The Greek Method Of Assimilating And Oppressing The Macedonians

The Greek Method Of Assimilating

And Oppressing The Macedonians.

The Macedonians under Greek occupation were subject to
the most brutal form of denationalisation and
assimilation. The Greek oppressors attempted to make
Greeks of Macedonians, in their attempt to achieve
this they committed mass liquidations and conducted a
policy of forced emigration. The Macedonians
under Greek rule suffered tragically, and successive
Greek governments have relentlessly continued this
process of attempting to Hellenise the Macedonians (and
Macedonia).

Toponyms

The existence of a distinct Macedonian ethnicity was
denied, and the Greeks obsessively attempted to
wipe out all traces of Aegean Macedonia’s indigenous
Macedonian ethnic character. Law number 1051
was passed in 1917, Article 6 of the Law stipulated the
establishment of the formation and functioning of
the town and village municipalities of the “New Lands”.
The Commission on Toponyms in Greece
presented a choice of new place names in a circular
letter on October 10 1919. The Ministry of Internal
Affairs in Greece published a booklet by N. Politis
titled “Advise on the Change of the Names of
Municipalities and Villages” (Athens 1920). At the same
time in Aegean Macedonia, sub-commissions
were formed whose role was to suggest new names for the
villages and towns.

Between 1918 and 1925 a total of 76 towns and villages
were renamed in Aegean Macedonia. It was not
until the Legislative Orders of 17.09.1926, 21.09.1926,
10.11.1927 and 13.11.1927 that the process of
renaming places was intensified. By the end of 1928 most
places in Aegean Macedonia had
been given new names.[1]

On November 21 1926 the government gazette “Efimeris tis
Kiverniseos” (Edition Number 322)
announced new Greek names for all Macedonian villages,
towns, cities, regions, rivers and mountains.

The Hellenising of the Macedonian Christian and surnames
was formalised by a legislative edict printed
in the Greek government gazette in February 1927.
Macedonian surnames commonly end in ov/ova,
ev/eva and ski/ska.
These were changed to reflect a Greek character – “os”,
“es”, “opoulos”, “as”, “iou”, etc.

The following is an example of one Macedonian region
which illustrates the change in village names. All
villages mentioned below are from the region of Lerin,
renamed Florina by the Greek oppressors.

Original Macedonian Name Artificial/Hellenised Name

Armenoro Armenohori
Armensko ‘Alona
Banica Vevi
Bitusha Parori
Brezhnica Vatohori
Buf Akritas
Grazhden/Prespa Grazdano/Vrondero
Kabasnica Proti
Kalenik Kaliniki
Klabuchishta Poliplatano(s)
Kladorabi Kladorrahi
Kleshtina,Gorno Ano Kline
Kleshtina,Dolno Kato Kline
Kotori Idrusa
Krapeshina Atrapos
Krushoradi Ahlada
Kuchkoveni Perasma
Lagen Triandafihla
Nivica/Prespa Psarades
Negochani Niki
Nered Polipotamo(n)
Nevoljani Skopia
Opsirina Ethniko(n)
Orovo/Prespa Rahovo/Piksos
Ofcharani Meliti
Papazheni Pappayanni(s)
Rakovo Kratero(n)
Rula Kota(s)
Sveta Petka Aya Paraskevi
Tune Korifi
Visheni Vissinea
Vrbeni Itea
Zabrdeni Lofi

The Greek authorities were not content with changing the
names of all geographic places and people.
They commenced to change all Macedonian inscriptions to
Greek, including the churches, schools,
books were burned along with all documents, cemeteries
were either completely demolished or the
tombstones changed to Greek, etc. Nothing was spared,
everything was demolished or modified.

Greco-Turkish War

Through its occupation of Aegean Macedonia the
boundaries of the Greek state expanded to an extent
never before seen in Greek history. The ethnographical
boundaries of the Greek state are surprisingly
small, only through expansionism into non-Greek
territories has Greece managed to attain her present
state boundaries. Greek illusions of a vast empire much
larger than today’s administrative state have been
sought since last century through the doctrine of the
“Megala Idea” (Great Idea). Due to illusions to
further extend its boundaries, Greece attempted to
occupy the Turkish territory of Anatolia. This resulted
in the Greco-Turkish War of 19 19-1922. The Greek
campaign failed disastrously.

