Letter from the Macedonian Emigracion in Turnu-Severin in support of the Kresna Uprising 1879

THE MACEDONIAN EMIGRACION IN TURNU-SEVERIN TO NATHANIEL OF OHRID

7th January 1879

(Received on 28th Feb. Replied on 10th April)

To his Grace, Reverend Metropolitan Nathaniel and Cyril, and to all the Macedonians on the battlefield

Through your trustworthy man chosen by the glorious committee, Mr Ilia Krstov by name, otherwise (Zupan), born in Struga, who brought your personal letters to Turnu-Severin, and to all the Macedonians you incite to national liberation from the Turkish yoke; they are the people who have been groaning for five hundred years now, but we today see that we have stayed farthest behind of all Slav peoples in our liberation; we see that we have been neglected at the Congress of Berlin by the glorious European commission delegated to Macedonia to set some laws, and that Macedonia alone has been left under an Ottoman governor. And only in order to separate our people from their kindred brothers; therefore we ask: what is that freedom granted to us by the Congress of Berlin and by those figures who make decisions in today's 19th century civilized world? Why should we always point out to all such European commissions how many times we have been granted Turkish reforms under European guarantees? Do we not remember the year of 1854 when glorious Russia fought against five Great Powers for the liberation of the Balkan Peninsula, on which occasion reforms by all the Powers were also granted; again the Ottoman Porte did not fulfil anything with the new administration; and the year of 1877 when the entire Turkish horde and the insatiable Circassians rose up to exterminate the Slav element living in the Balkan Peninsula?

So on that day the great and glorious Russia and the great emperror, Aleksandar Nikolaevič, with the whole of his family and his brave army rose up, too; they camo to the Balkan Peninsula to liberate all Slav peoples living in the Balkan Peninsula. But we, the Macedonians, were unfortunately left to the will of the Congress of Berlin, where the greatest opponents were the English diplomats, Mr Salisbury and Mr Beaconsfield, and Mr Andrassy, a diplomat of the Austrian State (Empire).

Thus there is nothing else left to us than to risc up, all of us, the Macedonians, against our enemies and to shed our blood for our liberation, so that the whole of Europe may see that we are people worthy of gaining freedom and being included among the civilized world, with an administration of our own; actually, we must prove before the whole European public with arms in our hands that our struggle is freedom - freedom; death or life.

Therefore we implore the Macedonian Central Committee to he satisfied with the limited possibilities of we people living in Turnu-Severin, for this time, while in the future we shall try to do better; the names of those who have contributed for the freedom of their people can be found in the list below.

26th/27th January 1879 Turnu-Severin (Seal)

Members of the Society Turnu-Severin

Mr Kosta Hristov, from Ohrid

Mr llija Pop Jovčev, from Skopje

Mr Janko Sekulov, from Vevčani

Mr Angel Kostovik, from Levče

Mr Hrista Naidenov, from Kičevo

Mr Nikola Jovanov, from Kičevo

Mr Naum Simonov, from Ohrrd

I beg all of you to be content with this much in words, and we shall try to do better in practice,

Wishing you all well Ilija Pop Jovanov