Hajduk Iliya Karchovaliyata

Iliya Argirov, known by the nicknames Karchovaliyata, Dzhutyu or Dedo Iliya, was a Bulgarian hajduk and revolutionary, known as a voivode of the Macedonian Committee and the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (IMARO).

He was born in 1856 in the village of Karchovo, then part of the Ottoman Empire and now in North Macedonia. He came from a poor family that had lost members in the struggle against Turkish violence. Iliya began working as a shepherd and servant, but after his parents' deaths he became a hajduk. He participated in the Kresna-Razlog Uprising in Stoyan Karastoilov's detachment, then continued his hajduk activities.

In 1897 he joined IMARO under Gotse Delchev's influence and organised a six-man detachment in the Serres and Demir Hisar districts. In 1899 he became a voivode in the Nevrokop district, and in 1902 he moved to the Demir Hisar district, continuing his activity as a voivode. In 1903 he participated in the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising, operating in his native region at the head of a combined detachment with Yane Sandanski.

After the uprising's defeat, he opposed Sandanski and was removed from the district. From 1906 to 1908 he headed IMARO's post in Rila, Bulgaria.

In 1909 he was arrested with other detachment fighters and sentenced to life imprisonment for preparing an assassination attempt against Yane Sandanski, but was amnestied in 1911. During the First Balkan War in 1912, he headed the Twelfth Partisan Detachment of the Macedonian-Adrianople Volunteer Corps and later served on the staff of the Fourth Bitola Battalion. For his service he received the Order of Bravery, Fourth Class.

In 1913 he became head of the post in the village of Petrovo in the Demir Hisar district. He died in Karchovo in 1918. Iliya Karchovaliyata was the father of the IMRO voivode Mityo Iliev.