Temko Popov

Temko Popov(ić) (; ; 1855–1929) was a pro-Macedonian activist and Serbian national worker in the Ottoman Empire. He was an early proponent of the idea that the Macedonians Slavs are a distinct nation. Popov was among the founders and leaders of the Sofia-based organization Secret Macedonian Committee and ended up siding with the Serbian national cause.

Life Popov was born in 1855 in Ohrid, then part of the Ottoman Empire. As part of the Ottoman Macedonian upper-middle class, he received a Greek education. However, the Greek education did not manage to make him feel as a Greek. Instead, the education resulted in him developing a vague feeling of Macedonianness, as a supra-national identity. Historians do not know when exactly he came into contact with Serbian diplomatic circles or an official Serbian agenda. which promoted the idea that the Macedonian Slavs are a distinct nation. The other founders and leaders were Naum Evro(vić), Kosta Grupče(vić) and Vasil(ije) Karajovov(ić). It marked the beginning of the pro-Serbian activities of its activists. After the Bulgarian authorities discovered and dismantled SMC, he emigrated to Belgrade. In the same letter, he stated: "Let us not lie to ourselves, Despot, the national spirit in Macedonia has reached such a stage today that even if Jesus Christ had come to the Earth, he would not have been able to persuade the Macedonian that he was a Bulgarian or a Serb, excepting those Macedonians in whom Bulgarian propaganda has already taken root." Popov moved back to Belgrade where the Saint Sava Society helped him materially to his new assignment at work. This compromise with the Serbian interests led later to the abandonment of the separatist program altogether. On 23 June 1889, the Serbian consul in Thessaloniki confirmed in a letter that Popov was promoting the Serbian cause around cities in Ottoman Macedonia. From 24 April 1889, he received a salary from the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs for work in Thessaloniki's Serbian consulate. Here, along with Kosta Grupčević, he issued the Serbian newspaper Carigradski glasnik, which was issued in standard Serbian and promoted Serbian ideas. After the death of Grupčević, he became the main editor of the newspaper in 1909. In 1913, after the Balkan Wars, he became the first Serbian mayor of Ohrid, just ceded to Serbia, until the Bulgarian occupation in 1915. After World War I, he was again the mayor of Ohrid. He was also a deputy in the Yugoslav parliament in the 1920s. Popov died in Ohrid in 1929.