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1The Web and the HarpoonThe Peoples Republic of Krushevo
By Marcus Alexander Templar July 20, 2015
This paper focuses only on the revolt of July 20, 1903 (old
style) or August 2, 1903 (newstyle) in the town of Krushevo as
implemented by the original left wing of the IMRO also knownas
Ilinden or the Day of St. Elijah. Any other information offered in
this paper is pertinent onlyfor the readers understanding of the
stage set before the revolt. It is not a paper regarding
theorganization of the IMRO or its history nor is it about the
events outside the surrounding areas ofthe town of Krushevo.
Some of the real names of people involved might be different
from those in this paper.The difference lies on the sources
involved and their understanding of the persons genealogy.For
instance, Kirov-Majski presents the name of Dimitri Gulis as Pitu
Gulyev. He does notspecify his ethnicity. Ditsias presents him as a
Vlach speaking Greek whereas other sourcesconsiders him a Romanian
inclined Vlach. While Distias offers a close view of the
events,Naltsas is more distant describing the events in Macedonia
from the general point of view. Ballasis as detailed as
Ditsias.
Kirov-Majski, Ballas, Naltsas, Ditsias, Kavangelis, and the
letter of the Greek ConsulGeneral in Monastiri have the main
population of Krushevo as Greek. Some of them clarify themas
Vlach-speaking Greeks and some just Greeks. So, I have decided to
sometimes refer to themas Greeks or as Vlach-speaking Greeks
(Kirov-Majski 1935, 19). Ballas speaks of Greco-vlachdialect of the
Krushevo Greeks (Ballas 1962, 34).
Background Information
The Grandfather of the Socialist movement in Bulgaria was
Dimitar Blagoev Nikolov.Blagoev was born on June 14, 1856 in the
town of Zagorichani of the Ottoman Empire, presentday Vasiliada,
Kastoria Prefecture of the region of Macedonia, Greece where he
received hiselementary education. His father was Vangel Minasov, a
poor peasant who went toConstantinople as a migrant worker (John D.
Bell, 1986, 4).
In 1868, Georgi Dinka Konstantinov, a Bulgarian communist who
had recently studiedin Russia, took the position of the village
teacher in Zagorichani where he planted more than thefirst seeds of
human consciousness in the hearts of his young pupils. He
transplanted the rootsof communism. He was the one who introduced
Blagoev to revolutionary and socialist ideas (K.N. Derzhavin 1962,
71-72. 27, 71; compare D. Daskalov 1971, 2, 98-106; G. Bakalov
1960),363-92; Pundeff Sep. 1971, 523-550; 532).
For his revolutionary activities, Konstantinov was expelled from
the village two yearslater, in 1870. According to Blagoevs memoirs,
Bulgarian propagandists influenced him in theidea of the Bulgarian
National Revival (part of the Slavic Awakening) (D. Blagoev 1926,
1). Bythe age of 27, Blagoev was a full-fledged communist.
On October 23, 1893 in the city of Thessaloniki (presently the
capital of the GreekMacedonia), Damian Gruev, Goce Delcev, Ivan
Hadzhinikolov, Petar Poparsov, Andon Dimitrov,and Hristo
Batandzhiev founded the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople (Thrace).
RevolutionaryOrganization (IMRO, VMRO in Bulgarian). Goce Delcev, a
communist, was the ideologue andthe organizer of the IMRO. He was a
great opponent of the implants of the Bulgarian governmentin the
IMRO. He was a member of the Central Committee of the IMRO from its
foundations tohis death (Kolievski 1980, 227).
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2The year 1885 was beneficial for Bulgaria since, in September
by unifying with EasternRumelia, the principality more than doubled
its size. Now, the next step in the Bulgarian agendawas to achieve
the final step to its national unification with Macedonia. It would
try to do thesame with Macedonia as it did with Eastern Rumelia.
Various groups were formed having in justthat in mind. As expected,
Blagoev mingled among his compatriots who grouped together in
anorganization called Macedonian Voice (Makedonskii glas) and
published a newspaper underthe same name advocating the liberation
of their homeland at the first opportunity.
