Букурешт 1913 и окупација над Македонија

   [Macedonia will remain occupied as long as the Macedonian people are unrecognized, abused and made to feel like strangers on their own native lands. It is a well known fact that Macedonia was invaded, occupied and illegally partitioned by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria in 1912-1913 against the wishes of the Macedonian people. The Serbian occupied part, now known as the Republic of Macedonia gained its independence in 1991 and is today a sovereign state while the parts annexed by Greece and Bulgaria remain occupied.]
Despite all the minority agreements and promises of fair treatment for their newly subjugated Macedonian people, the Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian Governments not only maintained the status quo but began to accelerate the process of expulsion, denationalization and forced assimilation in Macedonia.
Following World War I, Greece and Bulgaria, according to the November 27, 1919 Minority Treaty convention, exchanged populations. Greece expelled some 53,000 (Wilkinson, 1951:262) "Slav speakers" to Bulgaria in exchange of 30,000 so called "Greeks" from Bulgaria.
Then with the breakout of the Turkish-Greek war in 1921 as a result of Venizelo's "Megali Idea" a policy to create a "Greater Greece" and bring together all "Greek peoples" under a single Greater Greek State, the Macedonians in Greece again became victims of yet another war. First it was Macedonian men sent to fight and die in Turkey for the glory of "Greater Greece" and later Macedonian lands were given away as Macedonia became a dumping ground for the Turkish refugees.
Greece launched a major offensive against Turkey in March 1921 and by the end of the summer the Greek armies reached the Sakarya River, about forty miles west of Ankara.
The assault on Asia Minor was an "exclusively Greek initiative" without the blessing of the Entente Powers and as a result the Greeks found themselves alone and running out of ammunition. They knew they couldn't count on Italy or France for help but the realization of their predicament sunk in when Britain also refused to help them. By early autumn the Greeks were pushed back beyond the halfway point between Smyrna and Ankara, reaching an uneasy military stalemate. Realizing that they couldn't possibly win militarily or politically, the Greeks turned to the Paris Conference of March 1922 looking for a compromise. The compromise called for the withdrawal of the Greek armies and placing the Christian population under the protection of the League of Nations. Sensing a victory, Mustafa Kemal of Turkey insisted on an unconditional evacuation of the Greek forces, a demand unacceptable to the Greeks. Still counting on British help, in July 1922 the Greeks unsuccessfully attempted to get permission from their allies to enter Tsari Grad (Istanbul).
Turkey launched a full-scale offensive on August 26, 1922 (a dark day for Greece and its Megali Idea) near Afyonkarahisar and forced the Greeks into a hasty retreat back to Smyrna. 
On September 8th the Greek army was evacuated and the next day the Turkish army invaded Smyrna. The worst came on the evening of the 9th when outbreaks of killing and looting began, followed by a massacre of the Christian population in which 30,000 Christians, perished. As a result of the violence 250,000 people fled to the waterfront to escape the catastrophic disaster.
The Asia Minor campaign was over along with the "Megali Idea" of a Greater Greece. Worse yet, as a result of this catastrophic Greek fiasco, over one million Turkish Christians were displaced; most of them were moved to Macedonia. Their settlement affected the demography of the Macedonian landscape as well as the morale of the Macedonian population. An entire generation of young Macedonian men, who were drafted into the Greek military, were sent to the Asia Minor campaigns and many lost their lives. The Greek authorities never acknowledged their service and no compensations were ever paid to the families of those "breadwinners" who lost their lives. The reason for the omission, according to Greek authorities, those who fought for Greece from Macedonia "were not Greeks but Bulgarians". How convenient! This is how Greece treated and is still treating its noble citizens of Macedonian descent!
I just want to mention here that many Greeks blame this catastrophe on the Turks and believe the Turks were at fault. How can Turks be at fault when it was Greece that unlawfully and without provocation attacked and invaded Turkey? 
By the Treaty of Lausanne in July 1923, the Greco-Turkish war came to an end and Greece and Turkey signed a population exchange agreement. 
It is important to understand that the selection criteria for the population exchanges were based strictly on religion. In other words, Greece agreed to accept a Christian population regardless of ethnicity or language. Similarly Greece agreed to expel a Muslim population regardless of what ethnicity it belonged to and what language it spoke. As a result, Greece exiled many Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia simply because they were of the Muslim faith.
The November 1925 issue of National Geographic Magazine best illustrates the magnitude of the human wave, the audacity of the Greek and Turkish authorities and the total disregard for human life. "History's Greatest Trek, Tragedy Stalks the Near East as Greece and Turkey Exchange Two Million of their People. ...1922 began what may fairly be called history's greatest, most spectacular trek-the compulsory intermigration of two million Christians and Muslims across the Aegean Sea." "...the initial episodes of the exchange drama were enacted to the accompaniment of the boom of cannon and the rattle of machine gun and with the settings pointed by the flames of the Smyrna holocaust." (Page 533, Melville Chater, National Geographic, November 1925)
"Stroke of the Pen Exiles 3,000,000 People. It is safe to say that history does not contain a more extraordinary document. Never before in the world's long pageant of folk-wanderings have 2,000,000 people-and certainly no less than 3,000,000 if the retroactive clause is possible of complete application-been exiled and re-adopted by the stroke of the pen" (Page 569, National Geographic, November 1925). "Even if regarded as a voluntary trek instead of a compulsory exchange, the movement would be without parallel in the history of emigration." "One might just add that history has never produced a document more difficult of execution. It was to lessen these difficulties that exchangeability was based in religion and not race. Due to five centuries of Turkish domination in Greece, the complexities in determining an individual's racial status are often such as would make a census taker weep." (Page 570, National Geographic, November 1925)
"Greece with one-fifth Turkey's area has 1,5000,000 more people. Turkey with a population of 5,000,000 and naturally rich territory contains only 15 people to the square mile...Greece, with less than one fifth of Turkey's area, emerges with a population exceeding the latter's for the fist time by 1,500,000 people averaging 123 to the square mile." (Page 584, National Geographic, November 1925)
"History's Greatest Trek has cost 300,000 lives. Conservative estimates place it at 300,000 lives lost by disease and exposure." (Page 584, National Geographic, November 1925)
"The actual exchange was weighted very heavily in Turkey's favour, for some 380,000 Muslims were exchanged for something like 1,100,000 Christians." "The total population in Greece rose between 1907 and 1928 from 2,600,000 to 6,200,000." "After the Greek advances of 1912, for instance, the Greek elements in Greek Macedonia had constituted 43 percent of the population. By 1926, with the resettlement of the refugees, the Greek element has risen to 89 percent." (Page 121, Richard Clogg, A Short History of Modern Greece). 