Macedonians were forced to take part in the Greek attack
on Turkey and were thrown in the front lines of
battle. The same occurred during the First World War,
but the Macedonians were not proud defenders of
the Greek state, they often deserted or avoided
conscription.

Forced Migration

Due to the compact nature of the indigenous Macedonian
people in Aegean Macedonia, the Greek
government did everything possible to change the
Macedonian ethnic character of Aegean Macedonia.
The Greek authorities adopted a policy of forcing the
Macedonians to migrate, whilst colonising
Macedonia with new settlers from Asia Minor and the
Caucasus who were of a mixed ethnic stock and
found themselves under the influence of the Greek
church. Macedonians commonly refer to these people
as “Medgiri”, denoting foreigners[2].

Macedonians were beaten by the Greek police for speaking
to one another in their native Macedonian
language and were regularly taken before the courts,
imprisoned, and sent to barren Greek islands where
they underwent cruel physical and psychological torture.

The forced migration of Macedonians was temporarily
interrupted by the First World War (1914-18),
however this was to prove favourable for Greek plans on
Aegean Macedonia. On 27 November 1919 the
Treaty of Neuilly was signed between Bulgaria and
Greece. Greece as a partner to the victorious allied
forces, was able to impose on defeated Bulgaria a
condition in the Treaty allowing for an exchange of
populations between the two states. Greece took the
opportunity to unload itself of the Macedonians in a
seemingly legal manner, according to the Treaty the
Macedonians were recognised as “Bulgarians”. This
served the long term interests of both states.
Subsequently 66,180 Macedonians largely from Eastern
Aegean Macedonia but also from the districts of Kukush,
Enidzhe Vardar and Solun were forced to
migrate to Bulgaria (they were not permitted to settle
in the Bulgarian occupied region of Macedonia).
Bulgaria sent 22,8~0 Greeks, the Greek government
settled them in Aegean Macedonia.

In 1923 the Lausanne Agreement was signed between
triumphant Turkey and defeated Greece. The
agreement stipulated a compulsory exchange of
populations. Greece expelled 394,108 Turkish Moslems to
Turkey, this figure included over 40,000 Macedonians of
the Islamic faith who were uprooted from their
homeland. On the other hand Turkey transferred 1,221,849
Christian Medgiri to Greece.

The Greek authorities strategically placed 538,595 of
the newly arrived refugees into Aegean Macedonia
to facilitate the denationalisation of the Macedonian
people, attempting to modify the Macedonian ethnic
character of
Aegean Macedonia.

Many Macedonians were evicted from their homes and
property in order to house the Medgiri. The
refugees quickly adopted their new Greek identity, they
were given special privileges because of their
new found Greekness and they became an instrumental tool
for the Greek state against the Macedonians.
With the support of the Greek government the Medgiri
actively engaged in the persecution (physical
beatings, murder and rape) of the Macedonians. The
authorities disregarded the crimes committed by the
Medgiri as they served “Greek national interests”. With
the emigration of the Macedonians more housing
and land became available for the Medgiri. The Medgiri
also applied similar methods against the Vlahs
and Jews. It is interesting to note that those Medgiri
which were settled in the South of Greece found that
they were not welcome by the Greeks and were pressured
to migrate to Aegean Macedonia.

Under the leadership of captain Stefanos a group of
Medgiri bandits brought great misery to the
Macedonians in the Lerin region. Numerous murders were
committed in the villages of Surovichevo,
Mokreni, Boreshnica and Vrbeni. In the village of
Popadija a group of men who served in the unit of Ilo
Dimov-Popdinski during the Ilinden rebellion of 1903
were chained to one another and tortured in public.
Similar tragedy’s befall many others. Macedonians made
up the bulk of the prison population for no other
reason than being Macedonian.

From the village of P’pezhani, Tashko Popov, Dimitar
Popov-Skenderov and Todor Trpenov were beaten
and sentenced to 12 years prison. Pavle Mevchev and
Atanas Popov from Vrbeni and Boreshnica joined
them in early 1927, they were soon after transferred to
Kozhani and executed. As they were leaving Lerin
they were heard to shout “With our death, Macedonia will
not be lost. Our blood will run, but other
Macedonians will rise from it”.

