Friday, April 30, 2010

What happened behind The Greek Civil War (during the Cold War era)





The Greek Civil War started in 1945 and lasted through 1947. The war was fought between Greek Communists forces and the democratic, capitalist Greek Government Army. The Greek Communist movement gained power in Greece during World War II, when the Germans and Italians had occupied Greece, The Communist forces were backed by Moscow and were fighting against the German and Italian occupation forces. The British gave command that the Guerrilla should surrender their weapons and that the army should disband. During World War II, Britain sent over 40,000 troops to Greece in order to help the Communist forces push the German and Italian occupation forces out of Greece. As the occupation forces retreated from Greece, they destroyed all of the highways and railroads thus leaving the country in chaos. When the Greek democratic government was reinstated in Greece, the Greek Communist forces, now backed by Moscow and Yugoslavia, waged a war against the Greek democratic government army. This war lasted for two years when finally, Britain and the US sent forces and pushed the Communist revolutionary forces back to Yugoslavia.

The war left the country in horrible condition, the economy wasn’t doing well, miles of railroads were destroyed from raids of bombing, and the main cities such as: Solonika, Volos, and Piraeus, were left devastated from it all.

Although this war was an important moment in Greek history, there was also a very important and terrifying event that went on during the war. 28,000 children said to be fleeing the country, were abducted by Greek Communist rebels. These children were taken to Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Rumania, where they would supposedly be re-educated and make the government mad by reaching a settlement on the leading of a partition of Greece “Macedonian” republic. People to this day believe that the children were not abducted but there is enough evidence to prove that they were. The Greek Communist rebels took advantage of these poor innocent children and made them blackmail the government because they didn’t want to take any credit for it. These children were pulled away from their homes, their mothers, everything. The Greek Communist rebels told all of the children’s parents that they would be sent to good homes and be very well taken care of. They also told them that they were better off there because the children would be in the safest place and would get a really great education. There plan was to destroy the youth of Greece by brainwashing the children with tactics on how to make the government mad. They weren’t getting what the rebels told their parents they were. They were being manipulated to do things they would never be doing at home. The rebels were charged with “genocide” and people now compare what they did to these children with what Hitler did to the Jews. The rebels would also use animals against animals for their movement and that was considered animal cruelty. Overall this act was uncalled for and the rebels shouldn’t have gone through with their plan.
Here is a passage from Sofia Makri: "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." This passage describes the fear and terror of the children living away from their families.
(604 words)

3 comments:

  1. I had no idea about the genocide of 28,000 Greek children. It seems so horrible that anyone would want harm innocent children for their own benefit. I cannot even imagine the pain that these children went through and what they were forced to endure. How were they kept away from their homes for so long? And did anyone try to come and save them?

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  2. The government must have threatened the parents pretty bad for them not to trying to save their children. I know many people who would die to keep their children save and have them live.

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  3. The government lied to their parents and said they would be taken good care of and they would be well educated

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