Quote:
“I will say in a few words that a gang of about 60 Greek anti-nationals entered Pleasa on the morning of July 20, 1905, terrorized the population, burned Romanian church books, and after looting the commune, caried out a Greek-style assassination of the three unfortunate Romanians from Abela.”
“What must they have said when they learned of the andartes’ exploits in their native, purely Romanian village—where the only Greek is a single individual whom a Farsherot had brought along from Thessaly?”
Greek Armed Nationalism and the Aromanian Conflict in Macedonia, 1905
Abstract
The Macedonian Struggle of the early twentieth century was not merely a confrontation between competing states and armed movements, but also a violent struggle over language, education, ecclesiastical affiliation, and communal identity. The evidence presented here describes the activities of Greek andartes, or antartes, against Aromanian communities associated with the Romanian national movement in Ottoman Macedonia.
During 1905, armed Greek bands reportedly attacked villages, looted and burned property, destroyed Romanian church books, threatened Romanian teachers and community leaders, and targeted institutions established to promote Aromanian cultural autonomy. The destruction of Avdella and the reported attack on Pleasa illustrate the extent to which schools, churches, books, and communal property could become targets in a wider struggle over national allegiance.
These accounts also indicate that the conflict involved competing forms of Christian nationalism, since Greek and Bulgarian armed groups are described as attacking Aromanians despite their shared Orthodox religious background. The violence of 1905 therefore demonstrates how the Macedonian question increasingly transformed cultural and ecclesiastical disputes into armed campaigns of intimidation and coercion.
The Greek Andartes and the Aromanian Question
The first years of the twentieth century witnessed an increasingly violent contest for influence in Ottoman Macedonia. Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, Romanian, and Aromanian movements competed to establish control over schools, churches, villages, and local communities. The conflict was consequently not reducible to a simple confrontation between Christians and Muslims. Rather, competing Christian national movements frequently confronted one another over the question of which national identity should be attached to particular Orthodox communities.
The Aromanian population was particularly vulnerable to this struggle. Romanian organizations sought to establish schools and churches in which the Aromanian language and a Romanian oriented cultural identity could be cultivated. Greek nationalists, meanwhile, generally sought to retain or expand the traditional influence of the Greek Orthodox ecclesiastical establishment and to prevent the development of rival Romanian institutions.
According to the sources cited here, this competition increasingly assumed a violent character during 1905.
One account describes a group of approximately sixty Greek “anti nationals” entering Pleasa on the morning of July 20, 1905. The group reportedly terrorized the inhabitants, burned Romanian church books, and looted the commune. The destruction of religious books is particularly significant because it demonstrates that the objective of such attacks was not merely material plunder. Written religious and educational material represented an important part of the institutional infrastructure of Romanian and Aromanian identity. Its destruction therefore had both practical and symbolic consequences.
The reported events in Pleasa form part of a wider pattern. Other accounts refer to Greek antartes, the armed nationalist bands commonly known as andartes or makedonomachoi, operating against communities associated with the Romanian movement. One contemporary report cited in the material states that between seventy and eighty of approximately one hundred houses in a village were destroyed. The same source, the Greek newspaper Foni tis Ipiros, reported on the violence while expressing approval of the activities of the Greek armed bands.¹
The contradictory nature of these sources is historically important. Greek nationalist publications could portray the activities of the andartes as legitimate national struggle, while Romanian sources interpreted essentially the same actions as terror and persecution. The terminology itself therefore reflected the political position of the observer.
Schools, Churches, and the Struggle for National Allegiance
The targeting of Romanian schools and churches was central to the conflict. Educational institutions were among the most important mechanisms through which competing national movements attempted to transform local identities.
The sources describe Greek patriotic associations in Athens and Constantinople as contributing to the organization of armed groups that were subsequently sent into Ottoman territory. These groups are alleged to have been instructed to burn Romanian schools and churches and to kill Romanian teachers and community leaders who supported the Romanian movement.²
Whether every detail of these accounts can be independently verified must be assessed source by source. Nevertheless, the broader pattern is consistent with the character of the Macedonian Struggle. Schools and churches were not simply religious or educational institutions. They were among the principal means by which national movements sought to define the identity of local populations.
Control over a church could determine ecclesiastical affiliation. Control over a school could determine the language of education. Control over teachers and priests could therefore have consequences far beyond the institutions themselves.
This explains why attacks against books, schools, churches, teachers, and priests appear repeatedly in accounts of the period.
Avdella and the Use of Destruction as Political Pressure
The village of Avdella provides another example of the violence described in the sources. According to the material cited here, Anastase was spared after surrendering Romanian books to Captain Gudas, who subsequently burned them. Several days later, on July 23, 1905, Avdella was reportedly set ablaze by Greek andartes.³
The episode illustrates the connection between cultural destruction and physical violence. The burning of Romanian books was not an isolated act of vandalism. It formed part of a broader effort to suppress institutions and symbols associated with an alternative national orientation.
The destruction of communal property could also function as a warning to other inhabitants. Villagers faced the possibility that supporting Romanian schools or churches might expose their homes, institutions, and families to attack.
Such violence therefore served a coercive purpose. It could discourage communities from maintaining rival institutions without requiring the complete physical occupation of the territory by a regular army.
