Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Macedonian Struggle

The Macedonian Struggle

Most people who have knowledge of modern Greek history can definitely agree that the revolution of 1821 did not end with the birth of the modern Hellenic (Greek) Republic but rather, at the end of the First World War.

Between the years 1878 and 1908 the Macedonians faced great obstacles. They fought to liberate themselves from the "Sick Man of Europe" as well as the struggle to save Macedonia from the conniving Bulgarian VMRO (IMRO- Internal Macedonian Revolution Organization). Although it had Macedonia in its name its goals (and members) were anything but Macedonian.

The dastardly scheme to destroy the Greek consciousness of the Macedonians and create a new one (as we have in today’s FYROM) was spawned by the Bulgarian exarchist (separatist) church created by the Firman Decree of 1870. This act was a product of the Sultan Abdul Hamid, who at the time, realized that something had to be done with the Macedonians who were constantly revolting in order to reunite with their Greek compatriots.

With the help of the newly established Bulgarian kingdom the exarchists sent into Macedonia their Haidoutis (bands) where they would go from village to village forcing the natives to convert and forget their Greek heritage. At the same time the native Macedonians began to plead with the government in Athens that they were in dire need of aid, but the new Greek government, at that point was able to provide only limited help. The natives did not give up hope though.

By as early as 1870 Macedonian revolutionaries began to counter strike. People such as Kapetan Vasili Zourkas from Nimfeo had begun to organize bands (interesting note that they began to organize these bands nearly a quarter of a century prior to the inception of the IMRO) to combat the Turks and the exarchists. Many other local chiefs followed his example as well.

The Bulgarians at this point wanted to expand their territory into the heart of Hellenic soil. They knew that in order to achieve this goal they would need to expel, convert or even extinguish the Macedonians who had a Greek consciousness. With the exarchist priests they began to import bands strait from Sofia. This struck fear to the natives who now not only needed to defend their homes against the Turks, but the foreign Haidoutis as well.

Ironically, Bulgarian nationalism in the nineteenth century owed a great deal to the Greek revival of 1821. Greek culture had definitely set foot in the Bulgarian nation. The alphabet, the music, the foods, the costumes were but a few influences adopted by the Bulgarian people. Unfortunately, the generosity of the Greek peoples proved to be their own undoing. There never was a question of the Greekness of Macedonia but certain Bulgarian fanatics sought to change this. After the Russian-Turkish war which the Russians won (and nearly took Constantinople) the Turks signed a treaty at a village called San Stefano. This unjust treaty, signed in 1878, marked the beginning of Bulgaria’s expansionist ideas. The plans for "Great Bulgaria" were finally made public. Disregarding history, Bulgaria aimed to annex all of Macedonia even though the majority of the Macedonians despised the idea. Indeed, Greece had the worse of this treaty. Traditional Hellenic boundaries were to be taken by her neighbors.
Taking advantage of their newly established church they were able to take the first steps in denationalizing the Macedonians in order to make them Bulgarian. From there began a notion of a so called Macedonian people separate from the rest of the Greeks.

By declaring them as only Macedonians, Bulgaria knew that it would be easier to claim the whole region since so many of their nationals (although still a minority) now resided there. This was the result of centuries of migrations by the Bulgars into Macedonia. At the same time the Macedonians (Greeks) were powerless to put a stop to this since the whole Balkan region was under Ottoman occupation. The Greeks suffered the worse under the Ottoman Empire. They were forbidden to teach Greek in schools, and had limited religious freedom. Other minorities such as the Bulgars, Albanians, and Jews had much more freedom throughout Macedonia.

After being defeated in the 1897 war, the Kingdom of Greece needed to regroup its efforts. It was quite difficult to help its people in Macedonia. But the need to regroup had to be prompt. The exarchists along with the IMRO had already begun their campaign of terror in Macedonia. The aim of the exarchists was to convince the inhabitants of Macedonia that they belonged to Bulgaria. But the exarchists really had nothing new to offer in neither a religious aspect nor any new conception of salvation from what the Patriarchist church already preached. It was nothing more than a political instrument that Bulgaria hoped to manipulate.

