page_title: Jovan Babunski
section_title: Later life and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Jovan Babunski / Later life and legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Babunski's Chetniks by the grave. News article from 1924.
context_page_description: Jovan Stojković, known as Jovan Babunski, was a Serbian Chetnik commander during the Macedonian Struggle, Balkan Wars and World War I. Following the murder of his brother and nephew by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, he joined a Chetnik band and took command of Chetnik units on the Vardar River, where he and his men often engaged Bulgarian and Ottoman forces.
  With the outbreak of the First Balkan War he joined the Serbian Army and was wounded while fighting in the village of Strevica. During the Second Balkan War, he joined a Serbian volunteer detachment and fought at the Battle of Bregalnica. During World War I, Babunski and his Chetnik detachment fought Austro-Hungarian forces in the summer of 1914 and later fought on the Salonika Front, where Babunski was ordained by French General Louis Franchet d'Espèrey after he and his men captured two German midget submarines and their crews. After the war, Babunski and his 250-strong force helped Serb authorities suppress Bulgarian resistance in the Macedonian towns of Bitola and Tikveš, committing several atrocities in the process.
context_section_description: After the war, Babunski's Chetniks were dispatched to Kosovo and Macedonia, reinforcing the 50,000 soldiers that had been deployed to quell the armed uprisings there. Babunski's force of 250 men helped the authorities suppress resistance in the towns of Bitola and Tikveš, targeting locals sympathetic to the Bulgarian komitas, and committing several atrocities in the process. Forces under his command also committed several atrocities in Albania. Chetnik bands, including those of Babunski, are also said to have enslaved locals and turned them into forced labourers for the armed forces of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. By the summer of 1919, the authorities had decided that paramilitary formations such as Babunski's were not "furthering the state's aims in the region". Babunski died in Veles on 17 February 1920, after contracting influenza.
  The historian Dušan T. Bataković characterizes Babunski as "exceptionally courageous and determined". John Paul Newman, a historian specializing in Yugoslavia's interwar paramilitary formations, believes Babunski would have become one of the most powerful figures in the interwar Chetnik Association had it not been for his premature demise. Babunski was celebrated as a national hero following his death and featured heavily in veterans' commemorations during the interwar period. A monument dedicated to him was constructed in Veles in 1924, but was destroyed by Bulgarian occupational authorities during World War II, when Macedonia was annexed by Bulgaria following Yugoslavia's dismemberment by the Axis. The nom de guerre Babunski was adopted as a surname by his descendants.
caption: Babunski's Chetniks by his grave.
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