THE MACEDONIAN STRUGGLE The long-lasting and bloody Macedonian Struggle from the side of the Bulgarians, whose new-fangled country was protected by the European powers, was aiming to evict the Greeks from Macedonia and fulfil the Slavic dream, which was the exodus of Bulgaria to Aegean. From the Greeks' side the Macedonian struggle was aiming to eliminate the Slavic's devilish plans and fortify the national morale of the Greeks in Macedonia. The Macedonian struggle, if it was judged for its stages and results, it should be considered as the greatest liberating struggle of the Greek race, after the struggle of 1821. Without the Macedonian struggle, Macedonia wouldn't exist for Greece any longer and Bulgaria, being supported, not only would have exit to Aegean but also would have limited Greece in narrow limits, as it used to be since 1912.
During this holy struggle the most important seat, Serres, pushed forward real patriots and heroes, who sacrificed their lives for the idea of emancipation. In this Pantheon of heroes of the Macedonian Struggle, immortality offered an eminent position to two of them: Captain Vlahveis and Captain Mitrousis, whose actions became legendary and their patriotism and example to be followed.
Soon, he organized his own guerrilla force and started the persecution of the comitadjis. The people who fought on his side were Athanasios Giovanis, Michael Ouzounis, Nikolaos Panagiotou from Agrinio and Theodore Tourlentes from Leontario. On Friday 15th July 1907, Captain Mitrousis and his men chased Vlitrousis after the Bulgarians, came to Serres and hid in Papathanasis' house, a priest in Saint Evaggelistria church in Kato Kamenikia. Unfortunately, he was betrayed to the Turks and 12.000 Turks surrounded the neighbourhood at once. Then Captain Mitrousis left the house of the priest and he and his 5 men went to the belfry of the church. An unequal battle started in which two of his men died and other three seriously injured were caught by the Turks. Captain Mitrousis fought to the end. After killing tens of Turks and running out of ammunition, he killed himself with a knife, so the Turks wouldn't catch him alive (14 July 1907). His death soon became legendary and a song which was sung for many years. Stergios Vlahveis was born in Heraklia and came after Hatzipantazis in the leadership of the guerilla force in Tzoumagia. He was one of the first guerillas in the Macedonian Struggle. He took action in Halkidiki and in the area of Ahinos lake. On 15th September 1907, together with Nasos Feggaras undertook and carried out the execution of the informer, Diga, who had betrayed Captain Mitrousis and his men to the Turkish authorities a month earlier. On 22nd July 1908 he arrived in Serres. His gang was the first one that officially surrendered in the city. The Greek government awarded him a metal and put his name down on the list of Macedonian fighters. Doukas Doukas was a wealthy manufacturer from Serres. He owned a spinning-factory and a large store in Serres. The fervent patriot abandoned his family and wealth and went to Athens, where he joined the command of Tsontos Vardas Force as a guerrilla. He fought and he was distinguished in Western Macedonia from 1904 until 1905, when he returned to Serres and undertook the formation of his own Force, which took action in the area of Serres, Zihni, Paggeo, where he became a hero.
