Belgrade’s claims on “Serbian" national minority in Aegean Macedonia

THE FAILURE OF THE “KALFOV-POLITIS” JOURNAL AND BELGRADE’S CLAIMS ON “SERBIAN” NATIONAL MINORITY IN AEGEAN MACEDONIA 

Prof. Dr. Vasil A. Vasilev 

(summary) 

The “Kalfov-Politis” Journal was signed on September 29th, 1924, on the occasion of the murder of 19 innocent Bulgarians from the village of Tarlis, the region of Dram, committed by the Greek authorities. 

The journal ensures a much more efficacious protection of the numerous Bulgarian population on Greek Macedonia than the standard Treaty for Protection of the Minorities, signed by the Greek government in 1920 in Sevar. E. Drummond, the Secretary General of the UN was to guarantee for its implementation. It is explicitly outlined in the journal that the Slavic population in Aegean Macedonia is Bulgarian, from which follows that the Slavs from Vardar Macedonia are of the same nationality, but not “Southern Serbs”, as the official statement of Belgrade puts it forward. Under the intense pressure of the internal opposition and especially under the pressure of the former government, which denounce the Allied Treaty of 1913 between Serbia and Greece, the Greek parliament rejected the Journal. Nevertheless, Serbian emissaries were sent to Greek Macedonia, who, due to lavish promises for patronage against the outrage of the Greek authorities, succeeded in sending to the UN three petitions of villagers from the region of Kozhan, in which they insist on being recognized as “Serbian national minority” and therefore be permitted to open schools and churches where Serbian language would be spoken.

For the Greek government it was not difficult to prove the absurdity of these claims and the Council of the UN rejected the “petitions”. At the same time the UN took drastic measures to quickly subdue the overt actions of the Belgrade emissaries and they were forced to turn to some secret, including revolutionist’s activities, which were also to fail. However paradoxical it may sound, in the very beginning Belgrade embarked on its campaign in Greek Macedonia in cooperation with the Bulgarian government. The authorities on Sofia hoped that the actions of the Serb in defence of this population would protect it from force Hellenization. The sobering came when it became clear that the Serbian emissaries in Aegean Macedonia are calling out for minority rights not for the Slav population in general, but for the nonexistent Serbian national minority.