Konstantinos Christou
Encyclopedia
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
/Macedonian
Macedonian language
Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
: Константин Христов Саровски, Konstantin Hristov Sarovski, also known as Capetan Kottas) was an insurgent leader associated first with the pro-Bulgarian Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) and later with pro-Greek irregular fighters during the Greek struggle
Greek Struggle for Macedonia
The Macedonian Struggle was a series of social, political, cultural and military conflicts between Greeks and Bulgarians in the region of Ottoman Macedonia between 1904 and 1908...
for Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
. He was born in the village of Rulja (Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
Ρούλια / Roulia, Macedonian Slavic: Руља, now known as Kottas
Prespes
Prespes is a municipality in the Florina peripheral unit, Greece. Population 1,851 . The seat of the municipality is in Laimos.-Municipality:...
) in Florina Prefecture
Florina Prefecture
Florina is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of West Macedonia. Its capital is the town of Florina.-Geography:Florina borders the regional units of Pella to the east, Kozani to the south and Kastoriá to the southwest...
in 1863. He was president of Roulia, from 1893 to 1896. He revolted against Ottomans, at 1898 and killed four local officers of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. Later, he was one of the first leaders of the Macedonian struggle.
Konstantinos Christou participated initially at the IMRO movement against the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. When he realised that he was deceived and he ascertained for the real purposes of the Bulgarians (which directed the IMRO) relatively to the Macedonians (Greeks)
Macedonians (Greeks)
Macedonians are a regional population group of ethnic Greeks, inhabiting or originating from the region of Macedonia, in northern Greece. Today, most live in or around the regional capital city of Thessaloniki. Many have spread across the whole of Greece and in the diaspora.-Preface:Greek...
, he diversified. The day that Marko
Marko Lerinski
Marko Lerinski was the nickname of Georgi Ivanov Gyurov , also known as Georgi Geroyski or Marko Voyvoda, a Bulgarian military man and revolutionary...
, ordered K. Christou to kill a Greek patriarchic priest, Konstantinos Christou decided to join the Greeks. That day, he loathed the Bulgarians and started to fight them. He was sentenced to death by IMRO twice - both times for murders of IMRO members. He had been accused also with the pretence of theft. IMRO upended him twice, in order to murder him. Then he tried to communicate with bishop of Kastoria
Kastoria
Kastoria is a city in northern Greece in the periphery of West Macedonia. It is the capital of Kastoria peripheral unit. It is situated on a promontory on the western shore of Lake Orestiada, in a valley surrounded by limestone mountains...
, Germanos Karavangelis
Germanos Karavangelis
Germanos Karavangelis was born in Stipsi, Lesbos.He was a metropolitan bishop of Kastoria, in communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, from 1900 until 1907, appointed in the name of the Greek state by the ambassador of Greece Nikolaos Mavrokordatos and was one of the main...
, in order to organize the struggle against Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. His mission was to kill the IMRO leader Lazar Poptraykov and other leaders, in order to protect the Greek civilians. Bishop funded his troop. Gotse Delchev
Gotse Delchev
Georgi Nikolov Delchev was an important revolutionary figure in Ottoman-ruled Macedonia and Thrace at the turn of the 20th century...
had repeatedly pardoned and vainly tried to reform, Kottas before he was finally outlawed by the IMRO, after which he had entered the service of the Greek Bishop. At the time of the Ilinden Rising, when all old wrongs were forgiven and forgotten in the name of the common struggle, Kottas, too, had been received back into the Organization, ironically enough, mainly thanks to the insistence of the same voivode — Lazar Poptraykov. During the Rising, Poptraikov had been wounded and had taken refuge with Kottas, who had then repaid the voivoda’s magnanimity by murdering him and presenting his head to the Greeks. However the bishop was considered to be wary of him on account of his mother tongue, which was slavic and his hatred to the Ottomans. His behavior towards the Ottomans was an obstruct to the Greek tactic, because many times, it was necessary to co-operate with the Ottoman officers against the Bulgarian enemy.
However Kottas, was a veteran klepht
Klepht
Klephts were self-appointed armatoloi, anti-Ottoman insurgents, and warlike mountain-folk who lived in the countryside when Greece was a part of the Ottoman Empire...
. In reality, the klephts or hajduks of were as much guerrilla fighters against the Ottoman rule, as they were bandits and highwaymen, who preyed also on local merchants and travellers. He kidnapped Petko Yanev, a Bulgarian 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, to Hilmi Pasha himself, and to the foreign consuls. The British consul pressed the vali to act, and eventually Captain Kottas, was arrested by the Ottomans. He was executed by hanging in 1905 at At Pazar in Bitola
Bitola
Bitola is a city in the southwestern part of the Republic of Macedonia. The city is an administrative, cultural, industrial, commercial, and educational centre. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba and Nidže mountains, 14 km north of the...
. After his death, a lot of volunteers from free Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
came to Macedonia to participate in the struggle, beside the locals. He has surviving descendants in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
today. He believed in the co-operation between Greeks and Bulgarians against Turks
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. He used to say: "The difficult part is to kill the bear first, and then, it is easy to share the skin."
His last words before hanging, in his native Lower Prespa dialect
Lower Prespa dialect
The Lower Prespa dialect , is a member of the western subgroup of the western group of dialects of the Macedonian language. This dialect is mainly spoken on the Eastern shore of Prespa Lake and Small Prespa Lake, both in the Republic of Macedonia and by the Slavic-speaking community on the Greek...
, were "Zhivja Gritsja. Slovoda ili smrt!" ("Long Live Greece, Freedom or Death!").