Планирање српске четничке акције у старој Србији и Македонији 1897. године
Planning of the Serbian Chetnik Action in Old Serbia and Macedonia in 1897

Summary/Abstract: The apathy of the Ottoman Empire to carry out the reforms in its European provinces envisaged by the Treaty of Berlin provoked, in the last decade of the 19th century, a revolutionary attitude among Christian subjects of the Sublime Porte and patriotic circles in Turkey’s neighbouring Balkan countries, Greece and Bulgaria. In the very Ottoman Empire, the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (MRO) was founded in 1894, better known by its later name – the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), which strived to ensure autonomy for Macedonia through a revolution. In the same year, the Greek National Revolutionary Organization, Ethniki Etaireia, was formed in Greece. Its aim was to fight for the liberation of the Greek people under Turkish rule and ancient Greek territories, thus achieving the goal of the Megali Idea. In 1895, the Macedonian Committee was formed in Bulgaria, better known by its later name – the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC), whose aim was to make the autonomy of Macedonia possible. However, like IMRO, SMAC saw Macedonian autonomy as the first step towards a far-reaching goal – annexation of this area to Bulgaria. As soon as 1895, SMAC managed to transfer from Bulgaria a few bands to the territory of the Ottoman Empire with the intention of provoking an uprising among the local Christians. This attempt was unsuccessful, and the overall result of the SMAC campaign was the temporary capture of the town of Melnik, and a few conflicts with the Ottoman army and local Muslim peasants. Although the Committee’s action was unsuccessful, Bulgaria’s diplomacy benefited from it by using the threat of an uprising as leverage in further negotiations with the Ottoman Empire. In 1896, an uprising against the Ottoman authorities broke out among the Greeks in Crete. It opened a new chapter of the Eastern Question which evolved into a severe international crisis, escalating in April 1897 in the Greco-Turkish War. Throughout the whole 1896, and in the first few months of 1897, Ethniki Etaireia was forming bands in Greece and infiltrating them into Macedonia with the intention of provoking an uprising in this area. Up until the outbreak of the Greco-Turkish War, the number of Greek companies on the Macedonian frontier increased to thirty-four, counting up to one thousand men. Since the beginning of 1897, it became clear to the Serbian government that the Greco-Turkish conflict would inevitably lead to a war. Also, the prime minister of the Serbian government presumed that the Greeks would try to provoke an uprising in the southern part of Ottoman Macedonia. In case of such a scenario, it could be expected that SMAC would carry out the uprising in eastern Macedonia. Since they did not have a revolutionary committee, in case of a general uprising, Serbs would remain without any influence on the rebellious population, hence without the opportunity to expand their territory over the Ottoman border. Precisely for this reason did Serbian Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Đorđe Simić work in Belgrade in strict confidentiality on gathering outlaws from Old Serbia and Macedonia and forming bands that would be sent to the Ottoman Empire in case of outbreak of the uprising. Since it was clear by the end of May 1897 that Greece would lose the war and that an uprising in the Ottoman Empire would not happen, the Serbian Prime Minister dismissed all of the bands. One of the bands refused to be dismissed, so at the beginning of August 1897, it attempted to cross the Serbo-Turkish frontier despite the given orders and without any knowledge of the Serbian authorities. The Serbian Border Guard liquidated this band by mistake, being under the impression they were either robbers or smugglers.

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