TSERIE

To 14 August 1949 the bulk of the fighting units of DAG were taken off Vicho and the liberated territory. As the DAG forces withdrew, the monarcho-fascist army took over the liberated territories without a fight.

With the quick entry of the enemy onto the territory abandoned by DAG every living and civilized thing was killed or imprisoned.

In that chaotic period when some were escaping and others entering, a large number of DAG fighters were not aware of what was happening and were not able to withdraw with the others. These fighters who were cut off from the others were forced to fight to the death or be imprisoned by the monarcho-fascist soldiers.

The imprisoned people were not in prison for long. One day they were all taken from the prisons to Tserie. This place is between the villages Konomlati and Bresnitsa, Bzdivishta and the mountain Lisich. At this place they were brought and to the last of them had their throats slit by the sadistic soldiers of the monarcho-fascist government of Greece. The place was transformed into a slaughterhouse of the innocent, imprisoned Macedonian population. This bloodied place was called "Black Tserie" by the Macedonian population.

The innocent people were killed by the monarcho-fascists to serve as a token in honour of the victory. At this place between 700 to 1,700 prisoners were killed, and a large number of innocent civilized people.

They were sacrificed in honour of the great victory of the renowned monarcho-fascist army which freely and without a fight entered the liberated territory after the withdrawal of the armed forces of DAG.

One of the most loved partisan songs sung by the Macedonian fighters in the Lerin region during the Greek Civil War was the following:

"Near Lerin on a flat plain
That is where you find my village
At the edge of the village is my house
And in my house, my true love
With her right hand she writes a letter
With her left hand wipes away tears
If you love me, love me,
And take me with you.
If you don't love me, leave me,
Take a gun and kill me
Bury me with your own hands
Send me off with your eyes."

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