Митрополитско питање 1907–1910. године
Metropolitan Question 1907–1910.

Appointing a Serb as Chorobishop of Debar and Veles Eparchy

Summary/Abstract: as of 1906, when the Metropolitan of Debar and Veles eparchy Greek polycarp resigned from his duty, Serbian government advocated strongly that the ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople, in the Debar and Veles eparchy, where Serbian villages presented majority, should appoint a Serb as Metropolitan, as it was achieved in the eparchy of raška and prizren (1896) and the ortodox eparchy of Skopje (1901–1903). this activity, owing to the energetic resistance of patriarchate, had several phases. the first, initial phase that took place from 1906–1907 ended unsuccessfully, as the patriarchate appointed again a Greek who was not fond of Serbs at all as Metropolitan. Further activities commencing as of the autumn of 1907 implied a phase during which efforts were made to appoint a Serb as at least Metropolitan’s assistant-Chorobishop. Chosen tactic simplied repudiation of the new Metropolitan and passive resistance of Serbian people against him until both, he and the patriarchate were, forced to fulfil the request having been made regarding the appointment of Serbian Chorobishop. owing to the fact that at that time an international reformative action of great powers was implemented in the so-called rumelian vilayets in the european part of turkey (thessaloniki, Bitola, Kosovo), Serbian Government activities were related to paying attention to the final objective of mentioned action- introducing peace and order in areas to be reformed. the new Metropolitan was jeopardizing these actions gravely by provoking and irritating his Serbian flock. It was the abolition of reformative actions following the introduction of constitutional order in turkey in July 1908, the crisis caused by the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by austro-Hungarian empire (october 1908–March 1909) as well as the counter-revolutionary rebellion in Constantinople ensuing right afterwards that postponed activities with regard to Veles–Debar question for almost a year. Bearing in mind the fact that passive resistance toward Greek Metropolitan did not yield expected results and it also complicated the carrying out of religious ceremonies and affairs, as it also made Serbian teachers and priests unprotected from turkish authorities’ pressures and terrorist Bulgarian propaganda, there was a dilemma amongst competent Serbian diplomats how and whether to accelerate resolving Veles–Debar question in agreement with youngturks. the opinion given by Constantinople minister was predominant. according to this opinion, efforts should be countinued in the old direction and the crisis existing within patriarchate should be used for the Serbian request to be fulfilled. this was eventually achieved in the spring of 1910. the patriarchate appointed Serbian hieromonk Varnava rosić as the Chorobishop of Debar and Veles eparchy in the first half of april 1910. Having in mind that the historic literature in this field is scarce, this paper has been, as the one that was related to the first phase of resolv ing Debar and Veles question 1906–1907 and published in Vardarski Zbornik Vol. 10, written on the basis of original and so far unused documents belonging to the Ministry of Foreign affairs of the rS (the said documents were published in the SaSa edition called “Documents on the Foreign Policy of the Kingdom of Serbia 1903–1914, Belgrade 2004–2012) as well as other unpublished documents belonging to the Ministry of Foreign affairs for the period october 1908–December 1909, placed within the archives of Serbia in Belgrade.

• Details
• Contents