The Bulgarian mob activities in Macedonia at the era of 1st Monarchy

Macedonia is a very important region since it was a battleground for many nations, and since it had changed hands frequently. Since it witnessed numerous wars and mass migrations, and since many different factions claimed the regions as theirs, many diferent definitions of Macedonia emerged. Dur to the political, ethnic and religious mix of this region, it looks like a political and ethnic amalgamation. This political and ethnic situation had got more complicated with the influence of nationalism. Affected by the sweep of "nationalism" that started in the 18th century, each of the ethnic factions in Macedonia started fighting each other in order to add Macedoniato a their territories. Historically, these fights are referred to as "the Macedonian Question". Each of the nations that claim Macedonia established committees against the Ottoman government, and they also started physical struggle. They started making armed and brutal attacks, and this complicated the situation in Macedonia even more. Especially the "activites of Bulgarian committees and mobs", which is the subject matter of this work, gave the Ottoman Empire the most trouble, when compared with the other committees. This work includes the activities of Bulgarian committees and mobs in the era of 1st Monarchy (1. Mesrutiyet) in Ottoman Empire.These activities started with the Berlin Treaty, after which Bulgaria annexed Eastern Rumelia Province in order to establish her ideal of Great Bulgaria. Bulgaria, then increased activities to annex Macedonia. Due to the activities of mobs, this situation made it hard to implement the planned reforms in the region by Ottoman Empire. The aim of the Bulgarians were to prevent reforms, create more chaos, and then get the İntervention from the Europe with the claim that "there is chaos in the region and Ottoman government are not taking the necessary measures". Ottoman government took good measures against the activities of mobs in Macedonia. However, the terrorist activities of the Bulgarian mobs in the region, continuous interventions of Europe, and poor economical condition of the Ottoman Empire left these measures ineffective.Keywords:1.Macedonian Question,2.Bulgarian Committees,3.Bulgarian mobs,4.Bulgarian terrorists,5.Ottoman Empire