Please note that Clogg uses the words "Greek element" and not "ethnic Greeks" (if there is such a thing?) when referring to the population in Greek occupied Macedonia. What exactly did he mean by "Greek element"?
The "Greek element", as he calls it is not Greek at all. It consists of Vlachs, Albanians and some Macedonians mainly those affiliated with the Greek Church. There were no "ethnic Greeks" living in Macedonia prior to its colonization by the Turkish refugees.
Many people of Turkish speaking Eastern Orthodox stock were exchanged with Sunnite Muslims of Greece. The Turkish speaking Karamanlides were sent to Greece, while Greek speaking Cretan Muslims were deported to Turkey. The Karamanlides lived in Karaman or Cappadocia and may have been Orthodox Christian by religion but they spoke and wrote Turkish and considered themselves to be Turks. When the time came for them to leave for Greece, they were reluctant and while living in Greece were regarded as "foreigners".
In 1924, 31 of the 81 orthodox cities and villages in Cappadocia spoke so called "broken Greek" which Greeks from Greece proper could not understand and the other 50 spoke Turkish only. Also, Christians living in the larger cities like Caesaria, Nigdi, Neapolis, Prokopi, etc spoke Turkish only. Christians living in the eastern provinces of Asia Minor like Pamphylia, Isavria, Cappadocia, Kilikea and Lycaonia from whom the Karamanlides originated and were not Islamized, also spoke Turkish only. 
In my estimation it is doubtful that the actual population of "Greeks" present in Greek occupied Macedonia prior to the arrival of the Turkish settlers was 43% as Clogg and others claim. A more accurate estimate would be 3%, representing the new Greek settlers mainly business opportunists already there, the Greek administration, police and military types that arrived and settled in Macedonia between 1912 and 1922. Further proof of the low existence of so called "Greeks" in Macedonia can be found in the 1911 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica under the heading "The Outline of the Macedonian Problem". According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the total population living in Macedonia was 2.2 million consisting of 1.3 million Christians, 800 thousand Mohammedans and 75 thousand Jews. Among the races [ethnicities probably determined by language] living in Macedonia included are 1.15 million Slavs, 500 thousand Turks, 120 thousand Albanians, 90 thousand Vlachs, 75 thousand Jews, 35 thousand Gypsies and 25 thousand Greeks. If we go by these stats, the so called "Greek speaking" population living in Macedonia in 1911 amounted to no more than 1.1% of the total population. Hardly the 43% presented by Clogg. What Clogg is referring to by this 43% is most probably the Macedonian Christian population affiliated with the Greek Church which by no means was "ethnic Greek" or Greek speaking.
I also do not agree with the idea that the entire refugee population that was settled in Macedonia from Turkey was "ethnic Greek" or "Greek speaking" as Greek authorities would like to portray it. In any case, assuming that the total population of settlers from Turkey (89%-43%) was 46% and that from Greece was 3% then by 1932 there were 49% newcomers and 51% indigenous people living in Greek occupied Macedonia.
I call the settlers "newcomers" because there is no proof that they were in any way "Greek". Yes, the Turkish refugees were Christians but that does not mean that they were actually "ethnic Greeks".
"If Greece exists today as a homogeneous ethnos, she owes this to [the Asia Minor Catastrophe]. If the hundreds of thousands of refugees had not come to Greece, Greek Macedonia would not exist today. The refugees created the national homogeneity of our country. (Antonios Kandiotis, Metrpolite of Florina, Page 141, Anastasia Karakasidou, Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood)
Surprisingly (and shamefully) after knowing all this, Greece still claims its population to be homogeneous and directly descendent from the ancient peoples of the ancient City States and of the ancient Macedonians.
According to Karakasidou, almost half of the refugees from Turkey were settled in urban centers and rural areas in Macedonia. "Searching for locations in which to settle this mass of humanity, the Greek government looked north to the newly incorporated land in Macedonia..." "...by 1930, 90 percent of the 578,844 refugees settled in rural Greece were concentrated in the regions of Macedonia and western Thrace. Thus Macedonia, Greece's newly acquired second 'breadbasket' (after Thessaly), became the depository for East Thracian, Pontic, and Asia Minor refugees." (Page 145, Anastasia Karakasidou, Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood)
If we take into consideration that most of the population imported from Turkey into Macedonia was ethnically "unknown" or non-Greek and the fact that very few so called "Greeks" from Greece proper settled in Macedonia we can conclude that Greek occupied Macedonia was settled by a number of non-Greek ethnicities. 
It is not ridiculous to assume that Greek occupied Macedonia after the settlements consisted of 51% indigenous people, predominantly Macedonians and 49% of newcomer settlers mostly of non-Greek (Turkish, Armenian, Albanian, Vlach, Patriarchic Macedonian, etc) origins. 
In other words the demographic composition of Greek occupied Macedonia after the arrival of the Asia Minor refugees still consisted of a Macedonian majority and a slew of unidentified other minorities. 
A census done by the Greek government in 1928 reported that there were 81,984 "Slavophones" in Greece. Interestingly, the number of Macedonians drastically fell between 1903 and 1928, supporting the idea that Macedonia was being Hellenized.
Bearing in mind the stats presented in the 1911 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica, 1.15 million Slav speakers lived in Macedonia. Since Greece occupied 51% of Macedonia in 1912, 1913 we can safely assume that 51% or more of the total Slav speaking population which lived in Macedonia ended up under Greek control. 51% amounts to approximately 600,000 people. Thus, according to 1928 Greek stats, in less than 30 years approximately half a million Macedonians became Hellenized and made into "pure Greeks".
I am using the term "Macedonians" instead of "Slavophones", even though Greece did not recognize them as such and considered them to be Bulgarian speakers, which explains why Professor R. A. Reis, who was commissioned by the Greek government to ethnologically study the new territories, felt compelled to insist that "those you call Bulgarophones, I will simply call them Macedonians" (Reiss, 1915:3). 
The numbers really get confusing when we add the Bulgarian and Serbian views. According to the Bulgarian Rumenov, in 1928 there were a total of 206,435 "Bulgarians" living in Greek occupied Macedonia. The Serb Bora Milojevich pegs the numbers at 250,000 "Slavs". Belgrade's "Politika" in its 6164 issue published June 24, 1925 gave three times greater numbers for the Macedonians in Greece than official Athens: "The Greek government must not complain that we are pointing to the fact that the Macedonian population of West Macedonia - 250,000 - 300,000 - is the most unfortunate national and linguistic minority in the world, not only because their personal safety is endangered, but also because they have no church or school in their own language, which they had during Turkish rule."
