ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-gb"> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0"> <meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <title>M. MacDermott - Yane Sandansky - 20</title> <style> <!-- p.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-autospace:none; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; margin-left:0pt; margin-right:0pt; margin-top:0pt} --> </style> </head> <body> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white" align="left"> <b> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="4">FOR FREEDOM AND PERFECTION. </font></span><i> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="4">The Life of Yané Sandansky</font></span></i></b><font size="4"><br> <b>Mercia MacDermott </b></span></font> </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black; font-weight: 700"> 20. PLUS ÇA CHANGE, PLUS C EST LE MÊME</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> To the astonishment of many, the  millennium proved more durable than the  crowded hours predicted by the correspondent of the </span><i> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Manchester Guardian. </span></i> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> The days and the weeks went by, and still there was no sign of the <i>Hürriyet </i>running out of steam. A spirit of concord, optimism and tolerance continued to prevail, for the people of all nationalities had had more than their fill of violence, fear and secrecy, and they were still enchanted by their newly-found freedom of speech, by the absence of spies, by the novelty of it all. All kinds of unheard-of things continued to happen. Telephones were introduced into Constantionple. The public were allowed to watch the Sultan s <i>selamlik</i> a weekly procession from the Yildiz Palace to the mosque where he worshipped. Muslim women were taking their first steps towards emancipation by appearing on the streets less closely veiled, and, in Salonika, with totally uncovered faces. A girls school was opened at Kandilli on the Bosphorus, and the Sultan even received some European ladies. The weak, hitherto unorganized Turkish proletariat began to stir, and the workers in several industries came out on strike for higher wages and shorter hours. Having won, on average, thirty-percent increases, they proceeded to form the first trade unions in the Ottoman Empire. <a href="#1.">[1]</a> New, revolutionary Turkish plays, which previously would have been banned by the censor, were performed to enthusiastic audiences. One such play, entitled <i>How It Came About, </i>contained complimentary references to the <i>cheti </i>who had fought for liberty, and ended with the marriage of the Turkish hero to a Greek girl, who changed her name from Victoria to Hope. Their love affair was said to be the  symbol of the union of all the Ottoman people ! Charles Roden</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="1."><font size="2">1.</font></a></b><font size="2"> During August and September 1908, there were some thirty strikes in Salonika, Constantinople, Smyrna, Bursa, Trapezond, and other towns. The most important strike was that of the railway-workers. In Constantinople those on strike included the railmen, tobacco-workers, stevedores, bakers, printers and glassworkers. The strike movement was strongest in Salonika, where the proletariat numbered some 30,000, and there were strikes by railway and tobacco workers, salesmen in trading firms, brick-makers, tanners, employees in the sugar industry, etc. The first unions to be formed were those of the compositors, port-workers, tram and railway workers. The organized workers movements were strongest in Macedonia, where unions were formed in Salonika, Skopje, Bitolya, Series, Drama, Kavalla, Kumanovo, Shtip, etc. See: V.I. Shpilkova, <i>Mladoturetskaya Revolyutsia 19O8-1909, </i>Moscow 1977, pp. 159-161.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">358</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Buxton, <a href="#2.">[2]</a> who watched a performance of the play, mentions that it was attended not only by Enver Bey, but also by various Ottoman princes, who had been closely confined from infancy, according to the traditional practice, and who were now also enjoying a little freedom.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Yet, in the midst of all these miracles of reconciliation and emancipation, there were certain  elements of hate which remained immune to the magic of the <i>Hürriyet. </i>The strife between the warring factions of the Organization continued unabated, while the Bulgarian Government s antipathy towards the <i> Serchani </i>was increased rather than diminished by the unexpected turn of events. Shortly before the <i>Hürriyet, </i>the Bulgarian Government had undertaken a massive campaign aimed at preventing Yané from entering or leaving the Principality. In an article, dated June 11, 1908, and headed <i> Terror in Dupnitsa, Kambama </i>reported Government efforts to root out Yané s supporters in the frontier area: the District police chief, all police officers and about thirty constables had been dismissed; the heads of all telegraph offices in Dupnitsa, Kocherinovo, Kyustendil and Bosilegrad had been transferred, and about a hundred people had been arrested. More sackings were expected, and a prominent citizen of Dupnitsa, Krum Chaprashikov, had resigned from the ruling Democratic Party as a sign of protest. On June 21, 1908, <i> Kambana </i>printed a letter complaining of Government interference in the affairs of the Rila Monastery: the elected abbot had been replaced, and soldiers commanded by Lt Nastev had surrounded the Monastery and were preventing worshippers and tourists from entering.