Anastas Yankov

Anastas Yankov Dinkov was a Bulgarian army officer and revolutionary, a prominent voivode of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee.

He participated then as a volunteer in the Serbo-Turkish War (1876), in which he was awarded the Serbian Order and promoted to the rank of junior non-commissioned officer.

At the beginning of the Uprising, Yankov wrote to Prince Ferdinand that his recent journey through the country had become a triumph for the Bulgarian population.

[4] In order to detach his native Zagorichani from IMRO influence, Yankov promulgated that it was high time that "Macedonians, like all other nations, Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians and Cretans demand their rights and freedom arm-at-hand".

Two years later, Pavlos Melas attested the effectiveness among the local Slavic speakers of Yankov's advocacy of the idea of the existence of a distinct Macedonian nation.

[5] Anastas Yankov's campaign created great problems for the rival revolutionary organization IMARO, which found it difficult to fend off his attempts to revolt.