The Gang Activities of Bulgarian Committee Member Yane Sandanski through the Eyes of the Ottoman Empire (1904-1908)

Abstract

With the Berlin Treaty of 1878, Bulgaria became a small principality under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. From then on, Bulgarians began fighting for Greater Bulgaria through their established committees and armed gang activities. The most active was the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization, also known as the Internal Organization. Yane Sandanski, a senior committee member in the Salonika region, is distinguished from other members by his personality and ideas. Sandanski became the voivode of the Serres revolutionary region and gained prominence within the Committee with the abduction of the American nun Miss Stone in 1901. After the Ilinden Uprising of 1903, he began acting independently from the organization, advocating for a Federative Macedonia where all ethnic groups could live together peacefully instead of a Greater Bulgaria. He engaged in armed conflict with the Ottoman Empire and the organization he previously affiliated with. In 1908, Sandanski collaborated with the Committee of Union and Progress (& Idot;ttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti) and temporarily abandoned the armed struggle. During the Balkan Wars, he resumed fighting alongside the Bulgarian government until he was killed in 1915. This study focuses on Yane Sandanski's struggle and pursuit with the Ottoman Empire between 1904 and 1908, based on Ottoman archival sources.