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> The full portent of these measures is made clear in a confidential report sent to Prince Ferdinand by his private secretary Stefan Chaprashikov, in which he describes the recent visit of Takev, the Minister of the Interior, to the Rila frontier zone:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black">  According to Mr Takev, the chief aim of the administration in those parts is to guard the frontier hermetically, so to speak, from the possible entry into Bulgaria of the bandit Sandansky the Bane of Bulgaria, as the Minister calls him and utterly to destroy all his nests and concealers along the frontier. To achieve this aim, Mr Takev has transferred and replaced all, absolutely all, the Government employees in the above places, whether in the administration, the schools, finance, or in the posts and telegraphs. Those employees who were formerly there he has scattered throughout northern Bulgaria, and, in their place, he has appointed ones from northern or southern Bulgaria. Thus, all the policemen in Dupnitsa and the village of Rila are now people from Poibrene, in the Panagyurishté district, and other neighbouring villages. Similarly with the police-officers. The district chief of Police in Dupnitsa is an extremely resolute, energetic and skilful person, who will fulfil without hesitation or pause the task entrusted to him by the Minister namely, the annihilation of Sandansky.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> &nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="2."><font size="2">2.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Charles Roden Buxton, </font> </span><i> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">Turkey in Revolution, </font> </span></i> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">pp. 75-84.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">359</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Mr Takev has given strict, categorical orders and instructions in this vein to all centres in the towns, villages and remote frontier posts and has warned his organs that, for the slightest dereliction, they will not only be dismissed, but also handed over to the courts.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black">  Along these lines, the Minister requested the Holy Synod, while he was still in the Monastery, to remove from the Rila Cloister the monks Parteni and Ignati, two inveterate supporters of Sandansky. The Holy Synod refused, but Mr Takev will take other measures against them to have them removed. Mr Takev closed the most important nest of the Pirin cut-throat-bandit the tavern at the Rila Monastery by withdrawing, through the Ministry of Finances, the licence of its landlord, Ivan Katsarov, whom he obliged to sell his goods and leave the Monastery within ten days. <a href="#3.">[3]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Seldom have such drastic measures been taken by a peace-time government against one single individual. They seemed to bear out the truth of one of Yané s favourite sayings:  All the dogs which bark at me go mad. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Yané himself unlike the uprooted civil servants was little inconvenienced by the Minister s campaign against him. The advent of the <i>Hürriyet </i>meant that it was no longer necessary for him to steal across the border into the Principality: no guns were needed, literature could be freely imported, and he was able to work openly, both in Salonika and in his own Pirin  kingdom . The new situation was in no way to the liking of the Bulgarian Government. The fact that Yané had suddenly become an important factor in Turkey, feted and fussed over by all, was in itself enough to drive Ferdinand s ministers into a frenzy, but, in addition, considerations far greater than the fate of the  Pirin cut-throat-bandit were now involved.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Yané s reference in the <i>Manifesto </i>to  criminal agitation on the part of the  official powers in Bulgaria was not an expression of spite or prejudice, but a very real warning, based on an accurate forecast of the attitude which those  official powers would take in private, if not in public towards the revolution in Turkey. The Young Turks victory had been warmly welcomed almost everywhere in Europe, except in Austro-Hungary and Germany, whose plans to extend their political and economic influence eastwards had led them to support the old order in Turkey. <a href="#4.">[4]</a> Chauvinist circles in the small Balkan states were likewise disappointed by the changes. The Young Turk victory had deprived the governing Bulgarian bourgeoisie of any excuse for the future war against Turkey which was central to its plans, but public opinion in the Bulgarian Principality was undoubtedly on the side of the Young Turks. Both the Narrow Socialists and the Agrarians in their respective organs <i>Rabotnichesky Vestnik </i>and <i> Zemedelsko Zname</i> gave<i> </i>an enthusiastic welcome</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="3."