Given the opportunity, Blagoev published his first article in
Bulgaria, "The BalkanFederation and Macedonia," written in a
panegyric atmosphere of 1885 before the events of theEastern
Rumelias unification with the principality. He suggested in very
diplomatically thatbesides the unification of Macedonia to
Bulgaria, a Balkan federation could be a more pragmaticsolution,
since the alternative could be a choice between cooperation versus
struggle. There werealready calls for such an alternative by
Karavelov, Levski, and Botev. Echoing Karavelov,Blagoev felt that
only a Balkan federation could protect the Balkan "mini-states"
from theimperialism of the great powers, including Russia, and
could provide the collective resourcesneeded for their economic
development. (Pundeff Sep. 1971, 523-550; 534-5; Blagoev
1985,1:46-54). Blagoev felt that the salvation of the Macedonians
and the Balkan nations was in thecreation of a regional federation
for common defense and development (Pundeff, Sep. 1971,523-550;
535).
The original idea of a Balkan Federation came from Rhigas
Pheraios who starteddeveloping it in 1788, but that idea had
included the whole Balkan region. Blagoev wanted toimplement it
with the twist of a communist state that would include only the
Macedonian parts ofhis time. Blagoev believed that the inhabitants
of Macedonia should be free to choose thelanguage, religion, and
nationality they preferred, and neither Greece nor Serbia nor
Bulgariacould profit from an internecine struggle over Macedonia,
especially one between the two Slavicnations. "Peoples of the
Balkan peninsula," Blagoev exhorted in Marxist fashion, "unite
before itis too late!" (Blagoev 1985, 1:46-54; Pundeff Sep. 1971,
523-550; 535).
Finally, in March 1903, the Communist Party separated into two
groups. The one thatinterpreted Marxism in a liberal manner was
called the "Broad Socialists" or simply the Broads[ ] under the
leadership of Yanko Sakuzov. The group whose interpretationof
Marxism was more strictly known as the "Bulgarian Social Democratic
Workers' Party(Narrow Socialists)" [ ] or simply the Narrows under
the leadership of theformer schoolmaster, Dimitar Blagoev (Vettes,
Vol. 19, No. 4, Dec. 1960, 521-530, 521). Asimilar schism occurred
a few months later within the Russian Social-Democratic Labor
Partybetween Julius Martovs Mensheviks or Minority and Vladimir
Lenins Bolsheviks or Majority.Blagoevs personality and
understanding of Marxism matched Lenins while the BulgarianNarrows
became the twin brother of the Russian Bolsheviks (Vettes, Vol. 19,
No. 4, Dec. 1960,521-530, 526).
In the Spring of 1918, Blagoev proposed to change the name of
the party to Communist,something that took place on May 25, 1919 a
few days after the establishment in Moscow of theThird Communist
International Association, aka Comintern on March 2-6, 1919.
Morespecifically, on March 4, 1919, thirty-five delegates voted,
with one abstention, to constitute theThird or Communist
International Association, aka Comintern. Of the thirty-six
present, only thefive Russian delegates (Bukharin, Chicherin,
Lenin, Trotsky, and Zinoviev) had experience inboth mass
organization and revolutionary activism. (Hallas 2008, 10).
The name komitac (komitadji) is the derivative of the Ottoman
Turkish or Osmanlcaword komita or committee and denotes the member
of a committee. They were also calledsandrailists, which derives
also from the Osmanlca word santral for central. Both words
apply
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3to the way their movement was working on staging central
committees, a feature thatconstituted and promoted the manner in
which the communist parties worked. In Ottoman andModern Turkish,
terminations ci (i, c, ) denotes profession, and terminations li or
l denotebelonging to a place or an institution (Geoffrey Lewis
2000, 11; 57: 6c).
Demographics of KrushevoAt the time of Krushevos prosperity, its
population was about 18,000 persons. In 1870, the year
of the Exarchist schism the population declined to 16,000
(Ballas 1962, 20). In 1903, Krushevo had12,000 inhabitants, of whom
10,640 Vlach speaking Greeks, 1,000 were Slavophones, and
360Romanian inclined Vlachs, (Ditsias 1905, 9).
