DOCSLIB.ORG

Macedonians and the Civil War in Greece

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Macedonians and the Civil War in Greece Macedonians and the Civil War in Greece Volume 2 Untruths and Truths By Pavle Rakovski (Translated from Macedonian to English and edited by Risto Stefov) Macedonians and the Civil War in Greece Volume 2 Untruths and Truths Published by: Risto Stefov Publications [email protected] Toronto, Canada All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written consent from the author, except for the inclusion of brief and documented quotations in a review. Copyright 2019 by Pavle Rakovski e-book edition ********** February 22, 2019 ********** 2 INDEX I. FROM ANOTHER FRIEND .................................................6 A. ABOUT THE ROOTS OF EVIL..............................................7 1. Errors, omissions, weaknesses.......................................................7 2. Imported dogmatism ......................................................................9 3. What do the protagonists of the guerrillas think? ........................11 4. Thorough cleansing......................................................................12 5. Moments from the CPG’s history ................................................13 6. The CPG founding congress ........................................................20 B. THE FASCIST OCCUPATION (1941-1944) ........................24 1. According to Minister Averov .....................................................24 2. Unusual events .............................................................................25 3. The CPG was first to raise the NOB (National Liberation War) flag ...................................................................................................26 4. Facts of capital importance ..........................................................28 5. A miracle of nature: “Slavophone Greeks”! ................................35 6. Who was Siantos? ........................................................................39 7. The attack on Siantos came to full expression.............................40 8. Anti-Macedonian practices ..........................................................45 9. The great evil ...............................................................................49 10. They say one thing and think and do another ............................51 11. Voden Region ............................................................................55 12. Epilog .........................................................................................58 13. To the previous text....................................................................58 C. THE GREEK CIVIL WAR AND BEYOND..........................65 1. Nikos Zahariadis (CPG Secretary General ..................................65 2. Unilateral Civil War.....................................................................66 3. England - a “great friend” of Greece............................................69 4. Some other characteristic maneuvers...........................................71 5. Testimonials .................................................................................74 6. The occult side of events..............................................................77 7. The most explosive weapon.........................................................80 II ANTI-MACEDONIAN-ISM ...............................................85 A. PRIOR TO AND DURING THE NATIONAL LIBERATION WAR ............................................................................................85 B) IN THE COURSE OF THE GREEK CIVIL WAR AND BEYOND .....................................................................................92 Anti-Macedonian-ism in DAG’s ranks ............................................95 Anti-Macedonian-ism in NOF’s ranks.............................................97 3 Anti-Macedonian-ism in the immigrant ranks ...............................103 III THE COURCE AND PROBLEMS OF A SAGA ............107 Silence about a crime is equally as strong as the crime itself ........107 About the beginning of the Greek Civil War.................................108 Siantos’s CPG leadeship and its politics........................................110 About the Varkiza agreement.........................................................114 Zahariadis’s CPG leadeship and its politics...................................116 About the politics of the “Greek Axis”..........................................121 The CPG and Macedonian people .................................................128 NOF and the “Greek Axis” (1945-1949) .......................................141 IV. ABOUT THE BOOK “EGEISKI BURI” (AEGEAN STORMS) ..............................................................................160 BY VANGEL AIANOVSKI - OCHE ...................................160 1. A joyous event ...........................................................................160 2. Good reviews .............................................................................160 3. The reactionaries and NOF ........................................................162 4. Significant meaning ...................................................................164 5. Autobiography ...........................................................................165 6. Irresponsible manipulation of events .........................................165 7. Incorrectness ..............................................................................167 8. Falsification................................................................................172 