Hristo Batandzhiev

Who was Hristo Batandzhiev?

Hristo Batandzhiev was Bulgarian revolutionary, one of the founders of "The Committee for Obtaining the Political Rights Given to Macedonia by the Congress of Berlin" from which, later developed the IMRO known prior to 1902 as Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees. He is considered as ethnic Macedonian in the Republic of Macedonia.

He was a teacher in the Bulgarian Exarchate school in Thessaloniki and Secretary of the Bulgarian Bishopric in the city between 1888 and 1911. Batandzhiev also participated in the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising. After the Young Turk Revolution from 1908, he was an active member of the Bulgarian Constitutional Clubs Party.

In July 1913, after the outbreak of the Second Balkan War, Hristo Batandzhiev was arrested by the Greek authorities. He was about to be deported to the island of Trikeri in the Aegean Sea, together with many other Bulgarians. During the trip however, he, the Bulgarian Archimandrite Еvlogi and many others were left in the open sea and drowned.