The Killing of Lazăr Duma
The violence also extended beyond rural villages. The sources state that Lazăr Duma was killed by Greek andartes in Thessaloniki in 1905.⁴
His death illustrates the wider geographical reach of the conflict. Thessaloniki was one of the major political and commercial centers of Ottoman Macedonia, and the presence of armed nationalist organizations meant that the struggle over communal allegiance was not confined to isolated mountain settlements.
Teachers and intellectuals were particularly exposed because they occupied positions of influence within their communities. By determining the language of education and maintaining links with Romanian institutions, they could become important representatives of the Romanian movement.
Consequently, the sources repeatedly identify teachers, priests, and community leaders as targets.
Violence across Communal and Religious Boundaries
One of the most revealing descriptions in the cited material refers to Greek and Bulgarian comitagi attacking Aromanians despite all three groups being Orthodox Christians. The source describes a period in which Greek and Bulgarian armed organizations subjected Aromanian communities to severe violence, particularly during 1905 and 1906.⁵
This is significant because it demonstrates the limitations of interpreting the Macedonian conflict primarily through religion.
The antagonists frequently belonged to the same broad religious tradition. Their differences concerned national affiliation, language, education, ecclesiastical allegiance, and political orientation. Orthodox Christianity provided a common religious framework, but it did not prevent violent conflict between competing national projects.
Indeed, the shared religious environment could intensify the struggle because control over the Orthodox Church and its institutions became an important means of determining national allegiance.
The Macedonian conflict was therefore fundamentally a struggle over who possessed the right to define the identity of local Orthodox populations.
Captain Akritas and the Armed Campaign
The sources further refer to a Greek armed leader identified as Captain Akritas, associated with the Greek andartes. He is described as issuing an ultimatum to Aromanians who had established Romanian churches and schools. The existence of such an ultimatum, if accurately reported, is particularly revealing because it demonstrates the political objective behind the violence.
The issue was not simply whether inhabitants were Orthodox Christians. The central question was whether they would participate in Greek or Romanian institutional life.
The armed struggle thus sought to enforce a particular national orientation by threatening the institutions through which an alternative identity could be sustained.
Another account attributes the destruction of livestock belonging to the Aromanian chieftain Hrista Zegă to Greek antarti led by “Captain Acritas,” identified in the source with the Greek colonel Mazarakis. The reported attack involved the burning of cattle enclosures and the killing of livestock through fire and gunfire.⁶
Such attacks against livestock were economically significant. In predominantly rural communities, livestock represented both wealth and economic security. Destroying herds could therefore weaken an individual’s capacity to support his family and community while simultaneously demonstrating the reach of an armed organization.
A Cycle of Retaliation
The violence of the Macedonian Struggle was not one sided. The sources also record the killing of Greek fighters and the execution of Greek captains captured by Romanian forces. They describe a broader cycle of violence in which Greek and Romanian armed organizations attacked one another and in which civilians became caught between competing movements.⁷
This is essential for understanding the conflict historically. The existence of documented attacks by Greek andartes does not imply that Greek forces were the only perpetrators of violence. The Macedonian Struggle was characterized by reciprocal violence, reprisals, assassinations, destruction of property, and intimidation.
Nevertheless, documenting the violence against Aromanian and Romanian institutions remains important because the struggle over Aromanian identity has sometimes received less attention than the better known Greek Bulgarian rivalry.
The Romanian movement represented another competing national project within Ottoman Macedonia. Its schools, churches, books, teachers, and community leaders challenged the assumption that Orthodox Christians in the region should necessarily belong to the Greek national sphere.
Conclusion
The evidence concerning the Greek andartes in 1905 demonstrates that the Macedonian Struggle was simultaneously a military, political, cultural, and communal conflict. Greek armed organizations did not merely fight rival armed groups. According to the sources presented here, they also targeted the institutional foundations of Romanian and Aromanian identity.
The reported attacks on Pleasa and Avdella, the destruction of Romanian religious books, the burning of houses and institutions, the killing of teachers and community leaders, and the destruction of livestock illustrate the methods through which armed nationalism could be used to reshape local political and cultural allegiance.
The conflict also reveals the limitations of interpreting Balkan nationalism primarily through religion. Greek, Bulgarian, Romanian, and Aromanian communities could share Orthodox Christianity while simultaneously engaging in violent struggles over language, education, ecclesiastical authority, and national identity.
The events of 1905 therefore represent an important stage in the transformation of Macedonian nationalism from a competition between cultural institutions into a struggle increasingly enforced through armed coercion. For the Aromanians who supported Romanian schools and churches, the issue was not merely cultural recognition. The survival of their institutions could become a matter of physical security.
Sources
Burileanu, Constantin N. Dela Romǎniǐ din Albania. Lito-Tip. L. Motzătzeanu, 1906.
Derdena, Mihai Stere. Trei teme literare. Editura Elisavaros, 1998.
Eftimiu, Victor. Nuvele, schițe, povestiri. Minerva, 1981.
Papahagi, Tache. Poezia lirică populară. Editura Pentru Literatură, 1967.
Țuțui, Marian. Frații Manakia și imaginea Balcanilor. Noi Media Print, 2009.
Destin: revista de cultură românească. Issues 8–11. 1954.
