Stamat Ikonomov

Ikonomov's birthplace in Malko Tarnowo

Stamat Georgiev Ikonomow (also Stamat Georgiev Ikonomov written Bulgarian Стамат Георгиев Икономов *  18th June 1866 in Malko Tarnovo , then Ottoman Empire ; †  12. September 1912 in Sofia , Bulgaria ) was a Bulgarian revolutionary and freedom fighter and is considered a leading figure the BMARK ( Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committee / Български Македоно-Одрински революционни комитети , a predecessor organization of the IMRO ) in Macedonia and Thrace . In addition to Mikhail Gerdschikow and Lasar Madscharow, he led the preparations and led the organization's combat operations during the Ilinden-Preobraschenie uprising in the “7th revolutionary region ”, which included Eastern Thrace .

Life

Stamat Ikonomow was born in the town of Malko Tarnowo in the Strandscha Mountains . There he attended the Bulgarian cell school - a kind of elementary school and the only way to get a Bulgarian school education in the Ottoman Empire . After completing primary school, his parents sent him to Varna , which has meanwhile been partially liberated , where he attended a grammar school. After obtaining secondary school leaving certificate , he moved to Sofia, where he enrolled in the newly established military academy . In 1885 he took part in the Serbian-Bulgarian War as a Junker . As Ikonomow had in 1887 completed his military training, he was appointed captain appointed, which he in the Bulgarian Army served and commanded one after the 3rd Cavalry - regiment , the 10th Infantry regiment and the 22nd Infantry Regiment.

In 1900, Stamat Ikonomow left the army and joined the BMARK. Thanks to his military training and local knowledge of the Strandscha Mountains, he quickly became the leading figure within the organization, which in early 1903 decided to risk a large-scale uprising in Macedonia and Thrace . In the spring of 1903 Ikonomov trained the fighters of the largest Cheta in the “7. revolutionary region ”and the death militias near the village of Gegre bunar (now Rossenowo ). Together with the fighters, he took part in the Petrowa Niwa Congress in August .

At the congress Ikonomov was elected next to Mikhail Gerdschikow and Lasar Madscharow to the military leader (Bulgarian главен войвода = head wojwoda ) of the insurgents in the 7th revolutionary region . The day and the exact time of the strike were also determined, August 19, 1903, the transfiguration of the Lord's Day at three in the morning. When the uprising broke out, the Strandscha Republic was proclaimed. During this time, Ikonomov commanded a 100-strong Cheta in the Pınarhisar region , where they attacked the village of Uzunköy. In the first days of the uprising, the rebels managed to advance from the Bulgarian border in the north to Lozengrad in the south and thus liberate a large area from Ottoman rule. Stamat Ikonomow was responsible for the southern slopes of the mountains in order to prevent possible supplies and reinforcements of the Turkish army . He led combat operations against the garrison of the city Vice , which he was finally able to take.

The uprising and the free republic only lasted 20 days, however, until the Turkish government sent 350,000 Turkish soldiers with artillery and cavalry and an unspecified number of militants ( Başı Bozuk ) to meet the 26,000 insurgents .

In Macedonia and Thrace there were also 5,000-15,000 civilians among the fatalities, 200 villages were razed to the ground, 12,000 houses burned, 70,000 people were made homeless, tens of thousands fled to neighboring countries, etc. a. 30,000 to Bulgaria. The largest refugee city was Burgas on the Black Sea. Nevertheless, there were repeated guerrilla actions in the following years. In the last days of the uprising, the Turkish regular army attacked more than 3,000 children, women and old people in the Petrowa Niwa area who were Bulgarian refugees. The massacre is still denied by Turkey today. After the bloody suppression of the uprising, Stamat Ikonomov first secured the refugee convoys to Bulgaria and later their supplies there (see Thracian Bulgarians ).

In 1904, during the Varna Congress of the BMARK, Stamat Ikonomow was elected a member of the foreign executive committee of the Edirne Revolutionary Committee (ERK). As such, he took part in the BMARK's Rila Congress in 1905 as a delegate .

In 1906 he again commanded several Cheetas , with whom he crossed the Bulgarian-Turkish border at Edirne and was involved in skirmishes with the Turkish military in Eastern Thrace .

After the Young Turkish Revolution in 1908, Ikonomow first returned to Eastern Thrace ( Edirne ), where he was confirmed as a member of the board of the ERK. However, when the new Turkish government turned against the Bulgarians and their freedoms, he fled back to independent Bulgaria. In 1912 Stamat Ikonomow died of an illness in Sofia.

Web links

Commons : Stamat Ikonomow  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biography of Stamat Ikonomov (bulg.)