So the "real" number of Macedonians living in Greek occupied Macedonia in the late 1920's is unknown and to this day remains disputed in Balkan documents. Unfortunately, Greek governments will not allow anyone, including neutral observers to conduct statistical studies. 
If we follow the "Greek example" we will note that according to Greek Stats, Greece is populated by 98% "pure Greeks" and 2% "Muslim Greeks". In other words Greece, to this day, has no creditable population statistics that are based on ethnic composition. 
Without a clear definition of what a "pure Greek" is one cannot accurately interpret what that means. However, looking at the numbers one can speculate that Greece may still be using religious affiliation to define its demographics. The numbers 98% Orthodox Christians and 2% Muslims most accurately represent Greece's demographics. Unfortunately, religious affiliation hardly speaks of the various ethnicities that make up that population. So, what exactly is the Modern Greek nation made up of outside of Orthodox Christians and Muslims? Who are the "ethnic groups" living in Greece today? 
To answer this question we need to go back to the time before Greece became a State and examine the ethnic composition of the populations living on those lands that now make up Greece.
Before Greece became a State for the first time in 1829, its ethnic composition consisted of a Majority of Albanians, Turks, Vlachs and Slav speakers. If there were any so called "Greeks" they were a small minority. As Greece acquired Epirus and Thessaly, more Albanians, Vlachs, Slav speakers and Turks were added to its Population. In 1912, 1913 as Greece acquired 51% of Macedonian territories, it added a large portion of Macedonians (or Slav Speakers as Greece like to call them), Vlachs, Albanians, Turks, Roma and Jews to its total population. 
Since then Greece expelled a number of Macedonians to Bulgaria because they were affiliated with the Exarchate Church, and imported some so called "Greeks" from Bulgaria. Through the 1920's Greece expelled a sizable Muslim population and added a large number of Christian Turks from Asia Minor and other regions of Turkey as indicated earlier. Thus, ethnically speaking at the end of the 1920's even after all the population exchanges, Greece remained predominantly the same; made up of Slav Speakers, Turks, Albanians, Vlachs, Roma and Jews.
There is no doubt that the Slav speakers in Greece are Macedonian and will declare themselves as Macedonians should Greece allow them to do so under the right conditions. If we examine the situation in the Republic of Macedonia in the 1920's and today we will see that in the 1920's there were no Macedonians registered to live in that territory. There was a large Majority of "Slav Speakers" referred to as "Serbians" by the Serbian Sate and smaller minorities of Albanians, Vlachs, Roma, Jews, etc. The situation however in the 1990's became different. The so called Serbians were not Serbians at all but Macedonians. The only Serbians registered as Serbians in the Republic of Macedonia in 1990 were the Serbian settlers who came with the army and administration in 1912, 1913 when Macedonia was invaded, occupied and partitioned by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. All the so called "Slav speakers" of the late 1920's declared themselves as Macedonians in the 1990's. So, if we examine today's demographic statistics of the Republic of Macedonia we will find a large Majority of Macedonians living there with well represented minorities of Albanians, Vlachs, Roma, Serbians, etc., or minorities of the same ethnicities and somewhat same proportions that lived on the same soil in the late 1920's. 
Now if we apply the same conditions to the Greek occupied territories and adjust for the population exchanges of the 1920's we can deduce that the population living in Greek occupied Macedonia is predominantly ethnic Macedonians, Turks, Vlachs, Albanians, Roma, etc. Proportionally, when stacked against the entire population living in Greek occupied Macedonia the Macedonian population may be a minority (30% to 49%) but given the number of other ethnic minorities such as the Asia Minor Turks, Albanians, Vlachs and Roma and their numbers, the Macedonian population may be close to being the majority. In other words, the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia may outnumber all of the other individual ethnic groups.
As I said, the only way to prove or disprove this is by Greece recognizing the various ethnicities living on its soil and by creating the right climate for them to self-declare.

Автор	Порака Тема Пребарувај Опции за темата Внеси реплика Внеси нова тема Верзија за печатење Преведи Тема
Lazycat Профил од член Испрати лична порака Најди пораки од член Додај во листа на пријатели Сениор Регистриран: 16.Август.2006 Статус: Офлајн Поени: 179	Опции за коментарот Внеси реплика Цитирај Lazycat Благодарам(0) Цитирај Одговор Испратена: 29.Август.2006 во 12:44
	[Macedonia will remain occupied as long as the Macedonian people are unrecognized, abused and made to feel like strangers on their own native lands. It is a well known fact that Macedonia was invaded, occupied and illegally partitioned by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria in 1912-1913 against the wishes of the Macedonian people. The Serbian occupied part, now known as the Republic of Macedonia gained its independence in 1991 and is today a sovereign state while the parts annexed by Greece and Bulgaria remain occupied.] Despite all the minority agreements and promises of fair treatment for their newly subjugated Macedonian people, the Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian Governments not only maintained the status quo but began to accelerate the process of expulsion, denationalization and forced assimilation in Macedonia. Following World War I, Greece and Bulgaria, according to the November 27, 1919 Minority Treaty convention, exchanged populations. Greece expelled some 53,000 (Wilkinson, 1951:262) "Slav speakers" to Bulgaria in exchange of 30,000 so called "Greeks" from Bulgaria. Then with the breakout of the Turkish-Greek war in 1921 as a result of Venizelo's "Megali Idea" a policy to create a "Greater Greece" and bring together all "Greek peoples" under a single Greater Greek State, the Macedonians in Greece again became victims of yet another war. First it was Macedonian men sent to fight and die in Turkey for the glory of "Greater Greece" and later Macedonian lands were given away as Macedonia became a dumping ground for the Turkish refugees. Greece launched a major offensive against Turkey in March 1921 and by the end of the summer the Greek armies reached the Sakarya River, about forty miles west of Ankara. The assault on Asia Minor was an "exclusively Greek initiative" without the blessing of the Entente Powers and as a result the Greeks found themselves alone and running out of ammunition. They knew they couldn't count on Italy or France for help but the realization of their predicament sunk in when Britain also refused to help them. By early autumn the Greeks were pushed back beyond the halfway point between Smyrna and Ankara, reaching an uneasy military stalemate. Realizing that they couldn't possibly win militarily or politically, the Greeks turned to the Paris Conference of March 1922 looking for a compromise. The compromise called for the withdrawal of the Greek armies and placing the Christian population under the protection of the League of Nations. Sensing a victory, Mustafa Kemal of Turkey insisted on an unconditional evacuation of the Greek forces, a demand unacceptable to the Greeks. Still counting on British help, in July 1922 the Greeks unsuccessfully attempted to get permission from their allies to enter Tsari Grad (Istanbul). Turkey launched a full-scale offensive on August 26, 1922 (a dark day for Greece and its Megali Idea) near Afyonkarahisar and forced the