><font size="2">3.</font></a></b><font size="2"> TDIA, f. 3, op. 8, a.e. 1201. (The Archive of His Majesty the Tsar), pp. 238-239. Report dated 8.VIII.1908.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="4."><font size="2">4.</font></a></b><font size="2"> The German Social-Democrats, however, gave their support to the Young Turks.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">360</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> to the new regime, while the conservative opposition newspaper <i>Mir </i>also advocated a policy of close understanding and co-operation with Turkey. The Government press, however, together with that of the Right Wing of the Organization, greeted the change with initial silence and reserve, which later developed into more or less open hostility. The true nature of the Bulgarian Government s attitude was eloquently revealed in the reports sent by the Foreign Minister, General Paprikov, to Prince Ferdinand, who was then staying on one of his estates in Hungary. One such report included the following passage:  While not undertaking any action which might indicate that we are preparing to interfere in the internal affairs of Turkey, we must constantly be on the alert and ready to act decisively, as soon as the moment arrives. The normal development of matters in Turkey is not in our interests. The establishment and consolidation of the constitutional regime in Turkey is not in our interests. We cannot and should not hamper it directly. Here the Macedonians and Young Turks will help us. <a href="#5.">[5]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> That the leaders of the Right Wing of the Organization were willing to assist the Bulgarian Government in its policy is obvious from the report sent to the Foreign Ministry by the Commercial Consul in Salonika, with whom they were in constant touch. For example, after a meeting with Petko Penchev and Pavel Hristov, the Consul communicated to Paprikov the following request for instructions:  We very much want to know, they ask, whether the Prince s Government sincerely approves of the recent events in Turkey. . . whether it desires the triumph of the Young Turk Party in Turkey, given that the national rights of the Bulgarian population in the vilayets are guaranteed, or whether, on the other hand, it would regard with satisfaction the failure of what has hitherto been achieved and the discrediting of the new-born constitutional regime. . . If we receive speedy instructions from Sofia regarding these matters, we are ready to comply with them, if not completely, than at least as far as we are able. <a href="#6.">[6]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Because the Young Turks regarded the Right Wing as  agents of the Bulgarian Prince, and tireless fighters for the annexation of Macedonia by Bulgaria  and, indeed, Petko Penchev declared at the time that  we have been, and will continue to be, Bulgarian nationalists  the Right Wing deemed it politic to attempt a reconciliation with Yané, who was in good odour with the Young Turks. They proposed to make certain conditions, and, if Yané accepted them, he would be  forgiven and allowed back into the Organization. If not, they would try to persuade the Young Turks not to enter into negotiations with him as a person  expelled from the Organization. <a href="#7.">[7]</a> Naturally, in his position of strength, and deeply</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="5."><font size="2">5.</font></a></b><font size="2"> TDIA, f. 3, op. 8, a.e. 1216, pp. 92-94. Report dated 25.VIII.1908. Quoted by Tushé Vlahov in <i>Kriza v bmlgaro-turskite otnoshenia 1895-1908, </i>p. 161.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="6."><font size="2">6.</font></a></b><font size="2"> TDIA, f. 3, op. 8, a.e. 1256, pp. 16-17. Quoted by Vlahov, Opus cit., p. 160.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="7."><font size="2">7.</font></a></b><font size="2"> TDIA, f. 3, op. 8, a.e. 1256, pp. 15-17. See also TDIA, f. 334, op. 1, a.e. 293, pp. 22-23. Report dated 17.VII.1908.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">361</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> convinced that the <i>Serchani, </i>and not the Right Wing, represented the true Organization, Yané was totally unimpressed by offers of  forgiveness , and attempts to prevent him from negotiating with the Young Turks.