Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising

The Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising (Bulgarian: Илинденско-Преображенско въстание, romanized: Ilindensko-Preobrazhensko vastanie), consisting of the Ilinden Uprising (Macedonian: Илинденско востание, romanized: Ilindensko vostanie; Greek: Εξέγερση του Ίλιντεν, romanized: Exégersi tou Ílinden) and Preobrazhenie Uprising, was an organized revolt against the Ottoman Empire from August to October 1903. It was prepared and carried out by the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization, with the support of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee, which included mostly Bulgarian military personnel. The name of the uprising refers to Ilinden, a name for Elijah's day, and to Preobrazhenie which means Feast of the Transfiguration.

The uprisings had as an aim the autonomy for Macedonia and Adrianople regions. The Ilinden Uprising in the region of Macedonia started on August 2 (New style). It affected the Manastir vilayet, where it was organized by Macedonian Bulgarians, joined mainly by some Patriarchist Macedonian Slavs (called Grecomans and Serbomans), and some Patriarchist and Exarchist Aromanians and Albanians. A provisional government was established in the town of Kruševo, proclaimed as the Kruševo Republic. The republic was overrun after ten days by the Ottoman forces. On August 19 (New style), the closely related Preobrazhenie Uprising, organized by Thracian Bulgarian revolutionaries in the Adrianople vilayet, led to the liberation of a large area in the Strandzha Mountains, and the creation of a provisional government in Vassiliko, the Strandzha Republic. This lasted 26 days before being put down by the Ottomans. The insurrection also affected the vilayet of Kosovo and the Salonica vilayet.

By the time the rebellion had started, many of its most promising potential leaders, including Ivan Garvanov and Gotse Delchev, had already been arrested or killed by the Ottomans. The general staff of the uprising attempted to provoke an intervention by the Great Powers, by sending them a letter and a memorandum in which they informed about the atrocities committed by the Ottomans, but the Great Powers proceeded their status quo policy. Towards the end of the uprising when it was evidently clear that there will be no intervention, a desperate call was made to convince the Bulgarian government to send the army against the Ottomans, but the government was pressured by the Great Powers to refrain from military intervention. The revolutionaries managed to maintain a guerrilla campaign against the Ottomans for almost three months, but the uprising was suppressed. This was followed by a mass wave of refugees from the regions of Macedonia and Thrace, mostly to Bulgaria, but also to the United States and Canada. Its greater effect was that it persuaded the European powers to attempt to convince the Ottoman sultan that he must take a more conciliatory attitude toward his Christian subjects in Europe. Through bilateral agreement, signed in 1904, Bulgaria committed not to support the revolutionary movement, while the Ottomans undertook to implement the Mürzsteg Reforms, however neither happened.

The uprising is celebrated in both Bulgaria and North Macedonia as the peak of their nations' struggle against the Ottoman rule. In Bulgaria it is considered as a general rebellion prepared by the joint revolutionary organization of the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire, with a common goal autonomy for Macedonia and Adrianople regions, and later unification with Bulgaria. While in North Macedonia, only the Ilinden uprising is acknowledged, which has been seen there as exclusively Macedonian. Calls for common celebrations, especially from the Bulgarian side, did little to change this state of affairs.