In 1905, after most people left the town after the catastrophic
revolt, Krushevo had 8,932inhabitants. Of them, the 5,395 were
Greeks, 2,669 Bulgarian Exarchists, 650 Rumanian inclined,218
Serbs/Slavophones. The number of Greek households was 1193,
Bulgarian Exarchist 644,Rumanian inclined 133, Serb/Slavophone 53
bringing the total to 2,023 households (Ballas 1962,20).
Settlements to the area that later became known as the town of
Krushevo started in 1769and lasted a little longer than 1779. The
settlers came to Krushevo from such areas as the presentday Greek
region of Macedonia and Epirus, and even the present day Albania.
They came toKrushevo for some very good reasons. The first
settlement came about as a result of great raid theYrk or Yrk Turks
that took place toward the end of 18th century. The second wave
duringthe administration of the infamous Ali Pasha of Ioannina. The
rest of the waves took placebecause of other reasons. The main
populations came from Naoussa, Monastiri, Tyrnavon,Megarovon,
Voskopolis, etc. (Ballas 1962, 18).
The first families came to Krushevo from Nikolitsa near Korytsa
(Korce). These familiesfound in Krushevo only one Bulgarophone
family and one church made from reeds (Ballas 1962,18). After these
families from Nikolitsa came families from Linotopion, Grammosta,
which islocated on the Voion Mountain. The ones from Grammosta were
Vlach speaking Greeks andcame to Krushevo in two waves. The latter
were flock herders nomads moving to warm areasduring the winter and
cooler areas during the summer (Ballas 1962, 19).
Another group that reached Krushevo were the Arvanites, Tosk
speaking Greeks from (present day Vithkuq, near Korce) led by their
priest Fr. Eustathios and Opara ledby their priest Fr. Yannakis.
Their migration took place shortly after the migration of those
fromNikolitsa. Because of their complete assimilation with local
Greek population, a few families ofthe Arvanites used their
language even at home by 1906 (Ballas 1962, 19; Ditsias 1905,
10;Kirov-Majski 1935, 18-19).
The town was divided into 12 neighborhoods located in a
semicircle manner fromnortheast to Southeast as follows:
Neighborhoods of Struga, Haztibusia, Salana, Yenikklise,Arnaut,
Kole Naltse, Meziltzi, Kuri, Ostriltsa, Kupri, Birina, Monastiri
(Ballas 1962, 22). TheBulgarians inhabited the highest hill at the
western part of the town (Ditsias 1905, 10).
The Organization of Terror
The IMRO was established in Thessaloniki in 1893 as a product of
successive events thatgave individuals the opportunity to organize
themselves against the Ottomans hoping that theycould persuade
Christian governments to assist them in their plight against
Ottoman rule. TheCommittee counted on the eagerness of most of the
inhabitants of Macedonia, regardless ofethnicity, faith gender, and
social status, to throw off the tyranny of the Sultan.
Simultaneously,
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4the Committee hoped the events would give Christian governments
the opportunity to assist thefounding members of the Committee
assuming that the European governments would be naveidealists and
work for them. In their effort to influence IMRO, some governments
assisted themembers of IMRO with cash and weapons.
Others, such as Serbia, and especially Bulgaria, infiltrated the
IMRO and tried to imposeits expansionist agenda. In 1902, Lt. Boris
Sarafov of the Bulgarian Army and a few others joinedthe IMRO for
that purpose. Thus, Bulgaria had hoped to encroach on the areas
that the Treaty ofSan Stefano awarded her, but that the Council of
Berlin took away. On the other hand, the IMROrevolutionaries
intended to establish a Balkan state as Bakunin (Bakuninists) that
Lenin hadenvisioned during the last years of the 1900 century.
IMROs original organization was based onthe Carbonari Society of
Italy.
Misirkov described the leadership of the revolutionaries as
intellectuals seeking andhave found, another way of fighting, i.e.
independent Macedonian [sic] scientific way of thinkingand a
Macedonian [sic] national consciousness. However, he included
himself in with thoseintellectuals (Misirkov 1974, 225-226). The
phrase scientific way of thinking is a communistexpression.
The Revolt in Krushevo
The final decision on which path the IMRO should take was
conceived at the IMROsvery First Socialist Conference of the
Bulgarians in Macedonia, which took place in Krushevo onMarch 3,
1900 according to Lazar Kolievski and according to Nikola
Kirov-Majski on March 3,1901 (Lazar Kolishevski 1980, 22; Nikola
Kirov-Majski, 1935, 17).