9. Conspiracy .................................................................................177 10. Throwing mud on others ..........................................................179 11. He was that which he was not..................................................179 12. Inventions.................................................................................180 13. Co-authors................................................................................182 14. The real Macedonian cadres.....................................................184 15. Insufficient endeavors ..............................................................186 V. PROTEST LETTER SENT TO THE SKM CENTRAL COMMITTEE........................................................................190 CRITICAL REMARKS.................................................................192 VI. ACTUALITIES FROM A NEWER HISTORY..............207 VII. ON THE GROUNDS OF ONE DOCUMENT ..............222 VIII PROBLEMS FROM THE NEWEST MACEDONIAN HISTORY ..............................................................................236 IX. MATERIALS ON THE HISTORY OF THE MACEDONIAN NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT IN THE AEGEAN PART OF MACEDONIA.......................284 PROBLEMS FROM OUR MOST RECENT HISTORY..........287 4 X. AS ALWAYS “THE EARTH WILL CONTINUE TO REVOLVE” ...........................................................................348 LITERATURE ...........................................................................372 ACRONYMS .............................................................................375 About the author.........................................................................377 5 I. FROM ANOTHER FRIEND (Note to the publisher: The first seven parts of this book are contained in the author’s manuscript entitled “Records (Memories - Reflections - Findings)” - book 2, prepared for publishing in 1977, but have not yet been published. The author has noted that even though every part of these notes represents a complete whole, they are complementary notes and need to be placed in one book). 6 A. ABOUT THE ROOTS OF EVIL 1. Errors, omissions, weaknesses... The people’s revolution in Greece, as well as the Macedonian people’s liberation movement, as its reserve or component, was defeated by the combined forces of the domestic and international reactionaries. One time it was defeated when the “Greek People’s Liberation Army” - ELAS (1941-1945) was liquidated by agreement (Varkiza, February 12, 1945), and the second time was when the “Democratic Army of Greece” - DAG (1946-1949) was disastrously crushed in its own “fortified defensive positions”. The Macedonian people were the backbone of DAG’s main strike force and the revolution in the northern part of the Greek state. The Macedonian people suffered the most especially in the main hotspot of the revolution. According to official Greek census statistics taken before and after the people’s revolution, in 1940 and in 1951, 46 Macedonian villages in the border zone ceased to exist. The villages were completely destroyed with no one left alive and as a result were erased from postwar geographical maps. The population was halved or significantly reduced in another 179 villages (Naum Peiov, “Macedonians and the Greek Civil War”, INI, 1968, p. 172.) Over 15,000 elite Macedonian fighters were physically liquidated in suspicious battles, while another 60-70 thousand were driven out of their ancestral homes and scattered around the world, outside the Greek state. Percentage wise Macedonian losses in the joint struggle were about twenty times higher than the Greek ones, meaning, Macedonians spilled about twenty times more blood, lost more human lives and suffered more material destruction than the Greeks. Because of this it is understandable why the Macedonian people would be interested to learn the truth and the real reasons
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Road to American Participation in the Greek Civil War, 1943-1949
    FROM SKEPTICAL DISINTEREST TO IDEOLOGICAL CRUSADE: THE ROAD TO AMERICAN PARTICIPATION IN THE GREEK CIVIL WAR, 1943-1949 by STEPHEN VILLIOTIS B.A. University of Central Florida, 2004 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of History in the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Fall Term 2013 © 2013 Stephen Villiotis ii ABSTRACT This thesis examines the way in which the United States formulated its policy toward Greece during the Greek civil war (1943-1949). It asserts that U.S. intervention in Greece was based on circumstantial evidence and the assumption of Soviet global intentions, rather than on dispatches from the field which consistently reported from 1943-1946 that the Soviets were not involved in that country’s affairs. It also maintains that the post-Truman Doctrine American policy in Greece was in essence, a continuation of British policy there from 1943-1946, which meant to impose an unpopular government on the people of Greece, and tolerated unlawful violence of the extreme Greek right-wing. iii For my Parents iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank first and foremost my parents for without whom, this undertaking would not have been possible. I could not imagine how my life would have turned out without your support. To my wife Stephanie, thank you for always believing in me. You are amazing. I would also like to thank my fellow classmates, Dan, Ryan, Andrew, Derek, Lew, Scott, Jennifer, and Shannon. Your friendship and support made this experience worth every second.
