Aleksandar Turundzhev

Aleksandar Turundzhev
Aleksandar Turundzhev in 1900
Aleksandar Turundzhev in 1900
Born1872
Gorno Varbeni, Ottoman Empire
Died(1905-08-30)30 August 1905
Bitola, Ottoman Empire

Aleksandar Turundzhev (Bulgarian: Александър Турунджев; Macedonian: Александар Турунџев, romanized: Aleksandar Turundžev; 1872–1905) was a Bulgarian revolutionary from Ottoman Macedonia and leader (voyvoda) of the Lerin cheta of the Internal Macedonian Adrianople Revolutionary Organization.[1][2]

Life

Report of the hanging of the Bulgarian Turundzhev in the newspaper Pryaporets.

He was born in 1872 in the village of Gorno Varbeni in Monastir Vilayet (today Xino Nero in Amyntaio, Greece). He joined the IMARO while he was young as a rebel and took part in terrorist operations. Starting in 1902 he was under the command of the Bulgarian officer Georgi Papanchev [bg],[3] but after his death in May, by June 1903 he became a voyvoda of the cheta in Florina (Lerin).

Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising

In the time of the Ilinden Uprising he played a big part in the battles in the territory around Lerin. During all the years of illegal residence and movement, Turundzhev regularly surrounded the villages in Lerin and some in Lower Prespa and Bitola (Monastir).

After the decision to begin a rebellion on the Salonica Congress of IMARO and its confirmation on the Smilevo Congress, Turundzhev was given the task to organize his own village and prepare it for the uprising.

When finished with the military training of his fellow villagers of all ages, but mostly aged 20–25 years, Turundzhev with all of them, about 230 people, made a training, organized several Thalia (maneuver) with that in the improvised clashes between insurgents. During the Ilinden Uprising in Lerin was fulfilled the directive given on the Smilevo Congress for guerrilla mode of warfare. Turundzhev mobilized a total of 500 fighters, including 100 rebels from his native village.

The Serbian newspaper Politika, describing the death of the "Bulgarian vojvode".

Ottoman commanders drafted a detailed plan of the counteroffensive against Macedono-Bulgarian revolutionary, rebel units.[4] To stop the uprising, the vilayet authorities made a decision to accommodate a new unit in the village of Turundzhev on 14 November 1903.

The presence of the Ottoman units did not scare the IMRO members of Ekshi su, and it did not stop the organization's activity of Turundzhev, who began a reconstruction of the revolutionary network in his region.[5]

Death

The hanging of Turundzhev

On 1904, he was arrested by Turkish soldiers in the village of Aetos, Florina prefecture, in the home of Orthodox figure Nikolaos Vannis. Vannis set him up along with the village priest Alexis, in collaboration with Turkish authorities. The arrest was part of the Ottoman mass persecution of Exarchists after the uprising. The Patriarchists received the news of his arrest with relief.[6] He was incarcerated and sent to a Turkish court in Bitola, where he was sentenced to death. His punishment was done in public, on 29 August 1905, in front of Bitola's At-bazaar, he was hanged. According to the British Consul in Thessaloniki, Robert Graves, the same day several thousand citizens followed the coffin, which was covered with wreaths from the Bulgarian Church congregation.[7] His grave is in the cemeteries Saint Nedela in Bitola, North Macedonia.[8]

References

  1. ^ Николов, Борис Й. Вътрешна македоно-одринска революционна организация : Войводи и ръководители (1893-1934) : Биографично-библиографски справочник. София, Издателство „Звезди“, 2001. ISBN 954-9514-28-5. стр. 172.
  2. ^ Томислав Василев Дяков, Българският характер, Академично издателство "Проф. Марин Дринов", 2001, ISBN 9544306897, стр. 140.
  3. ^ Macedonian Encyclopedia (in Macedonian). MANU. 2009. p. 1519.
  4. ^ "Correspondence of Daily telegraph concerning the fights during the first days of Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising, Thessalonica, 13 August 1903". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
  5. ^ Николов, Борис Й. Вътрешна македоно-одринска революционна организация. Войводи и ръководители (1893-1934). Биографично-библиографски справочник, София, 2001., стр.172.
  6. ^ Jane K. Cowan, ed. (2000). Macedonia: The Politics of Identity and Difference. Pluto Press. p. 68. ISBN 9780745315898.
  7. ^ "Весник Его, бр. 280, 2 Јуни 2011 г. Битола ја познавам, во Битола никого не познавам! Автор: Здравко Божиновски". Archived from the original on 2020-11-24. Retrieved 2012-11-12.
  8. ^ Куманов, Милен. „Македония. Кратък исторически справочник“, София, 1993.