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‘Conquering the souls’: nationalism and Greek guerrilla warfare in Ottoman Macedonia, 1904-1908

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Dimitris Livanios
Dimitris Livanios*
Affiliation:
Pembroke College, Cambridge
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Abstract

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This article aims to analyse the Greek struggle against Bulgarian bands and ‘Bulgarian’ villages in Ottoman Macedonia between 1904 and 1908. Greek views on the necessity of violence, the logic of terror, and guerrilla tactics are examined and set against their particular context. It is argued that the form, purpose and intensity of violence were shaped not only by Greek intentions and peasant reactions, but mainly by the prevalence in Macedonia of pre-national religious identities, which obstructed the transformation of peasants into Greeks and allowed violence to function as the ultimate arbitrator of ‘national’ affiliations.

Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 23 , 1999 , pp. 195 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 1999

References

1. Von Clausewitz, Carl, On War, ed. and trans. by Howard, Michael and Paret, Peter (London 1993) 83 Google Scholar.

2. ‘Να κατακτήσωμεν то των ψυχών έδαϕοζ’. Αρχείον ϒπουργείου Εξωτερικών (Archives of the Greek Ministry for Foreign Affairs, hereafter: AYE), file YPE/1904, A.A.K./ST, Lambros Koromilas (Greek Consul-General in Salonika) to Ministry for Foreign Affairs [hereafter: M.F.A.], no. 11, 30/9/1904.

3. As everything in Macedonian history, this territorial demarcation has far from been unanimously accepted. Some Greek scholars refuse to accept the Vilayet of Kosovo as Macedonian territory, and Serbian accounts include the region’s northern part in ‘Old Serbia’. For conflicting views on the delimitation of Macedonian frontiers see: Colokotronis, V., La Macédoine et l’ Hellénisme. Etude Historique et Ethnologique (Paris 1919) 607 Google Scholar. Georgevitch, T.R., Macedonia (London 1908) 2–6 Google Scholar. von Mach, Richard, The Bulgarian Exarchate: Its History and the Extent of its Authority in Turkey (London-Neuchatel 1907) 43 Google Scholar.

4. For the Greek-Orthodox Millet see Clogg, Richard, ‘The Greek Millet in the Ottoman Empire’, in: Lewis, Benjamin Braude-Bernard, eds., Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire. The Functioning of a Plural Society, I, The Central Lands, (New York 1982) 185–207 Google Scholar.

5. Unsurprisingly, statistics (and maps), which were produced at an astonishing pace, more often reflected the intentions of their makers rather than the actual demographic situation. The idiosyncratic Ottoman statistics which counted religious affiliations instead of ‘nationalities’, further perplexed the issue. Be that as it may, the numerical supremacy of the Slav-speakers in the three Vilayets is beyond doubt. They dominated the rural areas, while Greek-speakers were mainly confined to the southern and littoral areas of Macedonia and the urban centres. The Macedonian landscape was also punctuated by scattered Vlach- and Albanian-speaking villages (the latter dominant in Kosovo) while the Jews formed sizeable communities in Salonika (half the city’s population), Kastoria and other towns. For statistical data see Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars (Washington, D.C. 1914) 28, 30. For Bulgarian accounts see Ivanoff, Iordan, Les Bulgares Devant le Congrès de la Paix. Documents Historiques, Ethnographiques et Diplomatiques (Berne 1919) 294–304 Google Scholar, and especially Kŭlnchov, Vasil, Makedoniya: Etnographia i Statistika (Sofia 1900)Google Scholar. For a Greek view see Colokotronis, op. cit., 603-619. For maps of Macedonia see Wilkinson, H.R., Maps and Politics: A Review of the Ethnographic Cartography of Macedonia (Liverpool 1951)Google Scholar.

6. For a stimulating discussion of this issue see Gunaris, Basil, ‘Social Cleavages and National ‘Awakening’ in Ottoman Macedonia’, East European Quarterly 4 (1996) 409–426 Google Scholar.

7. Crampton, Richard, Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century (London 1994) 20 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8. Modis, Georgios, О Μακεδονικόζ Αγών καν η νεώτερη μακεδονική ιστορία (Salonika 1967) 149 Google Scholar. For the comitadjis (Bulgarian guerrillas) see below, p. 201.

