About Asanovo - Hasanovo
taken from the book Lerin in Mourning by Atanas Tane Naumovski available courtesy of
Pollitecon Publications
Asanovo's name was forcibly changed by the Greek government to Mesohorion. It is a part of the Lerin region and is about 16 kilometres northeast from Lerin.
It is on the Pelagonia plain and close to the Greek Macedonian border at 21 degrees 31 minutes longtitude and 40 degrees 53 minutes latitude. Asanovo is a plains village and is 610 metres above sea level. The village area is 16 square kilometres.
The village borders on the following: to the west with the village Kafkaz, to the southwest with the villages Sakulevo and Dolno Kalenik and to the northeast with the village Orta Oba (Sredno Selo).
Before the start of the Greek Civil War in 1945 there were about 870 residents in the village of Macedonian background. The villagers were employed in agriculture, raising livestock, some trades and other worthy occupations. This was enabled by its location.
During the Greek Civil War in the period 1946-49, the residents took little part in the organization of NOF and the armed forces of DAG even though the village had a reasonable number of residents. They had about 20 participants and 6 gave their lives and one was killed by stepping on a land mine.
They were:
- Indov, Gjorgi Pando
- Karajoshkov, Gele Alekso
- Karakole, Pando Tsano
- Karakolev, Kosta Krste
- Kochov, Kole Mite
- Tancharov, Tode Toshe
- Karajanov, Laso Argir - as a prisoner forced with a truck to tread on a landmine.
The details of the lost fighters from Asanovo came from Karajanov Lazo Manoli from the same village.
After the Greek Civil War and the forced emigration from the village, the number of residents fell. In the last official census in Greece it was recorded that there were 581 residents in the village.
Family Names of Asanovo Selo Inhabitants
Here is a list of family names which at one point lived in Asanovo Selo (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.
| Original Macedonian Name | Po Makedonski | Hellenized Version |
|---|
| We have no data of family names for the village : Asanovo Selo |
Thank you to everybody who has contributed to the various lists. If you would like to add your family
please email me at tedn@macedonianvillages.com and specify the village and a list of family names.