Konstantinos Christou
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Kottas Christou ( el, Κώττας Χρήστου) or Kote Hristov (
Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...
/
Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North M ...
: Коте Христов), known simply as Kottas or Kote,, and often referred to as Konstantinos Christou ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Χρήστου), was a Slavophone revolutionary chieftain in Western Macedonia during the Macedonian Struggle. Kottas was born in the village of Roulia ( Greek Ρούλια,
Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...
/
Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North M ...
''Руля/Руља''), in
1863 Events January–March * January 1 – Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation during the third year of the American Civil War, making the abolition of slavery in the Confederate states an official war goal. It proclaims t ...
, and was elder of Roulia from 1893 to 1896. He began anti-Ottoman rebel activity in 1898, killing four local Ottoman officers. He was first associated with the
pro-Bulgarian Bulgarophiles ( bg, българофили; Serbian and Macedonian бугарофили or бугараши ; ; ro, Bulgarofilii) is a term used for Slavic people from the regions of Macedonia and Pomoravlje who are ethnic Bulgarians. In Bulga ...
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). Afterwards he became associated with the pro-Greek irregular
Hellenic Macedonian Committee The Macedonian Committee ( gr, Μακεδονικό Κομιτάτο, ''Makedoniko Komitato''), formally the Hellenic Macedonian Committee (Ελληνομακεδονικό Κομιτάτο, ''Ellinomakedoniko Komitato''), was a Greek revolutionary ...
. He was captured by the
Ottomans The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...
, convicted of robbery and hanged in Monastir in 1905.


Background

Though a Slavophone, who only spoke
Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...
, Kottas had a Greek identity. He was initially a member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) movement, but he felt deceived after he realized the real purposes of the Bulgarian-directed IMRO."
Douglas Dakin Douglas Dakin (1907–1995) was a British historian, academic and professor emeritus of the Birkbeck College of the University of London (1935–1974). He is especially known for his work in the Neohellenic Studies field, in which he devoted the ...
, The Greek Struggle in Macedonia 1897-1913 (Thessaloniki, 1966)
The day that
Marko Lerinski Marko Lerinski ( bg, Марко Лерински; 20 June 1862 – 13 June 1902) was the nickname of Georgi Ivanov Gyurov (Георги Иванов Гюров), also known as Georgi Geroyski, a Bulgarian military expert and revolutionary. A promi ...
ordered Kottas to kill a Patriarchate priest, he decided to join the Greek cause.


Conflicts

Kottas was sentenced to death by IMRO twice for murders of their 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 Lazar Poptraykov (Bulgarian: Лазар Поптрайков; Macedonian: Лазар Поп-Трајков) (10 April 1878–October 1903) was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary (komitadji). He was also a Bulgarian Exarchate teacher and poet f ...
and other leaders in order to protect Greek civilians. Karavangelis funded his troops. 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 by the IMRO at the insistence of Lazar Poptraykov, the same voivode he set out to kill. During the uprising, Poptraykov had been wounded and taken refuge with Kottas, who used the opportunity to kill him and present his head to the Greeks. The Greek bishop was wary of him because of his native Slavic tongue and hatred of Turks. His behavior toward the Ottomans was an obstruction to the Greek tactic, as it was often necessary to cooperate with the Ottoman officers against the Bulgarian enemy (IMRO)."Newer history of Macedonia 1830-1912" K. Vakalopoulos, Thessaloniki" Kottas, a veteran '' klepht'', kidnapped Petko Yanev, a Bulgarian seasonal worker recently returned from America, and tortured him and his family until he had extracted all the savings Yanev had brought. However, Yanev complained vigorously to the ''vali''
Hilmi Pasha Hilmi ( ar, حلمي) is a masculine Arabic language, Arabic given name, it may refer to: *Hilmi Esat Bayındırlı (born 1962), Turkish*American para-skier *Hilmi Güler (born 1946), Turkish politician and metallurgical engineer *Hilmi İşgüzar ...
himself, and to foreign consuls. The British consul pressed Hilmi Pasha to act, and eventually, Kottas was arrested by the Ottomans. He was executed by hanging in 1905 in Monastir. His last words before hanging, said in his native
Lower Prespa dialect The Lower Prespa dialect ( mk, Долнoпреспански дијалект, ''Dolnoprespanski dijalekt''), is a member of the western subgroup of the western group of dialects of Macedonian. This dialect is mainly spoken on the Eastern shore ...
, were "Long live Greece!" The loss of Kottas was detrimental to the Greek movement. After his death, many volunteers from free Greece came to
Macedonia Macedonia most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a traditional geographic reg ...
to participate in the struggle, in addition to the locals.


Legacy

Kottas was married to Zoi Christou (née Sfektou), and together they had 8 children; Sofia Christou, Dimitrios Christou, Sotirios Christou, Vasiliki Christou, Christos Christou, Lazaros Christou, Paschalini Christou and Evangelos Christou. Kottas still has surviving descendants in Greece. The village he was born, now in the Florina regional unit, has been renamed Kottas in his honour. There is a bust of him in the village of his birth. There is a street named after him in Kastoria. He is memorialized in the Captain Kottas Museum, which was built at the site of his birth. Kottas is known for saying, "The difficult part is to kill the bear first, and then, it is easy to share the skin." He is revered as a national hero in Greece, and considered a Bulgarophone Greek and the first figher in the Greek Struggle for Macedonia, while he is considered a predatory warlord by
Slavic Macedonians Slavic, Slav or Slavonic may refer to: Peoples * Slavic peoples, an ethno-linguistic group living in Europe and Asia ** East Slavic peoples, eastern group of Slavic peoples ** South Slavic peoples, southern group of Slavic peoples ** West Sl ...
and a renegade
Grecoman Grecoman or Graecoman (Greek: Γραικομάνοι, ''Grekománoi'', Bulgarian: Гъркомани, ''Garkomani'', Macedonian: Гркомани, ''Grkomani'', Romanian: ''Grecomani'', Albanian: ''Grekomanë'', Aromanian: ''Gricumanji'') is a pe ...
in Bulgaria. Kottas' objectives are not easily identifiable by contemporary historians. It seems that his chief goal was the rejection of Ottoman rule. From the beginnings of his insurgent action, without having a Greek or Bulgarian consciousness, he had formed the outlook of a Christian chieftain antagonizing Ottoman rule, whom IMRO was forced to coopt. After his distancing from the IMRO and the Exarchists -when they turned against other Christians-, his accession to the patriarchist camp and his recruitment in the Greek cause, his stance was characterized by fluidity, as he maintained relations with his former comrades, balancing between the two camps, but constantly opposed to Ottoman rule, contrary to Karavangelis..


Gallery

File:Macedonian Greek Konstantinos Kotas.JPG, The photograph's inscription reads in Greek: "Macedonian warlord Kotes with his sons and a supporter." File:Constantinos Christou Roussanis.JPG, A painting of Kottas. File:Kote-Rulia.jpg, The bust of him in his village.


References


Sources

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Christou, Konstantinos 1863 births 1905 deaths 19th-century Greek people 20th-century executions by the Ottoman Empire Eastern Orthodox Christians from Greece Executed Greek people Greek people of the Macedonian Struggle Greeks from the Ottoman Empire Macedonian revolutionaries (Greek) Macedonia under the Ottoman Empire People executed by the Ottoman Empire by hanging Slavic speakers of Greek Macedonia People from Florina (regional unit)