USKOK LEADER STOJAN JANKOVIĆ

BIJELJINA, SEPTEMBER 22 /SRNA/ – Serb Duke Stojan Janković /1635–1689/, a leader of the Uskoks in the Ravni Kotari region of northern Dalmatia, was killed on September 23, 1689, during an attack on the Ottomans in Duvno.

Janković was born in Žegar, on Mount Bukovica above the Zrmanja River, not far from the Orthodox Krupa Monastery. For centuries, the Ottoman-Venetian border ran nearby.

He was the son of Janko Mitrović from Žegar, near Obrovac. Around 1641, his father, together with his four brothers and another 70 families, moved from Ottoman-controlled territory to the small village of Budin, between Žegar and Zadar, in the Venetian Republic.

Duke Stojan Janković was regarded as a respected man and regularly led the Kotar Uskoks in frequent battles against the Ottoman army. As a young man, Stojan fought alongside his father.

Stojan distinguished himself in battles against the Ottomans, particularly during the Ottoman-Venetian wars.

After his father was killed in 1659, following a battle between the Uskoks and the Ottomans on the Cetina River, Stojan became the commander of the Kotar Uskoks.

In 1666, Janković was captured and taken to Constantinople, where he escaped from after 14 months. This event was immortalized in the Serb folk epic "The Captivity of Janković Stojan".

During the Cretan War, in February 1666, during one of the clashes with the Ottomans, Duke Stojan was captured while raiding the area of the Cetina region.

The fact that he was brought before the Sultan indicates that Stojan's campaigns against the Ottomans were known even at the Sultan’s court, as only prominent rebels were considered important enough to be brought before him.

After more than a year passed without any news of him, all hope that he would return had been lost.

The Sultan's prisoners could neither be ransomed nor exchanged, so escape was the only way to save himself.

Thanks to reduced vigilance of the Ottoman guards, as the unpopular Sultan Mehmed IV was staying in Edirne for hunting and leisure, Stojan managed to escape and return home to the Kotari region.

This Serb duke liberated Sinj from the Ottomans in 1686.

For his achievements in the battles against the Ottomans, the Venetian authorities awarded Duke Stojan the title of Knight and granted him a large estate in the Kotari region.