Preservation of American Hellenic History
Preservation of American Hellenic History
by Jason C. Mavrovitis
In the first decade of the twentieth century Kastoria and the surrounding villages served by the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Bishop of Kastoria were within the Vilâyet of Monastir, and the Sanjak of Kastoria.(25) Monastir, (26) the present day Bitola(27) in the Republic of Macedonia is 34 miles north of Kastoria and was an important political center with numerous European consulates. American and British representatives of the press were frequently in residence there.
Albanian-Turkish(28) beys governed the entire region. This ruling class owned most of the land and served as "tax farmers" for the Ottoman Empire. (29) The peasants suffered under the beys and other Turkish officials, and were plundered by brigand bands that stole from their villages. A village's only defense to protect its people and property was to ally with klephts or comitadjides.
In 1893 a subversive movement named the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (I.M.R.O.) sprang into existence in Resna, Macedonia, just north of Lake Ohrid. Its stated purpose was to represent all the peoples of Macedonia in their struggle against the abusive and intolerable conditions imposed by the Ottoman Empire. In practice it became an anti-Greek, anti-Turkish, exarchist guerilla organization that enlisted Bulgarians and Bulgarian dominated villages into its membership. In reaction the patriarchist grecomanes(30) organized and, in their attempt protect the Greeks of Macedonia from the Slavs, cooperated with the Turkish authorities in discovering and destroying comatidjedes.
It is at the start of the nineteenth century that the Mavrovitis family story begins.
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