now, have we moved away from the GNLF and NLAG line. Even today, under these circumstances, we are still ready to die fighting together with the decent Greek people.
"We categorically proclaim before the entire world that:
1) We are not brigands as we have been accused by the 28th foot regiment in its October 1st, 1944 declaration. There are 1,500 decent Macedonian Partisans among us who fight for justice and for our rights. They are the representatives of the entire population of Kostur and Lerin Regions. If all these Partisans, your children, the children of Macedonia are bandits, like the 28th regiment claims, then our entire Macedonian population must be brigands and bandits.
2) It's a great big lie and an invention to say that we took our responsibilities lightly and left without consideration and that we took measures against NLAG. You need to know the truth and the truth is that NLAG took measures against us by disarming our units. You need to also know that NLAG military units were sent to round us up and disarm us. They were planning to take us south to old Greece for the sole purpose of destroying the Macedonian Partisan movement. We could not allow that to happen especially at these critical times when our people need us to protect them. We could also not allow a conflict to take place in our home or to fight against our brothers. That is why we had to leave.
It is important for everyone to know that to this day the GNLF and NLAG have not informed our people that there exists the Atlantic Charter in which, according to its five principles, all people who fought to liberate their lands from the Fascist occupier have the right to fight for their national freedom and create their own state. We took up arms to do exactly that, to achieve that right to free ourselves. We the Macedonians are prepared to die to the last man to achieve that and we will not allow anyone to divide us as they now are attempting to do.
How can we trust NLAG and believe what they tell us when Papandreu's Cabinet Minister only recently went on the radio and declared publicly to everyone that 'for Greece the Macedonian question does not exist'. We can no longer tolerate the lies and still be patient. We want our rights and we too want to live free just as the Greeks want to live free. We don't want new dictators and we have no desire to have foreign masters. And exactly for those reasons we will all fight, just like our partners are fighting to smash Hitler and his cohorts and to bring freedom to the entire oppressed world." (The above information was taken from Ilija Dimovski - Gotse's personal archives).
A separate open letter was also sent to the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia by the Lerin Region Macedonian Movement leadership to inform them of the real reasons for the battalion's exodus and to answer to the slanderous campaign waged against them by the CPG, GNLF and NLAG. The letter written by Turundzhov and Popdimitrov dated October 10th, 1944 among other things said:
"Even though a joint decision was made to form a NLAG brigade commanded by Macedonian officers, the NLAG leadership took every measure possible to obstruct it so that our needs would not be met. As everyone is aware our LMNF(G) detachments were dismantled in favour of Macedonians joining NLAG units, but later another decision was made to break up those too, including the Gotse battalion. Forced by these actions, on October 7th, 1944 we called a conference in Kostur Region and invited all delegates from Western Macedonia including those from NLAG division IX. During that conference a decision was made to continue the build up of forces to battalions and even divisions if necessary. This was a prerequisite if we were to overpower the occupier and his collaborators. Unfortunately when we made these announcements to those responsible for the buildup of the NLAG reservist forces, they sent people after us to round us up and jail us. So to avoid bloodshed we decided to cross over the border into our free Macedonia to continue our fight against the occupier there."
To be fair, not all Greeks in the CPG, GNLF and NLAG were deliberately hostile towards the Macedonians. There were a small number who felt sympathetic and were willing to follow international norms but they too quickly became silent after falling victim to the same chauvinistic attitudes that the Macedonians were experiencing.
One Greek officer who showed such sympathy was Renos, commissar of the IX division of NLAG. In a report dated November 13th, 1944 addressed to the headquarters of a group of divisions in Greek occupied Macedonia, Renos, among other things said:
"Reading Bakirdzhis's interview in the publication "Lajki Foni" I noticed there was a reference made about the Macedonians being called "Bulgarophone Greeks" which I find unacceptable and counterproductive and will not help our relationship with the Partisan movement in Macedonia."
