VMRO: Bulgarian Hero Memorial Restored again in Skopje

Since the beginning of the 2000s, almost every year Macedonian Bulgarians mount in Skopie a new commemorative plaque of Mara Buneva. The memorial survives for just a few days, before being destroyed by local ultra-nationalists. Photo by VMRO

The plaque commemorating Bulgarian hero, Mara Buneva, was once again restored in Macedonia's capital Skopje Wednesday.

The news was reported by the Bulgarian nationalist party VMRO, who say that 82 years after Buneva's death, downtown Skopje, once again, displays a memory of her heroic and dignified act.

The ceremony and the memorial services were attended by Macedonian Bulgarians, the VMRO Deputy Chairs, Angel Dzhambaski and Kostadin Kostadinov, the member of the organizational committee, Rayna Drangova, and guests from the VMRO youth organization in Sofia.

Mara Buneva was a Bulgarian revolutionary, member of the then Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, VMRO. She is is celebrated in Bulgaria and by VMRO for the assassination of Serbian official Velimir Preli?. In the Republic of Macedonia many regard her as a Bulgarophile traitor.

On January 13, 1928, Buneva intercepted Preli? on his way to lunch, shot him and after seeing him die committed suicide. Her act was part of a violent resistance movement against Serbian policies of forced assimilation of the Macedonian Bulgarians. Preli? had been known for ordering arrests and tortures of young locals, members of Macedonian Youth Secret Revolutionary Organization (MYSRO), who openly opposed the Serbian rule.

In 1941, the Vardar Macedonia was annexed to Bulgaria and a commemorative plaque was mounted on the place of Buneva's death. In 1944, the plaque was obliterated from the new Yugoslav authorities, led by the Macedonian Communist Party.

After the fall of Communism, especially since the beginning of the 2000s, almost every year Macedonian Bulgarians mount on the same place in Skopje a new commemoration plaque. The memorial survives for just a few days, before being destroyed by local ultra-nationalists.

On January 13, 2007, a group of 40 Bulgarians and Macedonian Bulgarians, some of whom elderly, commemorating Buneva, were attacked in Skopje. The attackers were yelling "Die Bulgarians," and "Go away." They used rocks and metal pipes, seriously injuring many of those gathered at the memorial. Later the same night Buneva's monument was desecrated and all the flowers and wreaths burned to ashes. The incident stirred at the time a serious diplomatic brawl between Bulgaria and Macedonia.

In the eve of the commemoration in 2008, Skopje woke up with graffiti saying “Death to Bulgarians and January 13 Traitors.” They were written on a building's wall, located in the vicinity of the Bulgarian Culture and Information Center in the city.

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