The kingdoms of Greece and Serbia found this separatist movement disturbing. They quickly began negotiating in order to re-establish the union under the Patriarchal Church. Unfortunately, the Serbians at that time wanted control of the major part of Macedonia and this did not please the Greek government. The Greeks rejected this offer and justly so. If they had held to this agreement it would have definitely led to a Bulgaro-Turkish alliance. The Macedonians' goal of re-uniting with the rest of Greece would have been crushed. The Greek government chose to officially stay out of any conflict (another reason being that the government was on the verge of bankruptcy), but luckily the many volunteers continued its work. Thus, the Macedonians still had hope. Locals began to form bands that would defend against any attacks by the Comitadji.

In 1893, certain Bulgarian intellectuals by the names of Dame Gruev, Hristo Tartarchev and four others formed the most anti-Macedonian terrorist organization known as the IMRO (VMRO). These men swore to secrecy in order to avoid any conflict with the Macedonians (Greeks) and the Turks. Tatarchev (who clearly states in his memoirs that the IMRO's goal was union with Bulgaria) became the first president of the organization. They copied an old Greek freedom cry, "Liberty or Death" (Eleftheria I Thanatos) and used it as part of their official logo (in their language "Svoboda Ili Smrt"). This logo, which appeared on their seal, had the imagery of a crossed pistol, a dagger and a bomb. Although the organization's foundations were taking fold a certain naming issue did cause a problem which must be mentioned. This Bulgarian organization kept on taking up new names for the next four years. It went from being the Macedonian Revolutionary Committee to the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization to (unsurprisingly) The Bulgarian-Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (Bulgarsko-Makedonsko-Ordinska revoliutsionna organizatsiia, in 1896) and eventually the Internal Organization. The cause of this constant name changing was for the obvious reason, the lack of a common belief. Some of the members professed that they were all Bulgarians living in Macedonia; others said that their goal was to unite with Bulgaria, and others even spoke of creating a separate Macedonian state with the Bulgarians running it. Two things they did agree on though; getting rid of the Ottoman Empire and more so, the Macedonians who had a Greek conscious. Hellenism to them had to be removed from Macedonia even if it meant using brainwashing and torture techniques.
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The modern political history of Macedonia is agreed to have begun in 1870, while still under Ottoman occupation, with the formation of the schismatic Bulgarian Exarchate Church. The church was used as a cover for the Bulgarian Nationalist and Pan Slavic movement to steal Macedonia- its land and people from its future incorporation into a Greek state, and its annexation to Bulgaria. The Church was recognized by the Sultan, over the objections of the Patriarchate in Constantinople in the rightful belief it would divide the Christians and lead to internal national struggles amongst themselves. This new Church was then used as a weapon by Bulgarian nationalists to convert the Greek and Slavic speakers (slavophones) to Bulgarism. The majority of the people in present day FYROM (Vardar Macedonia) and Western Bulgaria (Pirin Macedonia) either had no concrete national consciousness or professed to be Greek, even though they spoke Slavic. It is commonly accepted that their Slavic dialect is most similar to Bulgarian than to Serbo-Croatian.
Bulgarian dreams of conquering Macedonia were temporarily realized in 1878 in the aftermath of the Russian- Turkish war. The negotiated Treaty of San Stefano gave to Bulgaria all of Vardar Macedonia, most of present Greek Macedonia and part of eastern Albania! Luckily, knowing that Bulgaria would merely be a Russian satellite, the other European powers revised the Treaty at the Congress of Berlin and Bulgaria retreated to its pre-war borders. Beginning at this time, Bulgarian teachers and priests were sent into Macedonia with the mission of inculcating on the population a Bulgarian National Consciousness. The Task was most difficult since a majority of the people either spoke Greek or considered themselves Greek. The difficulty the Bulgarians had is exemplified in a report issued by the Secretary General of the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1885, speaking in ethnological terms about the population of Macedonia states that if the population of Macedonia had to choose a nationality to which they identified, the vast majority would declare itself Greek. Further evidence of the strong Greek presence in Macedonia at the time is found in the book, The Turks in Europe by James Baker, 1878. Upon asking local Slavophone Macedonian peasants about their identity, they declared themselves as Rum, (Roman) a term used exclusively by Greeks.
The Bulgarians, realizing ‘peaceful conversion’ wasn’t working out as they had planned, formed in 1893 the Internal Macedonian Revolution Organization (I.M.R.O.), a terrorist organization whose mission was the expulsion of the Turks, as well as the conversion of the Macedonians to Bulgarians. Although founded by Bulgarian nationalists Damian Gruev, Goce Delchev, Petar Pop Arsov and other nationalist, its goals were often ill defined and changed according to current events and the personal beliefs of its leaders. Its true history runs counter to the claims of its supporters that it was a true ‘Macedonian’ liberation movement. It was always in a schizophrenic state in the service of other powers- i.e. Bulgarian, Yugoslavian or Communist- but a real Macedonian movement it was not.
In the early years of its operation IMRO only operated in Exarchist Church controlled areas in the north of Macedonia with a stronger Bulgarian presence. However, In order to gain support from non Exarchists and other nationalities, they changed their rallying cry to a Macedonian rebellion against the Turks- i.e. anyone who inhabited the area- not any specific Macedonian ethnic group. Due to little popular support their rebellions were easily crushed by the Turks. It is also of interest that during the 1920’s the same rallying cry for a Macedonian rebellion by Slavic communists was geared at the overthrow of ‘middle class oppression’.
The inability of the IMRO to agree on a common ideological goal- Macedonian autonomy or annexation by Bulgaria led to the establishment of a Supreme Committee in 1894, which brought the organization under direct control from Sofia. These divergent views were just the beginning in IMROs long schizophrenic history. Members were polarized between either supporting autonomy or annexation, and by loyalties to high ranking members who only temporarily and superficially united the organization. The ascension of the ruthless Boris Sarafov as leader in 1898 officially began the IMROs long history of murder, criminality, terrorism and intimidation. Armed bands called Comitadjs (Turkish for Committee Man i.e. rebel) were sent terrorizing the Macedonian population- even the slavophones who refused to convert to the Exarchate (Bulgarian) Church. Despite international calls for its disbandment, Bulgarian Premier Danev stated in 1902 that IMRO was a patriotic organization and had the support of the Bulgarian people. If IMRO was a nationalist ‘Macedonian’ organization fighting alleged Bulgarian (and Greek) oppression, as its supporters claim today, why would the Bulgarian Premier make such a statement? Further why would they attack ‘fellow Macedonians’ for the sole reason of belonging to a different church?
The Greek reaction to the Bulgaro- IMRO Comitadji raids was the creation of the National Society in 1894 which organized counter raids to protect the Macedonian population. Its also gave financial support to the Greek schools and institutions in the region. This continued until the 1897 Greek- Turkish war, when the Turkish victory forced the disbandment of the National Society and Greek withdrawal of financial and military aid to the region. The war’s outcome further played into the Bulgars hands by causing many Macedonians to convert to the Exarchate Church out of fear of persecution by the Turks.
Perhaps IMROs ‘crowning failure’ was the instigation of the failed Ilinden Revolt on August 2, 1903 in the Greek town of Krusovo. On that day Comitadji proclaimed the “Krusevo Republic”, independent from the Ottoman Empire, and the inhabitants forced to join the rebels or face persecution. The only clear winners were the Turks who quickly crushed the revolt and destroyed the town. It is also ironic that the events at Krusovo lead the Greek government to finally take decisive action to prevent the loss of Macedonia to the Bulgars. The years 1903-1908 are known as the Macedonian struggle.
More Here:
EARLY 20th CENTURY
INTERWAR COMMUNIST MOVEMENTS
WORLD WAR II PERIOD
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F.Y.R.O.M., since WWII has propagated the myth that the founding fathers of IMRO fought for an independent Macedonia - "Macedonia for the Macedonians". In fact their goal was to destroy the Greek consciousness of the Macedonians and create a greater Bulgaria.
These are the some of the terrorists that tried to eradicate the Macedonians.
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This is the result of the so called patriotic I.M.R.O. revolution. The murdering of native Macedonians for the sole reason of being Greek.
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Millions of Macedonians STILL continue to protest against the recognition of a pseudo-republic!
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Athens furious over Skopje (FYRO"M") insult:

Greece angrily condemns insult to national (flag) symbol on Skopje billboards:


Greece reacted angrily on Sunday to an unprecedented provocation in the neighbouring Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), as several outdoor billboards in the capital of Skopje depicted an adulterated Greek flag, with the blue Cross morphed into a Swastika.
"This unacceptable poster, which was circulated via a private initiative and raised on Skopje's streets, directly insults our country's national symbol and our struggle against fascism and Nazism," a foreign ministry spokesman tersely said on Sunday afternoon in response to a press question.
"This incident demonstrates the huge mistake made by those that invest in chauvinism and bigotry. It also confirms, yet again, the correctness of Greece's position, namely, that a necessary condition for the establishment of relations of solidarity and relations amongst allies is, in practice, respect of good-neighbourly relations between countries and peoples," spokesman George Koumoutsakos emphasised, speaking days before a NATO summit will consider admission for landlocked FYROM.
The spokesman also announced that Greece's diplomatic representative in the neighbouring one-time Yugoslav state has been instructed to table Athens' severe protest over the provocation to FYROM's foreign ministry as well as to demand the immediate removal of the offensive billboard.
The Swastika imagery on the Greek flag -- in place of the Cross -- was the first item covered by most television news programmes in Greece on Sunday evening, touching on a particularly sensitive nerve, given that the east Mediterranean country sustained monumental damages and loss of life during World War II during successive Italian and German invasions, followed by a triple occupation (1941-1944) by Nazi German, Italian fascist and Bulgarian troops.
(According to an ANA-MPA dispatch from Skopje, the controversial billboard ads ostensibly promote a photographic exhibition in the city's cultural centre from April 3 to May 3.)
People:
Look who are speaking about NAZI:
Have you ever seen
this photo/document below,
mr. (UN envoy) Matthew Nimetz?
This photo/document is taken back in 1941, showing the relationship of the Skopian "...Macedonians" and the Nazis, during WW2!

The so called "Macedonians", Bulgarians - Skopjian slavs in reality, welcome NAZI - SS troops, hoping that HITLER would give them the Real Macedonia!
Hitler refused of course, he maybe was insane and paranoic but not stupid, and for sure he knew HISTORY...
The Skopjan/Bulgarians failed 67 years ago,
but their children (FYROM) did not give up...

The bones of Pavlos Melas are crackling

Why the Greek People Cannot Easily Accept FYROM’s Claims

The Reality and the Weight of History:

Why the Greek People Cannot Easily Accept FYROM’s Claims

Aristide D. Caratzas


The dispute regarding the official name by which will be known the Former [Communist] Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) has appeared to many policy makers from arcane to trivial. Yet its mishandling over the last fifteen years, especially the last few months, has resulted consequences that have raised the political cost for some of the world’s major players and increased tension and the potential for instability in the Balkans, referred to by historians and diplomats as Europe’s “soft underbelly.”

The case in point is the unprecedented defeat of a U.S. president at a NATO meeting, in this case the much touted Bucharest summit in April of this year: President Bush proclaimed the “strong support” of the United States to the Skopje regime’s bid to NATO membership, only to have it denied under the threat of a veto by the Greek government. Nor did the NATO Secretary General’s visit to Athens and Skopje, following the NATO summit, increase the likelihood of a positive result, while the mediation process currently under way under the direction of U.S. diplomat Matthew Nimetz finds progress elusive.

Given the complexity of the situation it is useful to reconsider, or consider for the first time, some of the elements of this case that make it much harder to resolve than the cursory (and sloppy) assessments of some foreign policy “professionals” have heretofore suggested. Until now some of these professionals, especially in Washington, have approached this process mechanistically, hoping somehow that the implicit threat of American displeasure would sway the Greek government. On one level they cannot be faulted, as the latter caved in many times in the past; there is little flexibility on this issue however since, after repeated polling over many years, it has become clear that over 85% of the Greek public consistently demands a hard line.

This writer remembers a meeting in mid-1992 between Nicholas Burns, then State Department Spokesman, later Ambassador, and a group of Greek-American leaders. In answer to a question about the precedent affecting the European border system that would result from the recognition of the Skopje regime under the name of “Macedonia” (it then had explicit claims on Greek territory), Burns slammed his notebook shut and refused to discuss the implications. Some of the Greek-American leaders appeared more annoyed with the questioner than with Burns’ evasive little tiff. Yet this question, as does the entire dispute regarding the name of the tenuous statelet, has its foundation in the settlements following the Second World War, in recent history in short.

In the effort to understand causalities of issues that are thrust upon the stage of international affairs, it is ironic that diplomats, other foreign policy professionals and political scientists often opt to ignore history. Yet history, the word deriving from the root of the perfect tense of the Greek verb for “to know”, literally means “those things that I have come to know,” thus on one level simply is the accretion of particular knowledge of a phenomenon over time.