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> No documents have yet come to light to show what direct instructions the Bulgarian Government sent in answer to the Right Wing s plea. Efforts were, however, made on the part of the Government to undermine the positions of the Left by the speedy dispatch to Macedonia of  Macedonian intellectuals  professors, lawyers, teachers, doctors, craftsmen, etc. who were not Socialists or extremists in any way, and whose task would be  in concert with the Internal Organization (by which was meant the Right Wing M.M.) to create in Macedonia a strong constitutional party, to unite in one whole the Macedonian Bulgarian population, to attempt to take the Serres and Strumitsa Regions out of the hands of Sandansky, and to strengthen still further the nationalist mood which prevails there. Lists had been drawn up of suitable candidates for the job, but the Minister complains that half of them did not want to go because  they are better off in Bulgaria . <a href="#8.">[8]</a> According to reports sent to the Prince by Stefan Chaprashikov, 500,000 <i>leva </i>had been allocated for the sending of people  to work in Macedonia in line with our state policy . <a href="#9.">[9]</a> Like Paprikov, Chaprashikov complains of the reluctance of suitable persons to go to Macedonia. Yané is said to have called thirty or forty Socialists from Bulgaria, who will take up posts in Macedonia,  while the people of the Internal Organization (i.e. the Right Wing M.M.) continue to saunter about the streets and cafés in Sofia . <a href="#10.">[10]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Among those who did return were the renegade <i>Serchani </i>Chavdara and Zapryanov, who, according to a report sent by the Serres Commercial Consul to General Paprikov, arrived in Serres on August 10, 1908 and set off for Drama with a teacher named Karadzhov, who was a relative by marriage of Father Madzharov, Chairman of the Bulgarian community in Serres. Their intention was to take over Panitsa s area, and take vengeance for Daev s death. <a href="#11.">[11]</a> Another two opponents of the <i>Serchani,</i> Petmr Mmlchankov and Stoyan Filipov, were busy inciting the population of the Nevrokop area against Yané. According to the Consul,  the final liberation of the population in those parts would only be a matter of days, were it not for serious obstacles of a dual nature . These, he wrote, were the Young Turks support for Yané, and the lack of backing and encouragement for  persons who work for the triumph of the good cause&quot;. In connection with this, the Consul mentions the refusal of the Exarch to appoint Filipov as a teacher in Macedonia, and, after referring to the high</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="8."><font size="2">8. </font></a></b><font size="2">See reports from Paprikov to Ferdinand, dated July 25 and August 6, 1908. TDIA, f. 3, op. 8, a.e. 1216, pp. 98, 109-110. Quoted Vlahov, Opus cit., pp. 162-3.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="9."><font size="2">9.</font></a></b><font size="2"> TDIA, f. 3, op. 8, a.e. 1201, p. 214 (report dated 10.VIII.1908) and pp. 222-223 (report dated 23.VIII.1908).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="10."><font size="2">10.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Ibid., pp. 227-228 (report dated 28.VIII.1908).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="11."><font size="2">11.</font></a></b><font size="2"> TDIA, f. 334, op. 1, a.e. 303, p. 82.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">362</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> hopes which Paprikov had of Filipov and Mmlchankov, he complains that  the agitators of the Internal Organization who are trying to break the power of Sandansky s assistants in the Serres and Drama districts do not always possess the necessary moral authority, intellectual qualities, firmness and constancy which are essential for this difficult task . <a href="#12.">[12]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Another of those sent to combat the influence of the Left was Simeon Radev, whose newspaper, <i>Vercherna Poshta, </i>had long been most vociferous in its attacks on the <i>Serchani. </i>Radev was dispatched by the National-Liberal leader, Nikola Genadiev, who reported to Prince Ferdinand as follows:  The revolution in Turkey is creating a new situation in which new methods of action must be adopted. First and foremost, it is necessary to have accurate information and to take measures, on the one hand, against the traitors and people-without-a-fatherland around Sandansky and, on the other, to protect the Internal Organization from aberrations. For this purpose, I sent Mr Simeon Radev to Salonika, since he knows Turkish and is best equipped both to investigate the situation and to exert a beneficial influence on the Macedonian activists. Mr Radev is a convinced patriot and serves the ideas which guide your Royal Highness with the same enthusiasm as we do, and that is why I deprived myself of his services here. . . If I may be allowed most humbly to express an opinion, I would mention that people like Mr Radev, well grounded in Bulgarian politics and free from dangerous Utopias, can be very useful to the national cause. This is why I trust that the initiative taken by the two of us will not meet with the disapproval of the Sovereign. <a href="#13.">[13]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Simeon Radev was soon sending back reports of his observations and activities in Salonika, and, in particular, of his efforts to discredit Yané in the eyes of one and all, including the Young Turks.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black">  My greatest efforts hitherto, he wrote in a letter dated August 28, 1908,  have been to render Sandansky powerless. <a href="#14.">[14]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Genadiev passed Radev s reports on to the Prince, in whose private archive they are preserved. One of the reports reads thus:  Sandansky s people present me here as a person sent by the Prince with a mission. Enver-Bey asked me the other evening: &quot;Is it true that Prince Ferdinand is something like Abdul Hamid?