Greek Atrocities in Macedonia by Risto Stefov

"Ethnic cleansing" may be a modern term but its meaning is well understood by the Macedonian people living in northern Greece. Ever since Greece took possession of Macedonia, in the early 20th century, Macedonian people have experienced first hand ethnic cleansing.

This series of articles will present evidence of atrocities perpetrated by the Greek State against the innocent Macedonian civilian populations prior to, during and after the Balkan wars. Most of the information contained in the articles is obtained from the 1913 Carnegie Inquiry and from Greek sources.

The Carnegie Endowment was founded in 1910 by Andrew Carnegie to promote peace and understanding in the world. Its prime objectives are to do research, promote discussions, sponsor publications and education in international affairs and American foreign policy.

When war broke out in the Balkans in 1912 and 1913, the Carnegie Endowment dispatched a commission on a fact finding mission. The mission consisted of seven prominent members from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia. Among them was the distinguished journalist Henry N. Brailsford, author of the book "Macedonia its Races and their Future".

The commission was dispatched from Paris on August 2nd, 1913, shortly before the end of the second Balkan war and returned to Paris nearly eight weeks later, on September 28th. In spite of opposition from the Greek government, the commission arrived in time to witness much of the war's aftermath and record most accounts while they were still fresh in people's minds. The commission's findings were compiled and released in 1914.

In a statement dated February 22, 1914, Carnegie Endowment Acting Director Nicholas Murray Butler said:

"The circumstances which attended the Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913 were of such character as to fix upon them the attention of the civilized world. The conflicting reports as to what actually occurred before and during these wars, together with the persistent rumors often supported by specific and detailed statements as to violations of the laws of war by the several combatants, made it important that an impartial and exhaustive examination should be made of this entire episode in contemporary history. The purpose of such an impartial examination by an independent authority was to inform public opinion and to make plain just what is or may be involved in an international war carried on under modern conditions. If the minds of men can be turned even for a short time away from passion, from race antagonism and from national aggrandizement to a contemplation of the individual and national losses due to war and to the shocking horrors which modern warfare entails, a step and by no means a short one, will have been taken toward the substitution of justice for force in the settlement of international differences.

It was with this motive and for this purpose that the Division of Intercourse and Education of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Constituted in July, 1913, an International Commission of Inquiry to study the recent Balkan wars and to visit the actual scenes where fighting had taken place and the territory which had been devastated. The presidency of this International Commission of Inquiry was entrusted to Baron d'Estournelles de Constant, Senator of France, who had represented his country at the First and Second Hague Conferences of 1899 and of 1907, and who as President Fondateur of the Conciliation lnternationale, has labored so long and so effectively to bring the various nations of the world into closer and more sympathetic relations. With Baron d'Estournelles de Constant there were associated men of the highest standing, representing different nationalities, who were able to bring to this important task large experience and broad sympathy.

The result of the work of the International Commission of Inquiry is contained in the following report. This report, which has been written without prejudice and without partisanship, is respectfully commended to the attention of the governments, the people and the press of the civilized world. To those who so generously participated in its preparation as members of the International Commission of Inquiry, the Trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace offer an expression of grateful thanks." (Preface)

It is therefore our wish to highlight some of the Commission's findings in a series of articles and remind the world of the plight of the Macedonian people and the indignity they suffered at the hands of the Greek State.

The failed 1903 Ilinden Macedonian uprising against the Ottoman regime not only took away the hope for independence and self-rule but at the same time brought devastation and destruction. Many Macedonians lost their lives, properties and all hopes for freedom. While the Macedonian spirit for self-liberation was slowly extinguished by Turkish brutality, there was new hope on the horizon, the hope that Macedonia would be liberated by her Christian brothers Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. Many leading Macedonians, including Krste Misirkov, warned against such false hopes, but most Macedonians, fed up with their intolerable living conditions, could not see the danger. Mesmerized by slick propaganda, they were more than ready to welcome their liberators.

Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia, on the other hand, while priming the Macedonian people and the world with their propaganda for liberation, were actually planning for an invasion with intentions of occupying and partitioning Macedonia. The Great Powers were well aware of this sinister plan even before it was put into action.

Here is evidence that the Macedonian people were duped by their Christian brothers, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. According to the Carnegie inquiries, the Macedonian revolutionaries themselves, at first, rejoiced with an outburst of popular gratitude towards their liberators. In a "proclamation to their brothers", published by the delegates of the twenty-five Macedonian Confederacies, at the very beginning of the first Balkan war, declared to the Macedonian population:

"Brothers:-your sufferings and your pains have touched the heart of your kindred. Moved by the sacred duty of fraternal compassion, they come to your aid to free you from the Turkish yoke. In return for their sacrifice they desire nothing but to reestablish peace and order in the land of our birth. Come to meet these brave knights of freedom therefore with triumphal crowns. Cover the way before their feet with flowers and glory. And be magnanimous to those who yesterday were your masters. As true Christians, give them not evil for evil. Long live liberty! Long live the brave army of liberation!" (Page 50).

In fact the Serbian army entered Macedonia from the north and the Greek army from the south, welcomed with cries of joy from the Macedonian population. Unfortunately this enthusiasm for the liberators soon gave way to doubts, then to disenchantment and was finally converted to hatred and despair.

According to the Carnegie report, the Macedonians were not the only ones duped. The soldiers of the invading armies were lied to also. "The Servian soldier, like the Greek, was firmly persuaded that in Macedonia he would find compatriots, men who could speak his language and address him with jivio or zito. He found men speaking a language different from his, who cried hourrah! He misunderstood or did not understand at all. The theory he had learned from youth of the existence of a Servian Macedonia and a Greek Macedonia naturally suffered; but his patriotic conviction that Macedonia must become Greek or Servian, if not so already, remained unaffected. Doubtless Macedonia had been what he wanted it to become in those times of Douchan the Strong or the Byzantine Emperors. It was only agitators and propagandist Bulgarians who instilled into the population the idea of being Bulgarian. The agitators must be driven out of the country, and it would again become what it had always been, Servian or Greek.

Accordingly they acted on this basis.

Who were these agitators who had made the people forget the Greek and Servian tongues?

First, they were the priests; then the schoolmasters; lastly the revolutionary elements who, under the ancient regime, had formed an 'organization'; heads of bands and their members, peasants who had supplied them with money or food, -in a word the whole of the male population." (Page 50-51)

In other words, to a Greek, Bulgarian or Serbian soldier, if a person was not of his nationality as he had been taught back home, then this person was the enemy and in Macedonia, the entire Macedonian population was the enemy.

No sooner had the invading armies consolidated their hold on Macedonia, than they arrested and punished all Macedonians regarded as leaders and venerated as heroes by the population, while the dregs, the very men who caused much suffering, were raised to greatness.

Progressive disintegration of social and national life in Macedonia began with the entry of the occupying Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian armies and has not ceased to this day (in Greece and Bulgaria).

All three States, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia committed atrocities against the Macedonian people during the 1912 and 1913 Balkan wars. However, for the purpose of this series of articles, the focus of investigation will be on the Greeks.

Still in the midst of excitement, the first Balkan war was accepted by European opinion as a war of Liberation. In the European mind, its conclusion meant the downfall of the Ottoman regime in Europe and the end of all oppression. Unfortunately, European understanding of the Macedonian situation was far from reality as one tyrant was replaced by three. While the Ottoman regime tolerated the various religions, languages and traditions of all races in their Empire, the new tyrants did not. As soon as they consolidated their hold on Macedonia, they began to act on its population.

First came the evictions.

The first ones to be thrown out were the Muslim Macedonians. Even though they spoke the Macedonian language and insisted that they were Macedonians and not Turks, their captors relentlessly cast them out. For no reason other than being Muslim, they were evicted from their homes and forced out from their ancestral lands.

After the Turkish authorities vacated Macedonia, all that was left were civilians. No Turk dared remain behind knowing what awaited him. So the Turkish villages that the Carnegie report was referring to were in fact Macedonian villages inhabited by Muslim Macedonians.

After the Greek army occupied his town, according to Hadji Suleiman Effendi of Strumnitsa "They subsequently gave the order that the Moslems must abandon the town; and added that they, the Greeks, would burn the houses if the Moslems would not. I myself offered 3 pounds to the Greek patrol which came to burn down my house. The sergeant refused to take it, and said that if he did not burn the house another patrol would. The buildings were all systematically burnt, and the same thing was done in about thirty-two neighbouring villages. 'We [pointing to the others that were present] were all large farmers, employing, each of us, nearly 300 laborers and tenants; now we have nothing'." (Page 278)

The Carnegie Commission visited the camp of the Muslim refugees outside of Solun and spoke with refugees from Strumitsa who, among other things, reported that most Muslims left their town, most under pressure. The few that remained were evicted by force. "They heard that other villages had been burned after they left and some of them actually saw their villages in flames. They had received no rations from the Greeks for four days; they had no plans for the future, did not wish to go Asia, nor yet to settle in Greek territory. They saw 'no good in front of them at all'." (Page 278)

Officials of the Comite Islamique, in Solun, informed the Carnegie Commission that by September 1, 1913, there were 135,000 Muslim refugees in and around Solun. Most of them had arrived after the conclusion of the second Balkan war. The Committee reminded the Greek government that it was responsible for these refugees since it evicted them from their homes. The Committee, which at this point was spending 50 pounds of its own money daily on bread to feed the refugees, had no faith that the Greek government would in any way help to relieve the situation. (Page 278)

In a separate account, according to Ali Riza Effendi of Kukush, the Greeks systematically and deliberately plundered and burnt the town. Many old people were burned alive in their homes. (Page 279)

A Muslim Notable from Yailadjik, a village one and a half hours' distance from Solun stated that on November 11, 1912, Greek soldiers came and killed fifteen Muslims. They then took all the furniture, 9,500 sheep and goats, 1,500 cattle and all the grain which they could find, and then burned the 250 houses of the village. (Page 281)

The following is a report drawn up by the Moslem community of Pravishta, on the atrocities committed in that town and the neighboring villages since the withdrawal of the Turkish authorities on October 24, 1913.

[NOTE.-The names of all of the killed (195 in all) and of some of those robbed, and also those of the aggressors, are fully given in the original Turkish document, but are omitted in the following summarized translation].

Village of Giran

Twenty-one Moslems killed by the Greeks of the village of Nikchan, and a sum of about £T3,000 stolen. Six hundred goats were also stolen for the benefit of the Greek church at Nikchan and 2,400 goats taken by the Greeks of Djerbelan.

Village of Palihor

Six Moslems killed by the band commanded by Demosthenes, headmaster of the Greek school of Palihor, pillage to the extent of about £T3,000. One woman (named) was violated by Demosthenes and another.

Village of Micheli

Demosthenes and other Greeks pillaged the village, carried off many oxen and much corn and stole credit notes for a sum of £T3,000.

Village of Drama

Two Moslems killed by Greeks of Pravishta.

Village of Osmanli

Six Moslems killed by Greeks of Holo; about £T1,500 stolen.

Village of Samalcol

Twenty-one Moslems of this village were taken by Miltiades Machopoulos of the band of Myriacos Mihail to the ravine of Casroub, where they were massacred by the Greek bandit Leonidas and others. Over £T1,500 were stolen from them; a shop looted of stock worth £Tl,500, and about £T7,000 stolen in the village generally.

Village of Tchanahli

Two Moslems killed by Greeks of Holo; 200 sheep and a mule stolen.

Village of Mouchtian

Twenty-five Moslems killed by Myriacos Mihail, his band and some local Greeks in the ravine of Casroub. About £T3,000 stolen.

"In the twentieth century of progress, the skeletons which may still be seen in this ravine, present to the eyes of Justice a monument capable of enlightening her regarding Hellenic civilization." (Page 282).

Village of Dranich.

£T2,000 in money, seven goats and 1,000 sheep stolen by the Greeks of Palihor and Nikchan.

Village of Ahadler

Nine Moslems killed by Greeks of Casroub, and sums amounting to £T258 stolen.

Village of Tchiflik

Ten Moslems killed by the same Greeks of Casroub, and about £TI,000 stolen.

Village of Pethor

Fourteen Moslems killed by the grocer Myriacos Mihail, member of the bishop's council, Panahi, priest of Boblan, and Miltiades Machopoulos. [The band led by these three men is frequently mentioned.] Local Greeks stole about £T1,500.

Village of Rehemli

Three Moslems killed by Greeks of Holo.

Village of Sarili

Five Moslems killed by Greeks of Pethor, and about 1,000 sheep and goats stolen.

Village of Dedebal

Eight Moslems killed by Myriacos Mihail and his band; about £T1,000 stolen.

Village of Deranli

Three Moslems killed by Myriacos Mihail and his band; about £T3,000 stolen.

Village of Orphano

Three Moslems killed by the Greeks. One of these was seized by the priest Panahi on a telephonic order from the Greek bishop of Pravishta and killed at Essirli. The bishop had had the telephone removed from the Turkish governor's office to his own house, and by this means he gave orders to the whole district.

Village of Boblan

Eight Moslems killed by Myriacos Mihail and his band, specially sent for the purpose by the bishop; about £T800 stolen.

Village of Carpan

Four Moslems killed by the band of Myriacos Mihail sent by the bishop. The Greeks of Carpan stole all the goods and corn belonging to the local Moslems, and did not leave them even the grain which they had in their household jars. The Greek bravoes brutally robbed the women of their earrings. Later Greek soldiers joined the villagers and began to violate the young women, until they were obliged to take refuge in the towns and villages held by Bulgarian troops.

