ABOUT

Sklithro, Florina (Greece) is a village that has an oral history that dates back to just after 1395 C.E. For over 500 years it was called Zelenic. After the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, the area was annexed by Greece and in 1927 the name was changed to Sklithro. Before 1395 the inhabitants of Sklithro-Zelenic came from just over the mountain to the east on Lake Zazari. This settlement was called Sebalci.

FAMILY NAMES

Here is a list of family names which at one point lived in Zeleniche (although it is NEVER complete).

In the first column is the original Macedonian version of the name. In many cases individuals and families that have emigrated to other countries have had their names 'localized' to the local language (in Australia/Canada/USA they have been shorted - Ivanov to Evans, Branov to Brown). In the European countries they have adjusted to include "-ski" or "-sky" (examples are Popovski from Popov, Mangovsky from Mangos).

In the second column is how it would be written in Macedonian (NOTE: you will need to have the "MAC C Times" Truetype font installed on your system to properly read it. For more information on how to get this done please visit Biser Balkanski - How To Install Macedonian fonts on your computer .

The third column is the Hellenized (ie. "Greek") version assigned by the Greek government in the years which followed the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913. In a majority of the cases the changes did not appear until after 1920. In many cases as with the village names, an attempt was made to spell the last names in the Greek alphabet sound-for-sound but it was later decided to make them sound more "Greek" (examples were "Dimov" to "Dimopoulos", "Iliev" to "Iliadis").

For those unaware, the Treaty of Bucharest "divided the spoils" of Macedonia amongst the three neighbouring countries - Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia. Amongst the worst of what was to follow happened in Greece - family names were given "Greek" versions, village names were renamed, churches were re-Christened under Greek saints, tombstones and epitaphs along with any visible signs of the Macedonian language were erased and re-written in Greek.

POPULATION

HISTORY

Zeleniche
An excerpt from the book Lerin in Mourning by Atanas Tane Naumovski found on the website Pollitecon Publications

The village of Zelenich was forcibly made to change its name by the Greek government to Sklitron. It is about 20 kilometres east of Lerin. It is on the plain below the mountain Temen Vrv at 21 degrees 30 minutes longitude and 40 degrees 38 minutes latitude. It is 850 metres above sea level and about 11 square kilometres in area.

The village borders with the following: to the north with the village Neveska, to the east Zazersko Lake, to the southeast with the village Insko, to the south with the village Lehovo, to the southwest the village Srebreno and to the west with the village Prekopana and the mountain Temen Vrv.

Before the start of the Greek Civil War in 1945 about 1,342 residents lived in the village of which 982 were of Macedonian background and 360 were Greek-Madzhiri immigrants.

The residents of the village were employed in agriculture, timber getting and other necessary trades.

During the Greek Civil War, the residents of the village actively took part in the organization of NOF and the armed forces of DAG with more than 100 active fighters. 22 gave their lives.

They were :

1. Gjorgi V. Babadzhanov
2. Jani A. Bishkarov
3. Risto M. Bufi
4. Lefter M. Bufi
5. Iljo M. Vangelov
6. Lazo Dine Gakev
7. Pandil Gramenovski
8. Tsane Evripija
9. Niko K. Iliev
10. Risto K. Kalev
11. Miti K. Kalev
12. Dine S. Krlev
13. Lena P. Kurburcheva
14. Aleko V. Kurchev
15. Petre S. Lalev
16. Gjorgi A. Lochov
17. Tashko Puzderkov
18. Gjorgi Sevdaliev
19. Parushka L. Trajkova
20. Stefo Vane Tsanev
21. Stefo Kali Tsanev
22. Panagis Tsilkos

Of the fallen, 20 were men and 2 women.

After the Greek Civil War and the forced emigration from the village Zelenich, the number of residents fell significantly. In the official census in Greece in 1991 it was recorded that there were 553 residents in the village.

LINKS

• Google maps - Zeleniche
• Sklithro-Zelenich-Sebalci Website
• Steve Pliakes Family Tree, About Zeleniche
• Wikipedia - Zeleniche, Kajlarsko

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