Naumchev, Ilia

   Prilep, Macedonia. In 1867 in the newspaper Macedonia-published in Istanbul - a letter to the editor was printed that was signed "an Egyptian." In it, Naumchev defended the right of each nation to have religious, civic, and national equality and pleaded for right of the Gypsies as a people with an ancient history to develop their own education and religious institutions. This is among the first documented evidence of the struggle of the Gypsies for civic emancipation. Naumchev initiated the establishment in Prilep of separate Gypsy guilds (smiths, violinists, porters) with their own patron saints. He ended his life as a priest in his hometown.