He (Mitko Popov, editor of the MACEDONIAN TRIBUNE) was born in 1936 at Breznitsa, Pirin Macedonia. When the communists came to power, his family was persecuted and their land was confiscated because they refused to call themselves ethnic Macedonians as the communist party had dictated.

When he was 17, he escaped over the border into Yugoslavia. The group he was with crossed two by two then regrouped at Gerovo where they asked for political asylum. They were sent first to Shtip, when after extensive questioning, they were sent to Skopie and then to Ohrid.

He was jailed in what is called Camp of the Dead near Gerovo because he continued to call himself a Bulgarian rather than Macedonian, a political requirement of the government. Thanks to a UN commission, he and his five friends received help and were allowed to emigrate to Italy in 1956. He arrived in the US as a political refugee in 1958.

Съдържаниет е скрито
Влезте за да го видите