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Archive:Tripolitsa massacre

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Template:Short description Template:Infobox civilian attack Template:Morean Massacre The Tripolitsa Massacre (Template:Langx) was the final and largest in a sequence of massacres against Muslims in the Peloponnese during the first months of the revolt.In the three days following the city's capture inhabitants of Tripolitsa were massacred.[1][2][3]Historians estimate that upwards of twenty thousand Muslim men, women and children were killed during this time, often with the exhortation of the local clergy.[4][5][6][7]

Background

Tripolitsa was located in the interior of the Morean peninsula, and there was no direct logistical support possibility to the city by sea; therefore, there was no possibility of evacuating the besieged city.[8]When the Ottoman plan to evacuate tens of thousands of Muslims who had taken refuge in Tripolitsa from Nafplion with a force of 3,500 men was abandoned, it was decided that the Ottoman soldiers in Anabolu would be transferred to Tripolitsa to protect the city's population. While this plan was being considered, the families of some high-ranking commanders were also evacuated to Tripolitsa. In a short time, the population of Tripolitsa reached nearly 50,000.[9]

In the centuries following the conquest of the Morean peninsula  by Mehmed the 2nd, a social order prevailed in the peninsula among the Greeks, Turks, and Jews living there[10], apart from tensions and loss of life during periods of war.[11](like Russian backed Orlov revolt and its bloody suppression) However, the Turkish massacres during the rebellion and the Ottoman retaliations against Greek its subjects strained relations.[12]

Before and during the siege,The population of the city under siege allowed the local Greek community to leave the city.[13] but eight Greek Orthodox prelates of Peloponnese were incarcerated inside the city, and five of them died before the fall, due to "hardships, torture, and illnesses".[14] They were imprisoned by the Turks, chained in a cramped underground cell, suffered starvation and disease, and were in extremely poor physical condition by the time of the fall.[15] Two of them died before being released, while three died immediately, the day they were released and a few weeks before the city's fall.[15]

During the massacre, Greek gangs first tortured Halim Efendi, the Qadi of Tripoli, for the morale he had boosted among the city's inhabitants and refugees during the siege. They smeared him with oil and burned him alive. Afterwards, they dug up the bodies and bones from the Muslim cemetery in the city and burned them. After all the property in the city was plundered, the women and children were distributed as spoils of war. [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Furthermore, the Greek general Theodoros Kolokotronis approved of this massacre and slaughter that took place in the city. [26] Ahmed Lûtfî Efendi, a chronicler who lived during the Ottoman period, states that during the rebellion in Morea, the Greeks annihilated the Muslims, executing and burning even the fetuses in the wombs of pregnant women, and that the rebels thus destroyed many women and children, driving the survivors from their homeland, and that in a short time, all the Turks in the entire Morea region were devastated.[27][28]

Massacre

During the massacre, Greek gangs first tortured Halim Efendi, the Qadi of Tripoli, for the morale he had boosted among the city's inhabitants and refugees during the siege. They smeared him with oil and burned him alive. Afterwards, they dug up the bodies and bones from the Muslim cemetery in the city and burned them. After all the property in the city was plundered, the women and children were distributed as spoils of war. [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] Furthermore, the Greek general Theodoros Kolokotronis approved of this massacre and slaughter that took place in the city. [39] Ahmed Lûtfî Efendi, a chronicler who lived during the Ottoman period, states that during the rebellion in Morea, the Greeks annihilated the Muslims, executing and burning even the fetuses in the wombs of pregnant women, and that the rebels thus destroyed many women and children, driving the survivors from their homeland, and that in a short time, all the Turks in the entire Morea region were devastated.[40][41]

Plunder

As the capital of the Peloponnese region, Tripoli was its wealthiest city. Therefore, the looting of the city brought great wealth to the perpetrators and heads of the massacre.For example, Petros Movromihalis of Mani, who participated in the massacre, could only transport the spoils he obtained from the city with 20 mules and 2 camels,[42][43][44] or Theodoros Koloktronis, one of the generals during the massacre, was nicknamed the "booty hunter".[45]

Jews

Death toll

The total number of people killed during massacre differs by narattive.