    [Show full text]
  • British Perceptions of Eam/Elas Rule in Thessaloniki 1944-45
    GEORGE M. ALEXANDER BRITISH PERCEPTIONS OF EAM/ELAS RULE IN THESSALONIKI 1944-45 Since the Second World War there have been numerous scholarly accounts of the Greek civil war of December 1944. As A rule they have focused on events in Athens, where the most important negotiations and eventually the worst of the bloodshed between the British Army and EAM/ELAS* took place. By contrast, events in Salonica during this troubled time have been largely ignored. In the present article use will be made of recently released official British archives to present A brief survey of A turbulent period in the history of the capital of northern Greece**. I. Dictatorship (29 October-5 December 1944) The long awaited evacuation of German troops from Salonica com­ menced on 29 October 1944. Three days later, on 1 November, the last of the Wehrmacht quit the city’s perimeter. Units of ELAS promptly entered the town, soon followed by A handful of British troops, A few Greek Government officials, and two squadrons of Royal Air Force Spitfires which harassed the retreating enemy into Yugoslavia. To their chagrin the Greek officials found Salonica’s civil administration firmly under the control of EAM. Yet British military reports to Athens during the first fortnight of November indicated that the town was quiet, and that EAM/ELAS was cooperative1. *EAM (National Liberation Front) and its army ELAS (National Popular Liberation Army) constituted the largest Greek resistance movement. EAM was A coalition of Socialists and Communists, in which the Communists predominated. ♦’Indeed, the article will rest exclusively or British sources.
    [Show full text]
  • Military Entrepreneurship in the Shadow of the Greek Civil War (1946–1949)
    JPR Men of the Gun and Men of the State: Military Entrepreneurship in the Shadow of the Greek Civil War (1946–1949) Spyros Tsoutsoumpis Abstract: The article explores the intersection between paramilitarism, organized crime, and nation-building during the Greek Civil War. Nation-building has been described in terms of a centralized state extending its writ through a process of modernisation of institutions and monopolisation of violence. Accordingly, the presence and contribution of private actors has been a sign of and a contributive factor to state-weakness. This article demonstrates a more nuanced image wherein nation-building was characterised by pervasive accommodations between, and interlacing of, state and non-state violence. This approach problematises divisions between legal (state-sanctioned) and illegal (private) violence in the making of the modern nation state and sheds new light into the complex way in which the ‘men of the gun’ interacted with the ‘men of the state’ in this process, and how these alliances impacted the nation-building process at the local and national levels. Keywords: Greece, Civil War, Paramilitaries, Organized Crime, Nation-Building Introduction n March 1945, Theodoros Sarantis, the head of the army’s intelligence bureau (A2) in north-western Greece had a clandestine meeting with Zois Padazis, a brigand-chief who operated in this area. Sarantis asked Padazis’s help in ‘cleansing’ the border area from I‘unwanted’ elements: leftists, trade-unionists, and local Muslims. In exchange he promised to provide him with political cover for his illegal activities.1 This relationship that extended well into the 1950s was often contentious.
    [Show full text]
  • Negyedéves, Internetes Folyóirat a KÖZELÍTÉSEK a Milton Friedman Egyetem Online Multidiszciplináris Folyóirata
    2018. 3-4. szám KÖZELÍTÉSEK negyedéves, internetes folyóirat A KÖZELÍTÉSEK a Milton Friedman Egyetem online multidiszciplináris folyóirata. Lektorált folyóirat. Minden publikálásra beküldött kéziratot két felkért opponens lektorál. FŐSZERKESZTŐK Laki Ildikó – A. Gergely András FELELŐS SZERKESZTŐ Szűts Zoltán SZERKESZTŐBIZOTTSÁG Grajczjár István – Milton Friedman Egyetem Hárskuti János – Milton Friedman Egyetem Szatmári Péter – Milton Friedman Egyetem Szegediné Lengyel Piroska – Milton Friedman Egyetem Schottner Krisztina – Milton Friedman Egyetem OLVASÓSZERKESZTŐ Szűcs Katalin Ágnes FELELŐS KIADÓ: Milton Friedman Egyetem – Szatmári Péter – megbízott rektor ELSŐ KIADÁS: 2011 ÚJ FOLYAM: 2014 ISSN 2498-7816 WEBCÍM: www.uni-milton.hu/letoltheto-kiadvanyok/, http://kozelitesek.webnode.hu DESIGN: Szitás István - Gerilla Design Bt. TARTALOM Surányi Ráchel BOURDIEU ÉS AZ IZRAELBEN ÉLő MAGYAROK IDENTITÁS- ÉS INTEGRÁCIÓ-STRATÉGIÁJA .................4 DOI: 10.25116/KOZELITESEK 2018.3-4.1 Buk Krisztina GYERMEKNEVELÉS ÉS TRANSZNACIONALIZMUS .............................................................................. 