Greeks into a hasty retreat back to Smyrna. On September 8th the Greek army was evacuated and the next day the Turkish army invaded Smyrna. The worst came on the evening of the 9th when outbreaks of killing and looting began, followed by a massacre of the Christian population in which 30,000 Christians, perished. As a result of the violence 250,000 people fled to the waterfront to escape the catastrophic disaster. The Asia Minor campaign was over along with the "Megali Idea" of a Greater Greece. Worse yet, as a result of this catastrophic Greek fiasco, over one million Turkish Christians were displaced; most of them were moved to Macedonia. Their settlement affected the demography of the Macedonian landscape as well as the morale of the Macedonian population. An entire generation of young Macedonian men, who were drafted into the Greek military, were sent to the Asia Minor campaigns and many lost their lives. The Greek authorities never acknowledged their service and no compensations were ever paid to the families of those "breadwinners" who lost their lives. The reason for the omission, according to Greek authorities, those who fought for Greece from Macedonia "were not Greeks but Bulgarians". How convenient! This is how Greece treated and is still treating its noble citizens of Macedonian descent! I just want to mention here that many Greeks blame this catastrophe on the Turks and believe the Turks were at fault. How can Turks be at fault when it was Greece that unlawfully and without provocation attacked and invaded Turkey? By the Treaty of Lausanne in July 1923, the Greco-Turkish war came to an end and Greece and Turkey signed a population exchange agreement. It is important to understand that the selection criteria for the population exchanges were based strictly on religion. In other words, Greece agreed to accept a Christian population regardless of ethnicity or language. Similarly Greece agreed to expel a Muslim population regardless of what ethnicity it belonged to and what language it spoke. As a result, Greece exiled many Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia simply because they were of the Muslim faith. The November 1925 issue of National Geographic Magazine best illustrates the magnitude of the human wave, the audacity of the Greek and Turkish authorities and the total disregard for human life. "History's Greatest Trek, Tragedy Stalks the Near East as Greece and Turkey Exchange Two Million of their People. ...1922 began what may fairly be called history's greatest, most spectacular trek-the compulsory intermigration of two million Christians and Muslims across the Aegean Sea." "...the initial episodes of the exchange drama were enacted to the accompaniment of the boom of cannon and the rattle of machine gun and with the settings pointed by the flames of the Smyrna holocaust." (Page 533, Melville Chater, National Geographic, November 1925) "Stroke of the Pen Exiles 3,000,000 People. It is safe to say that history does not contain a more extraordinary document. Never before in the world's long pageant of folk-wanderings have 2,000,000 people-and certainly no less than 3,000,000 if the retroactive clause is possible of complete application-been exiled and re-adopted by the stroke of the pen" (Page 569, National Geographic, November 1925). "Even if regarded as a voluntary trek instead of a compulsory exchange, the movement would be without parallel in the history of emigration." "One might just add that history has never produced a document more difficult of execution. It was to lessen these difficulties that exchangeability was based in religion and not race. Due to five centuries of Turkish domination in Greece, the complexities in determining an individual's racial status are often such as would make a census taker weep." (Page 570, National Geographic, November 1925) "Greece with one-fifth Turkey's area has 1,5000,000 more people. Turkey with a population of 5,000,000 and naturally rich territory contains only 15 people to the square mile...Greece, with less than one fifth of Turkey's area, emerges with a population exceeding the latter's for the fist time by 1,500,000 people averaging 123 to the square mile." (Page 584, National Geographic, November 1925) "History's Greatest Trek has cost 300,000 lives. Conservative estimates place it at 300,000 lives lost by disease and exposure." (Page 584, National Geographic, November 1925) "The actual exchange was weighted very heavily in Turkey's favour, for some 380,000 Muslims were exchanged for something like 1,100,000 Christians." "The total population in Greece rose between 1907 and 1928 from 2,600,000 to 6,200,000." "After the Greek advances of 1912, for instance, the Greek elements in Greek Macedonia had constituted 43 percent of the population. By 1926, with the resettlement of the refugees, the Greek element has risen to 89 percent." (Page 121, Richard Clogg, A Short History of Modern Greece). Please note that Clogg uses the words "Greek element" and not "ethnic Greeks" (if there is such a thing?) when referring to the population in Greek occupied Macedonia. What exactly did he mean by "Greek element"? The "Greek element", as he calls it is not Greek at all. It consists of Vlachs, Albanians and some Macedonians mainly those affiliated with the Greek Church. There were no "ethnic Greeks" living in Macedonia prior to its colonization by the Turkish refugees. Many people of Turkish speaking Eastern Orthodox stock were exchanged with Sunnite Muslims of Greece. The Turkish speaking Karamanlides were sent to Greece, while Greek speaking Cretan Muslims were deported to Turkey. The Karamanlides lived in Karaman or Cappadocia and may have been Orthodox Christian by religion but they spoke and wrote Turkish and considered themselves to be Turks. When the time came for them to leave for Greece, they were reluctant and while living in Greece were regarded as "foreigners". In 1924, 31 of the 81 orthodox cities and villages in Cappadocia spoke so called "broken Greek" which Greeks from Greece proper could not understand and the other 50 spoke Turkish only. Also, Christians living in the larger cities like Caesaria, Nigdi, Neapolis, Prokopi, etc spoke Turkish only. Christians living in the eastern provinces of Asia Minor like Pamphylia, Isavria, Cappadocia, Kilikea and Lycaonia from whom the Karamanlides originated and were not Islamized, also spoke Turkish only. In my estimation it is doubtful that the actual population of "Greeks" present in Greek occupied Macedonia prior to the arrival of the Turkish settlers was 43% as Clogg and others claim. A more accurate estimate would be 3%, representing the new Greek settlers mainly business opportunists already there, the Greek administration, police and military types that arrived and settled in Macedonia between 1912 and 1922. Further proof of the low existence of so called "Greeks" in Macedonia can be found in the 1911 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica under the heading "The Outline of the Macedonian Problem". According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the total population living in Macedonia was 2.2 million consisting of 1.3 million Christians, 800 thousand Mohammedans and 75 thousand Jews. Among the races [ethnicities probably determined by language] living in Macedonia included are 1.15 million Slavs, 500 thousand Turks, 120 thousand Albanians, 90 thousand Vlachs, 75 thousand Jews, 35 thousand Gypsies and 25 thousand Greeks. If we go by these stats, the so called "Greek speaking" population living in Macedonia in 1911 amounted to no more than 1.1% of the total population. Hardly the 43% presented by Clogg. What Clogg is referring to by this 43% is most probably the Macedonian Christian population affiliated with the Greek Church which by no means was "ethnic Greek" or Greek speaking. I also do not agree with the idea that the entire refugee population that was settled in Macedonia from Turkey