Mara Buneva

Mara Buneva
A photograph of Mara Buneva
Born	1902 Tetovo, today Republic of Macedonia
Died	January 13, 1928 Skopje, today Republic of Macedonia
Organization	IMRO)

Mara Buneva (Bulgarian and Macedonian: Мара Бунева) (1902 in Tetovo, Ottoman Empire – January 13, 1928, Skopje, Kingdom of Yugoslavia) was a Bulgarian revolutionary,^[1] member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization.^[2] She is famous for the assassination of a Serbian official Velimir Prelić after which she committed suicide. In the Republic of Macedonia Buneva is regarded as a Bulgarophile traitor.^[3]

After the Serbian annexation of Vardar Macedonia, Buneva moved to Bulgaria, where she studied in Sofia University and married a Bulgarian officer. Later on direct orders by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) in 1927, she went back to Yugoslavia with a conspiratorial mission. At the appointed time on January 13, 1928, she intercepted Prelić on his way to lunch and shot the official after which she shot herself. Prelić died in hospital a few days later and was buried in Skopje.^[4] Her act was part of a violent resistance movement against Serbian policies of forced assimilation of the Macedonian Bulgarians. Prelić 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.

During the Second World War Bulgaria annexed the Vardar Banovina and on the place of the death of Mara Buneva a commemoration plate was mounted. However later it was obliterated from the new Yugoslav authorities, which were successful in removing all Bulgarian influence in the region. In the new Socialist Republic of Macedonia the Bulgarophobia increased almost to the level of state ideology.^[5] After the fall of Communism, especially since the beginning of the 2000s, almost every year a Macedonian Bulgarians have began to mount on the same place in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia a new commemoration plate, but it does not survive for more than a few days, repeatedly destroyed by local ultra-nationalists.^[6]

References

1. ^ Nationalism, Margaret H. Lamb, Heinemann Educational Books, 1975, p. 31.
2. ^ Bulgarian conspiracy, Joseph Swire, R. Hale Publisher, 1939, p. 210.
3. ^ Атентаторката на Прелиќ не живее во меморијата на Македонците. На панихидите доаѓаат тие што се чувствуваат Бугари и ја негираат македонската нација. Утрински вестник. 23.02.2007 г.
4. ^ Kedourie, Elie (1993). Nationalism. Blackwell Publishing. pp. 99. ISBN 0631188851. [1]
5. ^ Mirjana Maleska. Editor-in-chief. WITH THE EYES OF THE “OTHERS”. (about Macedonian-Bulgarian relations and the Macedonian national identity). New Balkan Politics - Journal of Politics. ISSUE 6 [2]
6. ^ People Arrested After the Mara Buneva Plate Incident in Skopje were Released.

Persondata
Name	Buneva, Mara
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1902
Place of birth	Tetovo, today Republic of Macedonia
Date of death	January 13, 1928
Place of death	Skopie, today Republic of Macedonia