 The Chetnik movement had its roots in the 19th-century Balkan liberation struggle against the Turks (Ottomans).The "Serbian Committee", made up of intelligentsia, businessmen and military officers, had initially funded small groups of brigands, either self-organized or part of the Bulgarian revolutionary organizations active in Macedonia (IMRO and SMAC), that were used to protect the Christian population from Ottoman atrocities and persecution.Serbia offered material support to the Ilinden Uprising (1903), and after its suppression, authorities in Belgrade sought but failed to negotiate with Bulgarian leaders on sending Serbian bands ("cheta") into Macedonia for combined Serbian-Bulgarian action.