Draft:Nikola Skadarac

Nikola Lukić-Skadarac, better known as voivode Nikola Skadarac (Serbian Cyrillic: Никола Лукић-Скадарац; about 1885-1908) was a Serbian freedom-fighter and voivode (commander) during the time of emancipation of Macedonia, beginning in 1903 with Ilinden rebellion against the four-century old Turkish oppression.

Life

Nikola Lukić was born in the village of Vrak near Skadar, hence "Skadarac". When Jovan Stanojković-Dovezenski started to origanize chetas and Chetnik voivodes, Nikola Lukić was among the very first volunteers and participants in the training and later deployment of the chetas in the mountainous region of Old Serbia and Macedonia before the Balkan Wars and the Great War.

In 1908, Major Alimpije Marjanović served as the head of the eastern Povardarie's mountain headquarters and as commander of all the Serbian bands in the vicinity of Preševo, Kumanovo, Kriva Palanka and Kratovo. He led the Serbian detachments with voivodes Spasa Garda, Živko Gvozdić, Ditko Aleksić, Vojislav Tankosić, Denko Čuma and Nikola Skadarac. Following the successful action of the named voivodes, Marjanović was given a nickname "Ovčepoljski" after the region (Ovče Polje) for reforming the Serbian Chetnik Organization of the Serbian Defense Force and linking Serbian armies and organizing villages of the Western and Eastern Povardarie across Ovče Pole.

Nikola Lukić was stationed at Skopska Crna Gora where one of the most fiercest conflicts with the Turkish army took place. Under the command of Alimpije Marjanović of the Mountain Staff and its organization, Nikola Skadarac (as Lukić was affectionately called) lived up to his reputation to the very end when he took assignments to challenge the Turkish army in the region of Skopska Crna Gora. He and Božin Simić led their chetas in Skopska Crna Gora, Janjevo and Priština.

The basic goal of the Serbian Chetnik companies when leaving liberated Serbia was to reach their designated place behind enemy lines without losses, that is, to avoid unnecessary confrontation with the Turkish army and their vassals Arnauts. From the Serbian border near Buštranje to Koziak, the companies had to pass through a belt of Arbanas Kachaks and Serb and Albanian mixed villages near which Turkish gendarmerie units were stationed, so the officers on that stretch were dressed in the costumes of the region they were passing through so as not to be disturbed and reported to the Turks by local Arbanas. In Skopska Crna Gora Chetniks disguised themselves in local costumes, blending in with the rural population, which enabled them to successfully pass themselves off as local peasants during intense pursuits. The Serbian duke Nikola Lukić, better known as Skadarac was a Serb from Vrač, a Serbian area around Staro Nagoričane (not too far from the city of Kumanovo), and his fellow Chetniks, also from Vračevce, were dressed in fustanella with a Skadar fez, because they made their way to Poreč under arms, pretending to be a gang of Kachaks.

During the last Chetnik campaign in Macedonia in 1908, led by Alimpije Marjanović, Nikola Lukić-Skadarac was killed that year. Marjanović's work was nullified by the Young Turk Revolution on 23 July 1908, though sporadic skirmishes continued well into 1912 (before the First Balkan War broke out).

Similarities in National Costumes

There are distinct differences between costumes worn by Serbian Chetniks and voivodes and the national costume worn by Arnauts. There are also similarities. Arnauts used to wear the fustanella, the so-called Balkan kilt, a pleated skirt above the knee, in Serbian regions until the middle and late 19th century. Even today, Tosk-speaking Albanians from southern Albania consider the fustanella to be their national costume. The commitment of the Suliots of the Epirus Albanian Orthodox tribes to the Greek nationality led to the fact that the Greek Evzones Guard still wear the fustanella today. Serbs, unlike Arbanasi, wore white trousers with black cords. The costume also differed in terms of hats. Serbs wore what they call čelapoše or keče, a small, black or white hat on top of the head that was tied with a towel since Turkish times, while Arnauts wore a white fez, the so-called Skadar fez. Over time, the Arbanasi (Albanians) who lived mixed with the Serb population received trousers and kečes, and the Serbian and Arbanasi costumes became equal in Kosovo and Metohija and in Macedonia

See also

• List of Chetnik voivodes