9. Έμείζ δεν σκοτιζόμαστε και πολύ για Σερβία η Βουλγαρία, αρκεί κα μην είμαστε κάτω από τον Τούοκο!. Οι πατεράδεζ μαζ ήσαν Ελληνες και κανείς δεν έλενε τότε τα περί Βουλνάρων. Γίναμε Βούλγαροι, κερδίσαμε … Αν πρέπει να είμαστε Σέρβοι καμιά αντίρρηση. Για τώρα όμωζ είναι καλύτερα Βούλγαροι.’ Bérard, Victor, Τουρκία και Ελληνισμάζ. Οδοιπορικό στη Μακεδονία (Athens 1987) 169 Google Scholar. Greek trans, of La Turquie et l Hellénisme Contemporain (Paris 1893).

10. Brailsford, H.N., Macedonia: Its Races and their Future (London 1906) 102–103 Google Scholar.

11. Upward, Allen, The East End of Europe (London 1908) 181–182 Google Scholar.

12. Brailsford, op. cit., 99.

13. Kaoudis, Efthimios, ‘Εναζ κρητικόζ αγωνίζεται για τη Μακεδονία: Απομνημονεύματα, 1903-1907, ed. by Chotzidis, Aggelos (Salonika 1996) 41 Google Scholar.

14. Kitromilides, Paschalis, ‘“Balkan mentality”: History, Legend, Imagination’, in: Nations and Nationalism, 2 (1996) 163–191 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also his Enlightenment, Nationalism, Orthodoxy (London 1994), for a perceptive discussion of those issues.

15. It should be added here that the unwillingness of Christian peasants to identify with national ideas was by no means confined to Macedonia, but it was a common feature in all parts of the Greek Millet. In late 19th century Asia Minor, for instance, when a Greek-speaking Christian was asked if he was Greek, he replied: ‘No, I’m not anything. I’ve told you that I’m a Christian, and once again I say to you that I am a Christian’. Valavanis, Ioakeim, Mikrasiatika (Athens 1891) 26–27 Google Scholar, as quoted by Clogg, Richard, ‘ Anadolu Hiristiyan Karindaslarimiz: The Turkish-speaking Greeks of Asia Minor’, in: Gauntlett, John Burke-Stathis, eds., Neohellenism (Canberra 1992) 67 Google Scholar.

16. Brailsford, Macedonia, op. cit., 1.

17. For an overview of brigandage in the Balkans see Stoianovich, Traian, Balkan Worlds: The First and Last Europe (New York 1994) 165–168 Google Scholar. For Macedonia see the colourful (and romantic) account of Vivian, Herbert, The Servian Tragedy With Some Impressions of Macedonia (London 1904) 253–267 Google Scholar. For the Greek case see the lucid account of Koliopoulos, John S., Brigands with a Cause; Brigandage and Irredentism in Modern Greece, 1821-1912 (Oxford 1987)Google Scholar.

18. P.R.O. F.O./371, 14316, C4470, Foreign Office Memorandum dated 5/6/1930. For IMRO see Perry, Duncan, The Politics of Terror: The Macedonian Liberation Movements, 1893-1908 (Durham and London 1988)Google Scholar.

19. For accounts of the revolution and its preparations see: Dakin, Douglas, The Greek Struggle in Macedonia (Salonika 1963) 98–106 Google Scholar; Crampton, Richard, Bulgaria, 1878-1918: A History (Boulder and New York 1983) 283 Google Scholar. Swire, Joseph, Bulgarian Conspiracy (London 1939) 99 Google Scholar. See also a useful collection of documents in: Gunaris, Basil, ed., The Events of 1903 in Macedonia as Presented in European Diplomatic Correspondence (Salonika 1993)Google Scholar.

20. P.R.O., F.O./371, 43649, Report by Capt. P.H. Evans entitled: ‘Report on the free Macedonia movement in area Florina’, dated 1/12/1944. The Report has been published by Rossos, Andrew, ‘Document: The Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia: A British Officer’s Report, 1944’ in Slavonic and East European Review Vol. 69, No. 2 (1991), 282–309 Google Scholar.