"As a Partisan from NLAG, I find am obliged to protest at such actions because they cloud people's judgments and hide the truth, as is the case with the Gotse battalion. This cannot be good for our unified struggle. Also it seems to me that each time we talk about enemy activities we always emphasize those of the Bulgarian side but rarely do we mention those of the Greek side. We also quickly forget that it was those heroic Macedonian Partisans who free us by destroying the village Fascist counter-bands."
"We commit injustice without precedence when we mistreat the very same people who sacrificed themselves for our freedom by calling them "Bulgarophone Greeks". We commit injustice without precedence when we omit to tell the world the truth about how these people struggled to liquidate the counter-bands and to fight against repression."
"If I were a Macedonian Partisan I would be demanding to be given an explanation about all this and as long as one is not given, I too would be disgruntled like a dissatisfied worker."
"It was Churchill who said 'Tito solved his national question' by allowing the Macedonians in Yugoslavia to continue their Ilinden struggle and to create a Macedonian state inside the Yugoslav Federation. That is a reality which we must face and stop closing our eyes and leading a life of blindness. This will damage our peace and brotherhood in the Balkans." (The above quotes come from Hristo Andonovski's personal archives).
Renos, being an exception to the usual Greek leaders, did not see the leaving of the battalion as simply another isolated incident of protest but rather as a progression of a disgruntled people who sacrificed themselves since 1912 by participating in Greek wars and in place of receiving recognition are being labeled "Bulgarians", a very demeaning and derogatory title.
Renos did not agree with the CPG's negative and slanderous campaign waged against the Macedonian battalion and used every opportunity to make his displeasure known as was the case in a newsletter where he was quoted saying: "How can we say that these people are autonomists and separatists and who will believe us especially after they spilled blood fighting for our cause and for unity with the Greeks. How can NLAG earn the respect of the people and expect to have any authority after such conduct?"
Unfortunately Renos was not only unable to sway the chauvinists in the CPG Regional Committee to change their attitude but as a result of publicly having such opinions he made enemies of his own. In time he began to lose his authority and soon afterwards he was relieved of all responsibility.
By the end of 1944 the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia did not only lose all rights afforded to them by the Atlantic Charter but while surrounded by their enemies the Fascist occupier and its collaborators on one side and the Greek left and right on the other, they lost their own protectors, the Macedonian battalions, and sacrificed themselves, it seems, for nothing.
Proportionally, based on the population's participation, unquestionably the Macedonian contribution in the struggle was the highest. We can safely say that from Lerin, Kostur, Voden and Solun Regions alone more than 90,000 Macedonian people joined the ranks of the Liberation Movement. Six thousand Macedonians joined the NLAG shock units and another 7,000 participated in the NLAG reservists. The first shock brigade alone had 1,700 Macedonian volunteers.
Three thousand Macedonians were killed in battle, 4,094 Macedonian houses were burned, 4,150 men and women were sent to concentration prison camps and properties in 38 villages and towns were destroyed.
Specifically, we have information that 380 people were killed in the village Katrnitsa, 200 in the villages Rantsi, Nestram and Vlahoklisura and 100 in the villages Gramatikovo and Enidzhe-Vardar.
In addition to those killed in combat, thousands more of the best and brightest Macedonians lost their lives in the Greek prisons like Luguntsi, and Ljumnitsa in Meglen Region, in the prison camps like "Pavlos Melas" in Solun, Karditsa and Volos and in the dry islands like Ajstratis. (Hristo Andonovski, "Vistinata za Egejska Makedonija", pages 145 and 146)
Sources:
Andonovski, Hristo. Vistinata za Egejska Makedonija. Skopje: Misla, 1971.
Pejov, Naum. Makedontsite i Gragjanskata vojna vo Grtsija. Skopje: Institut za Natsionalna Istorija, 1968.
To be continued.
----------
You can contact the author at rstefov@hotmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment