Miss Stone Affair

The Miss Stone Affair (Bulgarian: Афера „Мис Стоун“, Macedonian: „Афера Мис Стон“) was the kidnapping of American Protestant missionary Ellen Maria Stone and her pregnant Bulgarian fellow missionary and friend Katerina Cilka[1][2] by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization.[3][4][5]

A postcard with the kidnapped Ellen Stone and Katerina Cilka
The participants in the Miss Stone Affair - Sava Mihaylov, Yane Sandanski, Krastyo Asenov and Hristo Chernopeev.
Ellen Maria Stone

History

Background

In 1901, one of the main problems facing the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization was the lack of resources for armaments. This financial crisis was discussed at the meeting of the leadership of IMRO in Kyustendil, Bulgaria that summer. At the meeting, Gotse Delchev argued that small robberies only tarnished the reputation of the organization and were not helpful to solving the financial problem. Delchev then authorized Mihail Gerdzhikov to carry out the kidnapping of a wealthy person or persons in Macedonia to obtain funds, but he failed. Delchev made two other unsuccessful attempts with wealthy Turks and Greeks. He later developed a plan to kidnap the son of Ivan Evstratiev Geshov, which also failed. Yane Sandanski then offered to kidnap Ferdinand of Bulgaria during his visit to the Rila Monastery, but this radical plan was opposed by Delchev, who believed that the abduction must be done on Ottoman territory. Chernopeev and Sandanski discussed the kidnapping of a wealthy Turk near Simitli, but this plan was not realized. Sandanski, Hristo Chernopeev and Sava Mihaylov prepared a plan for the kidnapping of Süleyman Bey, but due to his illness this action also failed.

Kidnapping

Sandanski was then drawn to the idea of kidnapping a Protestant missionary of Bansko. A detachment led by the voivoda Yane Sandanski and the sub-voivodas Hristo Chernopeev and Krǎstyo Asenov carried this out on August 21, 1901. Two women—Ellen Maria Stone and her fellow missionary Katerina Stefanova-Cilka—were kidnapped somewhere between Bansko and Gorna Dzhumaya, then towns in the Ottoman Empire.

The goal of the kidnapping was to receive a heavy ransom and aid the financially struggling IMRO. The detachment was pursued by the Ottoman and Bulgarian authorities and by a cheta of the contending organization Supreme Macedonian Committee. Ottoman authorities for a short time, arrested Grigor Cilka, husband of Katerina on unfounded charges of being complicit in the kidnapping.[6][7][8] Sometimes regarded as a case of the Stockholm syndrome (with the kidnappers even assisting Cilka in giving birth to her daughter), the affair ended after intensive negotiations in early 1902, half a year after the kidnapping. IMRO was paid a ransom of 14,000 Turkish gold liras on January 18, 1902, in Bansko, and the hostages were released on February 2 near Strumica.

Widely covered by the media at the time, the event has been often dubbed "America's first modern hostage crisis".

References
  1. In her memories about this event Cilka is described as a Bulgarian by birth. For more see: "Born among Brigands; Mrs Tsilka's story of her Baby", "McClure's magazine", New York, vol. 4, August, 1902.
  2. In the biographical book about her life Richard M. Cochran, Ph.D wrote: Katarina Stephanova was born in Bansko, Macedonia, in 1870, of Bulgarian parents. For more see: Richard Cochran, Katerina Tsilka, Institute for Albanian and Protestant studies, 2014, р. 16.
  3. Marcel Cornis-Pope, John Neubauer eds., History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe: Junctures and disjunctures in the 19th and 20th centuries, Volume 2, John Benjamins Publishing, 2006, ISBN 9027293406, p. 361.
  4. Initially the membership in the IMRO was restricted only for Bulgarians. Its first name was "Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees", which was later changed several times. IMRO was active not only in Macedonia but also in Thrace (the Vilayet of Adrianople). Since its early name emphasized the Bulgarian nature of the organization by linking the inhabitants of Thrace and Macedonia to Bulgaria, these facts are still difficult to be explained from the Macedonian historiography. They suggest that IMRO revolutionaries in the Ottoman period did not differentiate between ‘Macedonians’ and ‘Bulgarians’. Moreover, as their own writings attest, they often saw themselves and their compatriots as ‘Bulgarians’. All of them wrote in standard Bulgarian language. For more see: Brunnbauer, Ulf (2004) Historiography, Myths and the Nation in the Republic of Macedonia. In: Brunnbauer, Ulf, (ed.) (Re)Writing History. Historiography in Southeast Europe after Socialism. Studies on South East Europe, vol. 4. LIT, Münster, pp. 165-200 ISBN 382587365X.
  5. On 21 August 1901, Ellen Stone, an American Protestant missionary based in Salonika, and her Bulgarian colleague Katerina Stefanova, who was the wife of the Albanian pastor Grigor Cilka, were kidnapped by the cheta of Yane Sandanski between Bansko and Gorna Dzhumaya (now Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria). For more see: Stone, Ellene (Kidnapping off); an article by Raymond Detrez (2014) in Historical Dictionary of Bulgaria, Edition 3; Rowman & Littlefield, 2014 p. 469, ISBN 1442241802.
  6. Perry, Duncan M. (1988). The Politics of Terror: The Macedonian Liberation Movements, 1893-1903. Duke University Press. p. 104. ISBN 9780822308133.
  7. Daniel, Robert L. (1970). American philanthropy in the Near East, 1820-1960. Ohio University Press. p. 135. ISBN 9780821400630.
  8. Sherman, Laura Beth (1980). Fires on the Mountain: The Macedonian Revolutionary Movement and the Kidnapping of Ellen Stone. East European Monographs. p. 89. ISBN 9780914710554.

Further reading
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