Groups of Medgiri terrorists operated throughout Aegean
Macedonia. Incidents were reported in the
European Press, including the murder of 19 villagers
from the villages of Trlis, Karachoy and Lovchen
(Drama region) who were bound and slaughtered on July 27
1924. The villages of Livadishte, Butin and
Chereshevo in the Drama area were also brutally
attacked. Furthermore during November 1925 there were
mass arrests in Lerin and the surrounding region, many
innocent Macedonian civilians were tortured and
executed.

Throughout the 1920’s the persecution of the Macedonians
escalated. Macedonian families were
constantly terrorised, women and young girls were raped,
thousands were imprisoned, tortured and
murdered.

Extremist ultra nationalist Greek organisations
unleashed a bloodthirsty reign of terror onto the
Macedonian population. One of these the
“Greco-Macedonian Fist” issued the following order on
January 27 1926 [3]:

“We Order

1. Starting today it is forbidden to speak Bulgarian [4]
at public places, in the cafes and restaurants, in
doing business, at meetings, assemblies, and gatherings,
at parties, luncheons, weddings, etc.

2. We order the above mentioned only to speak in the
Greek language.

3. We recommend to all authorities – the administrative
and the military, the civil servants and private
employees, neither to accept nor to give information in
any other language but Greek.

4. Parents, teachers, priests and tutors of minors – we
call upon you to fulfill your patriotic duties; we
shall hold you responsible for the offences [5] of your
subordinates.

5. Whoever violates these orders will be considered a
traitor of the fatherland and shall be horribly
punished by our organisation which has been created
following a lengthy and thorough analysis of the
situation and under the slogan “The Fatherland Above All
“. It has the power to punish any who does
not carry out its orders.”

The aim of these ultra nationalist organisations was to
speed up the process of denationalisation and
assimilation of the Macedonian people in Aegean
Macedonia through pressure and terror. The
alternative to assimilation was migration.

Despite the pressure of assimilation under the heavy
bondage of Greek occupation, the Macedonians
continued to preserve and use their language, even
though it was a criminal offence to do so.

Aimed at further reducing the Macedonians in Aegean
Macedonia, Greece and Bulgaria signed an
Agreement known as the Mollov-Kafandaris Accord in 1927,
it stipulated an exchange of populations
between the two states. Approximately 100,000
Macedonians were expelled to Bulgaria, Greece wishing to
“legalise” this illegal act labelled the Macedonians as
Bulgarians, and Bulgaria accepted them for her own
reasons.[6] As a result of the Accord Macedonians were
forcibly removed from their homes. Their
properties were confiscated by the state and given to
the colonisers, together with Macedonian owned
cattle and stock. Various methods were used to pressure
the Macedonians to leave their properties. In
the village of Leskovo in the Sabotsko region a militant
Greek unit advised the villagers to leave the
village within two days otherwise they would all be
slaughtered. Soon after official Greek government
representatives arrived and requested that the
Macedonians sign a declaration stating “voluntary
emigration”. Similar events occurred in the village of
Bytim in the Drama region where Greek military
officials arrived together with a group of Medgiri and
violently attacked the Macedonians before they
were ordered to sign their “voluntary declaration of
emigration”[7]. The expulsion of the Macedonians
from Aegean Macedonia was a part of the overall scheme
to speed up the process of Hellenising
Macedonia.

For the purpose of intimidating the Macedonians a Greek
police officer, or military official, sometimes
both, were stationed in each Macedonian village. An
Infantry Lieutenant Dim Kamburas, stationed in the
village of Armensko, (Lerin region) wrote a report on
the general situation in the village. The following
extracts are from the report dated January 25 1932 [8]:

“Being shocked an increasingly concerned, I struck the
village mayor when I heard him speak Bulgarian,
which he wishes to call Macedonian, and I recommended
that in the future he should always and
everywhere speak only Greek, and that he should
recommend that his villagers do the same”

.In short, an extreme anti-Greek spirit dominates among
the natives of the villages, they hate everything
Greek and do not miss any opportunity to express their
hatred”.