was "ethnic Greek" or "Greek speaking" as Greek authorities would like to portray it. In any case, assuming that the total population of settlers from Turkey (89%-43%) was 46% and that from Greece was 3% then by 1932 there were 49% newcomers and 51% indigenous people living in Greek occupied Macedonia. I call the settlers "newcomers" because there is no proof that they were in any way "Greek". Yes, the Turkish refugees were Christians but that does not mean that they were actually "ethnic Greeks". "If Greece exists today as a homogeneous ethnos, she owes this to [the Asia Minor Catastrophe]. If the hundreds of thousands of refugees had not come to Greece, Greek Macedonia would not exist today. The refugees created the national homogeneity of our country. (Antonios Kandiotis, Metrpolite of Florina, Page 141, Anastasia Karakasidou, Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood) Surprisingly (and shamefully) after knowing all this, Greece still claims its population to be homogeneous and directly descendent from the ancient peoples of the ancient City States and of the ancient Macedonians. According to Karakasidou, almost half of the refugees from Turkey were settled in urban centers and rural areas in Macedonia. "Searching for locations in which to settle this mass of humanity, the Greek government looked north to the newly incorporated land in Macedonia..." "...by 1930, 90 percent of the 578,844 refugees settled in rural Greece were concentrated in the regions of Macedonia and western Thrace. Thus Macedonia, Greece's newly acquired second 'breadbasket' (after Thessaly), became the depository for East Thracian, Pontic, and Asia Minor refugees." (Page 145, Anastasia Karakasidou, Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood) If we take into consideration that most of the population imported from Turkey into Macedonia was ethnically "unknown" or non-Greek and the fact that very few so called "Greeks" from Greece proper settled in Macedonia we can conclude that Greek occupied Macedonia was settled by a number of non-Greek ethnicities. It is not ridiculous to assume that Greek occupied Macedonia after the settlements consisted of 51% indigenous people, predominantly Macedonians and 49% of newcomer settlers mostly of non-Greek (Turkish, Armenian, Albanian, Vlach, Patriarchic Macedonian, etc) origins. In other words the demographic composition of Greek occupied Macedonia after the arrival of the Asia Minor refugees still consisted of a Macedonian majority and a slew of unidentified other minorities. A census done by the Greek government in 1928 reported that there were 81,984 "Slavophones" in Greece. Interestingly, the number of Macedonians drastically fell between 1903 and 1928, supporting the idea that Macedonia was being Hellenized. Bearing in mind the stats presented in the 1911 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica, 1.15 million Slav speakers lived in Macedonia. Since Greece occupied 51% of Macedonia in 1912, 1913 we can safely assume that 51% or more of the total Slav speaking population which lived in Macedonia ended up under Greek control. 51% amounts to approximately 600,000 people. Thus, according to 1928 Greek stats, in less than 30 years approximately half a million Macedonians became Hellenized and made into "pure Greeks". I am using the term "Macedonians" instead of "Slavophones", even though Greece did not recognize them as such and considered them to be Bulgarian speakers, which explains why Professor R. A. Reis, who was commissioned by the Greek government to ethnologically study the new territories, felt compelled to insist that "those you call Bulgarophones, I will simply call them Macedonians" (Reiss, 1915:3). The numbers really get confusing when we add the Bulgarian and Serbian views. According to the Bulgarian Rumenov, in 1928 there were a total of 206,435 "Bulgarians" living in Greek occupied Macedonia. The Serb Bora Milojevich pegs the numbers at 250,000 "Slavs". Belgrade's "Politika" in its 6164 issue published June 24, 1925 gave three times greater numbers for the Macedonians in Greece than official Athens: "The Greek government must not complain that we are pointing to the fact that the Macedonian population of West Macedonia - 250,000 - 300,000 - is the most unfortunate national and linguistic minority in the world, not only because their personal safety is endangered, but also because they have no church or school in their own language, which they had during Turkish rule." So the "real" number of Macedonians living in Greek occupied Macedonia in the late 1920's is unknown and to this day remains disputed in Balkan documents. Unfortunately, Greek governments will not allow anyone, including neutral observers to conduct statistical studies. If we follow the "Greek example" we will note that according to Greek Stats, Greece is populated by 98% "pure Greeks" and 2% "Muslim Greeks". In other words Greece, to this day, has no creditable population statistics that are based on ethnic composition. Without a clear definition of what a "pure Greek" is one cannot accurately interpret what that means. However, looking at the numbers one can speculate that Greece may still be using religious affiliation to define its demographics. The numbers 98% Orthodox Christians and 2% Muslims most accurately represent Greece's demographics. Unfortunately, religious affiliation hardly speaks of the various ethnicities that make up that population. So, what exactly is the Modern Greek nation made up of outside of Orthodox Christians and Muslims? Who are the "ethnic groups" living in Greece today? To answer this question we need to go back to the time before Greece became a State and examine the ethnic composition of the populations living on those lands that now make up Greece. Before Greece became a State for the first time in 1829, its ethnic composition consisted of a Majority of Albanians, Turks, Vlachs and Slav speakers. If there were any so called "Greeks" they were a small minority. As Greece acquired Epirus and Thessaly, more Albanians, Vlachs, Slav speakers and Turks were added to its Population. In 1912, 1913 as Greece acquired 51% of Macedonian territories, it added a large portion of Macedonians (or Slav Speakers as Greece like to call them), Vlachs, Albanians, Turks, Roma and Jews to its total population. Since then Greece expelled a number of Macedonians to Bulgaria because they were affiliated with the Exarchate Church, and imported some so called "Greeks" from Bulgaria. Through the 1920's Greece expelled a sizable Muslim population and added a large number of Christian Turks from Asia Minor and other regions of Turkey as indicated earlier. Thus, ethnically speaking at the end of the 1920's even after all the population exchanges, Greece remained predominantly the same; made up of Slav Speakers, Turks, Albanians, Vlachs, Roma and Jews. There is no doubt that the Slav speakers in Greece are Macedonian and will declare themselves as Macedonians should Greece allow them to do so under the right conditions. If we examine the situation in the Republic of Macedonia in the 1920's and today we will see that in the 1920's there were no Macedonians registered to live in that territory. There was a large Majority of "Slav Speakers" referred to as "Serbians" by the Serbian Sate and smaller minorities of Albanians, Vlachs, Roma, Jews, etc. The situation however in the 1990's became different. The so called Serbians were not Serbians at all but Macedonians. The only Serbians registered as Serbians in the Republic of Macedonia in 1990 were the Serbian settlers who came with the army and administration in 1912, 1913 when Macedonia was invaded, occupied and partitioned by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. All the so called "Slav speakers" of the late 1920's declared themselves as Macedonians in the 1990's. So, if we examine today's demographic statistics of the Republic of Macedonia we will find a large Majority of Macedonians living there with well represented minorities of Albanians, Vlachs, Roma, Serbians, etc., or minorities of the same ethnicities and somewhat same proportions that lived on the same soil in the late 1920's. Now if we apply the same conditions to the Greek occupied territories and adjust for the population exchanges of the 1920's we can deduce that the population living in Greek occupied Macedonia is predominantly ethnic Macedonians, Turks, Vlachs, Albanians, Roma, etc. Proportionally, when stacked against the entire population living in Greek occupied Macedonia the Macedonian population may be a minority (30% to 49%) but given the number of other ethnic minorities such as the Asia Minor Turks, Albanians, Vlachs and Roma and their numbers, the Macedonian population may be close to being the majority. In other words, the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia may outnumber all of the other individual ethnic groups. As I said, the only way to prove or disprove this is by Greece recognizing the various ethnicities living on its soil and by creating the right climate for them to self-declare.
