Quote (narcisso @ 14 May 2010 09:51)
The Greek Civil War was a conflict that was built in the crucible of World War II and which was heavily steeped in the cold war conflicts that took place once the War had been completed. Communism’s influence over the Civil War was quite heavy, and much of the historiography has focused on the Communist influence over Greece and the ways in which the society was split as a result, especially those parts of the Historiography that were generated in Greece under the right-wing government which ended up as the victors of this war. By focusing on the split between Communists and the Right Wing factions who fought them, historians have unfortunately ignored an important part of the divisions between people who fought in the Civil War and the motivations behind them. The inclusion of ethnic divisions into the picture allows for a more complete view of the motivations of the actors within the Civil War itself and helps to complete the picture of the Civil War in such a way that it can be more completely understood by those who would study this fractious period.
One of the most important ethnic groups that have found themselves underrepresented in the historical record of the Greek civil war is that of the Macedonians . Indeed, their role in the war is as frequently marginalized as their other roles within Greek society, where they have tried many times to make inroads. The Macedonian cultural identity, however, has been dated to at least the 19th century and has connections from before this more recent resurgence to the earliest days of Greece as a state, dating back to the days of Alexander the Great. The Macedonians who claimed this title in the 19th century trace their roots culturally back to the time of Alexander and have a very distinct culture from all of their neighbors, most specifically those with whom they share the Aegean lands of Greece.
While the Macedonians in the time before and during the Greek Civil War were frequently on the side of Communist groups within Greece, much of this motivation came from the idea that the Communists would support the collective Macedonian right to have their own nation with its own ability to create self-determination. This created a strong conflict with Greek communists unfortunately, as the Greek nationalists found the idea of a Macedonian separatist movement odious in the extreme and did not want to create a separate state that would erode their own ability to remain a united nation. While there were certainly other groups that would consider themselves separatists from Greece proper, the Macedonians were without a doubt the largest group, comprising roughly 1% of the Greek population in a time when small divisions created large ideological gaps and militancy gripped the populace both during and in the wake of the Germanic invasion.
These divisions amongst ethnic as well as ideological lines were already brewing and in place before the invasion of the Germans in 1941, but it is doubtful that such divisions would have exploded into the levels of violence which were seen during and after the Nazi invasion . As was the case in most countries that saw German boots on their soil, Greece was thrown into extreme turmoil by the invasion of the Germans. However, worse than the invasion itself was the power vacuum which was left in the wake of the German occupation, which left Greece unsure as to how they should proceed as a nation and exposed the country to factional fighting that would leave questions as to who would lead in the wake of the Germans. Despite the fact that it is an oversimplification in the historiography, the division between the communists and the right wing faction constituted the main point of conflict around which people were able to rally, especially in the wake of the German occupation.
This German occupation was most important to the roots of the Greek Civil War insofar as it was able to reach Athens. King George II of Greece was in Athens at the time and was forced to flee in the face of the German invaders . As so many other countries did, Greece’s government that was in place at the time of the onset of war was relocated. While it was popular for governments in exile to relocate to London, the Greek government was forced for logistical reasons to relocate the court and other governmental functions to Egypt. Once they had fled, the Western Allies recognized them, but the Soviet Union did not, at least in part because they saw a chance to have Greece under the sway of Communists. The Western Allies had much the same desire to have influence over Greece, and indeed they were able to use a combination of influence and coercion over the Greek government in exile to make certain that a moderate cabinet was put into place that would be sympathetic to Western interests .
The main group consisting of communist opponents to this right-wing government before their exile, during the occupation and afterward during the Civil War itself was the Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas, or the KKE. One of the watershed moments for communism in Greece was the actual moment of the KKE’s formation on November 4th, 1918, in part pushed by the formation of the Soviet Union the year prior . There had been a number of socialist movements and ideals ever since the Commune of Paris in 1871, but the KKE was the first major organization to gather the socialists within these disparate groups within Greece under a single umbrella. As a result of their occasionally radical tactics and their support of strikes, anti-war protests (specifically protests against the Greco-Turkish war of 1919-1922) and the formations of trade unions in certain areas, the right-wing government under Venizelo started the persecution of Communists where it was possible, starting with a law that prosecuted Communist teachers that was enacted in 1924. This acrimony between Communists and was clearly brewing in Greek society far before the Germans had touched Greek soil, but it was this coming of the Germans that caused the split between the two groups to widen and the KKE to gain a position where they believed they were capable of taking control of the Greek government.
Given this division between the KKE and the right-wing government, each side had to have a stance regarding the ‘Macedonian issue ’. Forming a platform regarding the Macedonians was a simple matter for the conservative right-wing party, which presented itself as having a general platform of traditional Greek ideals of both religious and secular bent, and thus ignored the question entirely, or at least took it as read that the Macedonians would remain a part of Greece and that the question was one which was not worth posing. Finding an answer was a much messier business for the KKE. As a communist group, they were supposed to be against imperialism and in favor of the mobilization and self-determination of a people, and yet they were also afraid of losing the ‘hearts and minds’ of their fellow Greeks, most of whom were unable to stomach the idea of a free Macedonian state within their borders . The KKE showed themselves as staunch supporters of a free Macedonian state in their third-party Congress of 1924 and again in 1934, however. Their party materials claimed they were prepared to “fight for the national self-determination, and ultimately secession, of the repressed Macedonians and Thracians. ” This desire was in line with the ultimate stated goals of Communism and seemed to be precisely the sort of goal that the KKE was working toward since their formation.