  • Theodoros Kolokotronis, the ringleader of the massacre, states that the number of people slaughtered was 32,000.[46]
  • Template:Interlanguage link, who arrived in Greece two years later, estimated around 6,000 dead.[47]Josiah Conder and Thomas Curtis agreed with that number.[48][49]
  • The French cavalry officer Maurice Persat, who came to the Morea, states in his memoirs published in 1910 that the death toll was 40,000.[50]
  • Greek Historian Di­mitris Stathakopulos estimates number of people killed as 10.000[51]
  • Thomas Gordon, who arrived in the city shortly after its fall, estimated it at 8,000.[52] Scholar Aristides N. Hatzis believes this to be the most realistic estimate.[53]
  • The Romanian Ottoman historian Nicolae Iorga estimated the death toll at 32,000.[54]
  • Greek historians Spyridon Trikoupis and Ioannis Filimon, both disavowing the atrocity, estimated the number at 10,000, including former combatants and non-combatants. This number is considered close to the truth by historian Kyriakos Simopoulos.[55]
  • The European Philhellene William Henry Humphreys stated that the death toll was 10,000, including women and children.[56]
  • Historian Theophilus C. Prousis, citing David Brewer, reports that: "Flight, disease, starvation, and death in battle reduced the town’s population by almost one-half (from 30,000 to 15,000 residents). Nearly 8,000 Turks and Albanians died in combat during the siege, while an additional 2,000 non-combatants, mostly women and children, were massacred by Greek forces in a nearby gorge".[57]
  • Hezekiah Niles quoted the London Courier in December 1821: "8,000 Turks bearing arms were put to the sword on the taking of Tripolitza".[58]

Assessments

British historian William St Clair describes the massacre as follows:

The Greeks entered the city on October 5th. The city was surrendered to the gangs for two days. More than ten thousand Turks were executed. European officers who witnessed the events described the horrific scenes. Among those captured, those suspected of hiding money were tortured. Their arms and legs were cut off, and they were slowly tortured over fire. Pregnant Turkish women had their bellies slit open, their heads severed, and the heads of dogs stuffed between their legs. Until Kolokontoris entered the city and intervened, from Friday to Sunday, the sky was filled with screams and laughter. One Greek boasted of personally killing 90 people. The Jewish community in the city also suffered systematic torture. Approximately 2,000 captives, mostly women and children, were taken naked to a valley outside the town and killed there. The piles of bones scattered around would still be visible years later. Even weeks after the massacre, starving Turkish children, running desperately among the ruins of the city, were being slaughtered or shot dead by enthusiastic Greeks.The bodies were left where they had been killed. Soon, an unbearable stench of decay filled the city, and flocks of scavenging birds swarmed in. Wild dogs roamed among the burning ruins, feeding on the decaying human corpses. The wells were poisoned by the bodies thrown into them. Soon, cholera broke out. Thousands of Greeks became rich through the looting. Some, taking a few Turkish women as slaves, returned to their villages and retired. In Tripoliçe, piles of blood-stained clothing, weapons, furniture, and everything of value were offered for sale. The prices of those sold as slaves in the city had fallen so low that all but the youngest women were killed. The proceeds were divided among the rebel leaders (captains). However, Kolokotronis received the largest share of the spoils. Kolokotronis carefully set aside his spoils, transporting the jewels, money, and weapons from the Turkish governor's mansion on 52 horses.Kolokotronis became extremely wealthy and sent his money to a bank in the Seven Islands.[59]

David Howarth, an author who wrote a work on Greek history, describes the massacre in this way:

Within two days, not a single living soul remained in the city where tens of thousands of Turks had lived. Most of them had been killed, their heads, arms, and legs cut off. After this massacre, thousands of Greeks, who were wealthy in their own right, returned to their villages to hide the spoils they had obtained from the looting. The value of the captives had fallen so low that no one wanted to possess them anymore. Because no one buried the dead, an unbearable stench permeated the city of Tripoli, the drinking water was poisoned, and a cholera epidemic broke out. In reality, a Greek might deny what everyone knows, sees, and believes, claiming that such a thing never happened. But they all know from experience that the bandits and pirates, who are presented as national heroes, were in reality mangy, filthy, insatiable thieves. As Lord Byron said, "Greeks lack the ability to grasp reality. Every Greek has an exaggerated opinion of Greeks." Every open-minded traveler like myself cannot help but admire them. This is perhaps the result of sensitivity. I felt indebted to the Greeks for their gentleness. I pondered the reason why their ancestors had suddenly become so ferocious 150 years earlier. The general explanation was the hatred they had awakened in themselves towards the Turks after centuries of Turkish oppression. Therefore, they sought revenge. During the 1821 revolution, the number of foreigners living in Greece was negligible. Therefore, European countries were unaware of what was happening in Greece. Reports sent outside of Greece were prepared by enlightened romantics living in Athens who had not participated in the war, and were thus written in accordance with Greek ideals.[60]


Rationale

Template:Quote box The rationale behind the massacre has been debated. Although the Greek leaders definitively opposed the massacre, seeking to stop it, and most Greeks and other Europeans condemned it as well, some Greeks and non-Greek philhellenes tried to rationalize it in context.[53]