&quot; and he awaited my answer with great curiosity. I replied: &quot;Prince Ferdinand is a very wise man, who has performed great services to Bulgaria.&quot; He did not say anything, but he did not like it. <a href="#15.">[15]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Among Radev s suggestions for dealing with Yané was that the Bulgarian Government should ask for the extradition of those involved in the murder of Garvanov and Sarafov:  I know very well that the Turks will not grant</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="12."><font size="2">12.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Report of the Bulgarian Commercial Consul in Series to Paprikov, dated 28.VIII. 1908. TDIA, f. 334, op. 1, a.e. 303, pp. 99-100.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="13."><font size="2">13.</font></a></b><font size="2"> TDIA, f. 3, op. 8, a.e. 1213, p. 41. Report dated 11.VIII.1908.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="14."><font size="2">14.</font></a></b><font size="2"> TDIA, f. 3, op. 8, a.e. 1213, p. 85b.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="15."><font size="2">15.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Ibid., p. 85v.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">363</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> it, but it will have the following results: in the first place we will have the precedent of constitutional Turkey having refused to hand over criminals, and then, after such a move on the part of Bulgaria, the Young Turks will be embarrassed by Sandansky and will surely stop protecting him so openly. <a href="#16.">[16]</a> He also suggested that, should the Turks refuse to extradite Yané, Bulgaria could approach the International Court at The Hague. <a href="#17.">[17]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Panitsa and Stoyu Hadzhiev were also favourite targets for calumny. The reports of the Bulgarian Commercial Consul in Serres to Paprikov, for example, are full of serious allegations against both of them, <a href="#18.">[18]</a> and Simeon Radev was not slow to add his voice to the chorus which was calling them  mad dogs ,  Sandanist satraps ,  bandits ,  wild beasts and so forth. Things reached a climax when three people were killed by Panitsa s men in the village of Skrizhovo during August 1908, and several others fled to Salonika with horrific tales of terror in the Drama District. In order to establish the truth, <i>Kambama </i>sent a special correspondent, T. Belchev, to investigate the accusations against Panitsa, which included forcible collection of taxes, agitation against the Exarchate, Socialist propaganda, persecution of all who criticized him, the exclusion of agitators from other factions, the banning of Bulgarian newspapers, and death sentences on those who had fled. In addition, the correspondent was to investigate the attitude of the population towards Panitsa and the reasons for the killings in Skrizhovo. Belchev s findings were reported in a series of ten detailed articles, which were published in <i>Kambana </i>during September 1908. <a href="#19.">[19]</a> Belchev found all the accusations unfounded, with the exception of the refusal to admit agitators from other factions, but, in his opinion, after the publication of the <i>Serchani s Programme, </i>such agitators namely, Chavdara, Zankov and Zapryanov could not come with anything new, but only for personal power struggles with the existing leadership. Moreover, he found that Chavdara was not liked in the area, for a number of reasons, and that the other two, while possessing certain positive qualities, were said to drink too much. Panitsa, on the other hand, appeared to be universally loved and respected as a completely altruistic and honest <i>voivoda, </i>who travelled alone, or with two companions at the most, and was therefore incapable of terrorizing an armed population. Belchev s most important discovery was that the man who had made most of the accusations against Panitsa a teacher who was a former member of the District Committee had embezzled Organization money, including funds set aside to help members imprisoned in Salonika. For these and</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="16."><font size="2">16.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Ibid., p. 91.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="17."><font size="2">17.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Ibid., p. 91a.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="18."><font size="2">18.</font></a></b><font size="2"> TDIA, f. 332, op. 1, a.e. 25, pp. 164-178; f. 334. op. 1, a.e. 303, pp. 90, 104-5, 124, 125, 153; f. 332. op. 1, a.e. 28, p. 53.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="19."><font size="2">19.</font></a></b><font size="2"> <i>Kambana, </i>No 321, 11.IX; No 322, 12.IX; No 323, 13.IX; No 325, 16.IX; No 326, 17.IX; No 328, 19.IX; No 330, 21.IX; No 332, 23.IX; No 335, 26.IX; No 336, 27.IX.1908.