BANITSA AFTER THE TURKISH CONQUEST OF THE BALKANS

BANITSA AFTER THE TURKISH CONQUEST OF THE BALKANS

Banitsa under Ottoman Rule

After the Turks conquered the Balkan Peninsula, the land was divided into ‘chiftliks’ (estates) and allotted to wealthy Turkish landowners, with the local people becoming their indentured labourers or kmetovi.

Banitsa was the chiftlik of Izet Pasha and Sinan Bey, who both lived in Bitola. To manage the estate, they had their own representatives in the village: in the nineteenth century they were Trifun Kolerov and Ruse Dine Kochev, and in the twentieth it was Dine Kochev-Kjosata. The people worked for the ‘bey’ (chieftain) their lands as hired labourers, sharecroppers, or tenant-farmers. As the beys’ power and wealth declined, they started to sell the land to the people who had previously worked for them.

Banitsa as an Administrative Centre

During the Ottoman period, Banitsa was a ‘kaza’ (juridical district) governed by a ‘mudir’ (local governor) and belonged to the Bitola District. The village had a ‘kadilak’ (court of law) along with several ‘kadii’ (judges) who executed the law. Banitsa had its own representative in Valis, the court house in Bitola, and in the second half of the nineteenth century the position was held by Trifun Kolerov.

In the kaza, the political-administrative authority was executed by a council governed by a ‘mudir’. The council comprised judges, beys and other well-respected wealthy villagers, along with representatives of all the independent municipalities (‘belediye’), which belonged to the ‘kaza’ of Banitsa. The villages of Gornichevo, Tserovo, Zabrdeni, Rosen, Vrtalom and Negovan were administered within the kaza of Banitsa.

In Banitsa, in addition to the administrative-political council of the kaza or juridical district, there was an administrative governing board of the independent municipality of Banitsa, headed by a ‘kodzobashija’, a position similar to a mayor and held by a village elder.

The kodzobashija was one of the most well-respected and trusted men of the Turkish administration, and a loyal citizen of the regime. He was a professional administrator paid by the Turkish authorities.

There was a police station (zaptiah) in Banitsa under Alai Bey. The police officers were of Turkish nationality. There was also a large Turkish army base in Banitsa. This army played a major role in subduing uprisings of the people. By the end of the nineteenth century and with the appearance of IMRO (the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization) in this region, the Turks were forced to re-locate the police and army bases to Lerin.

Banitsa was a centre of church hierarchy as well. In the second half of the nineteenth century, it had its own representatives in the Ohrid-Prespa Archbishopric located in Krushevo. They were Ruse Dine Kochev and State Stojan Tashev.

Relations between the Macedonian People and the Turks

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, a large re-location of poor Anatolian Turks into Macedonia began. Many Turks settled in the Lerinregion atthistime and established new,independentcommunities,

but there were also Turks who integrated into Macedonian neighbourhoods and villages.

The Turkish authorities also tried to settle Turks in Banitsa itself but the villagers petitioned the bey of the chiftlik and their plea was granted. The Turkish settlement, Vrtalom, was established at this time, situated around seven kilometres from Banitsa near the Banitsa- Kotori-Lerin road. At the beginning, the newly-settled Turks bred livestock, then farmed crops, with their main product being tobacco. In the formation of the settlement, a great part of the land in the area known as ‘Sinak’ was taken away from local Banitsa residents and given to the new settlers.

There was a high level of distrust between the Turks and the Macedonians and very often conflicts arose. The Turks committed great atrocities during the regular army’s military campaigns, joining them in looting Macedonian villages, setting them on fire and committing other acts of violence. Later, the Turks would support the Greek andartes (paramilitaries), feeding and hiding them in their villages. In 1907 the local vojvoda, Natse Katin, warned the people of Vrtalom not to support the Greek andartes.

They did not heed the warning and a sanction followed. Natse Katin and Dzole Gjergev, along with their troops, surrounded the village, attacked it and killed all those suspected of helping the Greek andartes, leaving many burned houses behind. The same treatment followed for Katranitsa, Plishejtsa and other villages.

UnlikesomeareasoftheOttomanEmpire, therewas noconversion to Islam recorded among the local population.

After the liberation from Turkish rule and the agreement between Greece and Turkey for the exchange of populations from each other’s lands, which meant the removal of Turks from the territory of Greece, all the Turks from the Lerin district were re-located to Turkey. As the Turks were leaving, many Macedonians sought retribution for all the wrongdoings by the Turks which had been left unpunished.

Macedonians attacked livestock and household caravans on the Lerin-Solun and Lerin-Kozhani roads that were left unprotected by the Greeks, thus avenging themselves and taking all they could.

One interesting instance is that of the villager Gele Vachkov, who took two former raiders along with their families away from the procession and yoked them with a ploughshare to plough his field. They pulled while he poked them to remind them of the misdeeds they had done. They had put many mothers in black mourning dresses. At the end, Vachkov had even wanted to kill them, but was stopped by the other villagers. The families were then left to continue on the road to Istanbul.

AftertheTurksleft,theywerereplacedby650,000Christiansfrom Turkey who wanted to relocate to Greece. The Greek government settled these groups throughout Aegean Macedonia in a policy intended to both assimilate the Macedonians and also economically pressure them into leaving their birthplace for overseas countries. That was the end of the great Ottoman Empire. However, the people of this region not only didn’t get their freedom, but fell under a new occupation and subjugationfar worsethanthat of theOttomans hadeverbeen.Thegreat Greek barbarian government and fascist monarchy did everything to eliminate the Macedonian population. Not only did they not succeed in this, but the Macedonians gave them a powerful lesson during the National Liberation Struggle fighting for ELAS (Greek People’s Liberation Army) in World War Two and later on in the Civil War for the (communist) Democratic Army of Greece. The Macedonians had over 40,000 soldiers and 260,000 supporters in the war against the monarcho-fascists and their external allies, the Anglo-American imperialists.

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