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Post by Arxileas on Jan 11, 2008 5:06:05 GMT -5
Peace had come to battered, impoverished Greece; the Communist guerrillas had been driven out, perhaps for good. But last week, on Innocents' Day (the Church calendar's anniversary of Herod's Slaughter of the Innocents in Judea), Greece had a day of mourning—for 28,000 children abducted by the bandits and now living on foreign, Communist soil. A two-gun salute from Mount Lycabettus woke Athenians at dawn. Church bells tolled and flags drooped at half-mast. Newspapers appeared with black-framed front pages. Places of amusement were closed all day, and for half an hour all traffic stopped, streets emptied, doors were closed and blinds drawn. Queens Do Not Beg. Earnest young Queen Frederika, mother of three, broadcast a poignant message from the royal palace. She begged for the return of the 28,000 children living in exile "as a mother—because queens are not supposed to beg." Added Frederika: "The civilized world has remained silent too long." The civilized world had made some well-meaning but ineffective protests. UNSCOB (the U.N.'s Special Committee on the Balkans) had verified the mass deportation of Greek children. The U.N. General Assembly had called on Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Rumania for the return of the children. These governments had finally agreed to return any children called for by petition of their parents. Up to last week the Greek Red Cross had forwarded 8,000 petitions, but not one child had been sent back. Not Even Goodbye. In the palace with Frederika was a group of black-clad peasant women huddled at her side. Kaliroe Gouloumi, from Gorgopotamos, in Epirus, remembered how the Communists took her children: "They were in our village for a year. First they took our animals, then our food, then our children. I had three." Kaliroe wiped her eyes with her black shawl. "They did not even let me say goodbye. They said they were no longer my children but their children." Said Kleoniki Kiprou from Monopilo Kastoria: "First they hanged the priest, then they cut off his mother's hands, and then they ordered us to follow them. What could we do?" In Albania her eight-year-old girl and five-year-old boy were taken from her and a rifle was thrust into her hands. Tapping the weapon, the rebel capetdnias said: "This is your husband, this your child." Kleoniki was forced into the battle of Vitsi. She deserted and got back to her village—without her children. In Fourka Konitsa, the villagers learned in advance of the guerrillas' abduction plans. They hid the children in ditches. The guerrillas, frustrated, took Sofia Makri and 20 other mothers to the mountains and tortured them. Said Sofia last week: "They hung us from pine trees. They burned our feet with coals. They beat us. When we fainted they revived us with cold water from the spring. Fourteen of us died up there but we did not tell. When the Greek army entered our village they found the dead living, for out of the earth came our children." There is no evidence that the Greek children living in Communist countries are physically abused. International Red Cross investigators have seen some of the children and reported that they are well fed. They are being schooled as young Communists and they are expected to feel and show enthusiasm. Said a U.N. delegate in despair: "In ten years there will be no abducted Greek children; they will have been absorbed link
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rex362
Senior Moderator
Pellazg
PELASGIANILLYROALBANIAN
Posts: 19,058
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Post by rex362 on Jan 11, 2008 10:42:42 GMT -5
them darn communists ....some of these same Greek Commies could be found in Albania or their families at least ...hunt em down
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Post by jerryspringer on Jan 11, 2008 11:00:18 GMT -5
What happened to them later?
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Post by Niklianos on Jan 12, 2008 1:20:12 GMT -5
Some were returned to Greece others were taught to be good communist and turned into those that became the greatest Greek haters. It is believed that a large number of them are those that live in FYROM and still push their communist era propoganda against the Greeks. Others never learned who they really are and so on.
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Post by kartadolofonos on Jan 12, 2008 2:23:57 GMT -5
Victims of Cold War Communist kidnappings
HUNGARIAN-BORN Greek Eleni Korani just celebrated her 30th birthday in the company of her extended family which included her two-year-old daughter Akilina, her parents Lefki Karageorgiou and Laokratis Koranis, cousins, friends and her Austrian-born husband in what was a truly multicultural celebration.
