Pavlos Kyrou

Pavlos Kyrou (Greek: Παύλος Κύρου) or Pavel Kirov (Bulgarian: Павел Киров) was a Slavophone Greek chieftain of the Macedonian Struggle. In Bulgaria he is regarded as a turncoat Bulgarian, renegade from the IMRO.[1]

Pavlos Kyrou in 1904

Biography

Kyrou was born in 1860s in Zelovo of Florina.[2][3] He was the grandson of the klepht Naoum Kyrou and spoke fluently both Bulgarian and Greek.[3][4] He graduated from the local Greek school of his hometown and started his armed activities along with Kottas, fighting against the Bulgarian komitadjis and the Ottoman authorities.[3][4] Kyros had the capability of knowing almost all of Western Macedonia and its paths and had many cooperators and friends from all over it.[4] At the beginning of the 20th century he was a member of the pro-Bulgarian IMRO by the voivode Kottas, and after the Ilinden uprising of 1903, they both allied with the Greeks.[5] In 1903-04 he travelled to Athens with Kottas to recruit volunteers for the struggle.[4]

Burst of Pavlos Kyrou in Antartiko

Pavlos Melas wrote in a letter of his on 12 March 1904 about Kyrou:

«You can't imagine what a curious guy Pavlos is. His kindness is unique. Our Cretans worship and tease him. The cigarette does not come out of his mouth and one of his pleasures is telling us without laughing the games he was playing with the Bulgarians. He has a unique pride in everything, but especially in associating with the best, and most appropriate, people in his work. He has good and loyal friends in all villages».[4]

He cooperated with many chieftains, like Dimitrios Dalipis, Kottas, Traianos Liantzakis, Ioannis Karavitis, Nikolaos Pyrzas, Pavlos Melas and especially Efthymios Kaoudis, who would not make a single move without the approval of Kyrou.[4][3] He was killed in action along with Dalipis on 19 November 1906, during a battle against the armed groups of Mitre the Vlach and Pando Klyashev.[3][6]

References
  1. Христо Силянов. „Освободителните борби на Македония“, том II, София, 1993, стр.222.
  2. Stelios Nestor (1962). "Greek Macedonia and the Convention of Neuilly (1919)". Balkan Studies. 3 (1): 178. many leaders who fought and fell in the field defending the Greek cause, though they did not speak but Bulgarian. Such leaders were: Capetan Kottas from Roulia, Vangelis from Strebeno, Kyrou from Zelovo [...]
  3. John S. Koliopoulos, Αφανείς, Γηγενείς Μακεδονομάχοι, University Studio Press, 2008, p. 163
  4. Ο ΠΑΥΛΟΣ ΚΥΡΟΥ ΚΑΙ Ο ΔΗΜ. ΝΤΑΛΙΠΗΣ, e-istoria
  5. Upward, Allen. The East End of Europe: The report of an unofficial mission to the European provinces, London, J. Murray, 1908, pp.323-324.
  6. Hristo Silyanov. "Освободителните борби на Македония", vol II, Sofia, 1993, p. 221
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