One of the outcomes of the Conference was that the participants
would organize theIMRO as a larger and more visible group departing
from the original Carbonari style oforganization (groups of four to
six members). Because of the modification, the IMRO adoptedthe
system of local representation in district committees and municipal
committees so that theycould freely disseminate socialist
literature and popularize socialist ideas in the towns
andcountryside. Such participation in the local governments
resembled Lyuben Karavelovs plan thatsucceeded in the incorporation
of Eastern Rumelia to Bulgaria.
It must be noted that the president of the ephemeral Republic of
Krushevo, Nikola Karev,was a well-known member of the Bulgarian
Workers Social Democratic Party, i.e. CommunistParty, as was Goce
Delcev (Gotse Delchev) and his closest collaborators. They all
assumedleading positions in the IMRO local committees. Acting as
voivodes and secretaries of units, i.e.political commissars, they
disseminated socialist ideas and infused socialist consciousness
intothe membership (Kolishevski 1980, 12; Keith Brown 2003, 190,
209; George W. Gawrych 22, 3,Jul., 1986, 307-330; 308).
Nikola Karev, president of the republic, during the fighting
"held a gun in one hand andMarx's and Engels's Communist Manifesto
in the other" in opposition to Bulgarias wish, which,in the event
of the success of the uprising, wanted Macedonia to be annexed to
Bulgaria(Kolishevski 1980, 12).
The leadership of the IMRO had decided to get rid of members of
the Supremists orVrhovists, the right wing of the IMRO, such as
Lozanchev, Garvanov, and Sarafov, the mostflexible tools of Prince
Ferdinard, whom the IMRO considered imperialistic. Therefore,
Panitsa,acting on Sandanskis orders, killed them in December 1907.
Sandanski, a follower of Plekhanov,was murdered in April 1915. For
many years to come, the two sides assassinated each othersmembers.
Although in name the organization was one, in reality there were
two organizationsusing the same name.
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5Communist ideas were adopted in the political platform of the
IMRO, in hope that theIMRO would eventually become a revolutionary
organization of the masses rallying all therevolutionary forces of
people in the period prior to the St. Elias' day revolt. Goce
Delcev,founder and ideologue of the movement, warned, The
liberation of Macedonia is possible onlythrough an armed
insurrection, he who thinks otherwise lies to himself and to
others. Let organizethe masses (Joseph Rothschild 1959, 170n).
Based on that suggestion, the leadership decided to organize a
movement of the landlesstenant masses and agricultural laborers in
the quest of land. The IMRO, as a government nowwould proceed
toward the expropriation of land from feudal landowners and its
distributionwithout compensation. Thus, they devised a plan under
which guerrillas would be forcing theresidents to the mountains
hoping that they could create the impression of a broad
movementsupported by all genders, social classes, and ethnicities.
In their view, this is how the peasantmasses would have accepted
the IMRO as their organization and become the strongest base
ofsupport for the national revolutionary movement. Because of its
internationalist ideas, thesocialist IMRO would strive persistently
for brotherhood between the artificial majority, i.e.Bulgarians in
Macedonia and the perceived minorities, sharply denouncing any sign
ofchauvinism or religious hatred, which were instigated by the
Turkish rulers and the other Balkanimperialists.
The revolutionaries never issued a proclamation or manifesto as
the government ofSkopje claims. It would be humanly impossible for
anyone to remember the long manifesto in itsdetails. The
proclamation or manifesto we have today is the result of a
theatrical play that tookplace 20 years after the actual revolt. In
1923, Nikola Kirov-Majski published a theatrical playentitled
Ilinden. In the second act, second scene of the play, the character
of the teacher reads themanifesto to the character of Nikola Karev,
the President of the Krushevo Republic. Karev, tellsthe teacher to
translate it into Turkish and disseminate it to the Turkish
villages around Krushevo(Kirov-Majski 1923). The manifesto that was
promoted in the play as a declaration ofindependence is filled with
socialist parlance of eternal friendship and brotherly love.
Suchlanguage complied with the time and place of the theatrical
play, which took place at thebeginning of the negotiations between
the left wing of the IMRO and the Comintern and the MayManifesto of
the left wing of IMRO.