21. For general surveys see: Dakin, op. cit.; Vlachos, Nikolaos, Το Μακεδονικόν ως ϕάσιζ του Ανατολικού Ζητήματοζ (Athens 1930)Google Scholar; Vakalopoulos, Konstantinos, О Μακεδονικός Αγώναζ. Η ένοπλη ϕάση, 1904-1908 (Athens 1987)Google Scholar. See also the official account О Μακεδονικός Αγών και τα εις Θράκην γεγονότα, produced by the Dept. of Military History of the Greek General Army Staff (Γενικό Επι τελειο Στρατού, Διεύθυνση Ιστορίαζ Στρατού, (hereafter: GES/DIS) (Athens 1979). For an assessment of the Greek historiography on the ‘Struggle for Macedonia’ see Gunaris, Basil, ‘Reassessing Ninety Years of Greek Historiography on the ‘Struggle for Macedonia’, 1904-1908’, in: Yannakakis, Peter Mackridge-Eleni, eds., Ourselves and Others. The Development of a Greek Macedonian Cultural Identity Since 1912 (Oxford and New York 1997) 25–37 Google Scholar.

22. Έλάχιστοι τολμούν έτι να ελληνίζωσι’. AYE 1904/Salonika Consulate (Jan.-June), Evgeniadis to M.F.A., 28/2/1904, no. 107.

23. AYE 1905/Salonika Consulate, Koromilas to M.F.A., 2/11/1905, no. 785. Mazarakis-Ainian, Konstantinos, О Μακεδονικός Αγών. Αναμνήσειζ, in the collection of memoirs О Μακεδονικάς Αγώνας. Απομνημονεύματα (Institute for Balkan Studies, Salonika 1984) 258 Google Scholar. Cf.Kakkavos, Dimitrios, Απονμημονεύματα. Μακεδονικόζ Αγών (Salonika 1972) 38 Google Scholar.

24. AYE 1905/Salonika Consulate, A.A.K./B., Koromilas to M.F.A. 30/9/1905, no. 665.

25. Mazarakis, op. cit., 203.

26. Ibid., 251.

27. Kakkavos, op. cit., 87.

28. Vasillos Sravropoulos, Ο Μακεδονικός Αγών. Απομνημονεύ$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ματα, in: O Μακεδονικκ Aycóvac, op. cit., 402-403.

29. Mazarakis, op. cit., 247.

30. Ή τέχνη είναι να ευρεθεί ποιός είναι о τιμωρητέος, η ψυχή των αντιθέτων’. See his letters to Mazarakis, dated 1/5/1905 and 7/6/1905, in Mazarakis, О Μακεδονικ(χ: Αγών, 91, 95. Koromilas’s letters are included in the 1963 edition of Mazarakis’s memoirs, and the quotations are from that edition. All other quotations are from the 1984 edition unless otherwise stated.

31. Memorandum ‘The Situation in Macedonia’, in AYE 1905/Salonika Consulate, A.A.K./B., dated 6/5/1905. Kakkavos, op. cit., 87.

32. ‘To πνεΰμα της υπαίθρου ζητεί φόνους. Έχουσιν ανάγκη να ίδωσιν θύματα των αντιθέτων ίνα έλθει η ψυχή των єіс τον τόπο тле.’ AYE 1905/Salonika Consulate, Koromilas to M.F.A., 7/9/1905, no. 246.

33. Mazarakis, op. cit., 249.

34. AYE 1905/Salonika Consulate, Koromilas to M.F.A., 4/9/1905.

35. Cf his view that ‘H ιδέα тле στρώσεως δια πτωμάτων είνοα εσφαλμένη. Δεν θα φέρει αποτελέσματα.’ Koromilas to Mazarakis, 7/6/1905, in: Mazarakis, О Μακεδονικός Αγών, 94. Quotation from the 1963 edition.

36. Clausewitz, op. cit., 85.

37. See the memoirs of the Cretan chieftain Karavitis in the newspaper, EXXnviKÓç Βορράς, 5/6/1949.

38. Some examples in the memoirs of Panayiotis Papatzaneteas, О Μακεοονικός Αγών. Απομνημονεύματα (Salonika 1960) 13.

39. See examples in GES/DIS, op. cit., 175-177, for the clearance of the area south of Aliakmon river, and Kakkavos, op. cit., 110-111, for the clearance of the forest of Hilandar Monastery in Chalkidiki.

