Stavros Kotsopoulos (1878 – 1948)

Stavros Kotsopoulos (1878 – 1948)

From Vevi Florina, in western Macedonia, he was an important Macedonian Fighter and Warlord, who also fought in the Balkan Wars, the Northern Epirote Liberation Struggle as well as in WW2.

From a young age, he was involved in various skirmishes with the Bulgarians, as well as with the Ottoman authorities, throughout Ottoman occupied Macedonia. Such was the seriousness of his clashes and dealings with the enemy; he fled to the USA in 1905 until things cooled down.

Ironically whilst in America, he continued to get into fights with Bulgarians who had also fled for the United States.

Returning home to Macedonia in 1907, he continued fighting during the Macedonian Struggle under the pseudonym “Kapetan Banitsiotis”.

However in late 1908, he was arrested by the Ottomans, imprisoned in Monastiri and sentenced to death. He managed to escape and he once again fled Macedonia.

By 1909 he was back in Macedonia, this time leading his own group of fighters, he would continuously fight for the next 3 years until Macedonia was liberated in 1912, killing many Bulgarian komitatzides along the way.

Kotsopoulos also fought in the Balkan Wars, in Northern Epirus and in World War 2, before dying in 1948.