Pitu Guli | |
|---|---|
 Pitu Guli in guerilla attire | |
| Nickname(s) | Pitu the Vlach |
| Born | c. 1865 Kruševo, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | 12 August 1903 (aged 37–38) Kruševo Republic |
| Allegiance |  IMRO  Kruševo Republic |
| Years of service | 1885–1903 |
| Battles / wars | |
Pitu Guli [lower-alpha 1] (Cyrillic : Питу Гули; [lower-alpha 2] 1865–1903) was an Aromanian revolutionary in Ottoman Macedonia, a local leader of what is commonly referred to as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). [1]
He was born to a poor family in Kruševo (Aromanian : Crushuva) in the Ottoman Empire (now North Macedonia). Guli demonstrated an independent and rebellious nature early in life. He left his home in Macedonia at the age of 17 in search of wealth in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. In 1885, he returned to Macedonia, as part of a rebel squad of the revolutionary movement against the Ottoman Empire, led by Adam Kalmikov. He was captured and exiled to eastern Anatolia for a period of eight years, seven years of which were spent in the prison in Trabzon. In 1895, he again returned to Kruševo and became a member of IMARO. From this time on, he was fully committed to the autonomy of Macedonia from Turkish rule. Between 1897 and 1902 he was again in Sofia, where he also held an eating house.
In March 1903, he began commanding a revolutionary squad, crossing the Bulgarian-Ottoman border heading for Kruševo. From April to August 1903, he trained and prepared his irregulars for the upcoming Ilinden Uprising. He died in Kruševo, defending the Kruševo Republic.
Except for Bulgarian Exarchist Aromanians, [2] as Guli's family, who were Bulgarophiles, [3] [4] [5] most members of other ethnicities dismissed the IMRO as pro-Bulgarian. [6] [7] His sons were:
Pitu Guli is a national hero in North Macedonia and Bulgaria, and remembered as having fought heroically at Mečkin Kamen (Bear's Rock) near Kruševo, where he was killed during the Ilinden Uprising in defense of the Macedonian Kruševo Republic. [1] A Macedonian Partisan Brigade was named after him. [1] The Macedonian partisan Kuzman Josifovski took the alias "Pitu" after him. [11] He is also celebrated in folk songs and poetry throughout the region of Macedonia, being mentioned in the national anthem of North Macedonia ("Denes nad Makedonija", "Today over Macedonia"). [12] An Aromanian-language song about him, Cãnticlu al Pitu Guli ("The Song of Pitu Guli"), has also been composed. [13] [14]
The region of Macedonia is known to have been inhabited since Paleolithic times.
The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, was a secret revolutionary society founded in the Ottoman territories in Europe, that operated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising, or simply the Ilinden Uprising, of August–October 1903, was an organized revolt against the Ottoman Empire, which was prepared and carried out by the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization, with the support of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee, which included mostly Bulgarian military personnel. The name of the uprising refers to Ilinden, a name for Elijah's day, and to Preobrazhenie which means Feast of the Transfiguration. Some historians describe the rebellion in the Serres revolutionary district as a separate uprising, calling it the Krastovden Uprising, because on September 14 the revolutionaries there also rebelled. The revolt lasted from the beginning of August to the end of October and covered a vast territory from the western Black Sea coast in the east to the shores of Lake Ohrid in the west.
The Kruševo Republic was a short-lived political entity proclaimed in 1903 by rebels from the Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) in Kruševo during the anti-Ottoman Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising.
The Macedonian Struggle was a series of social, political, cultural and military conflicts that were mainly fought between Greek and Bulgarian subjects who lived in Ottoman Macedonia between 1893 and 1912. The conflict was part of a wider guerilla war in which revolutionary organizations of Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbs all fought over Macedonia. Gradually the Greek and Bulgarian bands gained the upper hand. Though the conflict largely ceased by the Young Turk Revolution, it continued as a low intensity insurgency until the Balkan Wars.
Hristo Tatarchev was a Macedonian Bulgarian doctor, revolutionary and one of the founders of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). Tatarchev authored several political journalistic works between the First and Second World War.
Gyorche Petrov Nikolov born Georgi Petrov Nikolov, was a Bulgarian teacher and revolutionary, one of the leaders of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). He was its representative in Sofia, the capital of Principality of Bulgaria. As such he was also a member of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC), participating in the work of its governing body. During the Balkan Wars, Petrov was a Bulgarian army volunteer, and during the First World War, he was involved in the activity of the Bulgarian occupation authorities in Serbia and Greece. Subsequently, he participated in Bulgarian politics, but was eventually killed by the rivaling IMRO right-wing faction. According to the Macedonian historiography, he was an ethnic Macedonian.
Nikola Yanakiev Karev was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary. He was born in Kruševo and died in the village of Rajčani both today in North Macedonia. Karev was a local leader of what later became known as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). He was also a teacher in the Bulgarian Exarchate school system in his native area, and a member of the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party. Today he is considered a hero in Bulgaria and in North Macedonia.
Kruševo is a town in North Macedonia. In Macedonian the name means the 'place of pear trees'. It is the highest town in North Macedonia and one of the highest in the Balkans, situated at an altitude of over 1350 m above sea level. The town of Kruševo is the seat of Kruševo Municipality. It is located in the western part of the country, overlooking the region of Pelagonia, 33 and 53 km from the nearby cities of Prilep and Bitola, respectively.
The history of Macedonians has been shaped by population shifts and political developments in the southern Balkans, especially within the region of Macedonia. The ideas of separate Macedonian identity grew in significance after the First World War, both in Vardar and among the left-leaning diaspora in Bulgaria, and were endorsed by the Comintern. During the Second World War, these ideas were supported by the Communist Partisans, but the decisive point in the ethnogenesis of these South Slavic people was the creation of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia after World War II, as a new state in the framework of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The Aromanians in North Macedonia, also known as the Vlachs, are an officially recognised minority group of North Macedonia numbering some 9,695 people according to the 2002 census. They are concentrated in Kruševo, Štip, Bitola and Skopje.
Melpomena Dimitrova Karnicheva or Krničeva, popularly known as Mencha (Менча), was a Bulgarophile Aromanian revolutionary and terrorist of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). The wife of IMRO leader Ivan Mihailov, she is known for assassinating IMRO left-wing activist Todor Panitsa.
The Battle of Mečkin Kamen also known as 'Battle of Mechkin Kamen' occurred on the hill now known as Mečkin Kamen, a few kilometres south from the town of Kruševo on 12 August 1903. It was part of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising, led by the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation against the Ottoman Empire. The leading revolutionary commanders of the local Kruševo Republic were Nikola Karev and Pitu Guli. The battle is an important event that is celebrated in Bulgaria and North Macedonia.
Hristo Apostolov Matov was a prominent Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary, philologist, folklorist and publicist and one of the leaders of the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees,.
Nikola Kirov was a Bulgarian teacher, revolutionary and public figure, a member of IMRO.
Svoboda ili smart was a revolutionary slogan used during the national-liberation struggles by the Bulgarian revolutionaries, called comitadjis. The slogan was in use during the second half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries.
Naum Hristov Tomalevski was a Bulgarian revolutionary, participant in the Macedonian revolutionary movement, member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO).
Todor Hristov, also known as "the Little officer" was a Bulgarian military officer, revolutionary, activist of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization. He also was participant in the Ilinden Uprising and one of the members of the Forest Staff of the Krushevo Revolutionary Region.
Ioryi Mucitano, nicknamed Kasapcheto ("Butcher"), was an Ottoman Aromanian revolutionary during the Macedonian Struggle. He was the first leader of the first Aromanian band of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO).
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