Sali Butka

Sali Butka (1852 – 24 October 1938), was an Albanian nationalist figure, kachak, poet, and one of the delegates of the city of Korçë to the Albanian National Congress of Lushnjë.[2][3]

Sali Butka
Born
Sali Tahir Aliçka

1857 (1857)
Butkë, Kolonjë, Albania (then Ottoman Empire)
Died24 October 1938(1938-10-24) (aged 80–81)[1]
Ersekë, Albania
Known forGuerilla against invaders in World War I; delegate of the Congress of Lushnjë; 1916 raid of Moscopole
ChildrenSafet Butka

Butka was born in village Butkë of Kolonjë District to one of branches of large Frashëri family[4][5] and he was a Bektashi Muslim.[6] He belonged to a generation of village men that became literate and joined guerilla bands through the literary efforts of the Albanian intelligentsia.[6] Butka became the commander of various Albanian irregular bands and initiated armed guerrilla operations in 1906 in regions of modern southern Albania, which were under Ottoman control that time.[7] Having learned to read Albanian on his own, Butka during his guerrilla campaigns composed revolutionary poems that combined naturalistic texts with nationalist themes in a form of folk poetry and viewed his contributions as feeding an Albanian national consciousness.[8][6] His poems would be turned into songs which appealed to villagers that were illiterate.[6]

His guerrilla activities continued the next years and especially in the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) and World War I (1914–1918). During the Balkan Campaign of World War I, several bands of Albanian Tosks and Ghegs supported with their activity the armed operations of the Central Powers in the region.[9] Butka and his band were responsible for the razing of Moscopole in 1916, once a prosperous metropolis in the 18th century, and lead to its destruction. The razing of the town forced many of its inhabitants to flee to nearby Korçë.[3]

In 1920 he became one of the delegates of the city of Korçë to the Congress of Lushnjë.[3]

Controversial personality

Butka's personality has created an ideological dilemma between homogeneity and heterogeneity myths in the pluralistic society of post-Communist Albania: while on specific Albanian textbooks he is considered a national hero, according to circles of Aromanians he is considered a notorious criminal because he is held primarily responsible of the destruction of Moscopole in 1916.[3]

References
  1. Elsie, Robert (2013). A Biographical Dictionary of Albanian History. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 9781780764313.
  2. Grothusen Klaus Detlev. Südosteuropa-Handbuch: Albanien. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1993. ISBN 978-3-525-36207-5, p. 666.
  3. Nikolaeva Todorova Marii︠a︡. Balkan identities: nation and memory. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2004. ISBN 978-1-85065-715-6, pp. 108-109.
  4. Frashëri, Kristo (2010). Frashëri, shkëlqimi dhe rrënimi i tij: vështrim i shkurtër. Geer. p. 14. ISBN 9789995688097.
  5. Sugarman, Jane C. (1999). "Imagining the Homeland: Poetry, Songs, and the Discourses of Albanian Nationalism". Ethnomusicology. 43 (3): 419–458. doi:10.2307/852556. ISSN 0014-1836. JSTOR 852556.
  6. Gawrych, George (2006). The Crescent and the Eagle: Ottoman rule, Islam and the Albanians, 1874–1913. London: IB Tauris. p. 148. ISBN 9781845112875.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  7. Skendi Stavro. The Albanian national awakening, 1878-1912. Princeton University Press, 1967, p. 210.
  8. Biddle Ian D., Knights Vanessa. Music, national identity and the politics of location: between the global and the local. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2007. ISBN 978-0-7546-4055-4. p. 137.
  9. Great Britain. War Office. General Staff. Handbook of the Austro-Hungarian Army in war, June, 1918. Battery Press, 1994. ISBN 978-1-870423-79-3, p. 50.
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