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">364</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> other crimes, including fornication and betrayal, he had been sentenced to death by the District Committee before the Young Turk Revolution, but he had managed to hide and had escaped to Salonika, where, in concert with similar fugitives, he had sought to conceal his own crimes by accusing honest men. One of those who was actually killed in Skrizhovo was a man who had also been sentenced to death by the District Committee for various crimes, including taking bribes from the Greeks to betray the local <i>cheta </i>to the Turks. The other dead were two brothers who had agitated against the Organization. Panitsa had not really intended that they should be killed, but the local people had wanted to get rid of them, and when they pressed Panitsa for his agreement, he had told them to deal with the matter as they thought fit.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Belchev found no evidence of agitation against the Exarchate, or against Bulgaria. On the contrary, he found that the people loved Bulgaria, which had given them so many <i>voivodi </i>(including Panitsa). They did not, however, consider reunification with the Principality to be an absolute necessity, but would be satisfied with good conditions, and their own schools and churches, within the Turkish Empire. Belchev found that, while Panitsa and his comrades spoke against the Bulgarian Government, they always made a distinction between it and the Bulgarian people, who helped them in their fight for freedom. Bulgarian newspapers, including Simeon Radev s <i>Vecherna Poshta, </i>were received in the villages, but in one place, Kobalishte, the people had refused to accept <i>Vecherna Poshta </i>and <i>Nezavisimost </i>on the grounds that,  they wrote many untruths about their affairs . <a href="#20.">[20]</a> Socialism as such was not being preached, and many of the peasants whom Belchev questioned did not even know what the word meant. Panitsa frankly admitted that he himself was a Socialist by persuasion, but  not of the type who thinks that he must everywhere and always propagate his Socialist views. I realized that if a man wants to be useful and dedicated to his cause here, then, for the time being, he cannot undertake any Socialist activity. In order to fight for freedom with success, we here have always understood that we must work as nationalists, and, as Bulgarians, we must organize and raise the Bulgarian element the most suitable for organization and struggle. But, at the same time, we have not been chauvinists. We have striven to smooth out national enmities and to win other nationalities for the Organization. But it has all been in vain. Here, too, the Greeks are incorrigible chauvinists and fight, not for freedom, but against us. I have spoken against the beys, the owners of <i>chifliks, </i>and the big <i> chorbadzhii, </i>who live on the backs of the people and are the</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="20."><font size="2">20.</font></a></b><font size="2"> <i>Kambana, </i>No 326, 17.IX.1908. An example of the kind of reporting to which the peasants objected is the account a whole column in length of how Panitsa and his wife were captured by peasants near the village of Zilyahovo, lynched, chopped in pieces, and buried. (See <i>Vecherna Poshta, </i> 1.XII.1908.) At the time Panitsa was alive, well and in one piece, in Salonika, and he was much chaffed about the report by his colleagues on the newspaper <i> Edinstvo </i>(see <i>Edinstvo, </i>No 19, 10.XII.1908).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">365</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> enemies of freedom. That s the Socialism which I have been propagating. <a href="#21.">[21]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> One of the main tasks which Belchev had set himself was to establish the attitude of the population towards the Organization, especially in the new situation created by the Young Turk Revolution. The ordinary people whom he met were unanimous in their conviction that the Organization must continue to exist. What little  opposition he encountered in the District came mainly from the richer elements. Belchev noted that the Organization in the Drama District was still collecting  taxes for its funds, but not everywhere, not regularly, and not from the very poor. Even before Belchev had left for the Drama District, <i> Kambana </i>had reported an incident involving an Armenian cheese merchant, who came to the Hotel Angleterre to complain to Yané about the 100 <i>liri </i>which he paid annually to the Organization. The merchant said that cheese production had fallen, and that, in view of the new regime, he did not want to pay. Yané replied:  The Organization will exist until the Constitution is fully in force. The Organization has its own statues and it will not deviate from them. You will pay the tax according to the rules. If the tax has been fixed higher than it should be in view of the amount of milk used for the cheese, make an application for the injustice to be corrected. <a href="#22.">[22]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> This collection of  taxes was also a subject for criticism and complaint in the consuls reports. Logically there could be no possible objection to the  taxes : the Bulgarian Establishment disliked the Young Turks and prayed for their downfall, and therefore any practices which strengthened the independent power of the Bulgarian population in Macedonia