Editing Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising (section)

==Ilinden Uprising==
[[File:Klisura ilinden.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Unified [[chetas]] during the capture of Kleisoura.]]
[[File:Ohrid Banner1.jpg|right|thumb|200px|The banner of the insurgents from [[Ohrid]] with [[Bulgarian flag]] on it and the inscription [[Свобода или смърть]] ( "Freedom or Death")]]
[[File:Krushevo voivodi 1903 IMARO.JPG|thumb|200px|right|The [[Forest Staff of the Krushevo Revolutionary Region|Kruševo headquarters]], among them are [[Nikola Karev]], [[Todor Hristov (officer)|Todor Hristov]] and [[Antinogen Hadzhov]] (second, fourth and fifth from right to left in the down row).]]
On July 28, in the Bitola revolutionary region, instructions and proclamations for the people were sent to the voivodes.<ref name="mm" /> The uprising began on August 2,<ref name="mq">{{cite book |title=The Macedonian Question: Culture, Historiography, Politics |date=2000 |pages=143, 150 |publisher=East European Monographs |editor=Victor Roudometof |isbn=9780880334518}}</ref> in the [[Manastir vilayet]].<ref name="nla" /><ref name="bulg">{{cite book |title=Bulgaria |isbn=9780198205142 |date=2007 |publisher=OUP Oxford |author=Richard J. Crampton |pages=167–168}}</ref> The uprising was chosen in the Manastir vilayet allegedly because it was located the farthest from [[Bulgaria]], attempting to showcase to the [[Great powers of Europe|Great Powers]] that the uprising was purely of a Macedonian character and phenomenon.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Perry|first=Duncan M.|date=1980|title=Death of a Russian Consul: Macedonia 1903|journal=Russian History|volume=7|issue=1|page=204|doi=10.1163/187633180x00139|issn=0094-288X|quote=The long-awaited revolt began at dusk on Sunday, 2 August 1903, Saint Elijah's Day{{snd}}or Ilinden. The insurrection was confined to Bitola Vilayet because, according to one source, it was farthest from Bulgaria, a factor designed to show the Great Powers that the revolt was purely a Macedonian phenomenon.}}</ref> Per one of the founders of IMARO – [[Petar Poparsov]], the idea to keep distance from Bulgaria, was because any suspicion of its interference could harm both sides: Bulgaria and the organization.<ref>Тодор Петров, Цочо Билярски, Вътрешната македоно-одринска революционна организация през погледа на нейните основатели; Военно издателство; София, 2002, {{ISBN|954-509-233-5}} стр. 205.</ref> The telegraph lines to Bitola were cut. The Bulgarians announced the beginning of the uprising by setting the haystacks of Muslim peasants on fire in the villages near Bitola. On the day of the uprising the town of [[Smilevo]] and became the headquarters. An attack on Resen failed.<ref name="va" /> That night and early the next morning, the town of [[Kruševo]] was attacked and captured by 800 rebels who were led by the locals [[Nikola Karev]] and [[Pitu Guli]].<ref name="mm" /><ref name="nla" /> The insurgents set the administrative offices on fire. 12 government officials were killed, along with Patriarchists who were accused of being Ottoman spies.<ref name="Palairet 2016" /> Most of the soldiers of the small garrison, consisting of almost 60 men, were captured or killed. After their victory, the insurgents raised the flag of IMARO, bearing a cross on one side and the other side had the slogan "[[Svoboda ili smart|Freedom or Death]]."<ref name="nla" /> On August 3, the telephone communications were cut in the kazas of Monastir, Ohrid, Prilep, Kastoria and Florina. The insurgents several times attempted to blow up the railroad which passed through Bitola and compelled the authorities to place a military guard along the railroad.<ref name="nla" /> On August 4, under the leadership of Karev, a local administration called ''[[Kruševo Republic]]'' had been set up. That same day and the next, Ottoman troops made unsuccessful attempts to retake Kruševo.<ref name="Khadzhiev1992" /><ref name="hp">{{cite book |title=Who are the Macedonians? |date=2000 |author=Hugh Poulton |isbn=9781850655343 |edition=2nd |pages=57, 147 |publisher=C. Hurst & Co.}}</ref> On the same day, several chetas, consisting of 400 men, led by four voivodes, captured the town of [[Kleisoura, Kastoria|Kleisoura]].<ref name="nla" />

