Macedonian Struggle

Flag of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization.

In 1893, the Bulgarian Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) had been founded in Thessaloniki.[6][7][8] It self-identified as being representative of all nations in Macedonia, along with anti-Ottoman revolutionaries, with the aim of freeing Macedonia and Thrace from Ottoman rule, potentially to unite with Bulgaria.[9][10][11] The IMRO was declared as a Macedonian organization open to all ethnic groups in Macedonia and, earlier on, IMRO claimed that it was fighting for the autonomy of Macedonia and not for annexation to Bulgaria. However, according to some authors and historians, it later became an agent serving Bulgarian interests in Balkan politics with the aim of eventually uniting the entirety of Macedonia with Bulgaria, first in struggles against the Ottoman Empire and later against the Serbian-led Yugoslav successor state controlling the territory of Vardar Macedonia and the Greek state which controlled the southern portion of the region.[12] One major event representing the culmination of these actions is the assassination of the Serbian King of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes during the inter-war period by an IMRO sniper, likely working for Bulgarian interests. In practice, most of the followers of the IMRO were local Macedonian Bulgarians, though they also had some Aromanian allies or pro-Bulgarian supporters,[13][14][15] like Pitu Guli, Mitre The Vlach, Ioryi Mucitano and Alexandru Coshca.[16] Many of the members of the organization saw Macedonian autonomy as an intermediate step to unification with Bulgaria,[17] but others saw as their aim the creation of a Balkan federal state, with Macedonia as an equal member.[18]The IMRO ultimately weakened due to a split into a left-wing faction (federalist) and a right-wing faction (centralists) following the failed Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising.

Already from 1895 the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committees were formed in Sofia in order to reinforce the Bulgarian actions in Ottoman Empire. One of Komitadjis' first activities was the capture of the predominantly Greek town of Meleniko (today Melnik, Bulgaria), but they couldn't hold it for more than a few hours.[19][20] Bulgarian bands destroyed the Pomak village of Dospat where they massacred local inhabitants.[20] This kind of activity alerted Greeks and Serbians, who made a farce of the slogan "Macedonia to Macedonians", being against the constitution of Macedonia as separate state.[21]

A cheta during the Ilinden Uprising.

As Bulgarian efforts intensified, they started to affect European public opinion. In April 1903, a group known as the Boatmen of Thessaloniki, with assistance from the IMRO, blew up the French ship Guadalquivir and the Ottoman Bank in Thessaloniki. In August 1903, the IMRO organised the Ilinden Uprising in Macedonia and the Adrianople Vilayet which led to the formation of the short-lived Kruševo Republic. The uprising was ultimately suppressed by the Ottoman Army with the subsequent destruction of many villages and the devastation of large areas in Western Macedonia and around Kırk Kilise near Adrianople.

Seal of the Greek Macedonian Committee depicting Alexander the Great and Byzantine Emperor Basil II

Pavlos Melas in Macedonomachos uniform

In order to strengthen Greek efforts for Macedonia, the Hellenic Macedonian Committee was founded in 1903 by Stefanos Dragoumis and functioned under the leadership of wealthy publisher Dimitrios Kalapothakis. Its members included many Greek notables in addition to the fighters. Among its members were Ion Dragoumis and Pavlos Melas.[22] Its fighters were known as Makedonomachoi ("Macedonian fighters").[23]

Under these conditions, in 1904 a vicious guerrilla war broke as response of IMRO activities between Bulgarian and Greek bands within Ottoman Macedonia. The Bishop of Kastoria, Germanos Karavangelis, who was sent to Macedonia by Nikolaos Mavrokordatos, the ambassador of Greece, and Ion Dragoumis, the consul of Greece in Monastir, realised that it was time to act in a more efficient way and began to organise the intensification of the Greek opposition.

While Dragoumis concerned himself with the financial organisation of the efforts, the central figure in the military struggle was the very capable Cretan officer Georgios Katechakis.[24] Bishop Germanos Karavangelis travelled to raise morale and encourage the Greek population to take action against the IMRO. Many committees were also formed to promote the Greek national interests.

Katechakis and Karavangelis succeeded in the recruitment and organization of guerrilla groups that were later reinforced with volunteers from Greece. Volunteers often came from Crete and the Mani area of the Peloponnese. They even recruited former IMRO members, taking advantage of their political and/or personal disputes within the organisation. Additionally, officers of the Hellenic Army were encouraged to join the struggle to provide experienced leadership, as many had served in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. The officers who elected to join provided a logistical advantage to the Makedonomachoi. The Macedonian Greeks, however, would form the core of the fighting force and proved to be the most important fighters due to their knowledge of the region's geography and some possessing knowledge of the Bulgarian language. Many local Greeks, such as Periklis Drakos, were also involved in the smuggling and stashing of weapons and ammunition around the region.

Armed Mount Athos monks

Periklis Drakos from Kavala with co-fighters

The Greek state became concerned, not only because of Bulgarian penetration in Macedonia but also due to Serbian interests, which were concentrated mainly in Üsküp and Monastir area. The rioting in Macedonia, especially the death of Pavlos Melas in 1904, caused intense nationalistic feelings in Greece. This led to the decision to send more volunteers to reinforce and better organise the armed bands and thwart the Bulgarian efforts to bring all of the Slavic-speakers of Macedonia on under their influence.

The band of Gonos Yiotas (seated right) and Apostolis Matopoulos (seated left).

