Navarino massacre (1821)

On March 6 (18), 1821, Alexander Ipsilanti crossed the Prut River in Romania and entered with his small detachment into the territory of modern Moldova . This was the beginning of the rebellion of the Greeks against Ottoman rule.

The uprising spread throughout Greece and the islands in the Aegean . At the same time, Turkish troops showed cruelty in suppressing it, and in Turkish cities a series of pogroms swept against the Orthodox population.

At the same time, in the areas covered by the uprising, the Greeks committed numerous killings of Muslims ( Turks , Albanians ) and Jews .

From late March to August 1821, fortresses near the town of Pylos ( Greek Πύλος ) in the southwest of the Peloponnese , also known to Europeans as Navarino , were besieged by Greek rebel forces.

As a result of the siege of the fortress, Nyokastro and Palokastro decided to surrender on the condition that garrisons and civilians were given the opportunity to safely leave the city and go to Egypt .

However, when the gates of the Nyokastro fortress were opened, the Greeks began beating the Ottoman soldiers and civilians ^[2] .

The English historian George Finlay ( George Finlay ) in his "History of Greece", written in 1843-1861, cites the testimony of a Greek priest, allegedly an eyewitness to the events:

Women, with bullet wounds and saber wounds, threw themselves into the sea, intending to escape there, but were shot in the water. Mothers with children in their arms, deprived of their clothes, fled to the sea, seeking salvation there, but everyone who was seen in the water fell under the fire of inhuman shooters. The Greeks tore babies from their mother’s breasts and threw them off the cliffs. Children, three and four years old, were also thrown into the sea and drowned in it. When the massacre was over, the dead bodies were carried ashore by the waves and lay in the sand, threatening to cause a sea ...

Original text

Women, wounded with musketballs and sabre-cuts, rushed to the sea, seeking to escape, and were deliberately shot. Mothers with infants in their arms were robbed of their clothes, and ran into the sea as the only place of concealment, yet while crouching in the water they were fired on by inhuman riflemen. Greeks sized infants from their mother's breasts and dashed them against rocks. Children, three and four years old, were hurled living into the sea and left to drown. When the massacre was ended, the dead bodies washed ashore, or piled on the beach, threatened to cause a pestilence .. ^[3]

A total of 2,000 to 3,000 Turks were killed.

The surrender of the Palocastro fortress took place without incident or murder.

According to some accounts, up to 50,000 Ottomans lived in Greece before the uprising. By the summer of 1821, almost all of them had been killed or fled:

The Turks of Greece left few traces. They disappeared suddenly and finally in the spring of 1821, not mourned and unnoticed by the rest of the world ... Over 20,000 Turkish men, women and children were killed by their Greek neighbors in the course of several weeks of massacre. They were killed intentionally, without doubt or hesitation ...

Original text

The Turks of Greece left few traces. They disappeared suddenly and finally in the spring of 1821, unmourned and unnoticed by the rest of the world ... Upwards of 20,000 Turkish men, women and children were murdered by their Greek neighbors in a few weeks of slaughter. They were killed deliberately, without qualm and scruple ... ^[4]

In this case, witnesses of the massacre of the Greeks against the Turks were representatives of European countries from among volunteers in the ranks of the rebels. However, they did not have public resonance in enlightened Europe.

For example, the beating of the Orthodox population of the island of Chios by Turkish punitive forces in April 1822 was reflected in Victor Hugo ’s poem “L'enfant” ( “There is a terrible trace to the Turks: ruins, ash ...” ) and in the picture of the famous French artist Eugene Delacroix “The Massacre on Chios” ".

At the same time, cases of the massacre of Muslims and Jews by the Greeks are mentioned almost exclusively in special historical studies of European authors, written many years after the events. Along with the massacres of Muslims during the Greek Revolution, the practice of selling the captured Muslim women, girls and boys by the Greeks into slavery ( sexual ) also existed and was ignored by the European public, including people from among the crews of European ships calling at Greek ports . ^[five]

• Shparo O. B. Liberation of Greece and Russia. 1821-1829 (Moscow: Thought. 1965)
• William St. Clair, That Greece Might Still Be Free The Philhellenes in the War of Independence, Oxford University Press, London, 1972 ISBN 0192151940
• George Finlay, History of the Greek Revolution and the Reign of King Otho, edited by HF Tozer, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1877 Reprint London 1971
• Douglas Dakin, The Greek struggle for independence, 1821-1833, Univercity of California Press, 1973 ISBN 0520023420

• John Lee Comstock, “History of the Greek revolution” on books.google.com
• William Linn Saint-Clair, “That Greece Might Still Be Free” on books.google.com
• Victor Hugo's poem in the original and Russian translation (inaccessible link)