Temko Popov

Temko Popov (Macedonian: Темко Попов) was a pro-Macedonian activist and Serbian national worker in the Ottoman Empire. He espoused in his youth, according to Bulgarian sources, developed a kind of Macedonian pro-Serbian identity. Per Serbian sources, this plan was used by Serbian politicians as a counterweight to Bulgarian influence and to serbianize the Macedonian Slavs.[1][2]

Temko Popov
Born
Темистокли Попов

c. 1855
Ohrid, Ottoman Empire
Died1929
Ohrid, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
NationalityOttoman, Serbian, Yugoslav
Other namesTemko Popov (Темко Попов); Temko Popović (Темко Поповић)
Organizations
Known forbeing Macedonian national activist and an activist of the Serbian national movement in Macedonia

Life

Popov was born in Ohrid, then in the Ottoman Empire. He graduated from high school in Athens, Greece. In Athens he worked in various Orthodox agencies. Then Temko worked as a teacher in Edirne and afterwards in the Bulgarian Men's High School of Bitola. Subsequently, he moved to Sofia, Bulgaria, where he was among the founders of the secret Macedonian Society established in 1886 to promote some kind of pro-Serbian sentiments and ideas among the Macedonian Slavs, so as to distinguish them especially from the ethnic identity of the Bulgarians.[3] The other leaders were Naum Evrov, Kosta Grupčev and Vasilij Karajovev.[4]

Chased by the Bulgarian authorities in late August 1886, they moved to Belgrade, where they led negotiations with the Serbian government on the Macedonian issue, and participated in the formation of the Association of Serbo-Macedonians the same year. At that time "Macedonism" was seen by the Serbian government as a possible counterweight to Bulgarian influence in Macedonia and as a stage to the gradual Serbianisation of the Macedonian Slavs.[5] From Belgrade, he was sent by the Serbian authorities in Thessaloniki, where he was infiltrated to work into the Bulgarian high school. However, in 1887 he was expelled from there because of his pro-Serbian propaganda. In 1888 in a letter to Despot Badžović, Temko Popov emphasized the most important aim: to Macedonize the Macedonian Slavs.[6] In the same letter he stated:

"Let us not lie to ourselves, Despot, the national spirit in Macedonia has reached such a stage today that even if Jesus Christ had come to the Earth, he would not have been able to persuade the Macedonian that he was a Bulgarian or a Serb, excepting those Macedonians in whom Bulgarian propaganda has already taken root."[7]

These activities of Popov had been criticized by the Bulgarian intelligentsia in Macedonia. On this occasion, Kuzman Shapkarev wrote in a letter to Marin Drinov in 1888 that "One freak - Temko Popov, illegitimate son of Stefan Vladikov - the traitor of Dimitar Miladinov, lies to the Serbian consul in Tsarigrad (Stojan Novaković),[8] that he would turn the Macedonian Bulgarians into Old Serbs".[9] Temko moved back to Belgrade where the Saint Sava society helped him materially to his new assignment at work. This compromise with the Serbian interests led him later to the abandonment of his separatist program altogether.[10] Subsequently, from 1888 to 1913 Temko was on Serbian diplomatic service consistently in Thessaloniki, Istanbul and Athens. As a result, since the eve of the new century, he and his collaborators promoted only pro-Serbian ideas.[11] After the Young Turk Revolution, Temko became a Serbian senator to the Ottoman parliament in 1908–09, when he lived in Constantinople.[12] Here he issued the Serbian newspaper "Carigradski glasnik".[13] Later he worked in the Serbian Embassy in Athens until the end of the Balkan Wars in 1913. Then he moved to Ohrid, just ceded to Serbia, and became its mayor until the Bulgarian occupation in 1915. In 1918 after World War I he served as the mayor of Ohrid for the second time. In 1921 Popov was appointed inspector in Agricultural service in Bitola, where he retired.

References
  1. ...In other words, Macedonianness is a direct consequence or, more precisely, construct of the competing Balkan ideologies. Marinov provides a few examples of how this Macedonianness found expression. However, these examples yield only one conclusion: it is not quite clear what Macedonianness means because all the Macedonian intellectuals defined it and expressed it in a different way, including Grupčević and Popović. According to Marinov, “there are historical personalities from late Ottoman Macedonia whose identity largely ‘floated’ between the Serbian and the Bulgarian national option,” and between them appeared the third Macedonian option, which was used by Serbian diplomatic circles as “a possible counterweight to Bulgarian influence in Macedonia.” Stojan Novaković concretely assumed it would be much better to use the already present vague sense of this Macedonianness, and turn, harness and mold it to Serbian advantage, instead of attempting to impose Serbian nationhood directly upon Macedonians. This was obviously the case with the two owners of Carigradski glasnik, who turned from the Greek education they had been given and their vague sense of Macedonianness to Serbian nationhood... For more see: Klara Volarić, Forgotten Istanbul-based Paper in the Service of Ottoman Serbs, 1895-1909” (Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Central European University, Budapest, 2014), p. 94.
  2. The Serbian politician might have had in mind the “successful” example of Macedonian Slavs who migrated to Serbia and developed a kind of Macedonian pro-Serbian identity. One such case was Despot Badžović, a personal friend of Gjorgjija Pulevski, who in 1879 published a primer written in a Serbified variety of the Macedonian language. Similarly, some of the first “Macedonists” were educated in Serbia or under Serbian cultural influence; sometimes they sought to spread that influence. This was likely the case with four activists—Naum Evro(vić), Kosta Grupče(vić), Temko Popov(ić) and Vasil(ije) Karajovov(ić)—who, in 1886, formed in Sofia an ephemeral “Secret Macedonian Committee.” For more see: Roumen Daskalov and Tchavdar Marinov. Entangled Histories of the Balkans: Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies. BRILL, 2013. p. 315.
  3. Roumen Daskalov and Tchavdar Marinov. Entangled Histories of the Balkans: Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies. BRILL, 2013. p. 316
  4. Dragan Taškovski (1969). Rađanje makedonske nacije. Zavod za izdavanje udžbenika Socijalističke Republike Srbije. p. 175. Retrieved 23 May 2013. коју су предводили Наум Евров, Коста Групчев, Василиј Карајовев и Темко Попов
  5. Contested Ethnic Identity: The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto, 1900-1996, Chris Kostov, Peter Lang, 2010, ISBN 3034301960, p. 65
  6. Jovan Pavlovski; Mišel Pavlovski (1993). Od prvična ideja do država: eden možen pogled na razvojot na nacionalnata misla i državnosta kaj Makedoncite. Detska radost. p. 45. Retrieved 25 May 2013. Да не се лажеме, Деспоте, националниот у Македонија до такво дередже денеска је стигнал, што то и сам Исус Христос ако слезит од небоно не можит да го уверит Македонеца оти тој е блгарин или србин, освен оние Македонци у кои веќе пропагандата блгарска се има вкоренено.
  7. The Matica and Beyond: Cultural Associations and Nationalism in Europe, Krisztina Lajosi and Andreas Stynen, BRILL, 2020, ISBN 9789004425385, p. 150.
  8. According to Novaković the Bulgarian idea was deeply rooted in Macedonia and it was almost impossible to shake it completely by opposing it merely with the Serbian idea. That was why the Serbian idea would need an ally that could stand in direct opposition to Bulgarianism and would contain in itself the elements which could attract the people and their feelings and thus sever them from Bulgarianism. This ally he saw in Macedonism. Novaković's diplomatic activity in Constantinople and St. Petersburg played significant role for the realization of his macedonist ideas. The diplomatic convention with Ottoman Turkey signed in 1886, due to Novaković's skillful negotiations, made possible the opening of Serbian consulates in Skopje and Thessaloniki. He was instrumental in organizing a huge network of Serbian consulates, secular and religious Serbian schools and Serb religious institutions throughout Turkey in Europe, in particular in Macedonia, where he aided macedonist intellectuals. Angel G. Angelov, The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms, 1470-1316, Volume 2, Issue 3, 1997, pp. 411–417
  9. Makedonizmŭt i sŭprotivata na Makedonia sreshtu nego, Kosta Tsŭrnushanov, Universitetsko izdatelstvo "Sv. Kliment Okhridski,", 1992, str. 38.
  10. Sociolinguistica, Volumes 5–6, Klaus J. Mattheier, Publisher: M. Niemeyer, 1991, ISBN 3484603682, p. 131
  11. Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Dimitar Bechev, Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 0810855658, p. 162
  12. Mehmet Hacısalihoğlu, Die Jungtürken und die Mazedonische Frage (1890-1918); Oldenbourg, 2003, ISBN 3486567454, s. 257.
  13. Klara Volarić, Between the Ottoman and Serbian States: Carigradski Glasnik, an Istanbul-based Paper of Ottoman Serbs, 1895-1909; The Hungarian Historical Review, Vol. 3, No. 3, (2014), pp. 560-586.

Sources
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.