THE THESSALONIKI BOMBERS –

APRIL 15-19TH 1903

Bulgaria After San Stefano Treaty And Berlin Congress 1878

Revolutionary Movement

ВМОРО ( Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO)

- initially was helping the bombers- goal: autonomous Macedonia and Adrianople regions- secret revolutionary society operating in the late 19th and early 20th centuries 

The bombers and their Goals

Jordan Popjordanov also known as Jiordan Orgadtzie; Kostadin Kirkov, Milan Arsov, Dimitar Metchev, Georgi Bogdanov, Ilija Trutchkov, Vladimir Pingov, Marko Boshnakov, Trayko Tsvetkov, Pavel Shtatev

Attract the attention of the Great Powers to the Ottoman oppression in Macedonia and Eastern Thrace.

Gathering of the Bombers and Original Plan

The Boatmen of Thessaloniki were a descendant of a founded in 1895 in Plovdiv ”Macedonian Secret Revolutionary Committee", which was developed later in Genève (Michail Gerdjikov, Petar Mandjukov and Slavi Merdjanov)

Slavi Merdjanov moved to the Bulgarian school in Thessaloniki, where he worked as teacher and sparked some of his ideas among the graduates

Original Plan 1898

Initial target- Tsarigrad (Istanbul):-Assassination of the Sultan AbdulHamid II-Blow up the Ottoman Bank

Decide to make parallel bombing in Tsarigrad and Thessaloniki in order to magnify the effect

Abandon the idea for assassination of the Sultan, because it was too unrealistic

Start digging tunnels under both banks

Fail of the Original Plan

In 1901 a letter from Tsarigrad to Thessaloniki fall into the arms of the Turkish police, most of the Bombers are arrested.

Later they are released ВМОРО (IMRO) stop supporting and

financing the Bombers – afraid that this act will have negative impact upon Bulgaria as a whole

Find new financing from Boris Sarafov in Genève, and start to develop new plan

Final Plan and its Execution

Organize series of bombing attempts in Thessaloniki

Managed to obtain 160 kg. of dynamite Because the dynamite was not enough they

abandon the idea to blow up the postal office in Adrianople

January 1903, start digging new tunnel to the Ottoman Bank

Goce Delchev and Dame Gruev (Leaders of IMRO) asked the Bombers to postpone and even quit the idea of bombing

Plans for new sewer system in Thessaloniki triggers the bombers to act immediately after Eastern

April 15th 1903 – Day one Pavel Shatev used a

suitcase full with dynamite to blow up the French ship “Guadalquivir”

All passengers and the crew were evacuated on time, only one person was injured

Leaving Thessaloniki immediately but captured on the station in Skopie

April 15th 1903 – Day one  Dimitar Mechev, Iliya Trachkov, and Milan

Arsov, unsuccessfully struck the railway between Thessaloniki and Tsarigrad

Caused slight damage to the locomotive and few cars without wounding any passengers

Managed to return to the headquarters and continue with the plan

Iliya Trachkov Iliya Trachkov

Milan Arsov

April 16th 1903- Day Two The Bombers attack their major target –

Ottoman Bank Kostadin Kirkov used explosives to shut off the

electricity and water supply systems of the city

Jordan Popjordanov blew up the building of the Ottoman Bank (4 killed, 5 injured)

April 16th 1903- Day Two Jordan Popjordanov was the leader of the

Bombers

Kostadin Kirkov

Both of them managed to return to their apartments in Thessaloniki

April 16th 1903- Day Two

 Milan Arsov threw a bomb in the "Alhabra" theatre

One man was killed and one was injured Georgi Bogdanov throw a bomb in front of one

Greek cafeteria, no one was injured Dimitar Mechev and Iliya Truchkov failed to

blast the reservoir of a gas-producing plan, later during that night after throwing more than 60 bombs out of the windows of their apartment both were killed

Vladimir Pingov set on fire one inn and was later killed

April 17th 1903- Day Three

In the morning Jordan Popjordanov started throwing bombs outside his window

After the Turkish police had surrounded him and he run out of bombs he got shoot

April 18th 1903- Day Four Kostadin Kirkov  was killed while trying to blow

up a postal office He was spotted by the police and stabbed just

before setting the bomb Cvetko Traikov mission was to kill the local

governor Hasan Hefmi – unsuccessful While waiting for the governor in front of his

summer house he was spotted by the police and committed suicide by blowing his bomb

Results According to western diplomats 10 people were

killed and 16 were injured 6 from the Bombers were killed, the other 4 were

captured and sentenced to death Later they were reprieve and imprisoned to life The bombings did not manage to achieve their initial

goals of attracting the attention of the Great Powers to the Ottoman oppression in Macedonia and Eastern Thrace in the way the bombers wanted.

On 19th of April The Turkish army engaged a massive repression upon the Bulgarians in Thessaloniki

Many innocent Bulgarians were killed The officials acknowledge the death of 35 Bulgarians

Results According to ВМОРО (IMRO) the victims were

between 200-300 The repressions moved to Bitola and Veles More than 2000 people were arrested and 353 were

brought to court During the trial the bombers admit the help of

ВМОРО (IMRO) and many of the members were captured

Milan Arsov and Marko Bushnakov died in prison Georgi Bogdanov got insane short after the

bombings Pavel Shatev and Georgi Bogdanov were released

from prison during 1908 after a revolution in the empire.

Pavel Shatev died on the 29th of January 1951, the date of death for Bogdanov is unknown