The uprising was led by IMARO and SMAC. The number of insurgents has been estimated as 26,000.<ref>{{cite book |title=Battling Over the Balkans: Historiographical Questions and Controversies |date=2020 |publisher=Central European University Press |isbn=9789633863251 |editor1=Constantin Iordachi |editor2= John R. Lampe |page=157}}</ref> After the eruption of the uprising, IMARO's leaders sent a declaration to the Great Powers, writing:<ref name="nla" /> {{blockquote|Unpunished violence by the Muslims and systematic administrative persecutions have forced the Christians of Macedonia and the vilayet of Adrianople to take up arms for the purpose of resistance. They have resorted to this extreme action only after exhausting all peaceful means to call the intervention of Europe in accord with the treaties which regulate the condition of these populations.}} IMARO also appealed for the nomination of a Christian governor independent from the Ottoman Empire and a collective international control on a permanent basis.<ref name="va" /> Insurgents also burned houses and crops on 11 Ottoman estates.<ref>{{cite book |title=Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood: Passages to Nationhood in Greek Macedonia, 1870-1990 |isbn=9780226424996 |date=2009 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |author=Anastasia N. Karakasidou |page=101}}</ref> The uprising began with attacks on Turks and Albanians. In the kaza of Bitola, they burned the fields in villages like [[Ramna, North Macedonia|Ramna]], [[Lera, Bitola|Lera]], [[Bratin Dol]], etc. Attacks on Muslims also occurred in the kazas of Florina, Kastoria and Demir Hisar. Most of the Ottoman troops were stationed in the [[Kosovo vilayet]]. Many Muslims in the Manastir vilayet had to organize their self-defense. In the areas of Ohrid and Debar, Muslims from the villages that had been attacked in the beginning of the uprising counter-attacked. Turks and Albanians from the villages [[Dolenci, Bitola|Dolenci]], Lera and Ramna destroyed the village Šrpce.<ref name="va" />

During the uprising, IMARO won some popular support due to its promises to abolish peasant debts and redistribute land.<ref name="reg">{{cite book |title=Region, Regional Identity and Regionalism in Southeastern Europe: Part 1 |pages=134–139 |publisher=LIT Verlag |isbn=9783825813871 |editor1=Klaus Roth |editor2=Ulf Brunnbauer |date=2008}}</ref> Peasants took part in the uprising. Sometimes peasants harbored the insurgents or gave them food.<ref name="nla" /> Women supplied the insurgents with food and ammunition, while children carried messages.<ref name="mq" /> [[Aromanians]] (Vlachs) took an active part in the revolutionary struggle.<ref name="va" /> There were Bulgarian sentiments among the insurgents, who flew Bulgarian flags everywhere and sang Bulgarian marching songs.<ref name="hp" /><ref name="reg" /><ref name="iy" /> These acts resulted in the insurgents being associated with Bulgaria.<ref name="iy" /> Sultan [[Abdul Hamid II|Abdul Hamid]], after hearing about the uprising while he was in Istanbul, sent Omer Ruschi Pasha and 12 battalions into the Manastir vilayet to suppress it. The Ottoman authorities also tried to depict the uprising as a "marginal action of some Bulgarian terrorists" to the European public.<ref name="nla" /> On August 9, IMARO sent a memorandum to the representatives of the Great Powers in Sofia, describing the destruction by the Ottoman forces.<ref name="iky">{{cite book |title=Ottoman Passports: Security and Geographic Mobility, 1876-1908 |author=İlkay Yılmaz |year=2023 |isbn=9780815656937 |page=51 |publisher=Syracuse University Press}}</ref> On August 11, in [[Gevgelija]] in the Salonica vilayet, a bridge further away from the station was bombed, as well as that between Florina and Kinali.<ref name="nla" /> On August 12, following the [[Battle of Sliva]] and the [[Battle of Mečkin Kamen]], a force of 18,000 Ottoman soldiers recaptured and burned Kruševo.<ref name= "Palairet 2016"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mia.com.mk/default.aspx?mId=1&vId=66543986&lId=1&title=%d0%9c%d0%90%d0%9a%d0%95%d0%94%d0%9e%d0%9d%d0%98%d0%88%d0%90+-+%d0%92%d0%9d%d0%90%d0%a2%d0%a0%d0%95%d0%a8%d0%9d%d0%90+%d0%9f%d0%9e%d0%9b%d0%98%d0%a2%d0%98%d0%9a%d0%90|title=MIA|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120405114735/http://www.mia.com.mk/default.aspx?mId=1&vId=66543986&lId=1&title=%d0%9c%d0%90%d0%9a%d0%95%d0%94%d0%9e%d0%9d%d0%98%d0%88%d0%90+-+%d0%92%d0%9d%d0%90%d0%a2%d0%a0%d0%95%d0%a8%d0%9d%d0%90+%d0%9f%d0%9e%d0%9b%d0%98%d0%a2%d0%98%d0%9a%d0%90|archive-date=2012-04-05|url-status=dead|access-date=29 November 2014}}</ref> A Muslim militia from the area of [[Pribilci]] took part in the pillaging of Kruševo.<ref name="va" /> 117 people were killed, 150 women and girls were raped, 159 houses and 210 shops were burnt.<ref name="mm" />