According to Theodoros Skevis, President of the Greek Minority Self-Government of Hungary there are some 4,500 Greeks in Hungary today.
"Compared to the 5 million Greeks living in the United States this seems a small number, but we are quite united and seek to preserve our language and culture as well as being good Hungarian citizens," states the energetic man who sounds like the proverbial Zorba the Greek over the telephone.
Skevis was born in northwestern Greece in the town of Igumenitza on the Adriatic coast facing the Island of Corfu. As a result of the 1946 -1949 civil war in Greece, he was sent as a small child first to Albania and then to Hungary. His three brothers and two sisters were scattered throughout the then Socialist countries of Europe - Albania, Romania, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, and even to the Baltic countries.
Lefki and Laokratis were born in Hungary, of Greek parents who, again due to the civil war, wound up at the ages of 17 and 23 respectively, in the town of Beloiannis in Hungary, 53km from Budapest. "Beloiannis was built with the united good will and cooperation of the Hungarians which welcomed many of the young Greeks forced into exile," states Skevis.
Skevis and the Koranis are part of the little known drama of the Greek diaspora following the Second World War which originally brought over 3,000 Greek children to Hungary. Besides Beloiannis, they were quartered in castles such as Dég, Solt, Fehérvárcsurgó and others whose aristocratic owners had themselves fled from Hungary and the Soviet occupation in 1944-1948.
"The Greek children in Hungary were treated with great humanity and kindness," states Skevis, who adds that they were all given the opportunity of higher education which allowed them to enter professions in which they have excelled as physicians, lawyers, professors and businessmen in Hungary.
In 1974 with the defeat of the military Junta and the advent of the Papandreu régime in Greece, many repatriated to their land of origins, but others stayed. "In some cases their towns had been destroyed, others had already established themselves in Hungary, marrying a Hungarian in some cases, but in most cases they remained due to their professions here," states Skevis, saying that more than 3,000 Greeks are already buried here in Hungarian soil.
Lefkis Karageorgiou was born in Beloiannis, where she attended primary school and then went on to university in Sofia, Bulgaria, and received her degree at the SOTE in Budapest as a Doctor of Medicine. She is recognized as one of the leading rheumatologists and physiotherapists in Hungary, with a successful medical practice in Budapest's Inner City.
Her husband, Laokratis, now President of the Budapest Chapter of the Greek Minority in Hungary, was taken from Greece at the age of eight months by his mother who, in 1948, was accompanied by 200 Greek children on a ship organized by the Red Cross which took them to Gdansk. From Poland Leos with some other children wound up in Héviz, Hungary.
He was educated at the Bánki Donát Fôiskola (College), received his degree in mechanical engineering in Budapest, but also studied philosophy in Sofia, Bulgaria. Their daughter Eleni was educated in Hungary but speaks fluent Greek. "We tend to speak Greek at home, but our cuisine is a mix of Hungarian, Greek and Continental," says Lefki.
Lefki. and her husband's families originate in northern Greece, and they often return to Thessaloniki to visit relatives. But her ties are also strong in Hungary.
"I am a Beloiannis girl, and growing up we had this dream of returning to Greece someday, but that is a dream of 40 years which I never realized, since I married here, my daughter Eleni and her twin, Stavros were born here and we have established ourselves in Hungary."
Together with thousands of Greeks, Lefkis took part in the meeting which was held at the Károlyi Castle in Fehérvárcsurgó in October last year and with her husband Leos, participated at the World Greek Conference held in Thessaloniki on December 10, 2003.
Perhaps the best known Hungarian-Greek is the actress Athina Papademitriou who lives a pastoral life with her second husband Gábor Magyar in Tahitótfalu north of Budapest.
"My parents came to Hungary voluntarily, with proper passports in 1949-1951." She followed in her father's footsteps, enrolling in the Budapest Academy of Dramatic Arts and working in films, television and radio.
The statuesque dark-haired actress appears regularly in Hungarian and in international productions.
She is a former member of the Rock Színház, and member of the Hungarian Nemzeti Theater and the Budapest Operett Színház.
