My translation, which might not be correct because of my so-so Greek language knowledge.



The text is taken from the book "Oi Polemoi 1912-1913" by Spirou Mela from 1972.

Could someone help me out with this translation......


I hope you all like it, this comes straight from the horses mouth.......


Please do consider that...
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V

The rest of the translation is impeccable.

NOTES :
a) I cannot see any signs of genicide or even harsh treatment of the locals

b) He does not mention how many of them belonged to your 'beloved' Grkman species (Kottas did not know Greek, as you know)

c) A single soldier's view during a war cannot change a lot of expert researches before it

Thank you Andreas, it is just a piece of history that is all.........


but I hope you noticed that they mentioned the language as Macedonian.

Sure I did.

In many papers posted in this Forum (and some same I saw in Greek Forums, and even more) it is clear that during the period 1920-1928 Greece had made some census in local level where the name MACEDONIAN is clearly written.

The problem arose when it was understood, after 1920, that not all Slavic speakers were willing to identify themselves as Bulgarian [ This was the general idea in Greece before 1912 ].

On the other hand, the Bulgar-Greek relations were the worst possible. Bulgaria had actually entered the WW-1 in order to be able to carve Greek Macedonia out of Greece and what is today's RoM out of Serbia (Yugoslavia). Bulgaria sustained terrible losses during WW-1, but failed to implement her goals. Nevertheless the centerpoint of the Bulgarian policy from 1918 to 1944 continued to be the same : Conquer the whole of Macedonia.

During 1920-1926, Greece had to conform to League of Nations instructions and recognise the Slavic speaking minority. Then a new problem arose : Serbs shouted the people are Serbians, Bulgaria claimed them as Bulgarians. The poor people themselves were not asked who they are : Neither the LoN neither any other organisation had any concern about them.

So in 1925 (or 1926) Greece and Bulgaria signed the Kalfof-Politis Protocoll, the ABECEDAR was drafted etc. But the Greek Parliament denied ratification of the Protocoll in the first place, and then came Serbia : They threatened war if the Protocall was to be implemented.
So the Protocoll remained a dead letter.

The only solution to avoid friction with both Serbs and Bulgars was to find a medium solution : The first was to call the people Macedonians, imlpying they were Greeks, since ancient Macedonians were considered as Greeks at that time, with very few scholars disagreeing. So you will find many papers of this period (1920-1928) that call the minority Macedonians. Then roughly in 1926 came the well known new idea : Slavophone Greeks or Slav-Macedonians.

After 1928, the official stance was : Slavophone Greeks, i.e. no minority.

This "Slavophone Greeks" term is right for the people whom you call Grkmani, but wrong for the others like e.g. VOSKOPOULOS, who consider themselves ethnic Macedonians.

Greek official stance has not change from 1928.

You know my own view, I disagree and think the minority should have been recognised, not as plain MACEDONIAN, though.

Why would the term 'Slavophone Greeks' be more accurate than g'rkomani or traitors? These asshole pushkari were giving up their own family members and co-villagers to the Greeks, almost always for personal gain.

They're not a 'species' they are something else.