Association against Bulgarian Bandits

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Association against Bulgarian Bandits
Удружење против бугарских бандита
Udruženje protiv bugarskih bandita
Association against Bulgarian Bandits' band in Vardar Banovina before 1930.
Active1922–30
Country Kingdom of Yugoslavia
TypeParamilitary
RoleIrregular warfare
Patrolling
Commanders
Notable
commanders		Kosta Pećanac

The Association against Bulgarian Bandits (

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.[1]

Background

During

Pomoravlje
. As result the Bulgarian state fell in a heavy situation having been forced to return the territories it briefly occupied to Serbia, Greece and Romania, with reparations imposed on it to pay to those countries.

In the new formed

Internal Western Outland Revolutionary Organisation (IWORO), which operated in the areas of Tsaribrod and Bosilegrad, ceded to Yugoslavia. In 1922 a new organization called Association against Bulgarian Bandits was launched by a former Chetniks to withstand the IMRO and the IWORO militants in the areas of Vardar Macedonia and the Western Outlands with Kosta Pećanac as leading figure in it.[2] In 1923 and 1924 during the apogee of interwar military activity according to IMRO statistics in the region of Yugoslav (Vardar) Macedonia operated 53 armed bands.[3] The aggregate membership of the bands was 3245 rebels, 119 fights and 73 terroristic acts were documented.[4] At the same time IWORO carried out numerous assaults on the Tzaribrod–Belgrade railway, especially on the bridges. Violent Serb counter-measures tended merely to cement the support to IMRO.[5]

On the other hand, the reestablished in 1920 IMRO had its own left wing and it split over the ultimate goal of its activity. The right faction sought incorporation of all

coup d'état in Bulgaria. The fall of the pro-Yugoslav government of Aleksandar Stamboliyski was a great success to the power of IMRO. Subsequently, part of the fleeing from Bulgaria federalists placed themselves in Serbian service, joining the Association against Bulgarian Bandits and fighting against IMRO. Serbian Prime Minister Ljubomir Davidović openly disagreed with such policy but Žika Lazić, head of the team that mobilized such guerillas, responded he did not find a better mechanism for mutual annihilation between current and former Bulgarian Komitadjis.[7]

Aftermath

The execution of the IMRO activist Kiril Gligorov by Yugoslav authorities in 1925.

As a consequence, aided unofficially by the new government, the IMRO acted as a "state within a state" in Bulgaria, which was used as its hub for swift attacks against Yugoslavia. Because of this, at the end of the 1920s the Yugoslav-Bulgarian frontier was turned into the most fortified one in Europe.[8] The Serbian actions led to a significant reduction of the IMRO attacks. IMRO's constant fratricidal killings and assassinations abroad provoked some within Bulgarian military after the coup of 19 May 1934 to take control and break the power of the organization, which had come to be seen as a gangster organization inside Bulgaria and a band of assassins outside it. Afterwards the Association against Bulgarian Bandits was gradually dissolved.

References

  1. S2CID 233958307
    .
  2. ISBN 0253346568
    , p. 47.
  3. ^ Огнянов, Михаил. Македония – преживяна съдба, С. 2003 (2 издание), с. 143 – 144.
  4. ^ Македония. История и политическа съдба", колектив на МНИ под редакцията на проф. Петър Петров, том II, Издателство "Знание", София, 1998, p. 141. (In Bulgarian. In English: P. Petrov, ed. Macedonia. History and Political Fate, vol. 2, Macedonian Scientific Institute, Sofia, 1998, p. 141.)
  5. ISBN 1850655340
    , p. 93.
  6. ISBN 1-85109-879-8
    . On 23 March 1923 Stamboliyski signed the convention of Nish with the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia). With this agreement, Stamboliyski promised to suppress the IMRO, which was then carrying out operations against Yugoslavia from Bulgarian territory.
  7. ^ Македония - история и политическа съдба, Том II, ИК Знание, София, 1998, стр.119.
  8. ^ Войната се връща, Анри Пози (Второ издание, Планета-7, София, 1992) стр. 33.
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