It is thus treacherous to wade into the Balkans, in which human experience has been recorded for millennia and folk memories are long, and not to be sensitive to recent historical traumas. To be fair, much of the discourse of those most immediately involved has related to realities of the 5th-4th century BC, or cites mythological ethnogenetic constructions, which may be obscure to diplomats and policy makers: For Greeks argue by making reference to 4,000 years of the Hellenicity of Macedonia, while the Skopje regime’s mythology increasingly expands its pantheon to include Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great, even though the Slavic culture and language, which are the axes of its purported identity, appeared a little more than a millennium later.

Yet the history that matters most, even if it largely has been ignored so far, refers to recent events, those leading up to, taking place during or after the Second World War. In the Balkans these fall into three major categories, (a) the unresolved issues regarding ethnic and linguistic minorities leading to World War II; (b) the Axis occupation and policy of collaboration with minority groups; and (c) the successful shift from collaboration with the Nazis to alliances with Communists by some of these minority groups.

In order to set a broader historical context, one only needs to recall the use of ethnic minorities by the German National Socialist regime to destabilize Eastern Europe in the 1930s. In practice that meant that the Nazis encouraged the Sudeten German minority in Czechoslovakia and the German minority in Poland in order to put pressure on those states. The allegations, of what we would today call human rights violations by the Czechs and the Poles, provided the justification for the interventions that lead, first to the collapse of the Czech state, and then to world war, when the Germans attacked Poland.

The defeat of the Axis resulted in settlements that effectively ended the claims by minorities, which had collaborated with it. To cite a few prominent examples: Over three million Sudeten Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia, many of their leaders were executed and virtually all of their properties were seized. The same happened in certain parts of Poland. In Danzig, the name of which was changed to the Polish Gdansk, the remnants of Germans were expelled and their properties were seized. Similar acts took place in other countries that experienced occupation and collaboration of minorities with the enemy.

In Greece, after the Germans invaded in 1941, they established occupation zones for their forces and those of their Italian and Bulgarian allies. In Macedonia (only the Greek province used that name at the time), the German High Command under Field Marshal Siegmund List approved of the presence of Slavophone “liaison officers” be attached to the occupying forces. These were mostly Bulgarian officers, linked to the nationalist IMRO organization, whose agenda was to mobilize and to coordinate the activities of the Slavophone inhabitants in Macedonia for the benefit of the Axis occupiers.

The leader of IMRO was Ivan Mihailoff (also transliterated as “Mihailov” in some of the literature), a major figure in the history of southeast European extremist nationalist movements, though little studied even by experts. Mihailoff had prevailed in the bloody power struggles (which included dozens of terrorist acts) for the leadership of IMRO by 1930. IMRO's main goal had always been the creation of an independent “Macedonian” state, it had built an extensive network in Bulgaria, which was used to provide financing for the organization and an operational base from which the offensives into Yugoslavia and Greece were conducted

Mihailoff had close links to Ante Pavelic, whom he assisted in the formation of the Ustashe (the Croatian Nazis, whose ardor and cruelty embarrassed even their German allies), and with Heinrich Himmler, to whom he introduced the Croat leader. Mihailoff cooperated with Pavelic in the spectacular assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia in Marseilles in 1934. The triggerman, Vlado Chernozemski, a close associate of Mihailoff, had been attached to the Ustashe on his order for the preceding two years. Between 1941-1944 Mihailoff settled in Zagreb, using it as his base of operations.

Meanwhile, the region of western Macedonia in Greece was occupied by the Italians, who were still smarting as a result of their defeat by the Greek forces. They developed a policy to exploit grievances of linguistic minorities, of which the Slavophone group proved most responsive. This was the result of a visit to Rome by Pavelic, who persuaded Mussolini and Ciano personally of the wisdom of such a policy and of the support they would receive from Mihailoff in implementing it. Thus the Italians were assisted by IMRO, which sent out agents of its irredentist “Kostour [=Kastoria] Brotherhood” headed by a Spiro Vasilieff to Kastoria in order to set the foundations

Detachments of Slavophone volunteers were first formed in 1943 and accompanied Italian units searching for arms from the stores of the retreating Greek forces, which the country people often were hiding. These volunteers joined the Italian-sponsored the “Axis-Macedonian-Bulgarian Committee,” which became better know as the “Komitato” (or “Komitet”), first founded in the Kastoria by Anton Kaltchev, a Bulgarian officer of Slavo-Macedonian antecedents connected to Mihailoff’s IMRO, whom the Germans described as “strong and stately.” Soon after a military arm of this organization was formed and came to be known as the “Macedonian-Bulgarian Command,” or less formally the “Ohrana.”