As the first step toward negotiations with Comintern, in Vienna
on May 6, 1924 the leftwing of the IMRO issued the document known
as the May Manifesto. In it the IMRO chastisedthe imperialists and
reactionaries of the Balkan Peninsula. The negotiations led to
theestablishment of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary
Organization United (IMRO-U).
The so-called Manifesto of Krushevo does not have much to do
with the facts on theground since the true proclamation was a
simple letter containing a series of intimidatingstatements to
those villages which would facilitate the deployment of the Ottoman
Army andsupport it in any way. For 10 days after the initial
takeover of the town of Krushevo, which wasplanned and executed in
a military fashion with clear political objectives, Bulgarian
communistsunder the leadership of the Bulgarian Workers Social
Democratic Party governed the town in areign of terror.
The Preparation of the Operation
The revolutionaries were effectively trained and well organized
not just militarily, butpolitically as well. It was decided that
the location of the revolt would be the town of Krushevoand its
surrounding villages on July 20, 1903.
The Vlach speaking Greeks of Krushevo knew that something was
going to happenbecause the Bulgarians were moving their families
out of town. In some cases, the Bulgarian
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6komitadjis had sealed the Bulgarian section of the town in a
way that the incoming Ottomantroops would perceive that the
Bulgarian population did not participate in that unjust
revoltagainst the Sultan.
At that point, the number of revolutionary participants were 750
fighters armed with riflessuch as Russian Kapakl, Berdan, Martin,
Greek Gras Mle 1874 or Grades (),and about 20 Mauser and
Mannlicher-Schonaeur rifles. The had bought the riflestype gras
from Greece under false pretenses and Greek drovers1 brought them
to the region(Ballas 1962, 40). The fighters were divided into
eight units, most of them of company strengthand a couple of units
of platoon strength depending on the nature of their Mission
Essential TaskList (METL). For this paper, I will refer to the
units as detachments.
The heads of the detachments were chieftains (voivode, ).
According to theOperations Plan, each detachment had its own
METL:
1. The First Detachment under Andreya Dimov Dokurev (nicknamed
OsmanBegovi had as his deputy commander Kosta Popeto) would enter
the town and take over thebuilding of the Ottoman government, the
town hall, the building of the Post/Telephone/Telegraph(PTT), and
the building of Tax Collection.
2. The Second Detachment under Ivan Naumov (nicknamed Alyabaka)
would enterthe city and take over the military barracks.
3. The Third Detachment under Dimitrios Goulis (had as his
Deputy CommanderBlae Krstev) would protect the town from the
Ostrileski Pass and the roads from Birino andTrastenik.
4. The Fourth Detachment under Marko Hristov (Mire) would
protect the townfrom the northeastern side as encamped in the areas
Lipa, Spulut and Kale.
5. The Fifth Detachment under Taku Karev was to protect the pass
Koyova thorn.6. The Sixth Detachment under Riste Tasev Tsrniya was
to protect the pass at
Pavleva fountain.7. The Seventh Detachment under Kosta Hristov
was to protect the pass Miratova
fountain at Naked ore.8. The Eighth Detachment under Gyurin
Naumov Plyakot was to protect the road
Deni-kamen between the pass Sliva and Bueva Fountain.
Once the fighters had secured the town and its surrounding
areas, the ProvisionalGovernment would proceed in taxing the
citizens with a temporary levy. Simultaneously, theyhad as their
goal to requisition food for the insurgents and the population of
the town and thesuburbs, requisition material for clothing and
sandals for insurgents and militarized citizens andas well as
material for their gear. While they had planned for the care of the
wounded and sickinsurgents, citizens and peasants, they would carry
on the maintenance of the law and orderaffording peace in the
conquered region while concurrently they would punish any
uncooperativecitizens. The chief provision of the plan was that the
Bulgarian sector not to be touched.
This was the "Provisional Government" of the free city:
President of the Republic > Nikola KarevChairman and Chief of
Justice Department > Dinu VangelSecretary and Chief of
Requisition Department > Georgi aeTreasurer and Chief of
Department of Finance > Teohar NekovMayor and Chief of Police
> Hristo P. KyurkievChief of Head of Food and production >
Dimitr SekulovChief of Health Department > Nikola Balyu
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7The Provisional Government relied on the help of members of the
local Committee(Krushevo) Grigor D. Boinov and Todor Pavlov, the
assistance of the merchant Geore Trankovand other members.