40. Papatzaneteas, a man of few words, chose to put his notes on the lips of the dead Exarchists. They read: ‘This is the sort of death they receive, those who abandon their Orthodox religion and join the Bulgarian schism’, [emphasis mine]. Papatzaneteas, op. cit., 13. Typically, the emphasis was on the Christian aspect of the struggle, not on the ‘national’.

41. Examples of Greek letters to villages in AYE 1905/Salonika Consulate, A.A.K./B., Koromilas to M.F.A. 16/10/1905, no. 726. Again in sending letters the Greeks followed the Bulgarian precedent. For some interesting Bulgarian letters to Greek villages with references to the Parthenon see Mazarakis, op. cit., 242.

42. ‘KocOaptóç αυτόχθονα προέλευσιν’. AYE 1904/Salonika Consulate, (Jan.-June), Koromilas to M.F.A., 21/6/1904, no. 8.

43. ‘πάσα επιχείρησις … να φέρει χαρακτηρα γνησίως μακεδονικόν.’ GES/DIS, op. cit., 155.

44. AYE 1904/Salonika Consulate, (Jan.-June), Koromilas to M.F.A., 30/5/1904, no. 6; AYE 1904/Salonika Consulate, A.A.K./ST, Koromilas to M.F.A., 1/11/1904, no. 16, and 15/11/1904, no. 25.

45. AYE/Salonika Consulate, A.A.K./ST, Koromilas to M.F.A. 17/12/1904, no. 48.

46. For the use of brigands in the ‘Struggle for Macedonia’, see J.S. Koliopoulos, op. cit., 215-236.

47. Mazarakis, op. cit., 184.

48. The first bands organised in 1904 by Koromilas and headed by undisciplined brigands proved to be a totally disappointing undertaking. AYE 1904/Salonika Consulate, Koromilas to M.F.A., 15/11/1904, no. 25.

49. Kakkavos, op. cit., 86.

50. The number of Cretans who participated in the Greek struggle was fairly high. A sobering indication is that, according to official Greek sources, out of the 400 dead bandsmen during the four-year struggle, 136 were Cretans. The second largest group of men, after the local Patriarchists. See: GES/DIS, op. cit., 378.

51. According to Mazarakis the Cretans were ‘… ανυπόφοροι, φιλέριδες, ιδιότροποι και τελειως ακατάλληλοι δχα προπανάνδαν’. Mazarakis, op. cit., 216.

52. Vardas felt that ‘… δεν είναι εΰκολον να υποβάλητε εις τον τυχόντα εντόπιον η ξένον Κρήτας συνειθίσαντες να έχωσιν ιδικου’ς των, ουτε то ενάντιον.’ Γενικά Αρχεία του Κράτους (General Archives of the State, hereafter: ΓΑΚ), Vardas Archive, f. 15, 13-17/10/1906, p. 113.

53. Kakkavos, op. cit., 88-89.

54. Upward, op. cit., 31.

55. For a number of those brigands, which included Loukas Kokkinos, Groutas, Georgios Dalipis and others, see AYE 1906/Monastir Consulate, Xydakis to Skouze, dated 25/9/1906; AYE 1906/Monastir Consulate, Memorandum by ‘Sinis’ [Nikolaos Kontogouris], dated 4/9/1906; ГАК, Vardas Papers, f. 13, Vardas to ‘Pamikos’, dated 7/9/1906. Cf. Koliopoulos, op. cit., 232.

56. Mazarakis, op. cit., 232. ГАК, Vardas Archive, f. 13, Vardas to ‘Pamikos’, dated 10/12/1905, p. 13; AYE 1905/Salonika Consulate, Memorandum by Xanthopoulos, op. cit.

57. AYE 1906/Monastir Consulate, Xydakis to Skouzes, 16/6/1906, no. 2419.

58. AYE 1906/Monastir Consulate, Kontogouris to Skouzes, 4/2/1906, no. 99.

59. GES/DIS, op. cit., 191-193.

60. For treatment of prisoners and their fate see Papatzaneteas, op. cit., 23, 49-50, Stavropoulos, op. cit., 430-431.

61. Upward, op. cit., 328.

62. Melas, Natalia, Παύλος Μελάζ (Athens-Ioannina 1992) 370–371 Google Scholar.

63. ГАК, Vardas Archive, f. 14, 5/6/1905, p. 158.

