Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC), , also known as Supreme Macedonian Committee was a Bulgarian revolutionary political organization in the 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...

 and Thrace

Thrace

Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...

 regions of the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman 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...

, and in 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...

 from 1895 to 1905. Macedonian Bulgarian and Thracian Bulgarian

Thracian Bulgarians

Thracians or Thracian Bulgarians is a regional, ethnographic group of ethnic Bulgarians, inhabiting or originating from Thrace. Today, the larger part of this population is concentrated in Northern Thrace, but much is spread across the whole of Bulgaria and the diaspora...

 emigrants in Bulgaria were a great number. They formed in 1895 the “Macedonian-Adrianople Organization”, at the head of which was “Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committee”. Its official declaration was also a struggle for autonomy

Autonomy

Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...

 of Macedonia and Thrace. At the same time, being impatient for the liberty to come sooner, and strongly convinced that it would come only with the help of the Bulgarian Army. Later they directed their efforts in activities for involving the country into war with the Ottoman Empire. As a rule most of the leaders were with stronger connections with the governments. At the end their main idea was, waging struggle for a direct unification with Bulgaria.

They became known as the "supremists" or "varhovists" since they were based outside of Macedonia. The supremists resorted to terrorism against the Ottomans in the hope of provoking a war and thus Bulgarian annexation of Macedonia. Several months after the formation of the Supreme Committee, the latter formed several detachments out of Bulgarian emigrants, revolutionaries, soldiers and officers from the army, almost all of them born in Macedonia or Thrace. Four detachments succeeded in entering Macedonia and only one - Thrace. For a time in the late 1890s the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) leaders managed to gain control of the Supreme Committee but it soon split into two factions: one loyal to the IMARO and one led by some officers close to the Bulgarian prince. The second one staged an ill-fated uprising in Eastern Macedonia in 1902, where they were opposed militarily by local IMARO bands led by Yane Sandanski

Yane Sandanski

Yane Ivanov Sandanski or Jane Ivanov Sandanski, was a revolutionary, one of the leaders of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization in the Serres region and head of the extreme leftist wing of the organization...

 and Hristo Chernopeev

Hristo Chernopeev

Hristo Chernopeev was a Bulgarian revolutionary and member of the revolutionary movement in Macedonia...

, who were later to become the leaders of the IMARO left wing. During the Ilinden Uprising insurgent detachments of the Supreme Committee, held down a large Turkish force. These actions began on the day of the Feast of the Cross

Feast of the Cross

In the Christian liturgical calendar, there are several different Feasts of the Cross, all of which commemorate the cross used in the crucifixion of Jesus....

 and did not involve the local population as much as in other regions, and were well to the east of Monastir and to the west of Thrace. After the failure of the uprising the Bulgarian government dissolved the Committee under Ottoman pressure.

See also

• Trayko Kitanchev
  Trayko Kitanchev
  Trayko Tsvetkov Kitanchev was a Bulgarian teacher, social figure, poet and revolutionary. In 1895, he was the first chairman of the Supreme Macedonian–Adrianopolitan Committee, a Sofia-based organization seeking the autonomy of Macedonia and southern Thrace....
  
  
• Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization
• History of Bulgaria
  History of Bulgaria
  The history of Bulgaria spans from the first settlements on the lands of modern Bulgaria to its formation as a nation-state and includes the history of the Bulgarian people and their origin. The first traces of human presence on what is today Bulgaria date from 44,000 BC...
  
  
• Ilinden Uprising

Source

• Върховният Македоно - Одрински комитет / 1895 - 1903 / Автор: Светлозар Елдъров, издател: Иврай ООД, Година на издаване: 2003, ISBN 9549121062