Mara Buneva | |
---|---|
Мара Бунева | |
Born | 1902 |
Died | January 13, 1928 |
Organization | IMRO |
Mara Buneva (Cyrillic : Мара Бунева; 1902 – January 13, 1928) was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary, [1] [2] a member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, who assassinated Velimir Prelić, a former Serbian Chetnik commander and Yugoslav legal official of the Skopje Oblast. She shot herself in the chest, and subsequently died in a hospital a few hours after the attack, while Prelić died a few days later.
Today, in general Buneva is considered a heroine in Bulgaria, [3] while in North Macedonia she is regarded as a controversial Bulgarophile. [4] [5] Her death is commemorated annually at the place where she shot herself on Vardar in Skopje.
Buneva was born in 1902 in Tetovo, then in the Kosovo Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire (present-day North Macedonia). Her family originates from the village of Setole. [6] Between 1915 and 1918, Vardar Macedonia which after the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) was turned into a Serbian province called South Serbia, was under Bulgarian occupation. Her father Nikola Bunev became then the mayor of Tetovo. At that time Buneva studied at the Skopje's Girls' High School.
In 1919 Buneva moved to Bulgaria. There she studied at the Sofia University, and married a Bulgarian officer. [7] In 1926 she divorced, and under the influence of her brother Boris, also a Bulgarian officer, Buneva joined the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). Later on direct order by the leader of the IMRO, Ivan Mihaylov, she was trained in Sofia for fulfilling of a future terrorist actions. In 1927 she went back to Yugoslavia and opened a shop in Skopje with a conspiratorial mission. [8]
There she managed to acquaint herself with Velimir Prelić, the legal adviser of the Serbian governor of the Skopje district. Prelić was instrumental in arrests of young local students, members of Macedonian Youth Secret Revolutionary Organization. [9] The organization was discovered by the authorities in May 1927 and its leaders were arrested. On a trial in Skopje against 20 of them, most were sentenced in December to long-term imprisonment. [10] As a result, IMRO ordered the execution of Prelić. [11] At the appointed time on January 13, 1928, Buneva intercepted him on his way to lunch and shot the official after which she committed suicide. [12] On the next day, the Serbian police buried Buneva's body at an unknown place. [13] Prelić also died in hospital a few days later and was buried in Skopje. [14]
Her act echoed as in Bulgaria and Europe, as well as among the Macedono-Bulgarian emigration in America. The first Macedonian Patriotic Organization ladies auxiliary branch was created in Toronto in 1928 and named after Mara Buneva. [15] In Bulgaria she was celebrated as a martyr for the freedom of Macedonia. Today, streets in Sofia and Blagoevgrad are named after her, as well as the Buneva Point in Antarctica has been named after Mara Buneva by the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute. [16] During the Second World War Bulgaria annexed Vardar Macedonia and on the place of the death of Mara Buneva a commemoration plate was mounted. [17] However, later it was destroyed by the new Yugoslav communist authorities.
Since the beginning of the 2000s, almost every year on the day of her death, Bulgarians from North Macedonia and Bulgaria, particularly VMRO-BND activists, have begun illegally [18] mounting new commemoration plates. [19] However, the plates are quickly removed or destroyed. [18] In January 2007 the celebration ended with a fight in Skopje. [20] Former Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubčo Georgievski claims that to be against Buneva means, not to have adequate knowledge of the history, and to defend the Serbian chauvinism. [21] According to Bulgarian officials, the repetitive incidents in Skopje are part of an ongoing anti-Bulgarian campaign there. [22]
Her memory has not been honored by the official authorities in Skopje. [23] However, some Macedonian nationalist associations in the 2010s have declared Buneva as an ethnic Macedonian heroine, claiming she was allegedly appropriated by the Bulgarians. [24] In 2015, even a commemorative plaque in Macedonian was placed on her deathplace by them. [25] Such a rendition of history is one example of misinterpretation of the historical past. [26] A wax figure of Buneva was set up in the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle opened in 2011 in Skopje. According to Macedonian historians, placing wax figure of such controversial figures like her, only causes further confusion among museum visitors. [27] On January 16, 2024, a film about her called The Avenger (2023) was screened at the Bulgarian Culture and Information Centre in Skopje. [3]
The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, was a secret revolutionary society founded in the Ottoman territories in Europe, that operated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Krste Petkov Misirkov was a philologist, journalist, historian and ethnographer from the region of Macedonia.
Ivan Mihaylov Gavrilov, known also by his short name as Vancho Mihaylov, was a Bulgarian revolutionary in interwar Macedonia, and the last leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO).
Hristo Tatarchev was a Macedonian Bulgarian doctor, revolutionary and one of the founders of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). Tatarchev authored several political journalistic works between the First and Second World War. He is considered an ethnic Macedonian in the Macedonian historiography.