64. Upward, op. cit., 327.

65. For accounts of the attack, see Dakin, op. cit., 224-225. The official version is given in GES/DIS, op. cit., 188-189. P.R.O. F.O./195, 2207, Reports from McGregor [British Vice-Consul, Monastir] to O’Conor, dated 9/4/1905, and 12/4/1905.

66. ГАК, Vardas Archive, f. 14, 1/5/1905, p. 105. It should be added here that the Macedonian Committee, which commanded many bands in the Vilayet of Monastir, ordered them to refrain from further action after the Zagoritsani affair. GES/DIS, op. cit., 343-344.

67. Mazarakis, op. cit., 184, where he condemns what he called Όμαδόν σφαγαί кш πυρπολήσεκ ολοκληρων χωρίων, ως тпс Ζαγορίτσανης’.

68. For those attacks see GES/DIS, op. cit., 198, 222, P.R.O. F.O./195, 2207, McGregor to O’Connor, Monastir, dated 16/8/1905, Stavropoulos, op. cit., 400-401.

69. In the Greek Consul in Monastir, Athanasios Chalkiopoulos emphasised that ‘long experience and study’ demonstrated that attacks against villages should be carried out only after sundown. AYE 1906/Monastir Consulate, Chalkiopoulos to Skouzes, 15/5/1906, no. 309.

70. More often than not the bombs used by the bands were a danger for the bandsmen rather than for the houses attacked. At least one captain was killed while trying to burn a house with a bomb, and the Greek Consul in Monastir prohibited their use. See Chalkiopoulos’s despatch in note 69, referring to the death of the Cretan Captain Leonidas Vlachakis (Captain Litsas).

71. P.R.O. F.O./195, 2232, Sonnichsen to Graves, enclosure in Graves to O’Conor, Salonika, 22/3/1906. For the reluctance of Bulgarian bands to fight the Greeks outside their villages cf. Melas’s observations, in: Natalia Mela, op. cit., 389.

72. For the Vlachs see Winnifrith, T.J., The Vlachs: the History of a Balkan People (London 1987)Google Scholar. For a contemporary description see Upward, op. cit., 175-180.

73. For the ‘treachery’ of pro-Romanian Vlachs see Φθινόπωρο του 1904 στη Μακεδονία. To ανέκδοτο ημερολόγιο του Ευθΰμιου Καοΰδη, ed. by Basil Gunaris (Salonika 1992), 84; Mazarakis, op. cit., 204-206. For Koromilas’s views see AYE/A.A.K./B., Despatches to M.F.A. dated 30/11, 13/12, and 24/12, 1905. The Greek Ministry for Foreign Affairs concurred with his views and condemned violent action against the Vlachs. See AYE 1906/Foreign Ministry, F.M. to Salonika Consulate, 2/1/1906, no. 5392. For attacks against Vlach villages see: P.R.O. F.O./195, 2208, Young to O’Conor, Monastir, 20/11/1905; F.O./195, 2263, Graves to O’Conor, Salonika, 4/6/1907; F.O./195, 2206, Graves to O’Conor, Salonika, 9/3/1905.

74. Stoianovich, op. cit., 59.

75. For a lucid account of European views of the Balkans see Todorova, Maria, Imagining the Balkans, (Oxford 1997)Google Scholar.

76. For a typical contemporary account see Vivian, op. cit., 104-119.

77. Upward, op. cit., 328.

78. Cf. Ernest Gellner’s view that the recent horrors of Bosnia were somehow facilitated by the fact that there are societies in the Balkans where ‘men prove their manhood not by success in a career but by quickness on the draw …’. Gellner, Ernest, Nationalism (London 1997) 61 Google Scholar. For a subtle and perceptive analysis of the concept of ‘heroism’ in the Balkans see Campbell, John, ‘The Greek Hero’, in: Pitt-Rivers, J.G. Peristiany-Julian, eds., Honor and Grace in Anthropology (Cambridge 1992) 129–149 Google Scholar.