Dorovski Vane
One of the three
The name Vane Dorovski has an outstanding heroic association to it.
In the horrendous battles on Gramos in the summer of 1947 a military
unit of DAG comprising both Greek and Macedonians youths was ordered
to protect the Kotelska tower (Pirgos Kotilis). The Kotelska tower played
a decisive role in the battle and the enemy sent large numbers of troops
there.
The airplanes droned above the heads of the brave fighters and the
place was on fire. Machine guns, mine launchers, artillery and planes
all hit the hill aiming for the brave protectors, who fought heroically
for many days in a row.
On 16 July the tower collapsed. Most of the courageous freedom fighters
were killed. Only three were left alive. Countless enemy fighters lay
dead. The heroes shot almost all their bullets at the enemy but kept
some for themselves. Arm in arm they threw themselves into the fire
so that they would not fall into the hands of the enemy alive. Two of
them were Greeks and one was a Macedonian - Vane Dorovski from the village
Sheshtevo, Kostur region.
Dorovski fought and died an honourable descendent of the fearless 54
heroes of the "Nozhot" [1] who exactly
40 years earlier on 16 July 1907 under the leadership of the brave Sheshtevo
resident - Atanas Popov, bravely fought against a large Turkish army
contingent and bravely died. And so that they would not be captured
alive by the Turks, they lay on their bombs and, with the battle song
"Whoever falls in a battle for freedom, never dies!" they blew themselves
up.
The courageous fighters of the Kotelska hill fell for the sacred ideals
of democracy, independence and peace, for the equal rights of all peoples.
Kotelska hill is a symbol of the brotherhood and equality between Greeks
and Macedonians in their struggle, a symbol that is etched in the blood
of the brave Greek and Macedonian youth who will serve as a sacred example
for the struggle of our people.
The three eagles of Kotelska hill with their heroism created new pages
in the long history of the Greek and Macedonian people. Pages that read
like those of the brave women of Zalongo who with a song on their lips
threw themselves ito their deaths so that they would not fall into the
hands of the Turks; of the courageous fighters of Meoloni in the revolution
of 1821, of the immortal Ilinden heroes, of the famous creators and
protectors of the Krushevo Republic, of the fearless fighters of "Sliva"
and "Mechkin Kamen" of the eagles of the epic story "Nozhot."
"In many places, countless places, people with other names, with strange
names, far from our borders, far from us, are a part of the struggle,
from distant centuries until today, they sacrificed for human rights
and freedom. The old are bound to the young, we are bound to strangers,
all humankind, and they light our struggle, the harsh road of our fight."[2]
[1] Nozhot - the peak of Babuna Mountain.
[2] From the book " We will win" by
K Purnaras.
From: For Sacred National Freedom: Portraits Of Fallen Freedom
Fighters
© 2009
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For Sacred National Freedom: Portraits Of Fallen Freedom Fighters