Nikola Yanakiev Karev was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary. He was born in Kruševo and died in the village of Rajčani both today in North Macedonia. Karev was a local leader of what later became known as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). He was also a teacher in the Bulgarian school system in his native area, and a member of the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party. Today he is considered a hero in Bulgaria and in North Macedonia.
Vlado Chernozemski, was a Bulgarian revolutionary and assassin. Also known as "Vlado the Chauffeur", Chernozemski is considered a hero in Bulgaria today. The official historiography in North Macedonia regards him as a controversial Bulgarian.
Petar Poparsov or Petar Pop Arsov was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary, educator and one of the founders of the Internal Macedonian Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO). He is regarded as an ethnic Macedonian by the historiography in North Macedonia.
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The Independent State of Macedonia was a proposed puppet state of Nazi Germany during the Second World War in the territory of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia that had been occupied by the Kingdom of Bulgaria following the invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941.
Andon Lazov Yanev, nicknamed Kyoseto, was a Bulgarian revolutionary and a freedom fighter of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO). Although he identified as Bulgarian, according to the historiography in North Macedonia, he was an ethnic Macedonian.
Nikola Petkov Pushkarov (1874–1934) was the first Bulgarian soil researcher and founder of the soil science in Bulgaria. He was also an activist of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization.
Dimitar Gyuzelov was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary and philosopher. He is the father of Macedonian writer Bogomil Gyuzel and artist Liljana Gyuzelova, who between 1996 and 2006 worked on an art installation titled The Perpetual Return, dedicated to her father, his murder, and the stigma that the children of prominent Bulgarians who had been persecuted by the Yugoslav authorities after 1945 had to endure.
Petar (Pere) Naumov Toshev was a Bulgarian teacher and an activist of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization. In the historiography in North Macedonia he is considered an ethnic Macedonian revolutionary.
The Stracin–Kumanovo operation was an offensive operation conducted in 1944 by the Bulgarian Army against German forces in occupied Yugoslavia which culminated in the capture of Skopje in 1944. With the Bulgarian declaration of war on Germany on September 8, followed by Bulgarian withdrawal from the area, the German 1st Mountain Division moved north, occupied Skopje, and secured the strategic Belgrade–Nis–Salonika railroad line. On October 14, withdrawing from Greece, Army Group E faced Soviet and Bulgarian divisions advancing in Eastern Serbia and Vardar Macedonia; by November 2, the last German units left Northern Greece.
Spiro Kitinchev was a Macedonian Bulgarian writer, activist, and politician during the Second World War in Yugoslav Macedonia.
Velimir Prelić was a jurist and Serbian Chetnik during the Macedonian Struggle (1903-1912). He was a member of the Central Committee of the Serb Democratic League in 1908. After World War I, he became a Yugoslav legal advisor of the Skoplje County. He was shot in Skopje in 1928 by a Macedono-Bulgarian assassin Mara Buneva on 14 January 1928 in Skopje as punishment for his role in the Skopje student trial against activists of the Macedonian Youth Secret Revolutionary Organization.
The Foreign Representation was an organizational institution of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). It was established in Ottoman Thessaloniki at the Congress of the IMRO in 1896. Its aim was to keep in touch the Central Committee there with the foreign representatives in Sofia, through who to inform the Bulgarian authorities about the situation in the region of Macedonia and Adrianople Thrace. The office was responsible to build and manage the illegal border crossings from Bulgaria to the Ottoman Empire for the transfer of weapons, munitions, money and literature. Its task was also to maintain contacts with the Supreme Macedonian Committee and with the Bulgarian society, and to seek support for the Liberation movement. In addition to this activity, the foreign representatives were obliged to maintain contacts with the diplomatic representatives in Bulgaria and to inform them about the situation in Macedonia and Adrianople areas. This Institution was set up in Sofia, and acted in parallel with the Central Committee until 1924. The representatives were appointed by the CC. This institution was closed at the IMRO Congress in Simitli in 1928.
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Alekso Martulkov, born as Aleksandar Onchev Martulkov, was a publicist and one of the first socialist revolutionaries from the region of Macedonia. He was a member of the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party and later the People's Federative Party and the Bulgarian Communist Party. Simultaneously, he was a member of the IMRO and subsequently the IMRO (United). He advocated for the independence of Macedonia. Martulkov was also a member of the Bulgarian Parliament, as well as the Presidium of ASNOM and the parliament of SR Macedonia. He is considered a Macedonian in the Macedonian historiography and a Bulgarian in the Bulgarian historiography.
Due to the lack of original protocol documentation, and the fact its early organic statutes were not dated, the first statute of the clandestine Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) is uncertain and is a subject to dispute among researchers. The dispute also includes its first name and ethnic character, as well as the authenticity, dating, validity, and authorship of its supposed first statute. Certain contradictions and inconsistencies exist in the testimonies of the founding and other early members of the Organization, which further complicates the solution of the problem. It is not yet clear whether the earliest statutory documents of the Organization have been discovered. Its earliest basic documents discovered for now, became known to the historical community during 1960s.
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