(Kirov-Majski 1935, 28-35; 48-50). The same day the revolutionary
courtpassed the death sentence on five traitors - one Bulgarian and
four Greeks.
In the late afternoon and early evening of Sunday, St. Elijah
Day of Configuration (July20/August 2, 1903) and during the
banquets that followed, eight simultaneous weddings in theGreek
community of Krushevo people enjoyed themselves eating, drinking
and some of themwere shooting in the air. While people enjoyed the
day they started to realize that the shots theyheard were not the
result of celebration for the weddings, but something else was has
happening;the brightness and noise of explosions meant something
more than just celebrating. Explosionson the roofs of houses and
blazes brightened the sky as people tried to extinguish the
fire.Members of the Committee of the IMRO had staged a revolt
against the Ottomans.
The bells of the town's three churches rang as Turkish
resistance was mopped up, and atdaybreak, only 60 Turkish troops
still offered resistance, surrounded in the barracks.
Governmentinstitutions were taken over and the people of the
Bulgarian side of the town were in a mood ofexultation. But not in
the Greek nor the Ottoman areas where people were taken out of
theirhouses and executed in cold blood, women raped and properties
looted and burned.
The wrath of the komitadjis was directed toward Greeks and Turks
regardless of genderor age. It seems that a few of the komitadjis
were Greeks, as well. Ditsias presents theconversation that he had
with Dimitri Guli in Greek to whom among other things, he said:
Mr. Guli, although you have been aberrant and have been waif of
the will of the Bulgarianfaction, which threatens your fatherland,
I cannot call you Bulgarian because you areOrthodox and Greek to
your bone marrow. Turn your eyes, Mr. Guli, and look at theabyss
that rests before the feet of the Greek community (Ditsias 1905,
45).
On July 22, 1903, the commander a socialist and schoolteacher
Nikola Karev led hisstaffers from the neighboring hills into the
town and held a meeting with about 60 notablemembers of the town
representing the three ethnic groups. They elected a commission of
sixmembers, two from each ethnic group Bulgarians, Greeks and
Romanian inclined Vlachs- whoin turn formed the new administration
of the town. The Serbs were not represented, not becauseof their
numbers, but because the Bulgarians could not consider the other
Slavophones asforeigners (Ballas 1962, 42).
In the meantime, on the July 23, an Ottoman regular unit along
with a band of babozukunsuccessfully attempted to recapture
Krushevo.
According to Kirov-Majski, on July 24, 1903, Tako P. Hristov, a
Bulgarianparliamentarian, took the original document to the Turkish
village of Adal and handed it to achild with the directive to give
it to Sinan, the mayor of the town. Hristov waited three full
hoursfor the answer. The letter was in fact an ultimatum and not a
proclamation of any type.
As soon as Sinan read the letter, he called the local hodja who
did what he was told to do.From the minaret of the mosque, the
hodja called together the entire male population of thevillage,
which had 40 households, and made the terms of the ultimatum known
to them. (Kirov-Majski 1935, 56). From there, Sinan sent the
ultimatum to the Turkish villages of Laani (180households) and
Debrite (250 households) which returned their response to Sinan.2
Sinan fullycooperated with Karevs instructions.
The letter-ultimatum served a dual purpose: first, to make clear
the purpose of the revolt,and second, to serve as a warning to the
Turkish population that any collaboration with theOttoman Army
would be punishable by death. (Kirov-Majski 1935, 56 57). Under
the
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8threatening conditions set by the Bulgarian brigands, all three
villages agreed not to assist theOttoman troops if and when they
would arrive (Kirov-Majski 1935, 57). Concerning the events ofthe
revolt, the Bulgarian komitadjis killed innocent Vlach speaking
Greeks, burned and pillagedonly houses belonging to Vlach Greeks
and in general destroyed only Vlach Greek properties(Naltsas 1958,
18-22).
