Ottoman-controlled Macedonia, where Kočić worked as a teacher at a local Serbian-language high school. Upon arriving in Skopje, Kočić was shaken by the news that his father had died. During his stay, he staged the first theatrical performance in the city's history, a stage production of Jazavac pred sudom. Kočić remained in Skopje for less than a year. He made the mistake of writing an article for the Belgrade daily Politika that was critical of the local Serbian archimandrite, prompting his superiors to arrange a transfer to Bitola, which he declined. Kočić and his wife moved back to Vienna, but their stay there proved to be shortlived. Within a year, the couple relocated to Sarajevo, where Kočić became the general secretary of Prosveta (Enlightment), a Serb cultural society. In May 1906, he took part in a province-wide general strike. In his speeches, he drew parallels between the grievances of workers and those of peasants, whose discontent continued to fester, as the average size of their plots had decreased by 11 percent between 1895 and 1910. Shortly after relocating to Sarajevo, Kočić applied for a license to publish a satirical newspaper called Jazavac (The Badger). Kočić declared that the newspaper would mock "everything that is rotten and sick in our contemporary social life". His request again brought him to the attention of the Austro-Hungarian authorities, who compiled a secret internal memorandum branding him "a fanatical revolutionary" who led "an Austrophobic movement dedicated to organizing a pan-Serbian uprising in Bosnia." In October 1906, Kočić led a student protest against a Bosnian Croat newspaper titled Hrvatski dnevnik (The Croatian Daily), which he had accused of using pejoratives in describing the Bosnian Serbs. The authorities acted quickly against both Kočić and the paper's two editors. The editors, both of whom were from Croatia, were expelled from the province. Kočić was notified that he had 48 hours to leave Sarajevo or face arrest. He moved back to Banja Luka, but according to biographer Thomas Butler, "the authorities were not satisfied with merely banishing him." In 1907, Kočić applied for a license to publish a newspaper called Otadžbina (Fatherland), which was granted. The first issue appeared on 28 June 1907, during Vidovdan (St. Vitus Day), a holiday of great significance in the Serbian national consciousness marking the anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo. In that issue, Kočić bitterly criticized Austro-Hungarian rule and its negative effect on