Voivode Andon Kyoseto

Andon Lazov Yanev Kyosev, known as Kyoseto or Veleshanetsa, was a Bulgarian revolutionary, terrorist and later voivode of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (IMARO).

He was born in 1855 in the village of Golozintsi in the Veles district. Until the age of sixteen he worked as a shepherd together with his brothers and sisters. His family moved to Veles after his father was arrested and taken to Thessaloniki. There, in his early years, Andon killed a Turkish citizen and fled to Thessaloniki, where he joined IMARO and carried out terrorist assignments. He met Dame Gruev and received orders from him. Later he became Dr Hristo Tatarchev's carriage driver, using this position to conceal his clandestine activities. During this period, devoting himself to the revolutionary cause, he offered to kill his own brother, who had sided with the Turkish authorities, to prevent him from betraying the organisation, and successfully carried out this task.

In May 1898, on Dame Gruev's orders, together with Itso Dzhorlev and supported by IMARO's leaders in Gevgelija – Argir Manasiev, Iliya Doktorov and Ivan Telyatinov – Andon Kyoseto participated in the murder of Hristo Tsitsov, leader of the pro-Greek party in Gevgelija. After a temporary stay in Thessaloniki, he left the city because the Turkish authorities were searching for him. Together with a detachment that included Iliya Karchovaliyata and Mihail Apostolov-Popeto, he collected money from Gorno Brodi and villages in the Kukush district, kidnapped a wealthy notable's son and received a ransom.

In 1897 he formed a detachment with Mihail Popeto that operated in the Kukush, Doyran, Gevgelija, Poroy, Maleshevo and Strumitsa districts. In February 1904, after the uprising, he entered Macedonia with a detachment bound for the Gevgelija district.

During the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising, Andon Kyoseto was ordered to lead a detachment in the Prilep district. In the village of Troyatsi he fought Turkish regular troops and then separated from other parts of the detachment, leaving for the Veles district. In a battle at Klepata against 500 Turkish regulars, after heavy fighting, Andon Kyoseto emerged victorious, though both sides suffered losses. He escaped encirclement and reached Kyustendil in mid-December 1903.

In February 1904 he entered Macedonia with a detachment bound for the Gevgelija district. After the uprising he organised and trained village militias in the Strumitsa and Maleshevo districts. He also participated in the activities of the Serres group but withdrew from active revolutionary work after the failure of the Second General Rila Congress in 1905. Because of his previous membership of the Serres group, following Todor Panitsa's murder of Boris Sarafov and Ivan Garvanov he was imprisoned, but was released thanks to IMARO's intervention.

Andon L. Kyosev died on 27 January 1939 in Gorna Dzhumaya.