15 DOI: 10.25116/KOZELITESEK 2018.3-4.2 Rajkó Andrea – A. Gergely András EGY TÉMA TOVÁBBGONDOLÁSA ........................................................................................................32 DOI: 10.25116/KOZELITESEK 2018.3-4.3 Kata Zsófia Vincze “US” AND “THEM” JEWS AS THE OTHERS ..................................................................................... 62 DOI: 10.25116/KOZELITESEK 2018.3-4.4 Tóth Katalin EGY
    [Show full text]
  • Faded Memories
    Faded Memories Life and Times of a Macedonian Villager 1 The COVER PAGE is a photograph of Lerin, the main township near the villages in which many of my family ancestors lived and regularly visited. 2 ACKNOWLEGEMENTS This publication is essentially an autobiography of the life and times of my father, John Christos Vellios, Jovan Risto Numeff. It records his recollections, the faded memories, passed down over the years, about his family ancestors and the times in which they lived. My father personally knew many of the people whom he introduces to his readers and was aware of more distant ancestors from listening to the stories passed on about them over the succeeding generations. His story therefore reinforces the integrity of oral history which has been used since ancient times, by various cultures, to recall the past in the absence of written, documentary evidence. This publication honours the memory of my father’s family ancestors and more generally acknowledges the resilience of the Macedonian people, who destined to live, seemingly forever under foreign subjugation, refused to deny their heritage in the face of intense political oppression and on-going cultural discrimination. This account of life and times of a Macedonian villager would not have been possible without the support and well-wishes of members of his family and friends whose own recollections have enriched my father’s narrative. I convey my deepest gratitude for the contributions my father’s brothers, my uncles Sam, Norm and Steve and to his nephew Phillip (dec), who so enthusiastically supported the publication of my father’s story and contributed on behalf of my father’s eldest brother Tom (dec) and his family.
    [Show full text]
  • Britain and the Greek Security Battalions, 1943-1944
    VOL. XV, Nos. 1 & 2 SPRING-SUMMER 1988 Publisher: LEANDROS PAPATHANASIOU Editorial Board: MARIOS L. EVRIVIADES ALEXANDROS KITROEFF PETER PAPPAS YIANNIS P. ROUBATIS Managing Eidtor: SUSAN ANASTASAKOS Advisory Board: MARGARET ALEXIOU KOSTIS MOSKOFF Harvard University Thessaloniki, Greece SPYROS I. ASDRACHAS Nlcos MOUZELIS University of Paris I London School of Economics LOUKAS AXELOS JAMES PETRAS Athens, Greece S.U.N.Y. at Binghamton HAGEN FLEISCHER OLE L. SMITH University of Crete University of Copenhagen ANGELIKI E. LAIOU STAVROS B. THOMADAKIS Harvard University Baruch College, C.U.N.Y. CONSTANTINE TSOUCALAS University of Athens The Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora is a quarterly review published by Pella Publishing Company, Inc., 337 West 36th Street, New York, NY 10018-6401, U.S.A., in March, June, September, and December. Copyright © 1988 by Pella Publishing Company. ISSN 0364-2976 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS DAVID GILMORE is professor of anthropology at the State Uni- versity of New York at Stony Brook . MOLLY GREENE is a doc- toral candidate at Princeton University . CLIFFORD P. HACKETT is a former aide to U.S. Representative Benjamin Rosenthal and Senator Paul Sarbanes. He is currently administering an exchange program between the U.S. Congress and the European Parliament and is also executive director of the American Council for Jean Monnet Studies . JOHN LOUIS HONDROS is professor of history at the College of Wooster, Ohio ... ADAMANTIA POLLIS is professor of political science at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Re- search . JOHN E. REXINE is Charles A. Dana Professor of the Classics and director of the division of the humanities at Colgate Uni- versity .
