Gjorche Petrov
Encyclopedia
Biography
Born in Pirlepe, Ottoman empireOttoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
(present-day Prilep
Prilep
Prilep is the fourth largest city in the Republic of Macedonia. It has a population of 66,246 citizens. Prilep is known as "the city under Marko's Towers" because of its proximity to the towers of Prince Marko.-Name:...
, Republic of Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
), he studied at the secondary school for boys in Plovdiv
Plovdiv
Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia with a population of 338,153 inhabitants according to Census 2011. Plovdiv's history spans some 6,000 years, with traces of a Neolithic settlement dating to roughly 4000 BC; it is one of the oldest cities in Europe...
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
. Then he worked as a teacher in various towns of Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
. He took part in the revolutionary campaign in Macedonia as well as in the Thessaloniki Congress of the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees (BMARC) in 1896.
He was among the authors of the organization's new charter and rules, which he co-wrote with Gotse Delchev
Gotse Delchev
Georgi Nikolov Delchev was an important revolutionary figure in Ottoman-ruled Macedonia and Thrace at the turn of the 20th century...
.
Gjorche Petrov was the representative of the Foreign Committee of the BMARC/IMARO in Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
in 1897-1901. He did not approve of the ultimately outbreak of the Uprising
Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising
The Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising or simply the Ilinden Uprising of August 1903 |Macedonia]] affected most of the central and southwestern parts of the Monastir Vilayet receiving the support mainly of the local Bulgarian peasants and to some extent of the Aromanian population of the region...
on Ilinden, 2 August 1903, but he participated leading a squad. After the unsuccessful uprising Petrov continued his participation in IMARO.
Petrov was again included in the Emigrant representation in Sofia in 1905-1908. After the Young Turks
Young Turks
The Young Turks , from French: Les Jeunes Turcs) were a coalition of various groups favouring reformation of the administration of the Ottoman Empire. The movement was against the absolute monarchy of the Ottoman Sultan and favoured a re-installation of the short-lived Kanûn-ı Esâsî constitution...
Revolution of 1908, Petrov together with writer Anton Strashimirov
Anton Strashimirov
Anton Strashimirov was a Bulgarian author....
edited the "Kulturno Edinstvo" magazine ("Cultural Unity"), published in Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
(Solun) .
During the Balkan wars
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
, Gyorche Petrov was a volunteer at in the 5th company of Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps
Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps
The Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps was a volunteer corps of the Bulgarian Army during the Balkan Wars. It was formed on 23 September 1912 and consisted of Bulgarian volunteers from Macedonia and Thrace, regions still under Ottoman rule, and thus not subject to Bulgarian military...
. He was President of the Regular Regional Committee in Bitola
Bitola
Bitola is a city in the southwestern part of the Republic of Macedonia. The city is an administrative, cultural, industrial, commercial, and educational centre. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba and Nidže mountains, 14 km north of the...
for some time during the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and Bulgarian administration in Vardar Macedonia
Vardar Macedonia
Vardar Macedonia is an area in the north of the Macedonia . The borders of the area are those of the Republic of Macedonia. It covers an area of...
and afterwards became mayor of Drama
Drama, Greece
Drama , the ancient Drabescus , is a town and municipality in northeastern Greece. Drama is the capital of the peripheral unit of Drama which is part of the East Macedonia and Thrace periphery. The town is the economic center of the municipality , which in turn comprises 53.5 percent of the...
. At the end of the war he was one of the initiators of the formation of a Provisional Government by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), and this government set the task of defending the positions of the Bulgarians
Bulgarians
The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...
in Macedonia at the Paris Peace Conference
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
(1919–1920). He was also Chief of the Refugees Settlement Agency of the Ministry of Imternal Affairs.
He kept close ties with the government of Bulgarian Agrarian National Union
Bulgarian Agrarian National Union
Bulgarian Agrarian National Union also tiranslated to English as Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union is a political party devoted to representing the causes of the Bulgarian peasantry. It was most powerful between 1900 and 1923. In practice, it was an agrarian movement...
(BANU), especially with minister Aleksandar Dimitrov and some other prominent Agrarian leaders, thus incurring IMRO leaders' hatred upon himself. He was eventually killed by them in June 1921 in Sofia. The assassination of Gyorche Petrov complicated relations between IMRO and Bulgarian government and produced significant dissensions in the Macedonian movement.
To honor his name a suburb of Skopje was named Gjorče Petrov
Gjorce Petrov municipality
Gjorče Petrov is one of the ten municipalities that compose the city of Skopje, the capital of the Republic of Macedonia. It is named after the revolutionary Gjorče Petrov.-Geography:...
, or usually shortly referred only as Gjorče. The suburb is one of the ten municipalities
Municipalities of the Republic of Macedonia
The Municipalities of the Republic of Macedonia are first-order administrative divisions. In August 2004, the Republic of Macedonia was reorganised into 84 municipalities ; 10 of the municipalities constitute the City of Skopje , a distinct unit of local self-government and the country's...
of Skopje
Skopje
Skopje is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia with about a third of the total population. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre...
, the capital of the Republic of Macedonia.
Ethnicity
As with many other IMARO leaders of the time, he is considered nowadays an ethnic Bulgarian
Bulgarians
The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...
in Bulgaria and an ethnic Macedonian
Macedonians (ethnic group)
The Macedonians also referred to as Macedonian Slavs: "... the term Slavomacedonian was introduced and was accepted by the community itself, which at the time had a much more widespread non-Greek Macedonian ethnic consciousness...
in the Republic of Macedonia. In his memoirs, Gjorche Petrov calls himself Bulgarian. In his book about the geography of Macedonia (Материали по изучаванието на Македония, София 1896) Gyorche Petrov describes the Slavic people in Macedonia as Bulgarian and considers the term "Macedonians" as regional belonging, explaining that the Macedonian population consists of Bulgarians, Turks, Arnauts, Vlachs, Jews and Gypsies. His opinion was that Bulgarians constitute the bulk or more than a half of the population in this region.