Vasil Chekalarov

Who was Vasil Chekalarov?

Vasil Hristov Chekalarov or Vasil Tcakalarov was a Bulgarian revolutionary and one of the leaders of Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation in Aegean Macedonia. H. N. Brailsford described Chekalarov as the "cruel but competent general" of the Bulgarian insurgents in Macedonia. In Republic of Macedonia he is considered ethnic Macedonian.

He was a leading komitaji in the bands of the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees and took part in the battles against the Ottoman authorities as well before the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising as after it. In 1901-1902 he created a channel for illegal purchase and transfer of firearms from Greece to Southern Macedonia. In 1904 he migrated into Bulgaria and became one of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization organizers of the military campaign against the Greek Struggle for Macedonia.

As a commander of a Bulgarian guerilla band, Chekalarov supported the Greek army in the First Balkan War 1912-1913. Later hе fought on the side of the Bulgarian Army on the front in Eastern Thrace in the composition of the Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps. He was killed by Greek troops during the Second Balkan War.