BATTLE OF IVANKOVAC - FIRST MAJOR VICTORY OVER REGULAR OTTOMAN ARMY

BIJELJINA, AUGUST 17 /SRNA/ - On August 18, 1805, Serbian rebels defeated the regular army of the Ottoman Empire for the first time in one of the largest battles of the First Serbian Uprising, fought on Ivankovac Hill near Ćuprija.

The Battle of Ivankovac was one of the most significant victories of Karađorđe's rebels against the Ottomans during the First Serbian Uprising, marking a turning point in the character of Karađorđe's rebellion. The rebels' advance, during which they captured several towns, including Užice and Karanovac /present-day Kraljevo/, alarmed the sultan, who ordered Hafiz Pasha, appointed as the Pasha of Belgrade, to march from Niš towards Belgrade with 15,000 troops. Serbian rebels, under the command of Milenko Stojković and Petar Dobrnjac, fortified their positions and withstood several Ottoman assaults. The battle was ultimately decided by the leader of the uprising, Đorđe Petrović Karađorđe, who came to the defenders' aid from the direction of Jagodina with more than 4,000 rebels on the night of August 18-19, forcing the Ottomans to withdraw to Paraćin. After fierce fighting, the Serbs suffered 1,000 casualties, while the Ottoman forces lost ten times as many and, in a panicked retreat, withdrew towards Niš. Karađorđe once again proved himself a great strategist, whose name had begun to strike fear into Ottoman pashas and viziers. It was a crucial moment in the First Serbian Uprising, or the Serbian Revolution, as this period of Serbian history was called by the renowned German historian Leopold Ranke. Chroniclers say that the Battle of Ivankovac laid the foundation for Serbian aspirations to restore freedom and statehood.