On August 14, rebels under the leadership of [[Nikola Pushkarov]], attacked and derailed a military train near [[Skopje]].<ref name="Khadzhiev1992" /> At the same time, insurgents destroyed all the wooden bridges on the roads of [[Gradsko, North Macedonia|Gradsko]], [[Kičevo]], Kruševo and [[Veles, North Macedonia|Veles]]. The chetas then simultaneously attacked the military outposts and small garrisons across the vilayet of Manastir.<ref name="nla" /> Other regions involved in the uprising included [[Ohrid]], [[Giannitsa]], [[Gevgelija]], [[Tikveš]] and [[Kratovo, North Macedonia|Kratovo]]. In the [[Thessaloniki]] region, operations were much more limited and without much local involvement, due in part to disagreements between the factions of IMARO. There was also no uprising in the [[Prilep]] area, immediately to the east of Bitola.<ref name="Khadzhiev1992" /> [[Kostadina Rusinska|Kostadina Boyadzhieva]] and other female teachers from Ohrid opened a hospital during the uprising. The hospital was located in an old archbishopric building in Ohrid's Varoš district. The Ottoman authorities discovered the hospital and imprisoned the women for actions against the state. However, because of the lack of supporting evidence, the authorities released them after a brief imprisonment, after the women had endured beatings from the authorities.<ref name="wm">{{cite book |title=Women and the City, Women in the City: A Gendered Perspective on Ottoman Urban History |publisher=Berghahn Books |date=2014 |isbn=9781782384120 |pages=107, 119–120}}</ref> Greek diplomats tried discreetly assisting Ottoman efforts to suppress the rebellion.<ref name="va" />

The uprising spread to the adjacent vilayets of Kosovo, Thessaloniki and Adrianople (in Thrace).<ref name="rd">{{cite book |title=The A to Z of Bulgaria |author=Raymond Detrez |date=2010 |isbn=9780810872028 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |pages=216–217}}</ref> In the Kosovo vilayet, the uprising was confined to the southern part because IMARO's leaders did not want any confrontations with the local Albanians. IMARO's committees were also not as present in the vilayet as they were in Manastir.<ref name="nla" /> Contemporary reports of the British diplomats stationed in Thessaloniki, Bitola and Skopje to their Istanbul embassy described the participants of the uprising as "Bulgarian insurgents" closely linked to the [[Bulgarian Exarchate]] and that the uprising was the work of the "Bulgarian Macedonians". Alfred Rappoport, the Austrian consul general in Skopje, referred to "Macedonian cause" and "Macedonian fighters", arguing that they had the goal to achieve "Macedonian-Bulgarian autonomy", leading to an independent "Macedonian state", and that they were allied, not subordinated, to Bulgaria. However, he acknowledged that the majority of the leaders were "Bulgarians".<ref name="ah">{{cite book |title=The Macedonian Question and the Macedonians: A History |author=Alexis Heraclides |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780367218263 |date=2021 |pages=25–26, 44–46, 72, 92}}</ref>