Led by Kaltchev the Ohrana, was able was able to mobilize significant forces. Bands recruited from Kastoria, Florina and Edessa and the surrounding villages, i.e. central and west Macedonia, probably fielded about 5,000 men by mid-1943. These forces assisted the Italians in operations against the Greek resistance organizations, and in intimidating and terrorizing the local population opposed to the Axis occupation.

Parallel to these military and “police” activities Kaltchev also consolidated his control over the Slavophone population of all political inclinations. He interceded with the Germans, for example in order to free individuals, nominally identified with the Left, who had been exiled by the Greek government. In addition, he penetrated EAM, the major (leftist) Greek resistance organization, by placing his agents in its leadership ranks through SNOF, EAM’s Slavophone partner.

The Italian capitulation and withdrawal from the war in the Summer of 1943 would have left the Slavophone Axis collaborators in Greece without a sponsor had it not been for some prescient moves by the aforementioned Ivan Mihailoff. He and his supporters in the Central Committee of IMRO decided to contact the Germans directly (without the knowledge of and authority from the Bulgarian government). It appears that Mihailoff’s plans extended beyond support of the volunteer units to setting the foundations for the creation of an independent “Macedonia” under German protection. It was also anticipated that the IMRO volunteers would form the core of the armed forces of a future independent “Macedonia” in addition to providing administration, indoctrination and education in the Lerin (Florina), Kostour (Kastoria) and Voden (Edessa) districts under German control.

Mihailoff traveled to Germany in early August 1943, where he was received by Reichsführer-SS Himmler at the Sichercheitsdienst (SD= Security Service) headquarters and also appears to have met with Hitler. Mihailoff apparently received consent to create two to three battalions of volunteers that would be armed and supported by the Germans and that would be under the command and disposal of Himmler’s organization (i.e. the SS). There is extensive evidence that Himmler’s office followed up in order to implement the terms of this agreement, appointing SS Major (Hauptbahführer) Heider to coordinate the arming and equipping the IMRO volunteers.

In March 1944 the village companies of Kastoria, were reorganized into militias, and were armed and prepared for service by the Germans; then Kaltchev’s loyalists based in and the villages around Edessa and Florina also were included in this project. After some initial skirmishes with the Greek ELAS resistance forces, beginning on May 4 several IMRO volunteer companies from Kastoria and Edessa participated in the anti-guerrilla “Operation May Thunderstorm,” as part of the “Battle Group Lange,” spearheaded by elements the Nazi 4th SS Division.

IMRO also organized three volunteer battalions under its name. They were formed by Slavophone officers sent from Bulgaria to Edessa, where they arrived in June 1944. These officers met with Major Heider in order to formalize the implementation the agreement reached between Mihailoff and Himmler. Thus were formed:

The 1st IMRO Volunteer Battalion–Kostur [=Kastoria], headed by Captain Ivan Motikarov, with the strength of about 500 men; they were armed with machine guns and rifles and included one sniper company. In summer 1944 they were assigned to a reinforced company of the 4th SS Police Armored Infantry Division, whence, in the words of a military historian “the civilian population was so afraid of this battle group that their very presence in the area was enough to quiet any civilian protest.”

The 3rd IMRO Volunteer Battalion-Voden [=Edessa], headed by Georgi Dimchev and Atanas Pashkov. Dimchev, who was born near Giannitsa (deemed a hero by IMRO) and Pashkov proved successful in recruiting over 800 volunteers not only from Edessa, but Gainnitsa and Goumenissa. They were armed and equipped, and wore on their hats the skull-and crossed bones symbol, which referred both the Slavomacedonian revolutionaries and their new allies, Himmler’s SS. The last to form was the 2nd IMRO Volunteer Battalion-Lerin [=Florina], which saw action in the waning weeks of the Axis occupation.