The revolutionary Bulgarian Komitadjis, besides raping, killing,
and maiming people,destroyed and burned a lot of households, shops,
and government buildings. The BulgarianKomitadjis had any Ottoman
employee, soldier, and policeman captured and executed. TheOttoman
army that followed the Bulgarian revolutionaries finished whatever
the Bulgarians didnot have time to do.
The toll of destruction inflicted by the Bulgarian
revolutionaries and the incomingOttoman Army was 366 houses and 203
shops, all belonging to Vlach speaking Greeks. (Kirov-Majski 1935,
passim). In total, 46 innocent Greek- civilians were murdered with
many moremissing. Some were murdered outside the town as they tried
to escape and others less fortunatewere buried alive by their
captors. The names of the victims are enumerated in the
GreekConsuls dispatch. Kirov-Majski collaborates the names of the
victims (Kirov-Majski 1935, 87-88). Those victims who were killed
because of financial depletion had their money first stolen bythe
bandits and then killed or the money they could give to the bandits
was not enough to savetheir lives.
Hilmi Pasha, the governor of the Rumeli Elayet (governorate)
dispatched Bahtyar Pashawith an army of nine Infantry Battalions,
three Cavalry Companies, 18 artillery pieces (fourmountain and 14
field artillery guns) under the command of Bakhtiar Pasha in order
to crush therevolt of the Bulgarians.
The indiscriminate bombardment started immediately with dire
consequences for theGreek population. In fact, they looted and
burned the households of Greeks that the Bulgariansdid not have a
chance to burn and killed innocent civilians,3 Over and above the
regular forces,the babozuk,4 an irregular force, the Grey Wolves of
the time, came to Krushevo in order to aidthe ungodly work of the
Bulgarians and the Ottoman Army. (Naltsas 1958, 55; Greek
ConsulDispatch 1903/ No 604).
When Bahtyar Pasha reckoned that the threat was in fact a few
imported bandits and notthe Greek inhabitants of the village he
sent troops who trapped the revolutionary socialists on tothe point
of Mechkin Kamen, a few kilomenters from Krushevo. Three days later
the battle wasover. Bahtyar Pasha took no prisoners. He did
dishonor, humiliate and execute citizens who inhis opinion were
collaborators of the bandits.
The Vlach speaking Greeks of Krushevo had constituted a thriving
community whoseculture was of essence in the whole region. During a
symposium on Krushevo that took place inOhrid on May 27, 28 and 29,
1968, on the 65-year anniversary of the Ilinden Revolt,
MihailoApostoloski published a book entitled Ilinden 1903.
Apostoloski offers a folklore songcommemorating Krushevos
battle.
Fire burns in Krushevo, - In Krushevo, small Greece, Behind
Krushevos Bear Rock Pitu Guli and 6,000 young men threw themselves
to combat.
(Apostolski 1970, 599).
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9In an effort to erase the past and Macedonize everything, the
above song has now beenmodified to:
, , .' , . , , .
Fire burns in KrushevoIn Krushevo, thick fogblood flows in
Mechkin Kamen.hree chieftains fought there,A Turkish army of three
thousand.The first chieftain, Dame Gruev,The second chieftain, Pitu
Guli,and the third chieftain, Alebakov.
In that summer of 1903, a total of 22 villages were completely
destroyed and many moresuffered serious damage, leaving 40,000
people homeless. The bulk of the damage was to theGreek and
Vlach-speaking Greek communities in the areas around Florina,
Monastir andKastoria (Gounaris, n.d.).
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Conclusion
Despite the fact that the vast majority of the victims (and
their properties) were Vlach speakingGreeks (Ballas 1962, 37-66;
Naltsas 1958, 18-22; Greek Consul Dispatch 1903/ No 604), theFYROM
historiography has re-baptized the victims as Rumanian Vlachs,
Albanians, andMacedonians (Brown 2003, 17, 79, 81-82, 96, 225).
Somehow, these historiographers identifythe victims with the
Bulgarian villains as being the victims of the Ottoman Army. That
is not true.By all accounts outside the FYROM Slavs, the victims
were Vlach speaking Greeks and thevillains were both Bulgarian
communists and Ottoman Turks.
