Voivode Balcho

In the summer of 1689, during the Austro-Turkish War, while the Austrians were besieging Niš, a hajduk leader named Balcho appeared in the Sofia and Plovdiv regions. He was a sekbanbaşı, commander of a detachment of seymens whose task was to maintain order in troubled areas and pursue hajduks.  During Karposh's Uprising he was in the Kyustendil and Štip regions, and in the early eighteenth century he led a band in the Rasina and Kruševac region.

According to the Turks, Balcho and his hajduks carried out raids, robbed and killed people in the Tatar Pazardzhik district, deepening the chaos in the region. Local authorities organised attempts to stop them, during which people from the voynuk settlements, such as Panagyurishte, Koprivshtitsa, Mechka and Poibrene, hid and assisted the hajduks.

In an order from October 1689, Balcho and his hajduks were accused of continuing destruction, robbery and killings in the region. The order reveals that instead of being pursued by the population, the hajduks were hidden and supported by local people, making it harder to deal with them.

In 1708, after many years of hajduk activity in the area, Balcho and Alagyoz settled in the Sanjak of Alaca Hisar and later in the Belogradchik region, from where they continued their insurgent actions. Balcho's name appears in a sultanic order calling for the investigation and capture of the hajduks. This Balcho was probably the same hajduk leader of 1689 who shifted his insurgent activities to the western Bulgarian regions, contributing to continuing instability there.