“It is my opinion that the most efficient way to achieve
assimilation would be of the hot heads could be
expelled as undesirable to some other state”.

A Frenchman, Edmond Bouchie de Belle in his book
“Macedonia and the Macedonians” (Paris 1922)
made a number of accurate observations regarding the
position of the Macedonian people, described
their aspirations in the following terms:

“What are their present needs? From the political
standpoint, their sole need is for security. Things have
come to such a pass that, as stated by Tame, their
greatest desire is to avoid being killed or plundered.”

A Resolution was adopted by German Workers on February
25 1930 and subsequently approved at the
Third General Congress of the German Red Assistance in
Berlin. The Resolution outlines in some detail
the oppression of the Macedonians and displays an
accurate account of the plight of the Macedonian
people. The extract below refers to Aegean Macedonia.

“…Macedonia was partitioned in three parts by
so-called Peace Treaties. Partitioned in this way, the
Macedonian people under Serbian, Greek and Bulgarian
bondage are constantly being suppressed”.

“The part of Macedonia under Greek rule is being
terrorised by the fascist bands of Captain Stefo and
other agents of Athens. Death sentences are being
delivered and large scale deportations of
Macedonians to the Greek islands are carried out. The
Macedonian population is being expelled from
their homes and hearths, while their land and other
property is being plundered. Schools and other
cultural institutions have been shut down.

Every Macedonian who speaks in his mother tongue, is
persecuted. Greek teachers pierce with needles
the tongues of their pupils who are not able to speak
Greek. [9]

ABECEDAR

During this period of immense suffering, the Macedonian
people had a glimmer of hope that conditions
might improve as a result of the Treaty of Serves which
Greece signed earlier on August 10 1920.
According to conditions of the Treaty, under Article’s
7, 8 and 9, the Greek government was to undertake
certain obligations regarding “the protection of the
non-Greek national minorities in Greece”. These
Articles specifically stated free use of language and
education. Initially Greece sought to neglect its
obligations, however in March 1925 the League of Nations
directed Greece to fulfill its obligations. By
May 1925 an elementary school reader was published in
the Macedonian language, it was known as the
ABECEDAR. The ABECEDAR was to be used by Macedonian
children in Macedonian schools which
were yet to open in Aegean Macedonia. Strong reactions
immediately came from Serbia and Bulgaria.
Serbia and Bulgaria were caught totally by surprise,
both were furious that the Abecedar was not printed
in Serbian or Bulgarian respectively. Serbia threatened
to break its treaty of alliance with Greece and to
commence negotiations with Bulgaria for the division of
Aegean Macedonia. Threats came from the
Bulgarians, protesting loudly that they had previously
signed an Accord with Greece which recognised
the Macedonians as “Bulgarians”. What occurred next is
truly a rare example, the Greek representative at
the League of Nations Vasilis Dendramis responded by
defending the Macedonian language as being
“neither Bulgarian, nor Serbian but an independent
language”. He listed various linguists, and linguistic
maps as evidence to support his claim of the
independence of the Macedonian language. This high
ranking Greek official representing the Greek state not
only recognised the existence of the Macedonian
identity, but openly defended and supported it. However,
Serbian and Bulgarian objections, together
with internal opposition in Greece prevented the
Abecedar from ever reaching the Macedonian children.
The Abecedar was destroyed, but remains as a reminder to
the Greek government of the Macedonians as
a separate national entity.[10]

Greek Education

Apart from violent terror, the Greek government used the
education system as a primary tool in the
attempted Hellenisation of the Macedonians. However with
the arrival of the Medgiri refugees, a
non-Greek people, the establishment of Greek education
was given even greater priority. Elementary
Greek school consisted of two classes of Greek language
and Greek history, other classes were centred
around songs and games which were designed to instil
Greek national spirit in the young children. A
particular song the children were compulsorily taught
went as follows:

“I am a Greek and I am proud,
I know my heritage.
My Greek spirit
will always live free… “[11]

The children were regularly sent on excursions to Athens
and historical sites such as Marathon in an
effort to expose them to Greek tradition, culture and
civilisation. The Greek government used education as
a political instrument to foster adoration towards all
things Greek and attempted to manipulate the young
that “they learn the Greek language and to forget their
Macedonian mother tongue” [ 12]