[1] After the Serbian–Ottoman War (1876–78), the Serbian military government sent armament and aid to rebels in Kosovo and Macedonia.
[2] Many of those bands, privately organized and aided by the government, were established in Serbia and crossed into Ottoman territory.
[2] As more of these rebel bands from Serbia appeared, in that way also the Ottoman government, and privately organized Turks and Albanians, became more active, with harassment of Christians on the right side of the Vardar.
[3] As a result of this pressure, in the beginning of 1880, some 65 rebel leaders (glavari), from almost all provinces in southern Old Serbia and Macedonia, sent an appeal to M. S. Milojević, the former commander of volunteers in the Serbian-Ottoman War (1876–78), asking him to, with requesting from the Serbian government, prepare 1,000 rifles and ammunition for them, and that Milojević be appointed the commander of the rebels and that they be allowed to cross the border and start the rebellion.
[1] In the fight in which Čerkez Ilija and his fighters died, half of Micko's band fell too.