Sali Butka
Sali Butka (1852-1938) was an Albanian nationalist [1] responsible for the attack against Moscopole in 1916.[2]
Butka became the commnader of various Albanian nationalist irregular bands and initiated armed guerilla operations in 1906 in regions of modern southern Albania, which were under Ottoman control that time.[3] His guerilla activities continued the next years and especially in the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) and World War I (1914-1918). During the Balkan Campaign of WWI, several bands of Albanian Tosks and Ghegs supported with their activity the armed operations of the Central Powers in the region.[4] Forces led by Sali Butka attacked successfully Moscopole in 1916. After the attack the town started declining.[2]
In 1920 he became one of the delegates of the city of Korçë to the Albanian National Congress of Lushnjë.[2]
Sali Butka during his guerrila campaigns composed revolutionary poems that combined of naturalistic texts with nationalistic themes in a form of folk poetry.[5]
Controversy
Butka's personality has created a ideological dillema between homogeneity and heterogeneity myths in the pluralistic society of Post-Communist Albania: while on specific Albanian textbooks he is considered a national hero, by some Aromanian cycles he is considered a notorious criminal.[2]
References
- ^ Grothusen Klaus Detlev. Südosteuropa-Handbuch: Albanien. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1993. ISBN 9783525362075, p. 666.
- ^ a b c d Nikolaeva Todorova Marii︠a︡. Balkan identities: nation and memory. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2004. ISBN 9781850657156, pp. 108-109.
- ^ Skendi Stavro. The Albanian national awakening, 1878-1912. Princeton University Press, 1967, p. 210.
- ^ Great Britain. War Office. General Staff. Handbook of the Austro-Hungarian Army in war, June, 1918. Battery Press, 1994. ISBN 9781870423793, p. 50.
- ^ Biddle Ian D., Knights Vanessa. Music, national identity and the politics of location: between the global and the local. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2007. ISBN 9780754640554. p. 137.