Draft:Jovan Cakic

Jovan Cakić

Jovan Cakić (Serbian Cyrillic: Јован Цакић; Kumanovo, Ottoman Empire, 1875 — Prilep, Serbia, 1918) was a Serbian teacher, a national representative of the Serbs in the Ottoman Empire, a member of the Serbian Chetnik Organization in Old Serbia, today's North Macedonia, during the Chetnik campaign at the beginning of the 20th century and a participant in the Balkan Wars and the First World War.

Jovan Cakić in uniform

Biography

Cakić was born into a rich family. Zacharie's father was a leather merchant, and lucrative jobs in Constantinople and Thessaloniki brought very good earnings. He graduated from a Serbian high school in Skopje and a teacher's school in Šabac. He also lived and studied in Petrograd, and then became a in Serbian schools in Kumanovo.

Together with the teacher Anta Todorović, Lazar Božović and priest Atanasije Petrović Taško, he formed the local city board of the Serbian Chetnik organization in Kumanovo in 1904. That board was established in the fall of 1904 and had the task of informing, supplying and supporting the Serbian companies in Kumanovo Castle[1] The board in Kumanovo maintained close ties with the board of the Chetnik organization in Vranje (founded in 1903). The meetings were held in the Prohor Pčinjski monastery, and actions were agreed there, as well as the transfer of the komits, especially from the Preševo kaza, via Koziak and their reception in eastern Povardarie. When the VMRO komitas killed the Serbian Atanasije Petrović Taško on 14 January 1905, the committee of the Serbian organization in Kumanovo decided to kill an exarchic priest in retribution, that is, the Bulgarian priest Alexander, on the day of the fortieth-day commemorating Taško's passing. The murder of Prote Aleksander was organized by the Kumanovo board of the Serbian Chetnik organization, among which was Cakić. It was the first example of revenge by a Serbian organization for the murders of Serbs by VMRO komitas.

False witnesses accused Cakić of being the immediate perpetrator of the murder. At the trial, an exarch priest was a witness who heard how the guns were fired, saw how "proto Aleksandar fell and how Jovan Cakić was running away, and his coat was flying after him". The court sentenced Jovan to five years in prison. His mother came out of the crowd and patted him on the shoulder: "Well, my son, you will come out of the abyss, and they will not expose you to the grave." In the Kuršumli Khan in Skopje, Cakić found himself in the same prison yard with Trajko Mitev and Ilija Levkov, the leaders of the Kumanovo komitas of the VMRO who were convicted of the murder of Protojerej Taško, also on the basis of false testimony. Cakić then organized the beating of Mitev and Levkov. An investigation was conducted and Cakić was thrown into solitary confinement as punishment, the deepest underground cell without light. They fastened him with an iron chain around his neck against the damp wall. Every night a song rose from its underground bed. The Serbian consulate was informed that Cakić had gone mad due to the abuse. Mihailo "Mikica" Ristić asked the Russian consul Belyaev and the Austrian count Palla to go to Kuršumdi Khan. In the deep cell, in the light of the lantern, they saw "a face distorted, smiling, stretched madly". Upon the intervention of the Serbian consul and guards who claimed that he had gone mad, Cakić was returned to the other prisoners where he was immediately cured. He remained in prison until 1908, when he was amnestied after Hurriyet, like all perpetrators of political murders. After the Hurriyets, he became a deputy for Kumanovo and the surrounding area of the First Assembly of Serbs in the Ottoman Empire.[2][3]

The first assembly of Ottoman Serbs in Skopje - photos of deputies including Cakić

After his release from prison, he was paid all his wages for the three-year period during which he was imprisoned. With that money, he bought land in Vranjska Banja and built the Cakić villa. After being released from the Skopje prison, Cakić returned to Kumanovo, and rented out the villa in Banja to guests. Married to his wife Sofia, he had three daughters: Leposava, Pravda and Vera.

First Assembly of the Ottoman Serbs in Skopje - photos of deputies including Cakić

Villa Cakić in Vranjska Banja

Before the First Balkan War, Cakić came to the Vranje region where he organized a volunteer company with which he fought in Macedonia. He commanded a detachment of Chetniks that was formed in Vranje and its surroundings.

Jovan Cakić with comrades

He participated in the First World War where he crossed Albania together with the Serbian army. He landed on Corfu where he recovered and was transferred to the Thessaloniki front with his unit. During the breakthrough of the Salonika front, he fell ill with malaria, and by order of the minister, he was granted a three-month sick leave in Corfu. He died after the breakthrough of the Thessaloniki front due to the accident of the ambulance that was transporting him, on the road between Thessaloniki and the village of Dragomance. He was buried at the Serbian military cemetery in Prilep. The daughters of Leposava and Pravda helped the church in Vranjska Banja, in the narthex of which there is still a memorial plaque of Jovan and Sofija Cakić.

References

• Translated from Serbian Wikipedia:https://sr.wikipedia.org/sr-ec/%D0%88%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD_%D0%A6%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%9B