Macedonia History

Macedonia prepares to celebrate August 2nd or Ilinden - the feast of St. Elijah - which marks two major historic events of national liberation - the 1903 Ilinden Uprising against the Ottoman Empire and the 1944 ASNOM assembly which set the foundation for Macedonian statehood. And 114 years after the first event, the debate continues on the decision to order the uprising, and whether it was ordered too soon, before the national forces were ready to mobilize. The uprising was smothered by Turkish forces, who captured the free city of Krusevo after 10 days. Historian Vanco Gjorgjiev says that the leaders of the VMRO organization were divided over the proposal. Dame Gruev believed it is time for a large scale confrontation with the Ottoman Empire, in a set piece battle, while Goce Delcev favored continued guerrilla warfare, away from the civilian centers, knowing that a failed uprising will lead to massacres of civilians. In Gjorgjiev's opinion, the order was simply inevitable...

Exclusive letter from Justinijana (Janka) Kanevcheva - secret fiancée of Goce Delchev Please, give me a proof that he is safe and sound! Goce Delchev really was killed on 4th May 1903 in Banica and it was confirmed during the insight of one of his imprisoned rebels, Georgi Saveklija. However, the authorities in Constantinople wanted additional proof from the Turkish office in Sophia. On 9th May 1903, five days after the murder, an encrypted telegram was sent directly from the Port. The Sultan’s diplomats sent a short reply to the Grand Vizier on 14th May: Delchev is one of the main heads of the internal organization and the reports in the newspapers about his death still haven’t been backed up by documents. Even though there were no documents in the newspapers, probably referring to photographs of the rebel’s dead body, unfortunately, Goce Delchev really was killed. The great Macedonian revolutionary Delchev, the Achilles of his time, who was sentenced to death in absence o...

Macedonia marks 114 years since the death of Goce Delcev, the main leader of the Macedonian national liberation movement VMRO. Delcev was betrayed in the period ahead of the August 1903 Ilinden Uprising, while he was staying with his personal guard unit in the village of Banica near his native city of Kukush. After a battle with the Ottoman Turkish forces, Delcev ordered his men out of the village to spare the civilians, and was killed in combat. Born in 1872, he studied in Solun (Thessaloniki) and at the Sofia Military Academy, before becoming a leading organizer of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO). He lobbied tirelessly for domestic and international support to create an independent state on the territory of the Ottoman province of Macedonia, at a time when other provinces of the Empire were also becoming independent or joining the newly established Balkan countries. It is believed that arguments over the decision whether to start a large uprisin...

LONDON, May 26. - Detailed reports of the death of Delcev, the famous Macedonian chief, says the Sofia correspondent of The Times, show that he accompanied a band under Vojvoda and Kirtchovsky, together with the poet Tavoroff, and entered the village of Banica, near Seres, where the presence was betrayed to the Turks by a Greek spy. A large force surrounded the village, and all the members of the revolutionary band were killed after a long resistance. It is stated that the inhabitants of the village, to which the Turks set fire, were also killed. Delchev was a thirty-two years old. He was a schoolmaster, and practically created the present Macedonian organization, which has ramifications in all parts of the country. The Vienna correspondent of The Times says perquisitions and arrests continue in the vilayet of Adrianople. Numbers of priests and school teachers have been taken into custody. Arms have been found in six villages. The male population has fled, and agricult...