should have found favour in its sight. The snag was that the collection of the  taxes also strengthened Yané s power and independence, and was therefore unacceptable to the Establishment, regardless of what benefits his leadership might bring to the population. The Serres <i>Programme, </i>for example, with its explicit demands for a truly democratic Parliament, land reform, labour legislation, universal free primary education in the pupils mother tongue, etc., was greeted by the Bulgarian Foreign Minister, not with praise and admiration, but with wrath and derision. In a letter to his Commercial Consul in Salonika, dated August 8,1908, General Paprikov wrote of the <i>Serchani:  </i>I avoid describing this group and its activity, not only because it is well known to all, but because it is beneath all description. Nevertheless, for the common good, we have to make political use of the whole senseless and pernicious activity of this group. Although the <i>Serchani </i>were trying to gain the confidence of the Young Turks, Paprikov considered that  their principles and doctrines, and the manner in which they propagate them, are not only impracticable in any country whatsoever, least of all Turkey, but are also totally at variance with the aims pursued by the Young Turks themselves. Above all, Sandansky and his</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="21."><font size="2">21.</font></a></b><font size="2"> <i>Kambana, </i>No 325, 16.IX.1908.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="22."><font size="2">22.</font></a></b><font size="2"> <i>Kambana, </i>No 279, 30.VII.1908.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> &nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">366</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> group are possessed by some kind of Socialist chauvinism. Their political creed is totally incompatible with the needs and conditions of any normal administration, let alone in Turkey at the present time. <a href="#23.">[23]</a> Paprikov s verdict was that nobody could work with Yané, and that instead of waiting for the Young Turks to find this out for themselves, the Bulgarian authorities should try and convince them of this immediately.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> A few days later, the Minister wrote to the Commercial Consul in Salonika:  As for Sandansky s activity, you must make it your task to stress, at every available opportunity, and more widely among the population, how pernicious this activity of his is, not only for Bulgaria, but for Macedonia itself, for which it heralds new disasters. <a href="#24.">[24]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Throughout these attacks on Yané and his group there runs, like a red thread, the accusation that they were Socialists and therefore dangerous to established society and an affront to common sense. That they supported the Young Turk Revolution, which had temporarily spiked the guns of the Bulgarian bourgeoisie that was bad enough, but their intention of taking the revolution even further rendered them totally insupportable. The interests of the bourgeoisie were already seriously threatened in the Principality by the proliferation of strikes and the growing influence of Socialist ideas, and it was unthinkable that a man like Yané, with radical economic policies and pronounced republican views, could be allowed to control whole areas which the bourgeoisie hoped to exploit.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> The Serres Programme was, in fact, very similar to minimum demands outlined by Dimitmr Blagoev in his brochure <i>The Revolution in Turkey and Social-Democracy. </i>Blagoev had the full measure of the Young Turks as a social and political force, but, like Lenin, <a href="#25.">[25]</a> he regarded their  half-victory as a step forwards:  In reality, this coup does not yet represent the revolution itself; it is merely the beginning of the revolution; it has opened up the way for the revolution in Turkey. <a href="#26.">[26]</a> In Blagoev s opinion, Social-Democrat groups in Macedonia and the Adrianople Region should now press for the following: the right to free self-determination for the nationalities in the Turkish Empire, and a federation of the united nations into a Balkan state; general, direct, equal and secret voting rights in all elected bodies the Imperial Parliament, national people s assemblies,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="23."><font size="2">23.</font></a></b><font size="2"> TDIA, f. 334, op. 1, a.e. 293, pp. 120-121.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="24."><font size="2">24.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Ibid., p. 138.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="25."><font size="2">25.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Lenin wrote:  It is true that this victory is a half-victory, or even the smaller part of a victory, since the Turkish Nikolai II got off cheaply for the time being, with a promise to restore the celebrated Turkish constitution, but such half-victories in revolutions, such forced, rash concessions by the old order, are the surest guarantee of new, even more decisive, even sharper changes of fortune in civil war, involving broader masses of the people. See: Lenin, <i> Goryachiy material v mirovoy politike </i>(Inflammable material in world politics), <i>Proletariy, </i>July 23/August 5, 1908. Also, Collected Works (Russian edition), vol. 17, p. 177.