Commemoration of the 62nd Anniversary of the British Napalm Bombing
of Gramos and Vicho
World Macedonian Congress
August 25, 2010, Skopje, Macedonia (WMC) - The World Macedonian
Congress and the Association of Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia this
year will continue the tradition of commemorating the anniversary of
the 1948 British napalm bombing of Gramos and Vico in the Aegean part
of Macedonia during the 1946 to 1949 Civil War in Greece with a memorial
for the victims of the war.
On August 27, Friday, 10 am, a delegation of the World Macedonian Congress
and the Association of Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia will mark the
62nd anniversary of the napalm bombing. The bombing in Aegean Macedonia
was the first time napalm bombs had been used in the world. The delgates
will lay fresh flowers at the monument to the victims of the civil war
at Woman Park before the Parliament of Macedonia. At 11 am in the courtyard
of the church of St. Mary Mother of God on the Vardar River, Skopje
a memorial service will be held for the victims of the bombing.
Invited guests to the commemoration include representatives of the
religious communities in Macedonia, the president, members of Parliament
and ministers, directors of national institutes, directors of state
universities, the mayors of the city of Skopje and the Skopje municipalities,
diplomatic and consular missions and foreign missions in Macedonia,
associations of Macedonians from the Aegean part of Macedonia, and the
Macedonian print and electronic media.
The memorial service will send a request to Britain to apologize to
the Macedonian and Greek anti-fascists in the Second World War for the
defeat in the Civil War in Greece, for the victims of the British napalm
bombing at Gramos and Vico, and for the British assistance for the victory
of the Greek monarcho-facists who fought fiercely against the Macedonians
in Aegean Macedonia, due to the agreement between Churchill and Stalin
that the United Kingdom win Greece and the Soviet Union win Bulgaria
and Romania. Macedonia and Macedonians will no longer be collateral
damage to the interests of the big powers and their spheres of influence
in the region. No longer can they hide the history and archeology in
order not to reveal the truth about Macedonia.
The commemoration will condemn the use of weapons of mass destruction
(napalm, hydrogen and atomic bombs), and send a message to the world
of peace and love over war and hate. Macedonians around the world wait
for Britain's apology, and recognition of the Republic of Macedonia
and membership of the European Union and NATO alliance under the state
name of Macedonia.
The World Macedonian Congress and the Association of Macedonians from
Aegean Macedonia expect not only the fulfillment of the contract between
Macedonians from the Aegean part of Macedonia and the Communist Party
of Greece for cultural autonomy of the Macedonian people in Greece after
the victory in the Second World War. With thousands of victims between
1940 to 1949 Macedonians in Aegean Macedonia laid the foundation of
Greek statehood, because together with Greeks they were able to free
themselves from the fascists. And because of that they unconditionally
seek to reclaim the civil and property rights of the Macedonians forcibly
exiled from Greece from the Balkan Wars to today, and to receive respect
and universal human rights for Macedonians who live in Greece.
Macedonians around the world reject the request to change the state
name of Macedonia in order to legalize the Greek genocide against the
Macedonian people and the occupation of Macedonia that occurred during
the Balkan Wars and continues to this day. They require the immediate
and unconditional suspension of talks on the state name of Macedonia.
Macedonians around the world reject the pressures to change the state
name of Macedonia and see these pressures as cultural genocide against
the Macedonian people and crimes against humanity.