	My name is Cat, Lazycat, and I'm an assh*le. I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers!

Lazycat Профил од член Испрати лична порака Најди пораки од член Додај во листа на пријатели Сениор Регистриран: 16.Август.2006 Статус: Офлајн Поени: 179	Опции за коментарот Внеси реплика Цитирај Lazycat Благодарам(0) Цитирај Одговор Испратена: 29.Август.2006 во 12:41
	The year 1878 was a pivotal point in history for most of the Balkan people. A number of important historical events took place that would have lasting significance. This was the year when powerful decisions were made, some to liberate people yet others to subjugate them, decisions that would have lasting effects and grave consequences. Before 1878 there was great hope in Macedonia that the Christian Powers in Europe would soon rise up and drive the Muslim Turk out of Europe. Most educated and enlightened Macedonians were well aware of the situation in the Balkans especially of the Ottoman State’s slow but steady decline. They were witnessing the long held and powerful Empire crumble at its fringes and new Christian States forming from its debris. Macedonians knew it was a matter of time before they too would be liberated and for good. Before 1878 Macedonians rose and fought against the Turks not only to liberate themselves but also to liberate their Christian Brothers in Greece, Serbia and other places. By doing this they knew that when their turn came they could count on their friends, with whom they fought side by side, to come and give them aid. 1878 was the year the maps of the Balkans were re-drawn. It was the year grand plans for solving the Eastern Question were put in action. It was the year Macedonia’s fate was sealed. 1878 was also the year the enlightened Macedonians came to the realization that they could no longer hope or depend on the outside world to come to rescue them or liberate their Macedonia. Unbeknownst to the ordinary Macedonians, who suffered endlessly under the Ottoman yoke, was that their calls would not be answered, their kind favours would never be returned, the freedom they so longed for would never materialize and their suffering would never cease. Macedonians made their bid for liberation once in 1689 (the Karposh uprising) when Austria invaded Macedonia, once in 1876 at Razlog and twice in 1878. The Macedonian people rose and fought against the Turks side by side with the Russian army in early 1878. They again rose and fought the Turks in the Kreshna uprising in late 1878. After the Russian army overran and liberated most of the Balkans in March 1878, the Macedonian people experienced a brief spell of freedom. Unfortunately their freedom was cut short in July 1878 by order of the Western Powers. Russia’s impudence for self importance and its impatience with the Western Powers, in a bid to gain access to Mediterranean waters, attacked Turkey in early 1878 delivering a devastating blow and liberating most of the Balkans including all of Macedonia. Shocked by this unexpected act, Russia’s opponents, the Western Powers, intervened by convening a conference in Berlin and decided, among other things, to return Macedonia to the Ottomans. In the brief period from March 3rd to July 13th, 1878 Macedonians experienced a taste of freedom for the first time in centuries and also a taste of betrayal the kind they would never forget. This betrayal was a clear signal for the Macedonian people of what the Christian Powers had in mind. Worse than being handed back to their tormentors was the inaction of the Western Powers who made absolutely no effort or demands to safeguard the rights or safety of those Macedonians whom they handed back to the Turks as a gift. Macedonia, being the center of the Ottoman domain in Europe, had very little contact with the outside world and new ideas, especially nationalism, were slow to penetrate. Unlike the Serbians who bordered the Austro-Hungarian Empire and were continuously bombarded with outside propaganda and the Greeks who were merchants and sailors and had opportunities to interact with the outside world, Macedonians were mostly peasants and farmers tied to the land with virtually no outside contact. Macedonians however were well aware of who they were ethnically speaking, but little emphasis was placed on their ethnic identity mainly because they saw themselves as Christians first and Macedonians second. Their fight at the time was with the Muslim authorities and not with the individual ethnicities in the Balkans. As Slav speaking Orthodox (not Catholic) Christians the Western Powers saw the Macedonians as natural Russian allies and enemies of the West. As a result of this Macedonians were disadvantaged and received little or no attention from the West. In fact Britain and Germany, ignoring evidence to the contrary like Macedonian folklore and traditions, did their best to rob the Macedonian people of their ancient heritage by declaring that they were “Slav” and had no connection to the ancient Macedonians who, in their opinion, were “Greek”. Knowing all this, the Macedonian intelligentsia still bore no ill will towards their Christian brothers and was confident that the world would see the truth one day once it became known. In fact, the 19th century Macedonian intellectuals were so preoccupied with the plight of their people that all priority was given to survival; everything else was of secondary importance. The 1878 wakeup call for the Macedonian intelligentsia brought home the idea that Macedonia must liberate itself and for that to happen the Macedonian people must be informed, organized, armed and trained for a massive rebellion. Unfortunately by the time the Macedonian people were ready to do this, the Ottoman authorities were well aware of what was happening and rebellions were made very difficult to come by. After the Ottomans lost lands to Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria they were determined not to lose any more and became vigilant regarding such matters. For some, especially for Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria, 1878 was the year of realization that if Macedonia was not going to be liberated as a free nation-state then perhaps maybe it could be annexed by outside forces. So while the Macedonian people were organizing for a massive rebellion, new and more sinister forces were making plans for their future. Unbeknownst to the Macedonian people, high level discussions and negotiations were taking place between the Great Powers and the new Balkan States on how to solve the Macedonian question. Two important decisions were reached as a result of these negotiations; Macedonia would be partitioned and annexed by Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, and Macedonia would be divided along national lines. Both of these decisions