"My main concern now is to raise my three children with a consciousness of their Greek origins by sending them to the Greek School to learn the language," she states.
The Hungarian Greeks, who since 1950 have maintained cultural ties in Hungary, formed their official organizations following the Hungarian Parliament's decision in 1993 to recognize ethnic minorities in Hungary.
"We consider ourselves both Greeks and Hungarians," states Skevis, emphasizing that the Greek organizations in Hungary seek to preserve the knowledge of the Greek language and culture among Hungarians of Greek origins, in accord with the European Union's declarations regarding the importance of preserving ethnic and cultural identities in the new united Europe.
According to statistical data gathered by the Greek Self-Government in 2001, some 6,133 people identified themselves as being of Greek culture, with 2,509 stating that Greek was their mother-tongue, and marginally less, 2,473, giving their religion as Greek Orthodox.
With 29 local Greek governments in 19 districts in Budapest, Greeks are also spread throughout Hungary, clustering in cities such as Pécs, Kecskemét, Szeged, Sopron, Gödöllô, Szentes, Karcag, Miskolc, Biatorbágy, andTatabánya.
The Greeks in Hungary will celebrate Greek National Day in the Duna Palota in Budapest on March 26, commemorating the Greeks' revolt against the Ottoman Turks in 1821. On October 28 each year they gather to celebrate the Day of Ohi (No! Day) commemorating the date when Greeks opposed the Italian Fascists during the Second World War.
This year's Ohi celebrations will take place at the Novotel Hotel's Congressional Center in District XII.
The Hungarian Greek Self Government maintains the Greek language school with classes several times a week, a choir, publishes a monthly paper Ellenismos and a quarterly magazine, Kafeneio which goes out to 5,500 members of the Hungarian Greek Minority each year.
These are supported by contributions by members of the Greek community in Hungary and from the Hungarian Office of Ethnic Minorities.
Further Information
The Hungarian Greek Self Government Office,
Pest, District V. Vécsey utca 5, tel: 302-7275
Many Americans/Westerners know little of this incident in the Cold War where fleeing Greek Communist forces kidnapped whole populations which Stalin scattered and transported around Europe/Siberia to be used as future communist janissary soldiers against the West/Greece. During the civil war of 1946-1948, Greek Communists kept records on all the children aged three to fourteen in all the areas they controlled. In March 1948 these children were gathered together in the border regions, and several thousand were taken into Albania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia. The villagers tried to protect their children by hiding them in the woods. The Red Cross, despite the enormous obstacles placed in [its] path, managed to count 28,296. In the summer of 1948, when the Tito-Cominform rupture became apparent, 11,600 of the children in Yugoslavia were moved to Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Poland, despite many protests from the Greek government. On 17 November 1948, the Third UN General assembly passed a resolution roundly condemning the removal of the Greek children. In November 1949 the General Assembly again demanded their return. These and all subsequent UN resolutions remained unanswered. The neighboring Communist regimes claimed that the children were being kept under conditions superior to those they would be experiencing at home, and that the deportation had been an humanitarian act.
In reality the enforced deportation of the children was carried out in appalling conditions. Starvation and epidemics were extremely common, and many of the children simply died. Kept together in "children's villages," they were subjected to courses in politics in addition to their normal education. At age thirteen they were forced into manual labor, carrying out arduous tasks such as land reclamation in the marshy Hartchag region of Hungary. The intention of the Communist leaders was to form a new generation of devoted militants, but their efforts ended in failure. One Greek called Constantinides died on the Hungarian side fighting the Soviet Union in 1956. Others managed to flee to West Germany.
From 1950 to 1952 only 684 children were permitted to return to Greece. By 1963, around 4000 children (some of them born in Communist countries) had been repatriated. In Poland, the Greek community numbered several thousand in the early 1980s. Some of them were members of Solidarity, and were imprisoned after the introduction of martial law in December 1981. In 1989, when democratization was well under way, several thousand Greeks still living in Poland began to return home.