===Krastovden Uprising===
Some historians describe the rebellion in the [[Serres revolutionary district]] as ''Krastovden Uprising'' ([[Holy Cross Day]] Uprising), because on September 14 the revolutionaries there also rebelled.<ref>''On September 14 (the Holy Cross Day – the Elevation of the Holy Cross), the Bulgarians in almost the entire Serres Revolutionary District (the town of Serres being its centre) also rebelled. Even though they did not proclaim a liberated territory in the region, historians describe their operations as an uprising in the full sense of the word, calling it the Holy Cross Day Uprising. On the eve of the insurrection, a voivodi’s council was summoned, during which the old opponents [[Yane Sandanski]] (leader of the Melnik Revolutionary District of the IMARO) and General [[Ivan Tsochev|Ivan Tsonchev]] (SMAC) were reconciled, shaking hands and embracing each other. The result of the truce was that “supremist” cheti, which were led by Colonel [[Anastas Yankov]] and Captain Yordan Stoyanov (1869–1910), took part in the battles together with Sandanski’s supporters.'' For more see: Peter Kardjilov (2020) The Cinematographic Activities of Charles Rider Noble and John Mackenzie in the Balkans (Volume One) Cambridge Scholars Publishing, p. 19, {{ISBN|1527550737}}.</ref><ref>''The rebel army was to divide into three: Yané, Doncho, Stoyanov and Darvingov were to go south to the Melnik District; Dimitŭr Anastasov, Mihail Chakov and Stoyan Mŭlchankov were to go to the Nevrokop area, while General Tsonchev, Colonel Yankov and Dimitŭr Stefanov were to go north to Razlog. Tsonchev and Stefanov were to act as the General Staff, with their H.Q. in Pirin above Bansko, and the rising was to begin on September 14 (old style)—Krŭstovden, the Feast of the Raising of the Cross.'' Mercia MacDermott, For freedom and perfection, The Life of Yané Sandansky. (Journeyman, London, 1988), p. 141.</ref><ref>Vanče Stojčev, 2004, Military History of Macedonia, Military Academy "General Mihailo Apostolski", vol. 1, p. 363.</ref> Rebel chetas active in the regions of [[Pirin Macedonia]] and [[Serres]], led by [[Yane Sandanski]], and chetas of the Supreme Committee led by [[Ivan Tsonchev]] and [[Anastas Yankov]], engaged in battles with the large Turkish forces. The fighting began in the [[Melnik, Bulgaria|Melnik]] region even before the planned date on the [[Feast of the Cross]] (Krastovden in Bulgarian, September 27) day and lasted until October 21, the local population was not involved as much as in other regions. In the [[Razlog Valley]] the population joined in the uprising.<ref name="Khadzhiev1992" />

In areas encompassing the uprising of 1903, Albanian villagers were in a situation of being either under threat from IMARO chetas or recruited by Ottoman authorities to end the uprising.<ref name="Brown267">{{cite book|last=Brown|first=Keith|title=The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Uncertainties of Nation|year=2003|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691099958|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=48NyoQdOWH0C&q=Kru%C5%A1evo+past+in+question|pages=267}} "The Uprising in 1903 had involved mainly Slav-speaking Christians with the assistance of the Vlah population. Albanian villagers had largely found themselves either under threat from VMRO četas or recruited into the Ottoman effort to crush the Uprising."</ref>