So what caused this change of heart to come about so quickly? Part of it was the fact that it was not entirely an organic part of the KKE’s goals, but was at least in part dictated by Comintern, the Soviet Union’s arm responsible for the spreading of the goals of the USSR to the rest of the world. . The fact that this was imposed from the outside and had created an undercurrent of acrimony toward the KKE among the Greek everyman meant that it was a view that the KKE felt they had to shed in order to fully gain power, especially once the actual Civil War had started within Greek borders and it appeared that they had a chance to grab power, as mentioned above. Still, the Macedonians who had put themselves into the Communist camp as a result of their support of a Macedonian state felt betrayed by the KKE and were much less likely to support the KKE as a whole .
While there was much in the way of hostility and fighting, perhaps the worst events in the early phases of the war involved the Dekemvriana, or “December Events,” which broke out first on December 3rd, 1944 when gunfire began during a KKE rally in Athens between protestors and policemen backed up by British troops . This led quickly to an escalation of hostilities over the next thirty-seven days, where the British became much more active in the fighting, even using aircraft and artillery where they found it appropriate. Perhaps surprisingly, the Soviets on the other hand were uninvolved with the fighting entirely, not even mentioning the conflict in Pravda and keeping themselves neutral per the ‘percentages agreement’ that they had signed with Britain . By keeping themselves out of the fighting and allowing the British to fight at will within the area, the KKE and their allies, the National Liberation Front or EAM were able to be handily defeated in the fighting which occurred. Given that they were outmanned and outgunned at most every turn, the EAM and other communist organizations turned at times to terrorism, a move that unfortunately for them lost significant amounts of political support for Communism within Greece.
The hostilities here led to the Treaty of Varkiza, which was considered specifically by the Macedonians to be a massive failure at compromising, as it rejected their maximal aims of a free Macedonian state. This led to the foundation of the NOF, a somewhat militant organization in favor of the creation of a Macedonian state who existed as a Macedonian alternative to the KKE . As the official Macedonian organization within Greece, they were able to stand for the maximal goals of Macedonia, but they were also unfortunately more visible targets for those in the right-wing government who would oppress them. By separating themselves and setting themselves up for the actual defense of Macedonian interests rather than simply hoping for the KKE to stand up for their goals, the NOF unfortunately allowed for the Macedonian question to become that much more visible to those who would oppress them and oppose the formation of a formal Aegean Macedonian state.
This became most obvious at the end of the Civil War, when the hostilities had ceased and the newly placed government created their policies toward those who had been part of the communist opposition to their ascension as the rulers of Greece. While those who declared themselves to have been of Greek descent were welcomed back to the country with a general amnesty and able to mostly resume their old lives before the outbreak of war, anyone who did not consider themselves to be ‘genetically’ Greek was disallowed from returning to the country and forced to stay wherever they had fled when worried about the justice of the new regime . This left countless displaced Aegean Macedonians without a home, forced to reestablish their homes in other parts of the Balkans, with the bulk of them finding their homes in Bulgarian Macedonia .
Those Macedonians who did not flee the country and who were still in Greece were forced to endure a slow attempt from the official Greek government to erase their culture, a situation that continues even until today. In the wake of the Civil War itself, the speaking of Macedonian in Greece was made illegal and those who spoke Macedonian were forced to agree to go to language schools and to at least legally state that they would no longer speak Macedonian, let alone teach it to their children . In a similar vein, Macedonian dancing and other cultural rituals were banned, and even the ability to name their children with traditional names that violated the Greek standard of normality was blocked by those in the church who were responsible for submitting the paperwork that named a child. This oppression was systematic throughout Greek culture and consisted of an attempt to erase the Macedonian minority within their borders.
Indeed, these abuses of human rights are not an isolated issue of history, but rather an issue that continues into the modern day. The Greek state to this day denies that there is even a Macedonian minority within their state, and they are officially recognized by the Greek state only as “Slavophone Greeks” or “bilinguals .” Human Rights Watch has officially recognized that the Greek state violates the conventions of the United Nations as well as the European Union in these violations, and yet they continue into the modern day, with Macedonians within Greece still unable to stake an official claim to their ethnicity according to the state in which they live.
Thus we can see that the oppression that was put into place by the Greek state was continued by the KKE when they had a chance to become a powerful organization and that the ethnic self-definition of the Macedonians was an important factor in the moves of the Civil War that caused even those who seemed most likely to be the allies of the Macedonians to sell out their long-term goals and do whatever they could to oppress the Macedonians and keep them in their place. Macedonians had to face strife from all sides and in many ways still do, being forced to leave their native country and staying unwelcome to the modern day. The exile of Aegean Macedonians has continued for some time and will only end when the EU or some other large international organization to which the Greek government is beholden officially pressures them into the recognition of this lost ethnicity within their borders.
tl;dr version - Macedonia is part of Greece because Greeks whooped their asses and kept them from their right to self-determination as a separate state.