George Finlay suggested that the Greeks were simply imitating the cruelty they had endured, stripping them of total moral blame by pointing to their environment, a concept known as "mirroring".[53] Meanwhile, Thomas Gordon said in an 1823 speech:[61]

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Percy Bysshe Shelley, in his poem Hellas, implied how extreme oppression naturally breeds extreme revenge.[53] Samuel Gridley Howe, recounting Olivier Voutier's story of an old Greek shepherd whose son was killed by a Turk, wrote that: "Where is the father, with a soul so free from the frailties of human nature, as not to have exclaimed with the old shepherd – 'give me vengeance and let me die!'Template:Nnbsp".[53] Mary Shelley, novelist and author of Frankenstein, wrote positively of the siege, while noting that the cruelties were plainly justified, as "the oppressor must in the end buy tyranny with blood – such is the law of necessity".[53]

Historian Template:Interlanguage link considered the massacre:[62]

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Abraham John Valpy shared a similar assessment. Valpy wrote:[63]

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Hezekiah Niles quoted an article in the London Courier without any personal comment: "But the Turks, acting under the orders of a legitimate government, may murder the Greeks, and their women and children—their patriarchs, archbishops and priests at". He then proceeded to note how, during the siege of the city, the Greeks had found out that the Turks had just murdered "12,000 to 13,000 [Greek] hostages of all ages and both sexes" in other parts of the Ottoman Empire. Historian Charles L. Booth wrote:[58]

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According to German historian Template:Interlanguage link, the massacre was committed as retaliation to the Constantinople massacre of 1821.[12] Jean-François-Maxime Raybaud, the sole non-Greek eyewitness to the massacre, agreed, writing that: "Alas, a considerable population was to be offered to the spirits of the victims of Smyrna, Constantinople, Scala-Nova, and Ayvali, and new sufferings, new outrages against humanity, were about to avenge four centuries of oppression and injury".[64]

