armatole

thumb|Watercolor painting by Carl Haag (1861) conceivably representing an armatole.|alt= The armatoles (; ; ; ), or armatole in singular, were irregular soldiers, or militia, commissioned by the Ottomans to enforce the sultan's authority within an administrative district called an armatoliki ( in singular, , in plural). In Greek regions of the Ottoman Empire, they were composed of Greeks who were either former klephts or village stalwarts who had taken up arms against the klephts in the defense of their district.

The Greek armatoles had a semi-independent status all over the Greek peninsula, and armatolikia were created in areas that had high levels of brigandage (i.e. klephts), or in regions that were difficult for Ottoman authorities to govern due to the inaccessible terrain, such as the Agrafa mountains of Thessaly, where the first armatoliki was established in the 15th century. Over time, the roles of the armatoles and klephtes became blurred, with both reversing their roles and allegiances as the situation demanded, all the while maintaining the delicate status-quo with the Ottoman authorities. They were armed men who were enforcing the law according to their desires with the force of their guns, armata, since the authority of the Ottoman Empire was very limited in the areas that they were acting, as the Ottoman Empire where the armatoles were present was a failed state. Albanian armatoles were employed by Ottoman authorities, and in particular in the latter half of the 18th century, during the administration of the Ottoman Albanian ruler Ali Pasha of the increasingly independent Pashalik of Yanina he replaced Greek armatoles, making the regions armatoles almost exclusively Albanian. The thus deposed Greek armatoles became klephts and their subsequent anti-armatoloi activity was not only brigandage, but also a form of resistance against Ottoman rule.