The warm welcome extended to the defeated Greek Communists in the U.S.S.R. contrasted strangely with Stalin's annihilation of the Greek community that had lived in Russia for centuries. In 1917 the number of Greeks in the Soviet state was between 500,000 and 700,000, concentrated for the most part around the Caucasus and the Black Sea. By 1939 the number had fallen to 410,000, mainly because of "unnatural" deaths, not emigration; and there were a mere 177,000 remaining by 1960. After December 1937 the 285,000 Greeks living in the major towns were deported to the regions of Arkhangelsk, the Komi republic, and northeastern Siberia. Others were allowed to return to Greece. During this period A. Haïtas, a former secretary of the KKE, and the educator J. Jordanis died in [Stalinist] purges. In 1944, 20,000 Greeks from the Crimea, the remnants of what had been a flourishing Greek community there, were deported to Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan, on the pretext that they had adopted a pro-German stance during the war. On 30 June 1949, in a single night, 50,000 Greeks from Georgia were deported to Kazakhstan. In April 1950 the entire Greek population of Batumi suffered a similar fate.
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Post by myzeqari on Jan 12, 2008 8:41:50 GMT -5
My grandmothers 2 sisters were takenby the Greek communists to Albania. Thy were separated and dopted by Albanian families. One was taught several languages and then later ende up marrying some high ranking military official that worked for Hoxa. She visited Greece for the first time in the late 80's but did no speak a word of Greek. My brother had to speak to her in English and then ranslate everthing to Greek. She was going to move to Greece and be with her sister when she MYSTERIOUSLY died at the airport. We were not given any details of her death nor was her body was allowed to be sent o Greece for burial.
The other sister was poor....still alive but sends her adult children to our houe in Athens once in a while looking for my grandmother ho has passed. My family for some rason do notwant anything to do with them
I also have an aunt who was taken to Hungary. Hungary sent her back after the Greek civil war at her parents request.
I have two friends, Greek but both their Greek parents are from the czech republic.
Then we have peole like red who deny this factual and historical event ever took place. I guess helikes to turn a blind eye on his party's dark side.
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Post by meltdown711 on Jan 12, 2008 19:55:04 GMT -5
Yay for conspiracy theories. Do you think anyone in Albania really cares if a couple of decrepit communist left-overs leave the country? On the contrary, I think Albanians would be most pleased if all those who snuck into the country with the help of a traitorous communist left.
A couple of weeks before my grandfather had finally been able to get a visa to come and visit my family in the US, he laid down in bed after going outside for a while and died. *hit happens when your old!
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Post by Kassandros on Jan 13, 2008 4:16:49 GMT -5
Thats the faith for the Greeks; being scattered around the world. Huge portion of population moved to Sicely. Huge portion of population moved to South Italy. Huge portion of population moved to W.Turkey (after they changed their religion to Muslim). Huge portion of population moved to W.Turkey (around 1 million kids for Jannisaries during the 500 year of Ottoman occupation) Huge portion of population moved to US Huge portion of population moved to Australia Huge portion of population moved to Germany,Holland, UK,France,Belgium etc etc Huge portion of population forced to move USSR Huge portion of population forced to move Balkans More than 60,000 children, after the civil war in 1949, moved to US for adoption More than 40,000 children, after the civil war in 1949, moved in Balkans for adoption from commounist families. etc etc.. ..and now... we wonder... why Greece is only 11,000,000 people... and why almost all Med Sea, South Italy, South France, W.Turkey and Balkans..... share similar faces and face characteristics? The Slavic element of the Balkan population simple... does not exist any more. Slavs in Balkans should have the usual Slavic faces like the Slavs in Russia or other Northern parts have. They dont. They look so Mediterannean. W.Turks should have the Asian face all Asian share. They dont. They look so Mediterannean. S.Italians the same. S.Albanians the same. Bulgarians the same. Fyromians the same. .....I hope now... you dont wonder why any more? The good part is.... all these citizens in the above countries... someday... after they succeed to overcome the commounist theories they were raised with, after they succeed to evercome that Greek-hater attitude (Jannisaries) they were raised with, after the get educated freely,.... they will all realise they are part of Hellenic world! Hellenism is still everywhere.... the only thing left is... Hellens that are now Jannisaries.. to realize it.