  1. ↑ Lieberman, Benjamin (2013). Terrible Fate: Ethnic Cleansing in the Making of Modern Europe. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-4422-3038-5. The fall of the Turkish fortress of Tripolitsa in the central Morea on October 5, 1821, brought the single worst massacre of the war. ... At least 8,000 Muslims and Jews died at Tripolitsa alone.
  2. ↑ Katsikas, Stefanos (2021). Islam and Nationalism in Modern Greece, 1821–1940. Oxford University Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-19-065200-5. One of the worst atrocities, in terms of ferocity and number of victims, took place after the fall of Tripolitsa in September 1821. In the words of Alison Phillips: "the other atrocities of the Greeks paled before the awful scenes which followed the storming of Tripolitsa." In the heart of Morea, home to the Ottoman pasha (governor) of the region, Tripolitsa was estimated to have a population of 15,000 people before the Greek revolution that included 7,000 Muslims and 1,000 Greek-speaking (Romaniote) Jews. With the start of the revolution most of the Orthodox Christians fled the town, and the Muslims of the surrounding regions of Mistras, Bardounia, Leondari and Fanari, along with 9,000 Muslim troops, sought protection inside the walls of the citadel. It is estimated that approximately 25,000 souls were inside the citadel in the summer of 1821. Famine, disease, and fighting had thinned the population, yet it is believed that approximately 8,000 Muslims of every age and sex, but mostly women and children, perished when the Greeks sacked the citadel.
  3. ↑ Heraclides, Alexis (2011). The essence of the Greek–Turkish rivalry: national narrative and identity. Academic Paper. The London School of Economics and Political Science. p. 15. "On the Greek side, a case in point is the atrocious onslaught of the Greeks and Hellenised Christian Albanians against the city of Tripolitza in October 1821, which is justified by the Greeks ever since as the almost natural and predictable outcome of more than '400 years of slavery and dudgeon'."
  4. ↑ William St. Clair (1972) p. 12
  5. ↑ Finlay, p. 172
  6. ↑ Phillips (1897), pp. 57–61
  7. ↑ Bowman, Steven. The Jews in Greece. pp. 419–435. http://www.umass.edu/judaic/anniversaryvolume/articles/30-F3-Bowman.pdf. 
  8. ↑ BOA, HAT, 888/39242, 29 Zilhicce 1237/ 16 Eylül 1822.
  9. ↑ Kurşun, age., s. 107.
  10. ↑ Christos Loukos, “Some Suggestion for a Bolder Incorporation of Studies of the Greek Re-volution of 1821 into their Ottoman Context”, Ottoman Rule and The Balkans, 1760-1850:Conflict, Transformation, Adaptation, Girit Üniversitesi Yay., Rethymno 2007, s. 197-198.
  11. ↑ Miller, William (1921) (in en). The Turkish Restoration in Greece, 1718–1797. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. pp. 21. https://books.google.com.tr/books?lr=&redir_esc=y&hl=el&id=qUoMAAAAIAAJ. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Flathe, T. (1905). Restoration and revolution (J. Hunter, J. H. Myers, & others, Trans.; J. H. Wright, Superv.). In: A history of all nations from the earliest times: Being a universal historical library (Vol. 18, p. 368). Lea Brothers & Co. (Original work published 1892)
  13. ↑ Linner, Sture (1967). W. H. Humphreys' First "Journal of the Greek War of Independence" (July 1821–February 1822). Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. 
  14. ↑ Michael Angold, ed (2006). The Cambridge history of Christianity (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. pp. 230. ISBN 978-0-521-81113-2. https://books.google.com/books?id=vBy7CTYVBeMC&q=orthodoxy%2Bpatriarch%2B1821%2Bgregory&pg=PA230. 
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Trikoupis, S. (1888). Ιστορία της Ελληνικής Επαναστάσεως (3rd ed., Vol. 2). Athens: Τυπογραφείο της «Ώρας».
  16. ↑ Template:Cite document
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  20. ↑ Gordon, Thomas (1844). History of the Greek Revolution and the Wars and Campaigns Arising from the Struggle of the Greek Patriots in Emancipating their Country from The Turkish Yoke. 1. Edinburgh: William Blackwood. 
  21. ↑ Mehmed Esad Efendi (2000). Yılmazer, Ziya. ed (in Turkish). Vak’anüvis Mehmed Es’ad Efendi Tarihi (Bâhir Efendi Zeyl ve İlâveleriyle) 1237-1241/1821 1826. Istanbul: OSAV Yayınları. 
  22. ↑ Bass, Gary J. (2008). Freedom’s Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 
  23. ↑ Linner, Sture (1967). W. H. Humphreys’ First "Journal of the Greek War of Independence" (July 1821–February 1822). Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. 
  24. ↑ Örenç, Ali Fuat (2011). "Yunanistan’ın Bağımsızlığı Sürecinde Yok Edilen Mora Türkleri" (in Turkish). Uluslararası Suçlar ve Tarih Dergisi 11 (1): 5–32. 
  25. ↑ Kurşun, Zekeriya (2021) (in Turkish). Nasuhzâde Ali Paşa ve Rum İsyanı. Istanbul: Vakıfbank Kültür Yayınları. 
  26. ↑ Brengeri (1827). "Adventures of a foreigner in Greece" (in en). London Magazine II: 41. 
  27. ↑ Lütfi Efendi, Ahmed (in tr). Vak’anüvis Ahmed Lûtfî Efendi Tarihi. 1. pp. 38-39. 
