Kottas

Konstantinos Christou
Nickname(s) Kottas
Born 1863
Prespes, Ottoman Empire (now Greece)
Died 1905 (aged 42)
Manastir, Ottoman Empire (now R. Macedonia)
Allegiance
  • Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (1899–1900)
  • Hellenic Macedonian Committee (1900–1905)
Years of service 1898–1905
Unit
  • Korestia band (1898–99)
  • Kostur band (1900)
  • Karavangelis' band (1900–05)
Battles/wars Macedonian Struggle

Konstantinos Christou (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Χρήστου, Bulgarian and Slavic Macedonian: Константин Христов), known as Kottas (Κώττας), was an insurgent leader first associated with the pro-Bulgarian Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) and later, after realizing the real purposes of IMRO against the Greek Macedonians and feeling deceived[1], with the pro-Greek irregular fighters during the Greek struggle for Macedonia. Christou was born in the village of Rulja (Greek Ρούλια/Roulia, Macedonian Slavic Руља, now known as Kottas in the Florina regional unit) in 1863 and was president (community leader) of Roulia, from 1893 to 1896. He began anti-Ottoman rebel activity in 1898, and then killed four local Ottoman officers. Later he became one of the first leaders of the Macedonian struggle.

Background

His seal, in Greek, while member of the IMRO (1900).

Though a Slavopohone, Kottas had a Greek identity.[2][3] He initially was a member the IMRO movement, but he felt deceived after he realized the real purposes of the Bulgarian-directed IMRO[1] against the Greek Macedonians. The day that Marko Lerinski[4] ordered Kottas to kill a Patriarchate priest, he decided to join the Greeks (Hellenic Macedonian Committee).

Conflicts

As Kottas began to dislike Bulgarians, he started to fight them.[5] He was sentenced to death by IMRO twice for murders of IMRO members. The IMRO also accused him under the pretense of theft. Kottas developed ties with the Greek bishop of Kastoria, Germanos Karavangelis, in order to organize his struggle against the IMRO. His mission was to kill IMRO leader (voivode) Lazar Poptraykov and other leaders in order to protect Greek civilians. Karavangelis funded his troops.[6] Gotse Delchev had repeatedly pardoned and vainly tried to reform Kottas before he was finally outlawed by the IMRO, after entering the service of the Greek bishop. At the time of the Ilinden Uprising (1903), when all old wrongs were forgiven in the name of the common struggle, Kottas was received back into IMRO due to the insistence of the same voivode he set out to kill, Lazar Poptraykov. During the uprising, Poptraykov had been wounded and had taken refuge with Kottas, who used the opportunity to kill him and present his head to the Greeks.[7] The Greek bishop was wary of him on account of his Slavic mother tongue and hatred of Turks. His behavior towards the Ottomans was an obstruction to the Greek tactic, because many times, it was necessary to co-operate with the Ottoman officers against the Bulgarian enemy (IMRO).[8]

Kottas, a veteran klepht (brigand), kidnapped Petko Yanev, a Bulgarian seasonal worker recently returned from America, and tortured him and his family until he had extracted all the savings, which Yanev had brought. Yanev, however, complained vigorously to the vali Hilmi Pasha himself, and to foreign consuls. The British consul pressed the vali to act, and eventually Kottas was arrested by the Ottomans.[9] He was executed by hanging in 1905 in Bitola. His last words before hanging, in his native Lower Prespa dialect, were "Zhivja Gritsja. Slovoda ili smrt!" ("Long Live Greece, Freedom or Death!").[10] The loss of Kottas was detrimental to the Greek movement.[11] After his death, a lot of volunteers from free Greece came to Macedonia to participate in the struggle, beside the locals.[12]

Legacy

He has surviving descendants in Greece today. He used to say: "The difficult part is to kill the bear first, and then, it is easy to share the skin."

Kottas is remembered in a museum built at the site of his birth, named the Captain Kottas Museum.

References

  1. 1 2 "Douglas Dakin, The Greek Struggle in Macedonia 1897-1913 (Thessaloniki, 1966)
  2. ↑ David Ricks; Michael Trapp (8 April 2014). Dialogos: Hellenic Studies Review. Routledge. p. 49. ISBN 978-1-317-79178-2.
  3. ↑ Paulos Tzermias (1994). Die Identitätssuche des neuen Griechentums: eine Studie zur Nationalfrage mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Makedonienproblems. Universitätsverlag. p. 81. ISBN 978-3-7278-0925-5.
  4. ↑ in Greek: Memoirs of Germanos Karavangelis, diligence by V. Laourdas, Institute of Studies of Peninsula of Aemos (ISPA) p.26 (1959)
  5. ↑ "Douglas Dakin, The Greek Struggle in Macedonia 1897-1913 (Thessaloniki, 1966)
  6. ↑ Massacre and Barbarism at Zagorichane from http://www.geocities.com/macedonian_world/
  7. ↑ For freedom and perfection. The Life of Yané Sandansky, Mercia MacDermott,(Journeyman, London, 1988), p 159
  8. ↑ "Newer history of Macedonia 1830-1912" K. Vakalopoulos, Thessaloniki"
  9. ↑ For freedom and perfection. The Life of Yané Sandansky, Mercia MacDermott, (Journeyman, London, 1988), p 159- 160.
  10. ↑ "Newer history of Macedonia 1830-1912" K. Vakalopoulos, Thessaloniki"
  11. ↑ Vakalopoulos & Vakalopoulos 1988, p. 215.
  12. ↑ Memoirs of Georgios Christou Modis

Sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kottas Christou.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.