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Tuesday, June 24, 2025

 Are any ethnic cleaning and any genocide over Macedonians at Aegean Macedonian part from 1913 from the Greeks ?

 Yes—there is significant historical evidence that, starting in 1913, after Greece annexed Aegean Macedonia (the region of northern Greece), a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing, forced assimilation, and repression was carried out against the local Slav/Macedonian-speaking population by the Greek state and military.



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🔹 What happened during and after 1913?


1. Military attacks & village burnings (1913):


In June 1913, Greek forces burned the town of Kukush (now Kilkis) and 39 villages in the area, destroyed Serres with around 4,000 homes, and razed parts of Salonika; according to the Carnegie Commission, this involved 170 villages and over 17,000 houses  .


About 15,000 Macedonians were killed or driven out by the army  .



2. Forced expulsions and population transfers:


From 1913 to 1928, Greek authorities expelled 52,000–86,000 ethnic Macedonians (mostly to Bulgaria)  .


The Treaty of Neuilly (1919) required Greece to expel around 80,000 Bulgarian-affiliated Macedonians  .


Under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, about 127,000 Macedonians—including 40,000 Muslims—were forcibly relocated, while over 600,000 Greek Orthodox refugees were resettled in their place  .



3. Cultural suppression and identity erasure:


The state banned the Macedonian (Slavic) language, even in private spaces; those caught speaking it faced beatings, imprisonment, or exile  .


All Slavic toponyms, inscriptions, personal names were suppressed or forcibly changed to Greek ones from the 1920s onward  .


During the authoritarian Metaxas regime (1936–1941), use of Macedonian in schools, public, or homes was punishable; many were interned or sent to remote islands  .



4. Aftermath of the Greek Civil War (1946–1949):


An estimated 35,000–230,000 ethnic Macedonians were stripped of citizenship, expelled, and exiled; many were prevented from returning and their property was seized  .


New laws branded Macedonian organizations “bandits” and authorized mass confiscation, deportation, and internments during this period  .



5. Modern-era consequences:


Today, Greece still does not officially recognize a distinct "Macedonian" minority or language. Activists and human-rights groups cite ongoing discrimination and refusal to allow minority rights  .




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🧭 Assessment


Ethnic cleansing: documented forced removals, deportations, property seizures, and cross-border expulsions.


Cultural genocide or forced assimilation: suppression of language, identity, renaming of people/places.


Physical violence and repression: massacres, village burnings, internments, punishment for speaking the native tongue.



Many historians and minority-rights organizations describe these actions as systematic and state-driven, carried out over decades, targeting ethnic Macedonians in Greek-administered northern Greece.



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📝 Summary Table


Time Period Actions Taken


1913 Massacres, village burnings, deportations after Greek annexation

1913–1928 Forced expulsions of tens of thousands, replacement with Greek refugees

1920s–1930s Banning Macedonian language, renaming, cultural suppression

1936–1941 Internment, exile, violence under Metaxas regime

1946–1949 Civil war: citizenship revocation, mass exile, property confiscation

Post-1949–today Denial of minority status, ongoing assimilation pressure




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✅ Conclusion


Yes. From 1913 onwards, especially during the interwar years, the Metaxas dictatorship, and the Civil War, the Greek state carried out a long-term campaign of ethnic cleansing, forced assimilation, cultural suppression, and violence against ethnic Macedonians in the region. While some may debate the precise term “genocide,” the coordinated displacement, violence, and cultural destruction clearly fit many definitions of ethnic cleansing or cultural genocide.



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If you'd like, I can point you to primary documents or scholarly works that delve deeper into these events. Let me know!


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