GREATER SERBIA ARMED PROPAGANDA

GREATER SERBIA ARMED PROPAGANDA

After the Ilinden Uprising ended, the government of the Kingdom of Serbia actively engaged in the formation, financing and management of a Chetnik (Insurgent) organization, whose activities were entirely aimed at Macedonia. After the Serbian Chetnik Organization was formed it activated a new phase of propaganda through the Serbian government, not like the previous propaganda activities that were conducted through churches and schools. In a short period of time the Kingdom of Serbia created a well-organized Serbian Chetnik paramilitary organization whose activities were especially noticeable in places in Macedonia such as Kumanovo, Skopje, Palanka, Kratovo, Prilep, Brod and Kichevo Regions. The Serbian organization was less influential in other parts of Macedonia. This is how it was implemented to serve the special interests of the Kingdom of Serbia in Macedonia, which was in line with the conditions created before through the church and school propaganda machine. The Serbian Chetnik organization showed its greatest ferocity when it fought against the so-called “Bulgarian troops and Bulgarian-ism in Macedonia” because, according to Serbian political factors, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization was a “Bulgarian organization”. In other words the Serbian Chetnik Organization’s main goal was to fight against the Macedonian Internal Organization, while its war against the Ottoman authorities in Macedonia was a secondary goal. The Serbian Chetniks were particularly brutal against the Macedonian insurgents and villagers made sure to take extraordinary care to avoid them. There were many bloody clashes between the Serbian Chetniks and the Bulgarian supremacists, Sarafov’s forces, Greeks Andarts, as well as Macedonian liberation movement detachments belonging to the left. The Serbian Chetniks, along with all the others, inflicted a lot of damage on the Macedonian people. Macedonia was turned into a real bloody arena.

The Serbian government began to form the first Serbian Chetnik Detachments in 1904. At first, the Serbian government pretended that this was the action of “a private initiative put together by a few ardent Serbian nationalists”. On the contrary, behind this action stood the most responsible political circles of the Serbian royal government. The Serbian Chetnik organization in Macedonia was

centrally managed by the Serbian government. In this sense, the Serbian government also used Boris Sarafov for its purposes by giving him money. In return for receiving money, Sarafov gave the Serbian government information on how to infiltrate Macedonian territories. This is how the first Serbian Chetnik Detachment, led by Gligor Sokolovich, entered Macedonia. By doing so, Boris Sarafov grossly violated the principles of the Macedonian Internal Organization.

The Serbian Chetnik Detachments began to act more intensively after 1905, when they were given their final organizational form. In addition to establishing a Supreme Board, as the highest political governing body of the Serbian Chetnik Organization, a Main Board was also established in 1905. Both Boards were based in Belgrade and both operationally managed the Serbian Chetnik Organizations. The most directly connected and in charge of the Chetnik activities in Macedonia were the Main Board in Vranje and the Executive Board located near the Serbian-Ottoman border in Vranje vicinity. However, conflict and duplication soon emerged in the work of these boards. Because of that in December 1905 both boards were abolished. Only one was recreated in Vranje and renamed the Executive Board. The Executive Board took over all the functions previously held by the other Boards. In 1905, during the formation of the Executive Board, the Serbian Chetnik organization had 11 Detachments with a total of 62 Chetniks operating in Macedonia and 55 Chetniks who were temporarily on vacation in Vranje.

The Serbian Chetnik Organization was a secret paramilitary organization that followed a number of principles and a constitution which determined the scope of the work done by all people in the organization. The organization consisted of local boards, sub-boards and boards, formed in larger and smaller places in Serbia and Macedonia. Main boards in Macedonia existed in Skopje and Bitola; sub-boards in Kumanovo, Veles, Debar, Ohrid, Prilep, Kichevo, and Krushevo. Local boards existed in Porechie, Drimkol, as well as in the villages where boards and sub-boards existed. All these positions were occupied mainly by teachers, priests and other people who worked for the Greater Serbia school and church propaganda machine.

In January 1908, the Serbian Chetnik Organization was subordinated to the Serbian Consul General in Skopje. This was done “for the sake of unity in the service…” This also elevated the Serbian consuls in Skopje to far more significant and prominent levels compared to the Serbian consuls in Bitola and Solun. Direct operational management of the Chetnik Detachments was placed under the leadership of two headquarters: Headquarters for East Povardarje and Headquarters for West Povardarje. One leader led the Chetnik forces on the left and another on the right of the Vardar River.

The detachments were composed of Chetniks from various professions. They included students who were exiled, upper class high school students who were seduced to defend the “Serbian-ness of the South” and poor and miserable villagers who were looking to make extra money for themselves and their loved ones.

By national composition, the Serbian Chetnik Detachments were composed mostly of Serbians with some Macedonian migrant workers who worked in Serbia and who fell into the network of the Serbian Chetnik Organization. To a lesser extent, there were also renegades or members of the Macedonian Internal Organization who were expelled from the Organization for various reasons.

Funds raised from voluntary donors weren’t sufficient enough to keep the Serbian Chetnik Organization afloat. Most of the funding the Chetnik Organization received came from the Serbian government through secret means. Not once did the Serbian Chetnik Organization fall short of funds. These funds enabled the Chetnik organization to recruit 300 Chetniks who operated in Macedonia during the summer months. Included among their Chetnik leaders were Gligor Sokolovich, Iovan Babunski, Iovach Dovezenski, Vasile Trbich, Giorgi Skoplianche, Spasa Garda, Krsta Kovachevich, Tsane Markovich, Petko Ilich and Iovan Peshich.

The Serbian Chetnik Organization was an armed Detachment of the Serbian bourgeoisie which was justified as a supposed offspring of “the Serbians in Macedonia”, which didn’t correspond to any historical truth. After the 1908 Young Turk Revolution ended, Serbian Chetnik activity in Macedonia stopped.