Consequently, from the moment of PAO's formation, relations with ELAS were strained and no effort was put into combining their operations. PAO managed to gain the support of the Turkish-speaking Pontic Greeks, who maintained independent resistance networks and were similarly anti-communist. In August, ELAS fighters in the area of Kilkis began pressuring PAO insurgents into disarming. When ELAS applied the same tactic on the Turkish-speaking Pontians, the latter murdered seven regional ELAS commanders in the village of Imera, near Kozani. By the end of the month the conflict between the two group had escalated into a civil war which continued until December. ELAS managed to destroy PAO's armed units, before they managed to regroup in Chalkidiki. In January 1944, the remnant of PAO, consisting of several hundred men, requested aid from the German authorities and they were reformed into collaborationist, counter-insurgency units. Under German direction, PAO took part in operations against ELAS, while attacking the Bulgarian army with the tacit approval of the Germans. From then on PAO operated under the umbrella of the Security Battalions organized by the collaborationist government in Athens, committing numerous atrocities. Its field commanders Vichos and Dangoulas signed a declaration, pledging to fight the Allies alongside Germany, while others such as Michalagas wore German army uniforms. Only in eastern Macedonia, which lay inside the Bulgarian occupation zone, were nationalist resistance organizations, chiefly that of Tsaous Anton, able to resist ELAS. By June 1944, swelled by officers from PAO and EDES, they were the dominant force in the region.
