# Komitadji

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1870s–1900s anti-Ottoman rebels in the Balkans

A column of Bulgarian Comitadjis captured during WWI in [Thessaloniki](/source/Thessaloniki).

Bulgarian comitadjis arrested by the [Allies](/source/Allies_of_World_War_I) during WWI in Thessaloniki.

**Komitadji**, **Comitadji**, or **Komita** (plural: **Komitadjis**, **Comitadjis**, or **Komitas**) ([Bulgarian](/source/Bulgarian_language), [Macedonian](/source/Macedonian_language) and [Serbian](/source/Serbian_language): Комити, *Komiti*, [Romanian](/source/Romanian_language): *Comitagiu*, [Greek](/source/Greek_language): Κομιτατζής, plural: Κομιτατζήδες, [romanized](/source/Romanization_of_Greek): **Komitatzḗs**, pl. *Komitatzḗdes*, [Turkish](/source/Turkish_language): *Komitacı*, [Albanian](/source/Albanian_language): *Komit*) was a collective name for members of various rebel bands ([chetas](/source/Cheta_(rebel_group))) operating in the [Balkans](/source/Balkans) during the final period of the [Ottoman Empire](/source/Ottoman_Empire). The name itself originates from [Turkish](/source/Turkish_language) and translates as "committee members". Komitadjis fought against the Turkish authorities and were supported by the governments of the neighbouring states, especially Bulgaria.[1]

Komitadji was used to describe the members of the [Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee](/source/Bulgarian_Revolutionary_Central_Committee) during the [April Uprising](/source/April_uprising) of 1876,[2][3][4] and Bulgarian bands during the following [Russo-Turkish War](/source/Russo-Turkish_War_(1877%E2%80%931878)).[5] The term is often employed to refer later to groups of rebels associated with the [Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees](/source/Bulgarian_Macedonian-Adrianople_Revolutionary_Committees) and the [Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee](/source/Supreme_Macedonian-Adrianople_Committee) called by the Turks simply the *Bulgarian Committees*.[6]

In interwar Greece and [Yugoslavia](/source/Kingdom_of_Yugoslavia), the term was used to refer to bands organized by the pro-Bulgarian [Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation](/source/Internal_Macedonian_Revolutionary_Organisation) and [Internal Thracian Revolutionary Organisation](/source/Internal_Thracian_Revolutionary_Organisation), which operated in Vardar and Aegean Macedonia and Western Thrace.[7] In interwar [Romania](/source/Romania), the term was used to refer to bands organized by the pro-Bulgarian [Internal Dobrujan Revolutionary Organisation](/source/Internal_Dobrujan_Revolutionary_Organisation), which attacked the Romanian outposts and the [Aromanian](/source/Aromanian_people) colonists in [Southern Dobruja](/source/Southern_Dobruja). During the [Second World War](/source/Second_World_War) this name was used to designate the members of the pro-Bulgarian [Ohrana](/source/Ohrana) active in Northern Greece.[8]

## Other uses

- The name of [FK Vardar](/source/FK_Vardar) and [RK Vardar](/source/RK_Vardar)'s main [ultras](/source/Ultras) group is [Komiti](/source/Komiti_Skopje).[9]

- *Komitadji* was the name given to a space-travelling warship of the Earth-based Pax Empire in the [science-fiction](/source/Science-fiction) [novel](/source/Novel) *Angelmass* (TOR Books, 2001) by [Timothy Zahn](/source/Timothy_Zahn).

## See also

- [Hajduk](/source/Hajduk)

- [Chetnik](/source/Chetnik)

- [Makedonomachoi](/source/Makedonomachoi)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** *The Making of a New Europe: R.W. Seton-Watson and the Last Years of Austria-Hungary*, Hugh Seton-Watson, Christopher Seton-Watson, Methuen, 1981, [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0416747302](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0416747302), p. 71. The word komitadji is Turkish, meaning literally "committee man". It came to be used for the guerilla bands, which, subsidized by the governments of the Christian Balkan states, especially of Bulgaria.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Salâhi Sonyel, Minorities and the Destruction of the Ottoman Empire; Turkish Historical Society Printing House, 1993; [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [975160544X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/975160544X), [p. 232](https://books.google.com/books?id=_W2KAAAAMAAJ&q=komitadjis+).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Христо Марков Йонков, Числен, социален и класов състав на революционерите в Априлското възстание 1876: Историко-социологическо изследване на ІV революционен окръг. Изд. на Българската академия на науките, 1993, стр. 34.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** *[Maiden Tribute](https://books.google.com/books?id=pRn307aQfW8C&dq=comitadjis+committee&pg=PA20)*, Grace Eckley, Xlibris Corporation, 2007, [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [1462838111](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1462838111), p. 20.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Paul Mojzes, Balkan Genocides: Holocaust and Ethnic Cleansing in the Twentieth Century, Rowman & Littlefield, 2011, [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [1442206632](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1442206632), p. 11.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** *[Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia](https://books.google.com/books?id=ilGfCIF4Ao4C&dq=historical+dictionary+macedonia+comitadjis&pg=PR57)*, Dimitar Bechev, Scarecrow Press, 2009, [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0810862956](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0810862956), p. Ivii.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** *The Comitadji Question in Southern Serbia*, Rodolphe Archibald Reiss, Hazell, 1924.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** *[Plundered Loyalties: Axis Occupation and Civil Strife in Greek West Macedonia, 1941–1949](https://books.google.com/books?id=3hFahiZflJoC&dq=komitadji&pg=PA69)*, Giannēs Koliopoulos, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 1999, [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [185065381X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/185065381X), p. 69.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** [FootballDerbies.com - Komiti](http://www.footballderbies.com/fans/index.php?id=110)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Komitadji](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komitadji) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komitadji?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.