Boris Sarafov

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Lieutenant Boris Sarafov's revolutionary band

Boris Sarafov, born July 12, 1872 in Nevrokop (present-day Gotse Delchev, Bulgaria), died November 28, 1907 in Sofia, was a revolutionary from Macedonia, one of the leaders of the revolutionary organisation that was first known as BMARC (since 1895) and later as SMARO (from 1902) and IMARO (from 1906). He is considered a Bulgarian^[1] in Bulgaria, and an ethnic Macedonian^[2] in the Republic of Macedonia.

He studied at the Military Academy in Sofia until 1894. In 1895 Sarafov led an insurgent operation in Ottoman-held Macedonia and occupied Melnik for a few days. Later in 1899 he became leader of one of the wings of IMRO. In 1903 Sarafov participated in the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising. He was assassinated in 1907 in Sofia by a left-wing IMRO activist, Todor Panitsa.

However, Boris Sarafov, leader of the annexationist Supreme Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Committee, in an interview with a British Times correspondent in April 12, 1901, said: "It is a grievous error to suppose that we seek to acquire Macedonia on behalf of Bulgaria. We Macedonians consider ourselves to be an entirely separate national element, and we are not in the least disposed to allow our country to be seized by Bulgaria, Servia, or Greece. We will, in fact, oppose any such incorporation with all our might. Macedonia must belong to the Macedonians." (Source.) On the other hand, in the autumn of 1903 Boris Sarafov in conjunction with Dame Gruev, both members of the general staff of the Bitola revolutionary district during suppression of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie uprising, wrote a letter to the Bulgarian government with demand for direct Bulgarian military intervention, arguing for this with the words "with a view to the critical and fearsome situation, in which the Bulgarian population of Bitola vilaet is at that moment" and "the circumstances and the danger, which threaten Bulgarian fatherland today". (Sources in English here and in Macedonian here.)