Klephtes (Greek: κλέφτης, pl. κλέφτες – kleftis, kleftes, which means “thief” – and maybe originally meant just “brigand” were highwaymen that turned self-appointed armatoloi, anti-Ottoman insurgents, and warlike mountain-folk who lived in the countryside when Greece was a part of the Ottoman Empire.
They were the descendants of Greeks who retreated into the mountains during the fifteenth century in order to avoid Ottoman oppression.[4] They carried on a continuous war against Ottoman rule and remained active as brigands until the nineteenth century. The terms kleptomania and kleptocracy are derived from the same Greek root, κλέπτειν (kleptein), “to steal”. Source: Wikipedia
Other Klephte sources may be found by visiting the following sites as in dicated below:
KLEPHTE
HAJDUK
OTTOMAN GREECE
ARMATOLI
ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA AMERICANA
WORLD AND ITS PEOPLES
THE LAST PHASE OF THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE IN WESTERN GREECE (DECEMBER 1827 TO MAY 1829)
AUSTRIA’S POLICY OF MACEDONIAN REFORM
THE CAUSE OF GREECE THE CAUSE OF EUROPE
THE GREEK STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE: 1821-1833
THAT GREECE MIGHT STILL BE FREE: THE PHILHELLENES IN THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
BRITISH AND AMERICAN PHILHELLENES DURING THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE, 1821-1833
MEMOIRS BY
NETWORKS OF POWER IN MODERN GREECE:
JOHN CAPODISTRIAS AND THE MODERN GREEK STATE
Capodistria: the founder of Greek independence
Memoirs of the affairs of Greece; with various anecdotes relating to lord Byron
