On the eve of the 20th century, Greek Macedonians were a minority population in a number of areas inside the multiethnic region of Macedonia, more so away from the coast. They lived alongside Slavic-speaking populations, most of whom had come to be identified as Bulgarians, and other ethnicities such as Jews, Turks and Albanians. However, the Greek speakers were the predominant population in the southern zone of the region which comprised two-thirds of modern Greek Macedonia. Bulgarian actions to exploit the Bulgarian population of Macedonia with the foundation of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and the influence of the Bulgarian Exarchate on the region, led to the Ilinden Uprising which was shut down by Ottoman forces; these events provoked Greece to help the Macedonians to resist both Ottoman and Bulgarian forces, by sending military officers who formed bands made up of Macedonians and other Greek volunteers, something that resulted in the Macedonian Struggle from 1904 to 1908, which ended with the Young Turk Revolution. According to the 1904 census, conducted by Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha for the Ottoman authorities, the Greeks were the predominant population in the vilayets of Thessaloniki and Monastir, outnumbered in the vilayet of Kosovo by the Bulgarians who formed the majority.