The German forces assisted by their Slavophone collaborators launched the last coordinated attack against organized Greek resistance July 3-17. The “Operation Stone Eagle” took place in the northern Pindus area by elements of the 4th SS Division, the 104th Jäger Division and the 1st and 2nd IMRO Volunteer Battalions, 12-15,000 men total, with the objective of containing elements the ELAS 8th and 9th Divisions; according to testimonies of the time the objective was partly achieved.

When the Germans withdrew from Greece, and Bulgaria declared war on Germany, the Ohrana and the Slavophone collaborationist effort collapsed. Anton Kaltchev fled Greece, but was apprehended by Yugoslav communist partisans and delivered to ELAS. He ended up in Thessalonica, where he was tried for war crimes and executed.

Many of the Greek Slavophones who had filled the ranks of the IMRO volunteer (i.e. Axis collaborator) units enlisted in the ranks of SNOF, created by the Greek Communist Party. After Bulgaria aligned itself with the Soviets, this process accelerated. Thus Slavophone collaborators found their way to DSE (Demokratikos Stratos Elladas), the military force of the Greek Communist Party, during the civil war in Greece, 1946-1949. After the communist defeat, most of those who sided with the Axis, later with the DSE, in the name of “Macedonian” nationalism, were never allowed to return to Greece.

Ivan Mihailoff survived the war and settled in Rome, where he died in 1990, a year before the collapse of Yugoslavia. In 1950 he published a book titled Macedonia: A Switzerland of the Balkans, in which he proposed the establishment of what we would today call an independent “multi-cultural” state in which the [Slavo-]Macedonians would have the dominant position, a thesis that has been revived by some present-day West European progressives and American liberals. Mihailoff wrote in the shadow of the People’s Republic of Macedonia, a communist state that had been formed by Tito in 1945 within the Yugoslav Federation. He devoted the next forty years of his life in guiding “Macedonian” nationalist extremists in the US, Canada and Australia.

It is ironic, but not altogether surprising, that FYROM, the present successor state to the People’s Republic invented by Tito, is ruled by one of IMRO’s factions. While the Skopje regime formally rejects Mihailoff, it has resumed a not-so-couched irredentist, nationalist extremist rhetoric reminiscent of the discourse of the collaborationist IMRO. It draws much of its support from the Slavomacedonian diaspora in the US, Canada and Australia, the ideological inheritor of Ivan Mihailoff, close friend and ally of Anton Pavelic and Heinrich Himmler.

In this reality, borne of a bitter historical experience, is to be sought the reason for the nearly instinctive reaction of Greek popular feeling (cutting across party lines) against FYROM’s claims, whether as to its name or its revived irredentist claims about minorities and properties. The Slavomacedonian collaborators and their children, who fought twice against the Greek state, should no more expect recompense by that state than the children of the Germans of the Sudetenland or Danzig expect from the Czech Republic or Poland. When they accept that truth, it will be the first step for a genuine rapprochement with the Greek people.

Realism however dictates that we should not be optimistic in the short term. Hijacking the name of Macedonia, arbitrarily seizing cultural symbols (i.e. Philip II, Alexander the Great, Saints Cyril and Methodius, among others) and now claiming the existence of “minorities” and properties in Greece as this piece is being written, demonstrates that the Skopjan leadership, headed Prime Minister Nikola Gruevsky (members of whose family had fought against Greece) are reviving to Mihailoff’s nationalist extremist vision. Unless they sober up, they will reap the whirlwind…

Meanwhile, Bush and those of his supporters in Washington and elsewhere who have been studiedly ignorant until now, should come to understand that the Greek people (supported not only by most Greek-Americans, but many other people who experienced the wrath of totalitarian extremists) are not likely to agree to terms proposed by a regime which revives the discourse of its dark past.



[Written July 16, 2008- Edited July 17, 2008]

FYROM TV - FYROM'S CLAIMS - PROPAGANDA EXPOSED

FYROMACEDONIAN television programs, saying that Alexander the great was not Greek, and similar such other Monkeydonian arguments.. Kids are watching, and learning..17 years of lies. Where will this end?
GREEK DOCUMENTARY ON THE ISSUE OF EDUCATION.

Bust of Alexander the great, National monument in skopje's airport

Bust of Alexander the great, National monument in skopje's airport

alexander statue, national hero monument in FYROM, prilep

alexander statue, national hero monument  in FYROM, prilep