Refugees. The Work Of The League [1931]

[bugarash]

An interesting reading. There is a chapter about Greece and one about Bulgaria (Macedonia included).

http://www.promacedonia.org/en/cm/index.html

Refugees. The Work Of The League
C. A. Macartney
League Of Nations Union, London [1931]

[kostas68]

Originally Posted by bugarash

An interesting reading. There is a chapter about Greece and one about Bulgaria (Macedonia included).

http://www.promacedonia.org/en/cm/index.html

Refugees. The Work Of The League
C. A. Macartney
League Of Nations Union, London [1931]

Hi bugarash!
This issue(the population exchange between Greece and Bulgaria) is very interesting but also sensitive for people like me who lives in a region which had the <fortune> to being occupied by the Bulgarians three times in the last century.I am from Serres region,in Eastern Macedonia,from a village called Emmanouil Papas(the older name of the village was Dovista).It tooke his name from the homonymous leader of the Greek-Macedonians revolutionists during the Greek independence war of 1821,who was born here in 1773.The older of the inhabitants allways felt a suspiciousness for Bulgaria and the Bulgarian intensions about Greek Macedonia.I believe that this feeling was absolutely justificated for them,after all that they had seen and lived in the turbulent for the whole Balkans first half of 20th century.I remember how my grandparents(born in 1900 and 1903) talked about the 3 Bulgarian occupations,which they called by the common names:<proti Vulgaria>(first Bulgaria,1912-13),<defteri Vulgaria>(second Bulgaria1917-18)and <triti Vulgaria>(third Bulgaria1941-44),every one more hard and cruel from the antdecent.They couldn't forget the prosecutions(all the Greek schools were closed and the Greek priests were replaced by Bulgarians),the prohibitions(even the names in the tombstones were rewritten in Bulgarian),the executions(9 villagers were executed as retaliation for the killing of 3 Germans by the partizans and other 7-8 were executed in other cases).But the most terrible punishment that they suffered from the Bulgarians,due to their insistence to remain Greek and not to being bulgarized,was the famous <dourdouvakia>.This is the mispronounced word for the Bulgarian <troud vojnik>,which means <assistant soldier>.Actually this was a kind of concentration camps,where the prisoners were forced to work hard under inhuman conditions.The most of them died due to the discomfort and several diseases.From my village were sent 120 men to Bulgaria as <dourdouvakia>,during the WW1(1916-17) and from them survived and retourned only 30.It was a systematical attempt for the dehellenization of Eastern Macedonia.
Anyway,don't worry,i don't feel hatred for you and your people for all this.
The majority of the people who beared such memories aren't alive.I believe that also there were a lot of people in your country who had counterpart bad memories from Greece.I don't say that we must extinguish the historical memory,but we mustn't maintain it as causation for national hatred.As we say,<perasmena xehasmena>(it's all past and forgotten),as long as you don't have any claim for Greek soil.We must continue the relations of good neighbourhood and friendship,which were established in the 70's by our PM of that era,Konstantinos Karamanlis and Thodor Zifkov.
As for the issue of the population exchanges,i have some interesting informations for you:My village is built at the foothills of the mountain Menoikio(his older turkish name was Boz Dag and the local people still call it by his hellenized form <Bozdakas>)17 km easterly of Serres.On the slopes of this mountain,at 800 m. heigth,was a small village until 1913,named Moukliani(or Muklun in his Bulgarian form,as i saw it in a French map from 1910) and 3-4 km westerly and 200 m. lower was the village Drianova.The inhabitants of those villages(about 150 for each of them)left after 1913 and settled in Bulgaria.All,except 3-4 families who came from Moukliani to my village and other 3-4 who went from Drianova to the neighbouring village Agio Pnevma.That means that they weren't all Bulgarians and among them were some Greeks.I asked some of my oldest fellow villagers but their answers were conflicting.Certain told me that the first inhabitants of those villages were Vlachs who had been later bulgarized by the majority of the Bulgarians who settled there,except those 5-6 families who remained in Greece,but others said that they were Greeks and hellenophone who became slavophone after the Bulgarian settlement.During the Macedonian struggle,they had a dispute about the pastures of their sheeps with the inhabitants of my village and the relations between them were tense.The situation got worst after some incidents(as the killing of a young shepherd from Moukliani) and therefor they started to support the Bulgarian komitadji bands.In 1907,during a battle between Makedonomahoi(if you don't know,this term refers to the fighters of the Greek bands)and Turkish troops,they helped the Turks to exterminate the Greek band.Thus,after the liberation and the annexation of the region to the Greek state,they were frightened that they would suffer retaliations and they decided to leave their villages and settle in Bulgaria.
Today,those villages are ruined and you can find only the foundations of their houses,actually some clusters of stones,which testify that once there were built houses.The only building that was saved in Moukliani is the church of Holly Triad,which is maintened in very good condition by my fellow villagers.I must remark that in one marble stair is engraved the byzantine double-headed eagle and the date 1898.In Drianova,as i've seen from the distance of 3-4 km,because i never went there,the churche and the belfry must be ruined but the remnants of the houses seem to be taller.
There was a rumor that in Moukliani was hiden by Bulgarian bands a treasure.According to the rumor,during the 1st Balkan war,the Turks,sent a train full of golden english pounds from Thessaloniki to Constantinople.This train was robbed near Serres by a Bulgarian band who brought the treasure in Moukliani.They saved it in a cave close to the village and exploded the entrance but after the liberation of the region by the Greek army,they couldn't return to get the treasure.13 years ago,appeared a Bulgarian who claimed that his grandfather was one of those men who robbed the train.He had a map of the area in which was marked the cave of the treasure and he managed to find some of my fellow villagers who financed the excavation,but nothing was found.
Another remarkable incident was last year,when 3 Bulgarians came to my village and they visited Moukliani,because they claimed that their origin was from there.The 2 of them were 55-60 years and the third was younger,about 35-40.The one of them spoke a little Greek and he took a pouch with earth from the soil of Moukliani.They didn't tell something about the treasure,but their behaviour was <suspicious>:They counted 15-20 steps from the belfry towards the West,then they stoped and watched this point,but nothing else!
I shouldn't be surprised if they will come back later.
I hope that all this was very interesting for you and although i don't know in which region of Bulgaria settled those people,i wish that you could find some of their descendants and talk with them.I'm sure that they would tell you very interesting things(and maybe somebody has the right map,these would be very good news.)