THE WORLD MUST KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT SRM

Vardar Macedonia was named Southern Serbia and the Bulgarians of Macedonia declared "proper Serbs". Until 1941 the Serbian nationalists attempted by all possible means to change the Bulgarian population's national consciousness and to make it forget the very notion of "Bulgarian". Evidence about this policy can be found in The Wails of Macedonia, a documentary series published in Switzerland (and preserved in the League of Nations' Archives) which describes in detail the Serbian atrocities towards the Bulgarian population. The Bulgarians of Macedonia waged a heroic national resistance movement which not only frustrated Serbia's assimilatory plans but also amazed the world by its organizational drive and effectiveness in the struggle for national survival and liberation.

In this struggle participated not only the enslaved Bulgarian population, led by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), the Macedonian Youth Secret Revolutionary Organization (MYSRO) and the cultural educational organization of the Bulgarians in Macedonia, but also Bulgarian organizations from liberated Bulgaria and patriotic immigration organizations in America and Canada, which are still active today.

It was precisely the members of these national liberation organizations who established Bulgarian national rule in Vardar and Aegean Macedonia in April 1941, as Bulgarian National Action committees, prior to the entry there of a single Bulgarian soldier. Thus the Bulgarian population in Macedonia of its own free will proclaimed itself for unification and solidarity with Bulgaria.

After WWII it became very hard for the Bulgarians in Macedonia. Acting under the guise of Macedonism (a fall-back ploy for the serbization of the Bulgarians in Macedonia) the greater-Serbia oppressors, and in particular one local Serbian minion clique headed by Lazar Kolishevski decided to create a new "Macedonian Nation" by fire and sword. These people, who were forcibly imposed on the population by the communist rulers in Belgrade, claimed that the Macedonian nation began to form at the end of WWII. But if that is true how could the Slav population in these areas, which is Bulgarian by stock, history, culture and national identity, have all become Macedonian overnight?

The creation of a nation is a slow and time-consuming process that may take centuries. Resorting to an unprecedented cruelty that mimics the times of Ghengis Khan, the new masters of Macedonia assailed the Bulgarians, who formed 80 per cent of the entire population of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia (SRM). We have witnessed the falsification of this population's old and modern history. A new alphabet was composed. Local Bulgarian speech was stated to be an unique Macedonian language. Everything was anathematized that suggested an Bulgarian past, present or future in Macedonia. In all documents of history, such as books, monuments, inscriptions etc.. the word "Bulgarian" was (is) substituted by the word "Macedonian".

Those who continue to uphold their ethnic identity are persecuted and victimised. Since 1944, over 16,600 people have suffered from this brutal policy, losing their lives defending their Bulgarian names and honour. More than 120,000 were tortured in concentration camps like Idrisovo, the largest prison in the Balkans. The SRM has imposed a total ban on the access to Bulgarian books and newspapers; a gross violation of the UN Charter and the Helsinki final act. Under the provisions of the Macedonian Honour code parents who bring up their children as Bulgarians are liable to 10 years imprisonment and have their property confiscated

Here is a list of examples to support the preceding statements

On the 7th, 8th and 9th of January 1945, in SRM without the knowledge of the government in Skopje, the so-called "Christmas slaughters" were organized under the leadership of Svetozar Vukmanovich "Tempo" and Al Rankovich, in Skopje, Veles, Kumanovo, Prilep, Bitolja, Shtip and elsewhere. 1250 notable Bulgarians were brutally arrested in the middle of the night and murdered for fear they might influence people not to declare themselves Macedonians in the forthcoming population census, and would resist the policy of Macedonism. For these reasons. since 1945 approximately 700 trials have been held against secret "pro-Bulgarian" organizations which were discovered by the authorities. At each trial two or three death sentences were routinely passed.

1. Trial held in 1946 in Skopje. against the Yordan and Dimitar Chkatrov brothers. They were sentenced to death for having fought as Bulgarians for the freedom of the Bulgarians in Macedonia.

2. Trial against 75 Bulgarians headed by Angel Dimov, accused of having fought for the separation of Vardar Macedonia from Yugoslavia and its annexation to Bulgaria.

3. Trial held in 1947, in Skopje, against the Ilinden Democratic Front headed by Georgi Karev (N Karev's brother) and Nikola Popov. They were accused of having fought for the rights of the Bulgarians in Macedonia.

4. Trials held in 1947 in Skopje, Veles, Bitolja, Ohrid, Kavadartsi, Shtip etc. against thousands of national front members fighting for the recognition of the Bulgarian national identity in Vardar Macedonia. They were accused of having further pursued the policies of the IMRO headed by the three doctors, Ivanov from Strumitsa, Trenchev from Tsarevo Selo and Terziev from Kukush.

5. Trial held in 1947, in Skopje. against the first Prime-minister of Vardar Macedonia, Metodi Andonov-Chento, born in Prilep. He was accused of having sent a memorandum to the representatives of the big powers at the Paris peace conference stating that the Macedonian issue does not pertain to the Yugoslav federation and cannot be resolved within its framework. He was also accused of having insisted on international guarantees for an independent Macedonian state with a prevailing Bulgarian element.

6. Trial held in 1948, in Kochani and Shtip, against 57 members of the committee for the liberation of Vardar Macedonia headed by Yordan Melchev from the Vilitsa village (Kochan district).

7. Trial held in 1952, in Shtip, against a group of 37 Bulgarians headed by Todor Manassiev from Kochani. They were accused of having violated the "Macedonian honour code" by declaring they were of Bulgarian descent.

8. Trial held in 1949, in Strumitsa, of 22 pupils from the Strumitsa secondary school headed by Alekso Stoimenov. They were accused of having defended the San Stefano Treaty, namely Bulgaria's borders under it.

9. Trial held in 1948, in Skopje, Veles and Prilep, of the members of the disclosed local IMRO organisation headed by Angel Mishev from Prilep. The organisation fought for the separation of Vardar Macedonia from Yugoslavia.

10. Trial held in 1970, in Shtip, of a group of students headed by Todor Manassiev. they were found guilty of having a Bulgarian national consciousness. and of having read books in the Bulgarian language.

11. Trial held in 1972, in Skopje. of Petar Zakharov from Skopje and of 22 other persons who were accused of having fought for tearing-off of Vardar Macedonia, and its annexation to Bulgaria.

12. Trial held in 1974, in Skopje, against Dimiter Yanovski, a writer; for his "nameless poem" published in the Savrehennost Magazine (No. 3, 1974). The poem tells of the foreign yoke and darkness that oppress the population of Vardar Macedonia.

13. The 1977 trial of Lazar Kraynichanets and Angel Mitrev, "the hero". Accused of having read Bulgarian books and of fostering Bulgarian national awareness amongst the population of Vardar Macedonia.

14. Trial held in 1983, in Skopje. against 17 Bulgarians headed by Georgi Miloushev from Skopje. They were accused of being Bulgarians, and were found guilty.

15. The big 1985 Skopje trial of the writer Yovan Kotevski from Struga and his group, most of them UDBA men, on the accusation that they were in favour of the San Stefano Bulgarian borders; or of an independent Macedonia which does not form part of Yugoslavia. Thus, the court affirmed that Kotevski was a member of a Bulgarian pro-Macedonian government (outside Bulgaria).

The list is too long, and we shall stop here.

The persons accused at the above-mentioned, and at many other trials were subjected to inhuman torture, and were sentenced to an average of 10 to 20 years of hard labour. Thus, the Bulgarians in Vardar Macedonia were declared part of "the Macedonian Nation". All these things have taken place and continue today, in our civilized world; a shame on the 20th century!

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