Pitu Guli
| Pitu Guli Питу Гули |
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|---|---|
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| Born | 1865 Krusevo, Ottoman Empire (now the Republic of Macedonia) |
| Died | August 12th, 1903 Krusevo, Ottoman Empire |
| Monuments | Mečkin Kamen |
| Other names | Pitu the Vlach |
| Organization | Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) |
Pitu Guli (Cyrillic: Питу Гули; 1865–1903) was an Aromanian revolutionary in Ottoman Macedonia, a local leader of what is commonly referred to as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO).
Born to a poor family in Kruševo, he demonstrated an independent and rebellious nature early in life. He left his home in Macedonia at the age of 17 in search of wealth in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. In 1885, he returned to Macedonia, as part of a rebel squad of the revolutionary movement against the Ottoman Empire, led by Adam Kalmikov. He was captured and exiled to eastern Anatolia for a period of eight years, seven years of which were spent in the prison in Trabzon. In 1895, he again returned to Kruševo and became a member of IMARO. From this time on, he was fully committed to the independence of Macedonia from Turkish rule. Between 1897 and 1902 he was again in Sofia, where he also held an eating house.
In March 1903, he began commanding a revolutionary squad, crossing the Bulgarian-Ottoman border heading for Kruševo. From April to August 1903, he trained and prepared his irregulars for the upcoming Ilinden Uprising. He died in Krusevo, defending the Krusevo Republic.
Following the revolt, Romania, with the support of Austro-Hungary, succeeded in the acceptance of Vlachs as a separate millet with the decree (irade) of May 22, 1905 by Sultan Abdulhamid, so the "Ullah millet" (the millet of the Vlachs) could have their own churches and schools Nevertheless, Pitu Guli and his family were Bulgarophiles. Except for Exarchist Vlachs, most members of other ethnicities dismissed the IMRO as pro-Bulgarian. He is father of Tashko Gulev (Shula Guli), who died in 1913 as soldier of the Bulgarian army in the battle of Bregalnica against the Serbs, during the Second Balkan War. He is also father of the revolutionary of the IMRO, Nikola Gulev (Lakia Guli), one of the people closest to Todor Alexandrov. He was captured and killed by the Serbian police in 1924. Pitu Guli is a father of Steryo Gulev (Sterya Guli), who took part in the military units formed by the Bulgarian authorities in Vardar Macedonia during World War II to fight the communist Yugoslav partisans. He reportedly shot himself after Bulgarian withdrawal from Macedonia in 1944, upon the arrival of Tito's partisans in Kruševo, in despair over what he saw as a second period of Serbian dominance in Macedonia.
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