WW1
Not far from Bitola, in the hills of the Novaci municipality, still lies a fortified position and a line of trenches from the First World War. Here two mixed armies fought against each other for two years, from 1916 to 1918, on one of the less talked about fronts of the whole conflict. Most of the stories, especially from the British and French side, focalize on the battles fought in the north-east of France. However, another front existed and tore across the Balkan peninsula, passing through the whole of present day Macedonia, the Oriental front.
Usually the only battle that is remembered from this front is the tragic one fought at Gallipoli, Yet a few know that the troops that remained where then sent to Thessaloniki to be part of a great mix of French, British, Italian, Serbian and even Russian soldiers who had to face the Bulgarian army and its allies, Germany and the Austro Hungaryian Empire. The fighting was no less harsh than on the other fronts, but the fate of those soldiers has been almost completely forgotten in Western Europe because of greater strategic importance placed elsewhere; because the losers do not want to commemorate their defeats and because some of the victors then got tangled up in an even more complicated aftermath.
I have been to Novaci and seen those trenches and those fortifications. It is truly frightening to imagine living and fighting in those conditions, sleeping and eating on rock in holes and walking through trenches barely wide enough for a single man. The site, however, is almost completely abandoned. If it weren’t for the efforts of the local firefighter chief, nobody would get the chance to visit it. He kindly showed us around and told us about the efforts they are making with the municipality in order to render the site accessible and make it known to the public. I believe Macedonia needs this kind of cultural valorization, it is one sort of heritage which may be heavy to bear but that should be reckoned with while constructing a nation.
I understand that the country has a strange relationship with this war, a war fought by strangers on its territory, with it’s own population divided and having to face the brutal consequences. However, it is really a shame that the site is left in such a state. The memory of History should be preserved in any case because the risk of forgetting what has happened in the past is ever present and is the first step to repeat the same mistakes.
VCS