Miss Stone Affair
The Miss Stone Affair (Bulgarian: Афера „Мис Стоун“, Macedonian: „Афера Мис Стон“) was the kidnapping of American Protestant missionary Ellen Maria Stone and her pregnant fellow missionary friend Katerina Stefanova–Tsilka by an Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization.[1]
History
In 1901 one of the main problems facing the IMRO is the lack of resources for armaments. Gotse Delchev authorized at that time Mihail Gerdzhikov to carry out a kidnapping in Macedonia, but he failed. Delchev made two other unsuccessful attempts to kidnap wealthy Turks and Greeks. Later he developed a plan to kidnap the son of Ivan Evstratiev Geshov, which also failed. The financial crisis was the main issue discussed at the meeting of the leadership of IMRO in Kyustendil, Bulgaria in the summer of 1901. At this meeting Delchev argued that small robberies only tarnish the reputation of the organization and were not helpful to solving the financial problem. Sandanski offered to kidnap Ferdinand of Bulgaria during his visit to the Rila Monastery, but this radical plan was opposed Delchev, who believed that the abduction must be done on Ottoman territory. Chernopeev and Sandanski discussed the kidnapping of a wealthy Turk near Simitli, but this plan was not realised. In 1901 Yane Sandanski, Hristo Chernopeev and Sava Mihaylov prepared a plan for the kidnapping of Süleyman Bey, but due to his illness this action also failed.
Sandanski has drawn then to the idea of kidnapping a Protestant missionary of Bansko. A detachment led by the voivoda Yane Sandanski and the sub-voivodas Hristo Chernopeev and Krǎstyo Asenov realized this idea on 21 August 1901. The two women - Ellen Maria Stone and her fellow missionary Katerina Stefanova–Tsilka were kidnapped somewhere between Bansko and Gorna Dzhumaya, then towns in the Ottoman Empire. Widely covered by the media at the time, the event has been often dubbed "America's first modern hostage crisis". The goal of the kidnapping was to receive a heavy ransom and aid the financially struggling at the time IMARO. The detachment was pursued by the Ottoman authorities and by bands of the contending organization Supreme Macedonian Committee. Sometimes regarded as a case of the Stockholm syndrome (with the kidnappers even assisting Tsilka in giving birth to her daughter), the affair ended after intensive negotiations in early 1902, half a year after the kidnapping. IMARO was paid a ransom of 14,000 Turkish gold liras on 18 January 1902 in Bansko. The hostages were released on 2 February near Ustrumca, in present-day Macedonia.
References
Further reading
- Пандев, Константин (1983). Аферата "Мис Стоун". Спомени, документи и материали (in Bulgarian). Мая Вапцарова. София: Издателство на Отечествения фронт. OCLC 10725712.
- Carpenter, Teresa (2003). The Miss Stone Affair: America's First Modern Hostage Crisis!. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-0055-4.
- Some archive photos concerning the case.