  28. ↑ Lütfi Efendi, Ahmed (in tr). Vak’anüvis Ahmed Lûtfî Efendi Tarihi. 2-3. p. 543. 
  29. ↑ Template:Cite document
  30. ↑ Template:Cite document
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  32. ↑ Template:Cite document
  33. ↑ Gordon, Thomas (1844). History of the Greek Revolution and the Wars and Campaigns Arising from the Struggle of the Greek Patriots in Emancipating their Country from The Turkish Yoke. 1. Edinburgh: William Blackwood. 
  34. ↑ Mehmed Esad Efendi (2000). Yılmazer, Ziya. ed (in Turkish). Vak’anüvis Mehmed Es’ad Efendi Tarihi (Bâhir Efendi Zeyl ve İlâveleriyle) 1237-1241/1821 1826. Istanbul: OSAV Yayınları. 
  35. ↑ Bass, Gary J. (2008). Freedom’s Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 
  36. ↑ Linner, Sture (1967). W. H. Humphreys’ First "Journal of the Greek War of Independence" (July 1821–February 1822). Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. 
  37. ↑ Örenç, Ali Fuat (2011). "Yunanistan’ın Bağımsızlığı Sürecinde Yok Edilen Mora Türkleri" (in Turkish). Uluslararası Suçlar ve Tarih Dergisi 11 (1): 5–32. 
  38. ↑ Kurşun, Zekeriya (2021) (in Turkish). Nasuhzâde Ali Paşa ve Rum İsyanı. Istanbul: Vakıfbank Kültür Yayınları. 
  39. ↑ Brengeri (1827). "Adventures of a foreigner in Greece" (in en). London Magazine II: 41. 
  40. ↑ Lütfi Efendi, Ahmed (in tr). Vak’anüvis Ahmed Lûtfî Efendi Tarihi. 1. pp. 38-39. 
  41. ↑ Lütfi Efendi, Ahmed (in tr). Vak’anüvis Ahmed Lûtfî Efendi Tarihi. 2-3. p. 543. 
  42. ↑ Template:Cite document
  43. ↑ Ahmed Cevdet (1891) (in Turkish). Tarih-i Cevdet. 11–12. Istanbul: Matbaa-i Âmire. 
  44. ↑ Mehmed Esad Efendi (2000). Yılmazer, Ziya. ed (in Turkish). Vak’anüvis Mehmed Es’ad Efendi Tarihi (Bâhir Efendi Zeyl ve İlâveleriyle) 1237-1241/1821-1826. Istanbul: OSAV Yayınları. 
  45. ↑ Template:Cite thesis
  46. ↑ Kolokotrones, Theodoros (1892). Edmonds, Mrs.. ed. Kolokotrones: The Klepht and the Warrior; Sixty Years of Peril and Daring: An Autobiography. London: T. Fisher Unwin. pp. 135–156, 157–161. 
  47. ↑ Blaquière, E. (1824). The Greek Revolution: Its origin and progress, together with some remarks on the religion, national character, &c. in Greece. London: G. & W. B. Whittaker, p.Template:Nbsp146
  48. ↑ Curtis, T. (1839). "Tripolizza". In The London Encyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary of Science, Art, Literature and Practical Mechanics (Vol. 17, p.Template:Nbsp646). London.
  49. ↑ Conder, J. (1830). The modern traveller: A description, geographical, historical, and topographical, of the various countries of the globe. Vol. XV: Greece, Vol. I. London: James Duncan, p.Template:Nbsp142.
  50. ↑ Persat, Maurice (1910). Schlumberger, Gustave. ed (in French). Mémoires du Commandant Persat, 1806 à 1844. Paris: Librairie Plon. 
  51. ↑ Kolokotrones, Theodoros (1892). Edmonds, Mrs.. ed. Kolokotrones: The Klepht and the Warrior; Sixty Years of Peril and Daring: An Autobiography. London: T. Fisher Unwin. pp. 135–156, 157–161. 
  52. ↑ Finlay, p. 269.
  53. ↑ 53.0 53.1 53.2 53.3 53.4 53.5 Hatzis, A. N. (2023). "The absolute barbarians as victims: Moral blame, historical disappointment and Orientalist double standards in rationalizing the Tripolitsa massacre". In N. Christofis, A. Lamprou, & L. Moiras (Eds.), The Greek War of Independence and the Ottomans. Berghahn Books.
  54. ↑ Iorga, Nicolae (2005) (in Turkish). Osmanlı İmparatorluğu Tarihi. 5. Istanbul: Yeditepe Yayınları. 
  55. ↑ Σιμόπουλος, Κ. (1979). Πώς είδαν οι ξένοι την Ελλάδα του '21: 1821–1822 (Τόμ. Α'). Αθήνα: Στάχυ. pp.Template:Nbsp278–279, n.Template:Nbsp145
  56. ↑ Linner, Sture (1967). W. H. Humphreys' First "Journal of the Greek War of Independence" (July 1821–February 1822). Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. 
  57. ↑ Prousis, Theophilus C., "Eastern Orthodoxy Under Siege in the Ottoman Levant: A View from Constantinople in 1821" (2008). History Faculty Publications. 13.
  58. ↑ 58.0 58.1 Booth, C. L. (2005). Let the American flag wave in the Aegean: America responds to the Greek War of Independence (1821–1824) [Doctoral dissertation, New York University].
  59. ↑ Clair, age., s. 44-45; Kurşun, age., s. 109-111.
  60. ↑ Howarth, age., s. 27-32, 52-56.
  61. ↑ Kasdagli, Aglaia (1995). "Exploring the papers of the Scottish Philhellene Thomas Gordon (1788–1841)" (in en). Kampos: Cambridge Papers in Modern Greek 3 (0). doi:10.26220/kam.4837. https://pasithee.library.upatras.gr/kampos/article/view/4837. 
  62. ↑ Manatt, J. I. (1898). [Review of The War of Greek Independence, 1821–1833, by W. A. Phillips]. The American Historical Review (3), pp.Template:Nbsp538–539.
  63. ↑ Abraham John Valpy, The Pamphleteer, 1822, p.Template:Nbsp182
  64. ↑ Raybaud, M. (1824). Mémoires sur la Grèce pour servir à l’histoire de la guerre de l'indépendance, accompagnés de plans topographiques (Vol. 2, pp.Template:Nbsp469–470). Paris: Tournachon-Molin.
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