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="26."><font size="2">26.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Unsigned article by Blagoev in <i>Novo Vreme, </i>Book 8-9, 1908. See also Blagoev, <i>Sucbineniya, </i>vol. 13, p. 68.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">367</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> regional and local councils; the abolition of the Senate; full self-government in the regions and localities; full and free combination rights for the workers; full freedom of conscience and conviction, of speech, the press and assembly; labour legislation which will give wide protection to the interests of the working class, and especially to female and child labour in the factories, mines, workshops, <i>chifliks, </i>etc.; secular education in the schools and instruction in the language intelligible to each nationality; a people s militia instead of a standing army; the abolition of all taxes in kind, and all indirect taxes and levies, and the introduction of a progressive tax on income and property. <a href="#27.">[27]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Yané s assertion that the freedom granted to the peoples of the Turkish Empire should be so large and attractive that the other Balkan states would be induced to re-enter the Empire was also an idea shared by Dimitmr Blagoev. While rejecting the Young Turks ideal of  ottomanizing the non-Turkish inhabitants as being more conducive to the break-up of the Empire than to its preservation, since the Turks were a minority in comparison with the other nationalities, Blagoev did not rule out the possibility of Turkey becoming a really strong, multinational state that could resist the inroads of European capital and colonialism, and play a progressive rule in the world:  However, Turkey can become such a state only when it transforms itself into a democratic state, based on the principle of the federation of the nations composing it, on the basis of the right to free determination for each of them within the state. Only this kind of <i>Ottoman </i>Empire is possible. Only this kind of Empire is also capable of acting as a magnet for those small Balkan states whose existence outside it will become impossible and senseless. <a href="#28.">[28]</a> Whether Turkey could or could not be transformed, now that the door was open, depended on  those revolutionary forces whose hands the proclamation of the Constitution untied, and, in particular, on the development and rise of the proletariat.  Social-Democracy in Bulgaria, Blagoev declared,  has every interest in seeing that the revolution in Turkey develops to the desired end, and is not defeated by reaction. . . It goes without saying that our point of view cannot be shared by our bourgeois and petty-bourgeois patriots. For them, the revolution in Turkey is an extremely unpleasant surprise. It appears to have put paid to that dirty exploitation of the sufferings of &quot;our brothers beyond Rila and the Rhodopes&quot; and of &quot;sacred national ideals&quot; which for so many years our patriots have practised for personal and coterie-partisan aims, and as a justification for their reactionary policy, their attacks on the rights and freedoms of the working class and their witch-hunts against &quot;social evil&quot;, against the conscious and organized Bulgarian proletariat against Social-Democracy. <a href="#29.">[29]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="27."><font size="2">27.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Blagoev, <i>Revolyutsia v Turtsia i Sotsialdemokratsia, Smchineniya, </i> vol. 13, pp. 61-62.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="28."><font size="2">28.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Blagoev, <i>Revolyutsiata v Turtsia, Smchineniya, </i>vol. 13, pp. 77-78.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="29."><font size="2">29.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Ibid., p. 78.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">368</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> The Bulgarian Government s thinly veiled hostility towards the events in Turkey was also the subject of an article in the <i>Serchani s </i>organ <i> Konstitutsionna Zarya</i>:  No one should find it strange that we concern ourselves first and foremost with the conduct of the Bulgarian Government and the Bulgarian State, when, around us, there are tens of other governments and states which pursue one or other policy as regards our affairs. We are Bulgarians first and foremost and we represent the interests mainly of the Bulgarian population in Macedonia and the Adrianople Region, with whose support our Organization has hitherto lived and struggled. As such, it is very natural that we should hope for and expect most support from those external factors which are closest to us in sentiment, in origin and national ties. These factors, according to the paper, are the Bulgarians living outside the Turkish Empire, and, in particular, those in the neighbouring Principality. The paper points out that the new situation benefits both the Bulgarians within the Turkish Empire and those in the P