Komitadji,Comitadji, orKomita (plural:Komitadjis,Comitadjis, orKomitas) (Bulgarian,Macedonian andSerbian:Комити,Komiti,Romanian:Comitagiu,Greek:Κομιτατζής,plural: Κομιτατζήδες,romanized: Komitatzḗs,pl.Komitatzḗdes,Turkish:Komitacı,Albanian:Komit) was a collective name for members of various rebel bands (chetas) operating in theBalkans during the final period of theOttoman Empire. The name itself originates fromTurkish 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 theBulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee during theApril Uprising of 1876,[2][3][4] and Bulgarian bands during the followingRusso-Turkish War.[5] The term is often employed to refer later to groups of rebels associated with theBulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees and theSupreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee called by the Turks simply theBulgarian Committees.[6]
In interwar Greece andYugoslavia, the term was used to refer to bands organized by the pro-BulgarianInternal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation andInternal Thracian Revolutionary Organisation, which operated in Vardar and Aegean Macedonia and Western Thrace.[7] In interwarRomania, the term was used to refer to bands organized by the pro-BulgarianInternal Dobrujan Revolutionary Organisation, which attacked the Romanian outposts and theAromanian colonists inSouthern Dobruja. During theSecond World War this name was used to designate the members of the pro-BulgarianOhrana active in Northern Greece.[8]
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.