Papapaschalis was a vicar in his hometown, Levadohori. The comitadjis killed his parents and all his relatives. Then, Papapaschalis gathered 9 men, relatives and fellow-villagers and he was appointed commander under the pseudonym commander Androutsos. He undertook a fight on two fronts, against the Bulgarians and the Turks. However, after four months (February 1907) and after the betrayal by a Turkish "friend" of him, he was surrounded by a great military force, in Nikoklea village. During the three hour long battle, commander Androutsos got seriously injured. However, he kept on fighting while eight of his partners were dying one after the other. He managed to help the rest of his men, who escaped by using guns. As soon as he run out of bullets he was found almost dead because he was bleeding, by the Turks. They killed him with their bayonets and threw him in a pit. The heroic and pure personality of Papapaschalis would have remained completely unknown if it hadn 't been for the report of the Greek Consul in Serres on 27th February 1907. During the Macedonian Struggle the Music-Gymnastic Association "ORPHEUS", which was founded in 1905 and was distinguished for its cultural, sporting and mainly national activities, offered precious services. Besides, the real intention of its foundation was nationalistic, while the teaching of music and drama was only the excuse. Meetings of its members used to take place in the basements of the Association's offices, where many decisions were made concerning the progress of the struggle and also the preparations for plans in order to entice the inhabitants of Serres to the holy struggle. The Association, in order to cover up its active participation in the struggle, used to give performances and generally, it developed a remarkable cultural activity until 1913. The period between 1913 up to 1918 was a break in "Orpheus" action. Only in 1919 it was re-established and found its old glamour. Moreover, starting from 1925, it made a wonderful cultural progress and created an excellent mandolin orchestra, a band and a choir. Nowadays, "Orpheus", following the old tradition takes part in cultural and musical shows which are organised in Serres. |
After the failure of Great Bulgaria concerning the treaty of Saint Stefanos, the Pan-Slavs who didn't dare to contest Turkish territory, created the "Macedonian issue" and the myth about the
"Macedonian nation". In the beginning, their effort had Pan-Slavic character. But later it became only a Bulgarian effort, in order to smash the
national morale of the Macedonians, enslave Macedonia, make it autonomous and finally embody it in the Bulgarian kingdom, as they had done with Eastern Romylia.
Coincidence played an important role, too. The Ottoman empire was in its last days and according to the historian G. Kaftantzis, 1904 was the critical year for the fate of Hellenism and Macedonia: the reformatory plans of Vienna and Myrsteg and also the culmination of the Bulgarian revolutionary action in 1903 (sabotage in Thessaloniki, Iliden etc) gave the impression that the Slavics had supremacy over Macedonia, while they found Greece had been isolated and weaken after the unfortunate war in 1897. However, the possibility of Macedonia becoming autonomous or being administratively divided in national majorities based on doubtful statistics, awoke the government of Athens and forced it to abandon its passive policy.
The government started to organize guerrilla forces and intelligence networks, bolster up the education system, staff with specialised officers the consulates and generally, started to play carefully and coordinate the defence of enslaved Macedonia.
A secret centre of the Macedonian Struggle in Eastern Macedonia was Serres, where there had been formed many guerrilla forces under the leadership of the Macedonian chieftains Giaglis, Doukas, Vlahveis, Captain Mitrousis and Andreas Makoulis. These guerrilla forces desplayed incredible national action. From the chieftains mentioned
above, Giaglis was active in the region of Nigrita, captain Doukas around Paggeo, Vlahveis in the region of Sidirokastro and Heraklia and Makoulis was active in the province of Serres.
Meanwhile, the atrocities committed by the Bulagrians against the Greeks of Macedonia, when they realised that propaganda was not good enough for them, were indescribable. However, the frightful oppression, the tortures, the arson attacks and the ghastly murders were not enough to subdue the national morale of the Greeks. The free Greek government after recognizing the vigorous resistance of the population and the superhuman effort of the guerrilla forces, kept on bolstering them up by sending very active people to the Consulates. As a result of that, the guerrillas' actions were directed by skilful men such as Ion Dragoumis, Tsamados, Stournaras, Fionas etc.
Mitrousis Gogolakis came from Homondos village. He became the nightmare of the Bulgarian Comitadjis with his national action. One day, in 1907, a Bulgarian gang under the leadership of chief-comitadji, Arabatzis, after taking advantage of Gogolakis' absence, set his house on fire and slaughtered his whole family. When Mitrousis returned and confronted the frightful sight of his family's dead bodies, he sweared to take revenge.
The chieftain Hatzipantazis came from Skotousa. His force took action in the area of Serres. In September 1904, Hatzipantazis was killed, after killing three dangerous Bulgarians, in a fierce conflict with the Bulgarians, which took place in the church of Saint Pantelaemon, in Serres. The leadership of his Force was undertaken by Stergios Vlahveis, while the widow of Hatzipantazis, commander Sofia, remained in the Force until the end of the Macedonian Struggle.