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Post by meltdown711 on Jan 13, 2008 4:20:18 GMT -5
Nobody ever asked me if I was Greek and I originate in the deepest depths of southern Albania.
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Post by Georgios Kastriotis on Jan 13, 2008 4:23:41 GMT -5
Nobody ever asked me if I was Greek and I originate in the deepest depths of southern Albania. Georgios Kastriotis wants to ask you now, are you Greek?
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Post by meltdown711 on Jan 13, 2008 4:28:36 GMT -5
Toskali will gladly answer: *puts head high up in the air, clears throat, and utters* No!
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Post by Georgios Kastriotis on Jan 13, 2008 4:31:22 GMT -5
Toskali will gladly answer: *puts head high up in the air, clears throat, and utters* No! You dont act like an Alvano, like a Greek who hates his true motherland are you a chamarian?
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Post by meltdown711 on Jan 13, 2008 4:32:47 GMT -5
Nope.... what is this, some guessing game?
Btw, do you guys understand that the Dervishme system ended in the 16th century. Following that point, there were enough Muslims in the Balkans for the system to become a volunteer position. The only reason that it was kept was because of a lack of native Muslims in the region who were not tied to Anatolian nobilities. Meaning Greek Janissaries were only around till about the 1530's. At that point, the Janissaries were largely composed of Albanians, Bosnians, (Muslim) Bulgarians, Tartars, Circassians etc. etc.
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Post by Georgios Kastriotis on Jan 13, 2008 4:35:31 GMT -5
Nope.... what is this, some guessing game? You like attention? Nope to what Nope to chamarian? Nope to no for Greek?
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Post by meltdown711 on Jan 13, 2008 4:36:33 GMT -5
Jebus, to both. My family was not Cham....
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Post by Georgios Kastriotis on Jan 13, 2008 4:38:05 GMT -5
Jebus, to both. My family was not Cham.... Whats Jebus
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Post by meltdown711 on Jan 13, 2008 4:39:14 GMT -5
Its a Simpsons... ah forget it. I didnt ask you to try and guess what I am. I said it very clearly. Now its just becoming irritating.
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Post by Georgios Kastriotis on Jan 13, 2008 4:41:38 GMT -5
Its a Simpsons... ah forget it. I didnt ask you to try and guess what I am. I said it very clearly. Now its just becoming irritating. You iritate your self Shipstrara
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Post by myzeqari on Jan 13, 2008 8:42:25 GMT -5
He's 1/4 Greek per his own admission. One of his grandmothers was from the mastrochorio village of Plikati which is right next to where my family is from. I think he said her last name was 'Pappas' although that name is not very popular in the Mastrohorio area.
About 'no one cares about a few scatered Greeks'.....we do and you insult us by coiming in here and telling us. Maybe you do too since you came in here to tell us off....or maybe you're just an 'intellectual' troll now that studies at the Ivy of upstate New York (and a classics major no less). Take your pick.
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Post by meltdown711 on Jan 13, 2008 14:08:08 GMT -5
Im not an "intellectual", just have more than half a brain, which means a lot for this forum.
Im not insulting you, Im just giving you a reality check. Nobody cares if an old woman leaves Albania. What does that mean? One less pensioner? Oh noooo!!!
My grandmother was from Albania, Narta. A traditionally Greek speaking villae which today is largely Albanian speaking. And yes, she wasnt popular at that time, because she denounced her origin by marrying an Albanian Muslim. She never considered herself anything close to Greek. I just meant that she probably was Greek blooded. Anyway, enough with this. As I said, Im a southern Albanian and nobody thinks I look similar to Turks, Italians, Greeks etc. and am quite offended when an insinuation is made that we are somehow related to these people through Greek mixture.
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