Ethnic cleansing in Macedonia

Above 1500 scientific works exist, written by foreigners, which prove that the Slavonic population inhabiting Macedonia identifies itself as Bulgarians, and the concepts Bulgarian and Macedonian overlap and are equal in meaning. That basic tmth is suppressed and concealed by the authorities in Athens and Skopje nowadays. According to the official Turkish statistics from the year 1900, there were 1,181,336 Bulgarians, 28,702 Greeks and 700 Serbs in Macedonia. In 1912. in Vardar Macedonia existed 761 churches with 6 bishops, 833 priests, and 641 Bulgarian schools with 1013 teachers and 37,000 students. In Aegean Macedonia there were 378 Bulgarian churches with 300 priests, and 340 Bulgarian schools with 750 teachers and 19,000 students.

In 1912-1913 the Greek troops entered Aegean Macedonia as conquerors, although their history textbooks spoke about "liberation of Macedonia". These troops undertook a systematic ethnic cleansing of the conquered territories. In this respect, they preceded the Serbian racists in their actions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bulgarian people are hardly aware of the way the Greek Army liberated" Macedonia. In that respect, however, there are international documents testifying that the Greek troops, on their way into Macedonia, were not considered liberators at all. In the face of the Bulgarian population there they saw an alien people, and they behaved as occupiers to it.

On the explicit order of the newly crowned Greek King Konstantine, the town of Kukush was set on fire. In the villages of the same district 4725 Bulgarian houses were burnt down (Report of the Bulgarian Commission, p. 315). The Bulgarian houses were burnt in the villages of Negovan, Ravna, Bogorod; in the Doyran vilayet 11 villages were burnt, in Demir Hisar - 5 villages were burnt, in Seres district 5 villages were burnt, and in Gevgely region - 15 villages were burnt, etc.

According to the final data of the Commission, the Greeks had set on fire 161 Bulgarian villages with a total of 16,000 houses (see p. 315 of the above mentioned report). The population was subjected to all possible violence in order to proclaim itself Greek. All Regulations of the occupational Greek troops were published in Greek, Turkish and Jewish. Bulgarian language did not exist. The Bulgarian population was compelled to sign declarations claiming it was Greek since ancient times, but called itself ,,Bulgarian" under the influence of the Bulgarian propaganda. Other declarations claimed that up till 1903 all were Greeks but since 1903-1906 they were forced by the Bulgarian commits to claim themselves Bulgarians. Both theses ended with the same declaration that now the liberating Greek Army had come, the population wanted to receive the benevolence of ,,our great Orthodox Greek church". The Greek eusons played the role of ,,apostles" and converted the villagers with the help of the bayonets. As an example can serve the villages in the region of Kostour: Gabresh, Drenoveni, Chernovitsa, Turie, Zagoricheni, Dambeni. In the villages of Breznitsa, Gorno and Doino Nestrame all the village people were put to prison and then where released after having proclaimed themselves Greeks (p. 197). The Muhammadans from the village of Cherveny were also proclaimed Greeks, although they spoke Bulgarian, and not Greek (p. 198).

The Greek Army entered Voden in October 18-31. Ten days later the population was told: "Your tongues will be cut off if you speak Bulgarian." The property of the villagers was taken away. The churches and the schools were closed down. The Slavonic inscriptions were erased; the priests were beaten and expelled. All people of public power in the villages of Veshtitsa, Tsrmarinovi, Piskopia, and Arsen were arrested. They were told "if you want to be free, say that you are Greeks" (p. 199).

As soon as the Second Balkan War broke out, over 200 Bulgarians from that region - priests, teachers, eminent figures and wealthy people - were arrested and sent to Salonica after assaults. In the beginning of July the whole population was compelled to sign the following declaration:

"Threatened by the rebels and under the influence of the Exarchate propaganda, we became Bulgarians. Now we profess the true faith and proclaim our Hellenic nationality."

The conduct of the Turkish Army on the territory of Aegean Macedonia was in no way different in its attitude towards the Bulgarians.

In its comprehensive report comprising 410 pages, the authoritative international commission established by the Carnegie Endowment for studying the reasons for conducting the Balkan Wars presented ample and incontestable evidence for the ethnic cleansing and assaults done by the Greek Army on the territory of Macedonia which was ,,liberated", by them. Appendix No 51, p. 307 (in the English issue) presents 28 letters sent by Greek soldiers who did their military service in the 19th Regiment of the Seventh Greek Division. These letters were meant to be sent to the soldiers' families but the post was captured and so these letters became evidence for the Commission of Inquiry. Below are given some excerpts from such letters: