Greek Atrocities in Macedonia by Risto Stefov

"Ethnic cleansing" maybe a modern term but its meaning is well understood by the Macedonian people living in northern Greece. Ever since Greece occupied part 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 following account[2] was given by a young Russian officer who visited the wider region of Kukush. Not much is know about Lieutenant V. Lebedev, except that he was a liaison officer in the French army at the Solun front line, or, more precisely, the Macedonian front line. Little is known about him because it is practically impossible to identify this young man solely on the basis of a common Russian surname. As a matter of fact it is irrelevant, just as is the fact that he used several different names to describe "Macedonians". But it should be noted that the people whom he contacted all called themselves Macedonians.

It is important to note that this description comes to us from a witness with a keen sense of observation and a richness of expression. In addition, as he himself pointed out, he understood the people very well and therefore he gave us their stories as a supplement to what he saw and described himself. His truthfulness is also obvious, intertwined with his human compassion for the suffering of the Macedonians, victims of the two Balkan chauvinist passions of the basest kind, so typical of the times. He was an unprejudiced observer.

His testimony is a rare and highly appreciated source of information, and at the same time of indisputable historical authenticity. His accounts are a historical document of the consequences of the two Balkan wars in Macedonia in general and the suffering of the Macedonian people in particular. It is of special importance for Greek occupied Macedonia, since the dramatic events that took place in the region of Kukush are of a similar nature to those that took place in the southern regions of Macedonia by June 1913, and which were occupied by the Bulgarian army.

It is a rare testimony, since inhabitants of Kukush, after those two terrible days in June 1913 when the place was burned down, already fleeing across the front line, could neither see nor describe the ruins and desolation which followed the withdrawal of the Bulgarian and the oncoming of the Greek army. Later, they could tell only of the life in the older days. By December 1915, when our traveler walked this region, the Solun front line was already established near Kukush, passing through this region of Macedonia along the then Serbian and Greek international border.

It is also authentic because it depicts a situation almost unchanged since June 1913. It came only two years later after the catastrophe which befell this region, whose ethnic characteristics were never to be the same again. There is something more essential: it is the fact that there only the land ruled, fertile and beautiful but devastated and un-peopled. It was the result of the newly risen, medieval in nature, efforts of conquest.

Greek colonists would populate these parts more systematically some ten years later and this was to gradually bring new life to the barren land. This is why this sight which he saw, and described so vividly had such a terrifying effect on Lebedev's mind. Devastated land, land without people before the very gates of Solun can be seen even in these days; a sight which evokes the same shuddering feeling in every unbiased passer-by, who does not necessarily have to be Macedonian. All this was a direct result of the two Balkan wars, which, at least for Kukush, were dynastic wars of conquest, and which could be very adequately called wars of extermination.

There is one sentence which draws our attention in particular. In it, Kukush is described as "a nest of komiti" (insurgents). Lebedov obviously took it from another source. Written by whom? The context and the manner in which it was written suggest that it must have been a Greek source. Speaking more precisely it must have been just such a place for the Greek chauvinists. From their point of view, their plans and interests, it was normal procedure to describe it as such. It was necessary to blacken the victim morally prior to his conquest and destruction in order to justify the deed both in the eyes of their own nation and in the eyes of others: the victim was to be labeled in a pejorative manner. This has been done by conquerors and rulers all over the world, both before and since the Balkan wars. The Greek chauvinists used frequently this pejorative expression to describe Macedonian partisan villages in the last war, up to 1944, pretending to have forgotten that modern Greece was the child of the Greek anti-Turkish revolution.

Times change, and so do rulers. And still, Kukush was not "a nest of komiti", but a Macedonian revolutionary nest, and one of many at that. It had played an important role in the Macedonian Enlightenment movement since the time of Dimitar Miladinov. During the 1903 Ilinden Uprising it gave more than 200 volunteer upraises. It is also the birthplace of Gotce Delchev, and out of four Macedonians delegated to the Ottoman Parliament, two were from this region, DimitarVlahov and Hristo Delchev.

Kukush had a well-organized and developed educational system, a reading room with a rich library, dozens of young people with university degrees: professors, doctors, engineers, economists and lawyers. They had all been educated in Europe, Russia, Tsari Grad (Constantinople) and Bulgaria. It held a very important place in the social life and history of the Macedonian people. But all of this held true only up to the ill-fated days of June 20th and 21st, 1913.

The following selection of excerpts have been taken from the publication "En Macedoine avec l'armée francaise. Impressions d'un officier Russe", preserved in a Paris library.

"My guide is pleased that he can speak Russian with me and that I understand Macedonian. Here we are already at the site where everything was burned down. ..It is impossible to locate a single village which has not been burned. All the villages were burned down. In this region it was the Greeks who set fire to them, because the population was Slavonic. The Bulgarians (Bulgarian army- M.P.) did the same to the villages which were populated by the Greeks [Macedonians associated with the Greek Patriarch Church]. Sometimes it was the Serbs, in other places, the Turks. ..(the three full-stops by Lebedev -M.P .) Macedonians suffered plundering and destruction everywhere. The fields turned into uncultivated land; ruins are overgrown with weeds; there is no life.

Is this a war of liberation? -sigh the people, while everything is burned down and plundered, the whole population banished, fled or ostracized. We were better off during the Turkish rule"

The hamlet had no more than 30 to 40 houses: Yes, they must have adhered passionately to their religion, since they had built such temples during the Turkish rule. But today.. .The liberators came. They banished the people and burned the villages. The churches are almost ruined, even the stork left the steeple. And still, the church has not been deserted. Small coins are glued to the wax around the altar and there is always oil in the icon lamp.

A shepherd comes to us from nearby pasture.

-We have no priest - he said. The priest fled together with the peasants in 1913, but the church is always a church. Here we come, bring icon lamps and pray to God.

-But who are you?

-We are Macedonians, Greek Macedonians. And the land is Turkish.

-What do you mean?

-It belongs to the Turkish beg who left before the War. He is in Istanbul, but he does his best to collect payment for everything, even for the grass. He charges us dearly.

-And when the village was still here, whose was the land?

-It has always been his.

-But tell me, my dear friend, who was it that burned the village?

-It was the Greeks. They burned it. It is very bad, they burned the village, the villagers were driven out, it's very bad.

I entered the church graveyard. Small marble crosses mark the graves. "Here lies. ..". "Here lies Mihail Tanchov". On every cross the inscription begins with these words, and I came upon this phrase in every church graveyard I visited from the Vardar to the Galik.

The big town of Kukush is in ruins. The white monastery of St. George, the patron saint of Macedonia rises from the hill which dominates the town. This monastery is a real jewel, a real miracle of Macedonian artistry. During holidays and family feasts for patron saints people came to pray from everywhere: Bulgarians, Greeks, even Turks. In older days, during Turkish rule, it did not bother anyone. But today, things are changed.

Kukuch was a rich town, populated by 8,000 Bulgarians [Macedonians associated with the Exarchate Church] and 20,000 Turks. The Bulgarians won and conquered it (The Bulgarian army after the First Balkan War -M.P) When they came near the town the Turks fled for Turkey. The Bulgarians took their land. They held Kukush for 8 months under occupation and then the fratricidal war, i.e. the Second Balkan War began. After the battle for Kukush all the population fled and went to Bulgaria following the Bulgarian army. The new conquerors, the Greeks, burned down this "nest of komiti". Few houses were spared: the mosque and the empty Turkish barracks, miserable blue and yellow.

The Macedonians believe that justice will be done, that it will triumph over injustice, but I truly doubt that this wish of theirs will come true. Macedonia will continue to be for a long period of time a land of sorrow and death.

In all the villages and populated places in which there are still traces of preserved life, there is the same sight to be seen. Refugees, always and everywhere. Refugees among whom the most desperate are the Gypsies, who had always led the life of tramps, and who now have come here to settle themselves among the ruins. The desolate villages are being populated with refugees who would do anything, either for the Greek merchant in Solun or Athens, or for the Turkish beg now living in Istanbul.

Notes:

1. Macedonian Almanac (Makedonski Iselenichki Almanah), 1990, p.p. 72-76

2. Lieutenant V. Lebedev, En Macedoine avec I'armée Francaise. Impressions d'un officier Russe. Traduit du Russe par Paul Trogan Le Correspondant, 88 annee, 10 Septembre 1916, Paris, 1916, p.p. 842-849.

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