Mara Buneva

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Mara Buneva
Мара Бунева
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (present-day North Macedonia)
OrganizationIMRO
A commemoration plate was mounted on the death place of Buneva in 1943 by the Bulgarian authorities, later destroyed by the Yugoslav communist authorities.

Mara Buneva (

Yugoslav
legal official of the Skopje Oblast. She shot herself in the chest, and subsequently died in a hospital a few hours after the attack, while Prelić died a few days later.

Today, in general Buneva is considered a heroine in Bulgaria,

Bulgarophile.[4][5]
Her death is commemorated annually at the place where she shot herself on Vardar in Skopje.

Biography

Buneva was born in 1902 in

Kosovo Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. Her family originates from the village of Setole.[6]
Between 1915 and 1918, . Her father Nikola Bunev became then the mayor of Tetovo. At that time Buneva studied at the Skopje's Girls' High School.

In 1919 Buneva moved to Bulgaria. There she studied at the

Ivan Mihaylov, she was trained in Sofia for fulfilling of a future terrorist actions. In 1927 she went back to Yugoslavia and opened a shop in Skopje with a conspiratorial mission.[8]

There she managed to acquaint herself with Velimir Prelić, the legal adviser of the Serbian governor of the Skopje district. Prelić was instrumental in arrests of young local students, members of Macedonian Youth Secret Revolutionary Organization.[9] The organization was discovered by the authorities in May 1927 and its leaders were arrested. On a trial in Skopje against 20 of them, most were sentenced in December to long-term imprisonment.[10] As result IMRO ordered the execution of Prelić.[11] At the appointed time on January 13, 1928, Buneva intercepted him on his way to lunch and shot the official after which she committed suicide.[12] On the next day, the Serbian police buried Buneva's body at an unknown place.[13] Prelić also died in hospital a few days later and was buried in Skopje.[14]

Legacy and controversy

A bTV - news screenshot, showing а broken, illegally placed plate comemorating Buneva on the Vardar river levee, after being destroyed by local ultra-nationalists.

Her act echoed as in Bulgaria and Europe, as well as among the Macedono-Bulgarian emigration in America. The first Macedonian Patriotic Organization ladies auxiliary branch was created in Toronto in 1928 and named after Mara Buneva.[15] In Bulgaria she was celebrated as a martyr for the freedom of Macedonia. Today, streets in Sofia and Blagoevgrad are named after her, as well as the Buneva Point in Antarctica has been named after Mara Buneva by the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute.[16] During the Second World War Bulgaria annexed Vardar Macedonia and on the place of the death of Mara Buneva a commemoration plate was mounted.[17] However, later it was destroyed by the new Yugoslav communist authorities.

Since the beginning of the 2000s, almost every year on the day of her death, Bulgarians from North Macedonia and from Bulgarian, particularly

VMRO-BND activists, have begun illegally[18] mounting new commemoration plates.[19] However, the plates are quickly removed or destroyed.[18] In January 2007 the celebration ended with a fight in Skopje.[20] Former Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubčo Georgievski claims that to be against Buneva means, not to have adequate knowledge of the history, and to defend the Serbian chauvinism.[21] According to Bulgarian officials, the repetitive incidents in Skopje are part of an ongoing anti-Bulgarian campaign there.[22]

Till now, her memory has not been honored by the official authorities in Skopje.

Macedonian historians, placing wax figure of such controversial figures like her, only causes further confusion among museum visitors.[27]

See also

References

  1. ^ Nationalism, Margaret H. Lamb, Heinemann Educational Books, 1975, p. 31.
  2. ^ Цочо В. Билярски, Мара Бунева и нейното време. Положението на българите във Вардарска Македония през 30-те години на XX век.
  3. ^ "Атентаторката на Прелиќ не живее во меморијата на Македонците. На панихидите доаѓаат тие што се чувствуваат Бугари и ја негираат македонската нација. В. Цветаноски, Утрински вестник. 22.02.2007 г." Archived from the original on 2014-01-13. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
  4. ^ "Бугарската окупаторска власт и' оддаде незапаметена почит, Која е контроверзната тетовка што ја слават Бугарите? В. Цветаноски, Утрински вестник. 23.02.2007 г." Archived from the original on 2014-01-13. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
  5. ^ Трифуноски, Јован (1976). Полог (in Serbo-Croatian). Београд. p. 340.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. , стр. 16.
  7. ^ Иван Михайлов: отвъд легендите, Том 1, Иван Гаджев, УИ "Св. Климент Охридски", 2007, стр. 787.
  8. ^ „Националноосвободителната борба в Македония, 1919 - 1941 г.“, Колектив, ИК „Знание“, София, 1998 г., стр.221.
  9. ^ Българки стрелят в показни атентати, 06.02.2013, в-к 24 Часа. Archived 2014-01-16 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ Бунев, Борис. Кратки бележки из живота на Мара Бунева, 7 август 1936 година, в: Билярски, Цочо. Подвигът на Мара Бунева (съкратено издание), Анико, София, 2010, стр.45.
  11. , p. 238.
  12. ^ Buneva Point. SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica
  13. ^ Македонска библиотека, Снимки, документи и материали за историята на българите от областта Македония. Паметник на Мара Бунева в Скопие през 1943 г.
  14. ^ a b "Искршена поставената плоча за Мара Бунева". ВОА (in Macedonian). 13 January 2014. Retrieved 2023-02-18.
  15. ^ Катерина Тосева, „Потрошиха паметника на Мара Бунева", 15.01.2007, News.bg.
  16. ^ "Georgievski: Pro Serbian ideas and installations are putting the country in danger, Independent Balkan News Agency, 15.01.2014". Archived from the original on 2014-01-16. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
  17. ^ "The Sofia Echo, Mon, Jan. 22. 2007, Anti-Bulgarianism in Macedonia". Archived from the original on 2014-01-16. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
  18. ^ В Скопие отбелязаха годишнина от смъртта на Мара Бунева. Над 600 родолюбиви българи почетоха паметта на Мара Бунева, предаде репортер на БГНЕС. BGNES, 14.01.2023.
  19. ^ ТМРО: Мара Бунева е Македонка достојна за почит. 14 јануари 2014, МКД.мк. Archived 2022-09-04 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ^ Македонците си присвоиха и Мара Бунева. FROG NEWS, 12.01.2015.
  21. , p. 117.
  22. ^ Восъчни фигури на Мара Бунева и Ванче Михайлов в Скопие. 18 Юни 2009, Blitz.bg.