    [Show full text]
  • 'Being Traitors': Post-War Greece in the Experience of Jewish Partisans
    Southeast European and Black Sea Studies ISSN: 1468-3857 (Print) 1743-9639 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fbss20 ‘Being traitors’: post-war Greece in the experience of Jewish partisans Kateřina Králová To cite this article: Kateřina Králová (2017): ‘Being traitors’: post-war Greece in the experience of Jewish partisans, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, DOI: 10.1080/14683857.2017.1324277 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14683857.2017.1324277 Published online: 05 May 2017. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 5 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=fbss20 Download by: [The UC San Diego Library] Date: 16 May 2017, At: 03:59 SOUTHEAST EUROPEAN AND BLACK SEA STUDIES, 2017 https://doi.org/10.1080/14683857.2017.1324277 ‘Being traitors’: post-war Greece in the experience of Jewish partisans Kateřina Králová Department of Russian and East European Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY As a result of political developments, silence about Jewish resistance Received 11 December 2015 in post-war Greece persisted for decades. In my article, I focus on the Accepted 16 April 2016 post-war fate of Jewish partisans in the context of the Greek Civil War KEYWORDS and the emerging East–West conflict. After liberation, many partisans Jews; Holocaust; Greece; in Greece were stigmatized and even tried as communists. In the resistance; Israel; persecution 1980s, when Athens shifted towards socialism, Jewish survivors began to speak up regarding their involvement in the left-leaning resistance (EAM/ELAS).
    [Show full text]
  • The Rise and Fall of the 5/42 Regiment of Evzones: a Study on National Resistance and Civil War in Greece 1941-1944
    The Rise and Fall of the 5/42 Regiment of Evzones: A Study on National Resistance and Civil War in Greece 1941-1944 ARGYRIOS MAMARELIS Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy The European Institute London School of Economics and Political Science 2003 i UMI Number: U613346 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U613346 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 9995 / 0/ -hoZ2 d X Abstract This thesis addresses a neglected dimension of Greece under German and Italian occupation and on the eve of civil war. Its contribution to the historiography of the period stems from the fact that it constitutes the first academic study of the third largest resistance organisation in Greece, the 5/42 regiment of evzones. The study of this national resistance organisation can thus extend our knowledge of the Greek resistance effort, the political relations between the main resistance groups, the conditions that led to the civil war and the domestic relevance of British policies.
    [Show full text]
  • 1055315.En Pe 553.776
    Question for written answer E-004628/2015 to the Commission Rule 130 Eleftherios Synadinos (NI) Subject: State and European aid for foundations established by former Greek Prime Ministers According to recent articles,1 2 3 six foundations established by former Greek Prime Ministers, namely Eleftherios Venizelos, Georgios Papandreou, Konstantinos Karamanlis, Andreas Papandreou, Konstantinos Mitsotakis and Kostas Simitis, are currently operating in Greece. These foundations have always enjoyed absurd privileges totally out of keeping with their (non- existent) work, especially as the founders’ progeny sit on their boards of directors. One of those privileges is that they are ‘administratively and financially independent’, meaning that they can be paid government grants but are not obliged to render account or report financial data to the Greek Government. They also enjoy what can only be described as insulting tax immunity under an unprecedented and unfair system of tax relief at the Greek people’s expense. Finally, the Greek State has handed over property and land to these foundations absolutely free of charge under a completely non-transparent system. In view of the above, and given that these foundations are entitled to participate in Community programmes funded by the EU (80 %) and from national resources (20 %), will the Commission say: – whether it intends to request official figures on the amount and method of funding of these foundations and financial statements for reasons of transparency and to inform the public? 1 http://www.newsbomb.gr/ellada/apokalypseis/story/277964/lefta-gia-to-lao-haristikan-se-idrymata-proin 2 http://www.newsbomb.gr/ellada/apokalypseis/story/277645/harizoyn-ellada-kai-se-pethamenoys- prothypoyrgoys 3 http://elevengr.blogspot.be/2013/09/blog-post_9.html 1055315.EN PE 553.776 .
