ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT OF CHEPELARE

After the village of Chepelare was liberated on 16th January 1878, its residents were already free, but did not know how to manage their freedom and what to do next. About ten days later an order from the Stanimaka came for the arrangement of municipal management. On 1st February 1878 some of the most prominent Muslims and Christians in the village of Chepelare gathered in the house of Decho Haritev and selected the following agricultural municipal administration: chairman (mayor) – Decho Haritev; vice-chairman – Suleyman Milyazim Ahmedinovski; fathers (members): Atanas Manolov Kisyov, Todor Atanasov Baldzhiev, Ahmed Kehaya Tyotyuvski; clerk (secretary) Ivan Georgiev Naydenov; policemen (called “panduri”): Atanas Mitev Panev and Kolyu Merdzhanov. The new rulers were approved by the Stanimashko regional head Bogdan Brakalov.

The eparchy (also called “nahiya”) of Rupchos was part of the formed command of Stanimashko. But it was a temporary administrative unit and was closed after few months. There was not even one state or district institution established in the village of Chepelare until the end of November 1878. The police-officer Nikola Mladenov arrived in the end of December together with two policemen (pedestrian policeman) and opened a police station. This was the beginning of a permanent honorary power on the whole territory of Rupchos. Mladenov stayed in Rupchos until the end of June 1879 when he passed power to the first district constable of Rupchos Mehmed bei.

East Rumelia, with respect to the administration, was divided into 6 regions and 48 districts. The region of Plovdiv was divided into 6 districts. General Stolipin who was the acting general-governor of East Rumelia, by Order No.55/10th May 1879, published in Maritsa newspaper on 18th May 1879, named the 6 districts and defined their seats, namely: district of Plovdiv, district of Konushs (Stanimash), district of Karlovo, district of Ovchehalmovo of an indefinite seat, district of Krichim – village of Krichim, district of Rupchos – with a seat the village of Shiroka Laka.

By Order No.1/24 th May 1879 the general-governor of East Rumelia Alexander Bogoridi (also known as Aleko Pasha) made a change in the administrative division of the region of Plovdiv. The above-mentioned 6 districts were called and redistributed, as follows: district of Plovdiv, district of Konushs (Stanimash), district of Karlovo, district of Ovchehalmovo, district of Sarnegorovo, and district of Rupchos.

The village of Chepelare was chosen to be the administrative seat of the district of Rupchos. Until the end of June 1879, the district institutions (without the telegraph office and the district school inspectorate) were already placed in the village of Chepelare and functioning there. The district institutions consisted of the following: District administration, District court and District tax collecting office.

In accordance with the Organic statute of Rumelia the settlements were divided into towns and villages. Only those settlements were considered towns that were acknowledged such by the Ottoman Power before the year of 1878. The change in the name of one settlement and its change from a village into town were possible only by law. The municipal management in the towns was accomplished by a municipal council, with elective mayor and assistants. However, the situation in the villages was quite different. In the villages the Ottoman way to power was restored. According to it each religious or ethnical group in the village, unless it was not less than 1/3 of all its habitants, was entitled to its own elective management. Each village that had its own territory and at least 50 households was considered a separate village.

Chepelare, even though it was a seat of district, was a village where people of two different religious communities were living, namely Christian and Muslim communities, and by virtue of the Organic Statute the same had to have two village and municipal managements – a Christian management and a Muslim management. A municipal election was held in the end of 1879, in accordance with the law of East Rumelia. Two municipal councils (councils of elders) – a Christian Council and a Muslim Council, were elected. Each of the two councils consisted of seven members. After the election, the elders chose between them a mayor and assistants. The Christian Council of Elders elected Decho Haritev as mayor, and the Muslim Council of Elders elected the Muslim Salih Chekezar as mayor, and Salih Molla Mustafov Vegov as an assistant of the mayor.

After the end of the Balkan war, to the south of the ridge: Momina Voda (Maiden Water) – Rozhen – Sveti Georgi (St. George) – Karamandzha (called Murgavets at the present) – Prevala – Perelik was established the district of Pashmakli (later known as Smolyan); and to the north was the district of Stanimak (later called the district of Asenovgrad), including the river valley of Chepelarska River. The settlements from the river valley of Bacha River entered the newly established district of Devin. The border between the two districts, namely the district of Stanimak and the district of Devin, in the region of Pamporovo, passed from Mechi Chal Peak to the north of Terakliyska River, to the south to its flow into Stoychenska River. Then it continued to the south along the so-called Kasymski ravine and in about 2-3 km leaded to the west of Snezhanka Peak (Snow-white Peak).