Draft:Danilo Cakic (Teacher)

Danilo Cakić (1845-1915) was a Serbian teacher from Macedonia who lost his life as a non-combatant retiree during the World War I occupation of the region by Bulgarian troops.

Background

The Cakić family, in the early days when the schismatic exarchists first arrived in Kumanovo in 1872 with their propaganda, their priests and teachers and began taking over Serbian churches and schools and systematically converting the townspeople, the Cakić family categorically refused, along with a few other influential townspeople. They remained true Serbs, aware that only the Serbian people have lived in these parts, with their time honoured folk customs and loyalty to their Serbian Orthodox Church and their ancient temples, though some in ruins, that date back to the Middle Ages if not further back. During the Serbian-Ottoman Wars (1876-1878) Cakić family distinguished themsleves by mobilizing voluteers who illigally crossed the Ottoman-Serbian border to join Serbian forces . The good citizens of Kumanovo and surrounding territories (Old Serbia and Macedonia) expected victory in the Serbian–Ottoman War would also free Macedonia from the oppressive Turkish yoke but that did not happen. Instead, the end of that 1878 war brought more anguish when a Turkish trial was convened and prison sentences handed out targeting prominent Serbs of Kumanovo and surrounding areas for not supporting the Ottoman Empire.

Life

Danilo was born in the town of Kumanovo in the Cakić family with three other brothers, all of whom were well-educated. Danilo graduated from the Serbian Old Slavonic Gymnasium of Kumanovo and afterwards went to Serbia to further his education. In Belgrade he graduated from the "Saint Sava" Evening Teacher's College, became a member of the Saint Sava Society, met many influential intellectuals, namely Despot Badžović, Miloš Milojević and Temko Popov, and then went back home to teach in different villages and hamlets in the region. From August to October in 1903 he participated in the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising as a volunteer in a Serbian revolutionary cheta unit. In 1906 he became a member of the regional committee of the Serbian Chetnik Organization. In 1908 he supported Chetniks Denko Čuma, Serfim Smiljanic and Nikola Palanka whose aim was to protect the promising Young Turk Revolution, though short-lived. In the same year Cakić was among the founders of the Teacher's Association in Kumanovo and in 1910 he became a member of its executive board.Danilo like Krsta Aleksić of Mlado Nagoričane retired before the First Balkan War and the Second Balkan War broke out. Soon came the catastrophe of World War I followed with the invasion of southern Serbia by the Bulgarian Army. Even retired Serbian teachers were not spared. Danilo Cakić met the same fate as Chetnik fighters and culture workers in the hands of the Exarchists, never to be heard or seen again. He was 70 years of age when he was taken from his home and killed at an unknown location.

References

• Translated and adapted from Danilo Cakić biography in the recollections of Mihailo Milan Petrovich "Serbs in the County of Kumanovo", page 177: https://imus.org.rs/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Srbi-u-kumanovskom-srezu-Du%C5%A1ica-Boji%C4%87.pdf