Botsaris, Tusias

Tusias Botsaris was born in 1750 in the mountain Suli (region) Epirus. Suliot only nominally recognized the power of the Ottoman and for 3 centuries, with arms in hand, defended their freedom. All the campaigns of the local Turkish Albanian governors against Suli ended in a victory for the Suliots. Tusias father, George Botsaris , headed one of the strongest clans of Suli. The younger Tusias brothers, Kitsos Botsaris and Notis Botsaris , left a noticeable mark on the history of Suli and Greece.

In 1772, Suleiman Chapari, with an army of 9,000 people, attacked the Suliots, who began hostilities, after in September 1771, during the Peloponnesian uprising , they were visited by a Russian envoy, with letters from Alexei Orlov . Suleiman was not only defeated, like all his predecessors, but he himself was captured, while the number of killed and captured Turks was huge ^{[1] [2]}
In 1775, Kurt Pasha's operation followed, which was also forced to retreat.
Many other, smaller-scale, incessant clashes forced Suliots, in expression. H. Perrevoza " eat with a weapon, sleep with a weapon and wake up with a weapon ."

In 1788, Yanin was Ali . The clashes became more intense and violent. The reason was the Russian-Turkish war (1787-1791) , at the beginning of which, in September 1788 , Sotiris Luisis, the envoy of the Empress of Russia Catherine the Great , arrived in Suli, with the task of pushing the Suliots to distracting military actions. As a result, in March 1789, the Suliots military leaders, among whom were Georgios Botsaris, Lambros Dzavelas , Zarbas Veykos, Zervas, Nikolos , Drakos, Dimos and others, said to Catherine, in their reply letter, that they were ready to fight against the Ottoman Empire
Having received the relevant information, Ali Pasha undertook his first campaign against Suli. In the spring of 1789, Ali spoke out against the Suliots with 10,000 Turkish Albanians. The campaign lasted 4 months, but ended disgracefully. The Suliots again resisted and displayed their exceptional combat abilities. In July, Ali retreated, agreeing to pay a salary to Suli's military leaders in exchange for the security of the region, receiving 5 warlords' children as hostages.

The Greek historian A.E. Vakalopoulos writes that if, at the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war, the Russians concentrated on the southern Greek lands ( Peloponnese and Cyclades ), by the end of the war the Russians switched their attention to the central and northern Greek lands ( Epirus , Acarnania and Macedonia ) and mainly on Suli ^[3] . The French historian Laviss, Ernest confirms (volume 2 of Napoleon’s Time Part Two 1800–1815 p. 58 ^[4] ) that in 1790 the suliots sent an embassy to St. Petersburg to petition Catherine II for patronage and ask her for “gunpowder”. Catherine II introduced the deputies to Grand Duke Constantine, whom the Suliots welcomed as the "king of the Hellenes". Tusias Botsaris took part in the embassy as a representative of one of the largest clans. The Russian empress, in addition to gifts, handed him a flag, which became the flag of the Botsarisov clan. On one side of the flag was St. George the Victorious , on the other Dimitry of Thessalonica . The flag was accompanied, slightly illiterate, with an inscription, in capital letters, in Greek “O ΑΓΗΣ ΓΗΩ --ΓΙΟΣ - ΑΠΟΓΟΝΗ ΤΟΥ” ( Greek There is information that at the same time, Tusias Botsaris received the title of "Major of the Russian Army", but so far this information is not supported by documents ^[5] . Laviss writes that “Ali took advantage of this attempt by the suliots, informed Porte on them and received a firm who assigned him to punish them. July 1, 1792 (after the end of the Russian-Turkish war and the signing of the Treaty of Iasi ), Ali went on a campaign with 10,000 people. " Ali suddenly attacked Suli, but met with resistance. The Suliots fought off one by one the attacks of the Turkish Albanians. Turco-Albanians fled, having lost about 3 thousand people killed and wounded. Perrevos writes that only a third of the Turkish Albanians who took part in the campaign returned to Ioannina ^{[6] [2]} . Tusias distinguished himself in this war, calling for a duel and killing the leader of the Albanian tribe "lyapi". Musli Göleku.

Tusias Botsaris was killed in the same year, 1792, during a clash with the rich Turkish Albanian clan of Japari, with whom the Clan Botzaris had open accounts ( Vendetta ). 2 months after the death of Tusias, his son was born. The son was also named Tusias and later became, in the years of the Greek Revolution, a famous military leader.

The flag presented by Catherine the Great was the flag of the clan Botsarisov in all subsequent twists and turns of the Suliots. During the breakthrough of the besieged rebels from Mesolongi in 1826 , the flag was in the hands of Kitsos Dzavelas . Zavelaz brought the flag to the island of Hydra . Tusias Botsaris (junior) died in 1827, in the battle of Phaleron . In 1832, after the end of the Liberation War, the flag passed into the hands of Costas Veykos, who returned it to the Dzavelas family in 1859. Finally, the Dzavelasov family returned the flag to the Botsaris family, which settled in the town of Mesolongi ^[7] .

• "Εγάλη Ελληνική Εγκυκλοπαίδεια" τομ.ΙΖ΄, σελ. 716.
• "Εώτερον Εγκυκλοπαιδικόν Λεξικν Ηλίου", τομ. 14ος, σελ. 33.