The Greek General Consulate in Thessaloniki, under Lambros Koromilas, became the centre of the struggle, coordinating the Greek bands, distributing, and nursing the wounded. Fierce conflicts between the Greeks and Bulgarians started in the area of Kastoria, in the Giannitsa Lake area, and elsewhere. During 1905, guerilla activity increased and the Makedonomachoi gained significant advantage within 10 months, extending their control towards the areas of Mariovo and East Macedonia, Kastanohoria (near Kastoria), the plains north and south of Florina and the routes around Monastir.[25] However, from early 1906 the situation became critical and the forces of the Makedonomachoi were forced to withdraw from various areas. Nevertheless, the groups of Tellos Agras and Ioannis Demestichas had some success in the marsh of Giannitsa.[25] There were great advances of the Serb forces, joined by Muslim Slavs, in summer of 1906 in the northern areas of the Sanjak of Üsküp.[26]

While the armed bands confronted the Ottoman Army, the Ottoman administration often ignored the activities of the Greek guerrillas,[27] and according to Dakin assisted them against the Bulgarians outright.[21] However, once the subversive potential of the Bulgarians had been neutralised, Ottoman policy ended the favourable neutrality to the Greek side and embarked upon relentless persecutions against the Greeks.[28] During the course of the conflict Greek armed bands numbered 2,000 men. Of whom over 700 were killed in action along with 1,250 pro-Greek civilians. [29]

Most Aromanians during the Macedonian Struggle were pro-Greek, supporting the Greek revolutionaries and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.[30][31][32] These Aromanians escaped or resisted the influence of Romanian interventionism,[33] in which a considerable amount of money was spent on by the Romanian state.[34] They were indifferent or even hostile to their national movement.[30] In the archives of the Greek Foreign Ministry there are numerous testimonies from Aromanian communities denouncing Romanian "propaganda" and proclaiming their Greekness.[34] In Veria, there was a small local unit which was under the leadership of a pro-Greek Aromanian, Tasos Koukotegos. This unit, being small and somewhat isolated, had been operating without definite objectives, but it proved to be very important for the Greek cause as it helped in fights against local Turkish chiefs, pro-Romanian Aromanians, and Bulgarian komitadjis.[34] Additionally, local support from pro-Greek Aromanians in Kastoria empowered Greek activity in the region.[34] A notable Greek makedonomachos of Aromanian descent was Anastasios Pichion.

Anastasios Pichion, a pro-Greek Aromanian

In Pelagonia, the pro-Greek sentiments of Aromanians during the Macedonian Struggle contributed to their displacement.[35] When they migrated to Greece, they were already financially ruined.[36]

As the Bulgarians had managed to introduce their language in church services and education in the Ottoman Empire, so did the pro-Romanian Aromanians start demanding the same rights. The Greek Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople reacted strongly to this however amid increased rivalry in the region and eight Aromanian churches were closed by his personal order in 1875. This produced protests from the pro-Romanian Aromanians to the Ottoman and Romanian government, and also increased tensions between the pro-Romanian Aromanians and the Greeks[37] as well as with pro-Greek Aromanians,[38] which led to physical violence that often ended in fatalities.[37]

In 1903, following the failure of the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising in which many pro-Romanian Aromanian and Bulgarian soldiers had fought with the aim of creating a Macedonian autonomy, the Ottoman Empire allowed the intervention of Greek militias, known as antartes and formed within Greece with commanders from the Greek state, to suppress potential renewed attempts of this objective. These commanders began to threaten the leaders of various Romanian schools in Aromanian villages, warning them that if they did not close down their activities, they would be attacked. Given this, some pro-Romanian Aromanian fighters referred to as armatoles (armatoli, armatol in singular) began to take up arms, the first ones being Mihail Handuri from Livadia (Giumala de Jos or Livãdz) and Hali Joga from Ano Grammatiko (Grãmãticuva), who having been joined by various young pro-Romanian Aromanian fighters, began to attack Greek bands in the area of Edessa and Veria. These pro-Romanian Aromanian bands were allied with Bulgarian bands in Ottoman Macedonia. In 1906, under Ioryi Mucitano,[39] they were organized into two committees, one in Bucharest led by Alexandru Coshca and Sterie Milioru and the other in Sofia led by Mucitano. He decided to divide their area of operations into districts led by a so-called voivode. These bands were allowed free passage by Bulgarian villages.[40]

Starting from summer of 1904, clashes between pro-Romanian Aromanian and ethnic Greek[40] or pro-Greek Aromanian bands,[38] be it only between themselves or with other combatants involved, erupted in the village of Condusula (between Edessa and Naousa), Ano Grammatiko,[40] Pyrgoi and Dervent.[41] Pro-Greek schools and churches were destroyed by the pro-Romanian Aromanians and pro-Greek Aromanians retaliated by doing the same to pro-Romanian schools and churches.[42] The two factions expelled each other and even murdered opponent schoolteachers and clergy.[42] One such case took place in 1911, when a unit of pro-Romanian Aromanians murdered Emilianos Lazaridis, Metropolitan of Grevena, for promoting the assimilation of the Aromanians into the Greek nation.[43] Another example is Haralambie Balamaci, an Aromanian priest murdered in 1914 by Greek forces.[44]

Greeks and pro-Greek Aromanians suffered attacks from Turkish troops and bashibazouks who killed 41 of them and destroyed 366 and 203 of their houses and shops respectively.[34]