About £T500 was stolen in this village.

Village of Leftera

Four Moslems killed by Greeks. The wife of Arnaut Agouchagha, who voluntarily embraced Islam fifty years ago, was taken to Pravishta to be reconverted to Christianity. She told the Bulgarian chief, Baptchev, that she did not consent to this conversion. Baptchev had her released, but on her return to the village she was "odiously lynched by Greek savages".

Baptchev took £T500 from a Turk at the instigation of the Greek priests of the monastery of Nozlé, who also robbed the villagers of about 2,000 sheep.

Village of Kochkar

Two Moslems killed by Greeks of Drazeni and about £Tl,000 stolen.

Village of Kale Tchiflik

Five Moslems killed, and all the cattle seized by the priests of Nozlé.

Village of Devekeran

Four Moslems killed by Greeks of Pravishta; about £T500 stolen.

Village of Essirli

Nineteen Moslems killed in the ravine of Casroub by Greeks of that village. About £T1,500 stolen.

Village of Kotchan

One Moslem killed to satisfy the vengeance of the bishop and of the priest Nicholas.

"It is worthy of remark that many Imams figure among the list of victims in the district of Pravishta * * * further that the victims are almost always men known for their enlightenment.

* * * The reason why the assassins killed Imams and the most enlightened notables for choice is obvious when one reflects that there are .13,000 Moslems in this district out of a total population of 20,000." (Page 283)

Town of Pravishta

Ten Moslems were killed, including one woman, while the town was held by Bulgarian bands, under the command of a chief named Baptchev, who established himself in the governor's palace and acted as governor and commandant. They were killed by three Greeks (named) and the Bulgarians. On the evening when an assassination was to take place, the students of the Greek school assembled in the courtyard of the government house and sang the Greek national anthem.

The Greek bishop formed a municipal council composed of the priest Nicholas, the grocer Myriacos Mihail, and others (named). The sentence of death was passed by this council, approved by the archbishop, and communicated to Baptchev to be carried out. Similar councils were formed in the villages which took their orders from that of Pravishta. The Bulgarian, chief Baptchev served as the tool of the Greek bishop and notables. In this town the Moslem population has incurred a loss of about £T3,000, stolen by the Bulgarian bands, guided by the Greeks.

The daughter of the commander of the gendarmeries, Suleiman Effendi, who is now in Constantinople, was summoned one night to the bishopric to be converted to Christianity, The bishop threatened her, in order to convert her, but the Bulgarian chief Baptchev, when he heard of this, went to the bishopric, saved the girl, restored her to her family, and thus prevented her conversion. Some days later he gave her a passport to go to Constantinople.

Thanks to the orders issued by Baptchev the mosques of the town and the villages were preserved intact, and no one was molested on account of his religion.

Neither the Bulgarian officers, nor their soldiers nor even the members of the bands committed any violence against women, but Baptchev took money to the value of about £T6,000

The priest Panahi of the village of Nikchan and the Greek antiquarian Apostol, of the village of Palihor, who disapproved of the unworthy conduct of the bishop, were killed by his orders. The Bulgarian authorities after a careful inquiry were convinced of the bishop's guilt. The bodies of the victims of the town of Pravishta are still in the ravine of Cainardja, at the place called Kavala Bachi.

We certify that this report is in complete agreement with the registers of the Moslem community of Pravishta and true in all its details.

[Seal.]

Moslem Community of the Caza of Pravishta, 1331.

To be continued...

If this were not so tragic, it would be comical;

According to Serbian statistics compiled in 1889 by Gopcevic, 57,600 Bulgarians, 201,140 Greeks, 2,048,320 Serbians and 0 Macedonians lived in Macedonia.

According to Bulgarian statistics compiled in 1900 by Kantched, 1,181,336 Bulgarians, 228,702 Greeks, 700 Serbians and 0 Macedonians lived in Macedonia.

According to Greek statistics compiled in 1904 by Deliani, 336,017 Bulgarians, 652,795 Greeks, no figure was given for Serbians and 0 Macedonians lived in Macedonia.

Where did they get such numbers?

One can only make such claims about Macedonia and get-away with it. Try and tell a Frenchman or an Englishman that 0 French live in France or 0 English live in England and see how far you get!

Leave it to the Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbians to make fools of themselves.

References:

George F. Kennan. "The Other Balkan Wars" A 1913 Carnegie Endowment Inquiry in Retrospect with a New Introduction and Reflections on the Present Conflict. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment For International Peace, 1993.

For comments regarding this article contact the author at rstefov@hotmail.com