Vataša massacre

The massacre was performed by the Bulgarian army and police forces led by captain Boris Zheglov, lieutenant Boris Kostov and the police officer Petko Oprekov under the command of Lyuben Apostolov [bg], commander of 56. Veles infantry regiment from the Fifth Bulgarian Army. Apostolov was a local from Kriva Palanka. The principal of the local high school in Kavadarci, Ivan Iliev (IMRO) [bg], a former voivode of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, participated in the action too.^[4] There was a talk in Vataša there were young people who had come into contact with the Macedonian partisans and were preparing to join them. In this regard, some locals loyal to the authorities prepared a list with the names of the involved. The operation to arrest the partisans' helpers was carried out on the morning of 16 June. During their interrogations, the rustic teacher, who was from Bulgaria, tried to exonerate the youths, but was removed.

The young men were subsequently taken out of the village and shot. They were between the ages of 18 and 28, while one boy was 15 years old.^[5] Their names are Vančo Gurev (19 years), Ilčo Dimov (18 years), Panče Meškov (18 years), Danko Dafkov (18 years), Gerasim Metakov (18 years), Risto Gjondev (18 years), Pero Videv (15 years), Dime Čekorov (20 years), Vaso Hadžijordanov (28 years), Ferčo Pop Gjorgjiev (26 years), Pane Džunov (18 years) and Blaže Icev (20 years).^[6] Four girls who were also arrested, were set free later. According to the then Tarnovo Constitution, most of the dead were minors, since adulthood was attained upon reaching the age of 21.^[7][8] Persons under the age of 21 were not subject to the death penalty.^[9]

The event led to anger among the local population. As a result, at the end of June 1943, the mayor of Skopje Spiro Kitinchev and the journalist Danail Krapchev [bg], both local cadres, were sent to the village. They understood the main role in initiating this incident was of the deputy district governor Krum Kamchev, also a local. Subsequently Kitinchev went to Sofia and exposed there what a "mistake" had happened. However, the only consequence remained that Kamchev was moved from Kavadarci in a local village. After the war, the leader of the action, Colonel Apostolov, was handed over by the new Bulgarian authorities in Skopje. Before the court in Kavadarci, he pleaded not guilty. According to him, he had information that the young men and women had been captured armed in the forest. Per the orders in force in the army at that time, the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War did not apply to them and they were to be shot immediately.^[10] He was sentenced to death and shot. The other officers and non-commissioned officers who took part in the action, D. Raev, B. Zheglov, A. Bogdanov, B. Kostov and P. Oprekov, were also sentenced to death. Kitinchev, Krapchev and Iliev were also liquidated by the new communist authorities in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.^{[11][12][13][14]}