were made without the knowledge, consultation or approval of the Macedonian people. After gaining approval from the Great Powers, Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria began to infiltrate Macedonia by way of the churches, the only legal authorities recognized by the Ottoman powers. In the legal absence of a Macedonian Church, foreign churches were allowed to be established inside Macedonia. Unfortunately, even though Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia through their churches busied themselves making Bulgarians, Greeks and Serbians out of the Macedonian population in Macedonia, the Macedonian leadership did not perceive this as a threat to the Macedonian national consciousness and continued to organize the struggle against its main foe, the Ottoman authorities. With the formation of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization in Solun in 1893, the movement was nationally consolidated and the armed struggle began to take shape. At the turn of the 20th century the Macedonian Revolutionary Movement began to feel the effects of the foreign churches on Macedonian soil. First it was the virulent foreign propaganda. When that alone did not produce desired result, the foreign churches began to illegally employ bands of armed brigands to terrorize the population and accelerate the process of making Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians out of the Macedonian population. Unfortunately, most of the Macedonian leadership still could not see this as a serious threat. “One can change a Macedonian into a Greek as much as one can change a sheep into a goat.” was not an unusual response one would get when posing the question. With the exception of some intellectuals, like Krste Misirkov, the top leadership could not rationalize the “real reasons” why Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria would want to make Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians out of Macedonians. For the moment the leadership had a more pressing job which was to liberate Macedonia from the Turks. In retrospect, the Macedonian leadership was correct in its assessment of the effects of foreign propaganda before the Ilinden 1903 rebellion. Direct threats from Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian involvement, be it propaganda or armed incursion, were minor in comparison to having to deal with the massive Turkish army. Indirectly however, especially during and after the 1903 attempt, foreign involvement proved to be lethal. The Churches and armed bands cooperated with Turkish authorities, which in the long term brought greater harm to the Macedonian Revolutionary Movement than its leadership could have estimated. Turkish authorities and the Turkish military needed assistance with its intelligence and had the eyes and ears of the Churches. History has recorded many instances where the Greek Church and its clergy and even the Greek sponsored brigands cooperated with the Turkish army to monitor Macedonian activities and to capture and assassinate Macedonian Revolutionary leaders. The Macedonian Revolutionary Movement itself was well organized. It was a grass roots movement organized by the people for the people and it was not affiliated with any foreign powers or foreign states. It was a true peoples’ movement dedicated to liberating all the people in Macedonia and creating a Macedonian nation-state. This was an accomplishment that all Macedonians can take pride in. According to peace keepers who served in Macedonia and witnessed this, they declared it was one of the most organized but unfortunately most poorly executed revolutions that Europe had ever witnessed. It was well organized mainly due to the efforts of the national and regional leadership and poorly executed mainly due to foreign, mostly Bulgarian, intervention. Unlike the Greeks who had almost no local support and little hold on Macedonia before the Ilinden rebellion, the Bulgarians were in the thick of things. The Bulgarians were so certain that they would annex Macedonia they made every effort to stifle the rebellion and turn the tide to their advantage. They did this through sabotage and outright assassinations. In fact every time the Revolutionary Movement made some real progress, its leadership paid for it with lives. Bulgarian agents, spies and assassins were responsible for more Macedonian leaders being killed than the entire Turkish army. Even the 1903 Ilinden rebellion itself was instigated by Bulgarian agents to start early so that it would fail. Gotse Delchev, the supreme commander of the Macedonian Revolutionary Movement, was against an early rebellion because he believed his fighters were not properly armed and trained for the massive task at hand. As for the Bulgarian involvement, based on historical accounts, Bulgarians have done more harm to the liberation movement and its pursuit for an independent Macedonia than all other forces combined. The Bulgarians were responsible for most of the revolutionary leadership’s apprehensions and killings. It was by no accident that the Ottoman authorities declared the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization illegal on January 31st, 1903 and had all its leaders arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in the harshest prisons in Asia Minor. A list with the names of all revolutionary leaders was compiled high up in the Bulgarian State leadership, if not by Bulgarian Prince Ferdinand himself, and handed to the Turkish authorities. The annexation of Macedonia with all its glory and making it a part of Bulgaria was Prince Ferdinand’s personal project. The failed 1903 Ilinden Macedonian rebellion was a signal not only for Turkey but also for Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria to escalate their intervention. To make sure no future rebellions would occur, agents from all three states were dispatched to hunt down and eliminate all revolutionary leaders that survived the rebellion. In the hunt for rebels and in the pursuit to quell the rebellion many fighters and civilians were killed and villages burned. These were acts of terror which not only instilled great fear in the hearts of the Macedonian population but also crushed their will as Macedonians. This was a great opportunity for the foreign propaganda machine to turn the situation around. Leaderless and morally crushed, Macedonians began to doubt themselves and their abilities to liberate themselves by themselves. Those who could see no end to their misery found solace in the propaganda. It was during this time and under these conditions that Greece exploited the situation and by wielding the might of the Turkish army turned Macedonians into Greeks. Yes, it was Greeks closely cooperating with Turks that turned the tide in Greece’s favour. It is hard to believe Greece has forgotten all that! Yes, this is an historical fact that today’s modern Greeks refuse to acknowledge. Without the help of the Turkish army very few Macedonians would have surrendered to the Greek will. The failed rebellion and loss of leadership literally opened Macedonia’s doors to foreign intervention. Left unprotected, the Macedonian people turned to the Greek Patriarchate and Bulgarian Exarchate Churches for solace only to be filled with false hope and to again be betrayed. With the Macedonian revolution out of the way and having the Macedonian people fooled into believing that they would soon be liberated, Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria anxiously made plans to invade Macedonia. Unfortunately, in their haste their plans were stifled because the three could not agree on how to divide Macedonia. Having no previous borders to agree on or the right kind of populations to liberate, they consulted the Russian King who also had no answers. He did, however, advise them that whatever territory their armies liberated, it would be theirs to keep. I want to clarify at this point what I meant by my comment “the right kind of population to liberate”. Earlier I mentioned that one of the conditions imposed by the Great Powers in sanctioning the division of Macedonia was that Macedonia had to be divided “along national lines”. This meant that Greece could only annex the territory where the majority of the population was ethnically Greek. Bulgaria could only annex the territory where the majority of the population was ethnically Bulgarian and so on. Since none of the population in Macedonia was ethnically Greek, Bulgarian or Serbian, the three states took measures to make it so. Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian ethnicities had to be literally manufactured. After some trials, the final solution came down to church affiliation. By this I mean those Macedonians who were affiliated with the Greek Patriarchic Church were declared to be ethnic Greeks. Those affiliated with the Bulgarian Exarchate Church were declared to be ethnic Bulgarians and those affiliated with the Serbian Church were declared to be ethnic Serbians. What is totally bizarre about this solution is that it assumed that since there was no Macedonian Church in Macedonia, there were no ethnic Macedonians in Macedonia. Unfortunately since all three State Churches were allowed to operate in overlapping territories, all three Churches made claims to the same people. There were many instances where one village had a majority of Macedonians affiliated with the Greek Church, while another village in close proximity, just a few kilometers away, had a majority of Macedonians affiliated with the Bulgarian church and so on. In other words right from the onset it was not clear where the dividing lines should be placed. If I may add, all of this was done without the knowledge or consent of the Macedonian people. Welcomed as their liberators the Macedonian people allowed the foreign armies to march into Macedonia unabated only to be betrayed again. After the Turks were driven off, with Macedonian help I might add, the Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian armies not only captured and jailed much of the Macedonian leadership but they also turned on the Macedonian civilian populations. The Greek army burned down villages where the majority of the population was affiliated with the Bulgarian Church. The Bulgarian army in retaliation burned down villages where the majority of the population was affiliated with the Greek Church and so on. There were so many atrocities committed and so much carnage left that the situation prompted an investigation from the Carnegie International Commission. The Commission arrived in Macedonia just before the second Balkan War ended and even though it didn’t witness all the atrocities first hand, it did interview many eye witnesses and a year later filed a report with its findings. Unfortunately the report was filed just before the eruption of World War I and was shelved before anything could be investigated. As a result no war crimes were investigated and no charges were laid. And so another saga ended un-investigated and the perpetrators literally got away with murder. After Macedonia’s partition in 1913 each State again took measures against the Macedonian people, some in retribution for assisting the enemy and others just simply to “ethnically” cleanse the population. With all that had happened, the Macedonian leadership was very much weakened but not completely destroyed and continued to function, mostly externally. The new borders imposed on the Macedonian people, as a result of Macedonia’s partition, proved to be more impenetrable than expected so interaction between the leadership and the people ground to a standstill. Over the years after the occupation, the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia and the Macedonians in Bulgarian occupied Macedonia faired the worst of all Macedonians and by the Second World War suffered expulsions, denationalization, jail sentences and disappearances. Many were murdered. The Macedonian language was outlawed and the Macedonian identity was completely erased. Macedonians were forced to pledge loyalty to their new states and as a result were assimilated into their respective societies. After the Second World War the Serbian occupied part of Macedonia was granted Republic Status within the Yugoslav Federation. The Macedonian people earned this right with the spilling of their own blood during the liberation of Yugoslavia from the Fascist forces. The Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia also spilled blood to free Greece but the Greek authorities refused to acknowledge it. The Macedonians in Bulgarian occupied Macedonia were briefly recognized as Macedonians but unfortunately the Bulgarian authorities had a change of heart and soon revoked the recognition. Regarding the Greek Civil War, I would like to state my own opinion at this point because I believe there are things that need to be said. In retrospect, based on what we learned after the archives of World War II were opened, there are indications that the Greek Civil War was not just a simple and straight forward war. I believe it had more sinister motives. Knowing that the Great Powers had already agreed that Greece would remain under the British sphere of influence, why was the Civil War allowed to start in the first place? Surely both sides of the Greek leadership must have known about this agreement? It was made certain that Britain would not allow a Communist regime to govern Greece even if the Communist forces won by combat or by free election. So the real crux of the problem is what do you do with a Communist majority in Greece? How would Britain have handled a Democratically elected Communist Government in Greece? Would a Communist regime cooperate with Britain and remain loyal and honour its policies? I don’t think so! I believe the Greek Civil War was started in order to crush the Communists in Greece, nip them in the bud before they had a chance to become a serious problem for Britain. After all Greece was the gateway to the Mediterranean waters. Am I the only one that sees the historic pattern here? If Greece became Communist, it would have aligned itself with Russia thus giving the Russians access to the Mediterranean Sea. But why involve the Macedonian people? That’s simple. During the German occupation, free from Greek oppression, the Macedonian people in Greece not only experienced a mini renaissance but also showed the will to organize and fight for their freedom. This was well demonstrated by the formation and actions of the Aegean Brigade which not only proved to be formidable but also put fear in the hearts of the Greeks. The Macedonian people were involved in the Greek Civil War so that once again their spirits would be broken. The Macedonians have always been a thorn in the side of Greece, so why not break their will while beating up on the communists. By its own admission after the fact, the Greek Communist leadership would have never given autonomy to the Macedonian people had it won. So why did it lie to them? Macedonians were promised autonomy, even outright independence, just to get them involved and in doing so destroyed them. One only has to look at the results to be convinced of the validity of this argument. The expulsions and murders committed between 1912, when Macedonia was partitioned, and 1949 when the Greek Civil War ended reduced the Macedonian population from a great Majority to a minority on its native soil. The above mentioned issues are well known to the Macedonians. It is high time now that they are made known to the international community so the world will stop treating Macedonians as some kind of Communist creation or as terrorists scheming and plotting to usurp Greek lands and Greek history.
	My name is Cat, Lazycat, and I'm an assh*le. I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers!

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