Looking at the names of the honorees in the Makedonium of the
FYROM, one cannotbut conclude that the government of the FYROM
honors the Bulgarian communist bandits, thugs,and criminal elements
ignoring the true victims, the Greek civilians who paid with their
lives,limb and properties. Even if some of the citizens of Krushevo
were victims of the Ottoman Army,the real perpetrators of the
crimes were the Bulgarians whose actions invited the wrath of
HilmiPasha at the expense of the Vlach speaking Greek
population.5
That the Macedonians as an ethnic group did not exist until
January 11, 1934 is not amatter of propaganda by the Serbs,
Bulgarians or Greeks as Skopje claims. The Great Powerswere very
cognizant of the fact and it is why Rostkovski, the Russian Consul
in Monastiri (Bitola)often said, "The Bulgarians think they are the
only people in the world with brains, and that allothers are fools.
Whom do they hope to deceive with their articles in Pravo and other
paperssaying that the Macedonians want Macedonia for the
Macedonians? We know very well whatthey want! (Krste P. Misirkov
1974, 44).
Ahmet Emin Yalman was born in Thessaloniki in 1888. He was one
of the mostprominent figures within Kemal Ataturks party (CUP)
throughout his life. He had graduatedfrom the German School; he
graduated from the Faculty of Law in Istanbul, and received
hisdoctorate degree at Columbia University of New York in
journalism and philosophy. He was thepublisher and editor of the
Istanbul paper Vatan. He wrote a political autobiography, titled
Turkeyin my Time covering the Atatrk era and later. Yet this man
covering his early life in Macedonia,brings in pages 9 and 11, as
inhabitants of Macedonia the Turks, Greeks, Bulgarians, Jews,
Serbs,Vlach speaking Greeks, and Albanians (Yalman 1956, 9, 11). He
also lists the komitadjis asBulgarian terrorists (Yalman 1956, 15).
Of course, that was long before Stalin cloned theBulgarians as
Macedonians.
The revolt failed because it lacked popular support despite
Skopjes assertions to thecontrary. The failure of the revolt meant
the decline of the original IMRO especially after thedeath of Goce
Delcev who was killed on May 4, 1903 before the rebellion, and
Damian Gruevwho was killed on December 23, 1906.
During the ten days of the Krusgevo republic, the
revolutionaries attempted to destory thecultural identity of
Krushevo and then kill all those whom they consider responsible for
thatcurrent culture, the Greeks.
It is only fair that Greece erects a monument commemorating the
innocent victims of theBulgarianWeb and the Ottoman Harpoon.
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1 An American English synonym for muleteer, "mule skinner", a
driver of mules.2 The location of the three villages is as follows:
Adal is located west of Krushevo about fourkilometers as the crow
flies, Lazhani about 12 kms northeast of Krushevo as the crow
flies, andDebrishte is located about 6 kms north of Lazhani as the
crow flies.3 The names of the victims, their destroyed properties,
their allegiance and other details arerecorded in the report of the
Greek Consul in Monastiri (Bitola).4 The Ottoman terminology of its
various army services is as follows: Nizamiye = Regular Armyand
nizami = a soldier of the regular army. Redif was a reservist,
mostly Albanians. Bashibozukwas a civilian performing the job of a
soldier; it was essentially an irregular soldier. They weresimilar
to the Greek (T.E.A.). lav was a second-class reservist,unruly
tending to have criminal behavior.5 Hilmi Pasha (Hseyin Hilmi Paa)
was descendant of an Islamized Greek family from Thermi(Sarlca)
Lesbos. He studied at the school of the Great Mosque of Lesbos and
besides speakingexcellent Greek, he also spoke flawless French for
which he took private lessons. He worked inthe Ottoman bureaucracy
as secretary, because of his education, rising slowly through the
ranksof the Ottoman bureaucracy. On December 2, 1902, he took over
the newly formed Office of
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Inspector General of the newly established Rumeli governorate
that included the vilayets ofSelnik (Thessaloniki), Manastir
(Bitola) and Kosova (Kosovo and Metohiya). He stayed at
thatposition six years with the task to prevent the activities of
the Bulgarian bands in Macedonia andestablish good governance. His
job was the implementation of the reforms that the Great Powershad
envisaged for the region and accepted at gun-point so to speak by
the Sultan (Source:SAM Trkiye Dyanet Vakf, Islm Aratmalar
Merkezi.