    [Show full text]
  • Challenger Party List
    Appendix List of Challenger Parties Operationalization of Challenger Parties A party is considered a challenger party if in any given year it has not been a member of a central government after 1930. A party is considered a dominant party if in any given year it has been part of a central government after 1930. Only parties with ministers in cabinet are considered to be members of a central government. A party ceases to be a challenger party once it enters central government (in the election immediately preceding entry into office, it is classified as a challenger party). Participation in a national war/crisis cabinets and national unity governments (e.g., Communists in France’s provisional government) does not in itself qualify a party as a dominant party. A dominant party will continue to be considered a dominant party after merging with a challenger party, but a party will be considered a challenger party if it splits from a dominant party. Using this definition, the following parties were challenger parties in Western Europe in the period under investigation (1950–2017). The parties that became dominant parties during the period are indicated with an asterisk. Last election in dataset Country Party Party name (as abbreviation challenger party) Austria ALÖ Alternative List Austria 1983 DU The Independents—Lugner’s List 1999 FPÖ Freedom Party of Austria 1983 * Fritz The Citizens’ Forum Austria 2008 Grüne The Greens—The Green Alternative 2017 LiF Liberal Forum 2008 Martin Hans-Peter Martin’s List 2006 Nein No—Citizens’ Initiative against
    [Show full text]
  • Spyridon Sfetas the Founding of the Slavo-Macedonian Popular
    Spyridon Sfetas Autonomist Movements of the Slavophones in 1944: The Attitude of the Communist Party of Greece and the Protection of the Greek-Yugoslav Border The founding of the Slavo-Macedonian Popular Liberation Front (SNOF) in Kastoria in October 1943 and in Fiorina the following November was a result of two factors: the general negotiations between Tito’s envoy in Yugoslav and Greek Macedonia, Svetozar Vukma- nović-Tempo, the military leaders of the Greek Popular Liberation Army (ELAS), and the political leaders of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) in July and August 1943 to co-ordinate the resistance movements1; and the more specific discussions between Leonidas Stringos and the political delegate of the GHQ of Yugoslav Macedonia, Cvetko Uzunovski in late August or early September 1943 near Yan- nitsa12. The Yugoslavs’ immediate purpose in founding SNOF was to in­ culcate a Slavo-Macedonian national consciousness in the Slavophones of Greek Macedonia and to enlist the Slavophones of Greek Macedonia into the resistance movement in Yugoslav Macedonia; while their indirect aim was to promote Yugoslavia’s views on the Macedonian Question3. The KKE had recognised the Slavophones as a “Slavo- 1. See T.-A. Papapanagiotou, L ’Effort pour la création du grand quartier général balca- nique et la coopération balcanique, Juin-Septembre 1943 (unpublished postgraduate disser­ tation, Sorbonne, 1991); there is a copy in the library of the Institute for Balkan Studies, Thessaloniki. 2. See S. Vukmanović-Tempo, Revolucija Koja teče, vol. 3, Zagreb 1982, p. 114. In a postwar report to the Central Committee of the KKE on SNOF’s activities, Stringos had this to say about the meeting: “Abas requested that our sections work together against the Germans and that we make things a little easier for their sections that were obliged, because of the operations, to cross over into Greek territory frequently; and they also offered to help with the work among the Slavo-Macedonians, who were still being influenced by the komitadjif’.
    [Show full text]
  • Greece and NATO Master's Thesis Presented
    The “Menace from the North” and the Suppression of the Left: Greece and NATO Master’s Thesis Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University Ioannis Pavlou, B.A. Graduate Program in Slavic and East European Studies The Ohio State University 2015 Thesis Committee: Georgios Anagnostou, advisor Anthony Kaldellis Copyright by Ioannis Nikos Pavlou 2015 Abstract In the aftermath of the Greek Civil War, the right-wing elements of Greece’s government felt that they needed to join NATO to protect Greek interests from the perceived threat posed by Communism and their Balkan neighbors. Throughout this period of time, the Greek state implemented several drastic and often undemocratic motions that led to measures against minority groups, suppressing left-wing politicians, and applying old nationalistic rhetoric such as the “Menace from the North” to the situation with the Communist regimes in their neighboring countries. During this time, Greek interests often were pushed aside in order to appease the United States and other members of NATO while at other points, Greece nearly went to war with their NATO ally Turkey over the future of Cyprus. Meanwhile, Greece’s new-found alliance with NATO led to an improvement of their military capabilities to the point where the highly nationalistic, anti-Communist army would seize control of the government in 1967 and form a Military Junta. During the seven years of military control, NATO continued to work with the Military Junta which in turn would have drastic consequences when Greece nearly went to war with Turkey over Cyprus.
    [Show full text]