Tsangaridis, Ioannis

Ioannis Tsangaridis was born in the family of Christofis Tsangaridis in 1887 in the village of Lapitos, Cyprus ^[1] . Nine years before his birth, Cyprus came under British control. In 1904, Tsangaridis went to get a university education in Athens , the Kingdom of Greece , where he entered the chemistry department of the University of Athens . The publication of the Lapitos community states that he dropped out of school to go to Ottoman Macedonia ^[1] , but his participation in the Fight for Macedonia cannot be confirmed by either Greek or Bulgarian sources.

Upon his return from Macedonia, he decided to enter the military school of non-commissioned officers.

First Balkan War

Having become a non-commissioned officer of the Greek army, Tsangaridis took part in the First Balkan War , with the rank of ensign of the cavalry. As part of the cavalry corps, he took part in the victorious battle for Greek weapons at Sarantaporo , after which he took part in the liberation of the cities of western and central Macedonia - Servia, Kozani , Veria . After that, Tsangaridis took part in the battle of Yannitsa , whose victorious outcome allowed the Greek army to reach the capital of Macedonia , the city of Thessaloniki . After the liberation of the Macedonian capital, the cavalry brigade turned west, occupied the town of Metsovo in the Pinda mountains, went to the city of Korcha in Northern Epirus , contributing to the Greek victory at Bisani and the liberation of the capital of Epirus , the city of Ioannina ^[2] .

Second Balkan War

Unsatisfied with the results of the First Balkan War, Bulgaria launched military operations against its allies, Serbs and Greeks. On the eve of the war with the Bulgarians, Tsangaridis was promoted to the rank of junior lieutenant of the cavalry. As before, as part of the cavalry brigade, junior lieutenant Tsangaridis took part in the victories of the Greek army at Doiran on June 23 / July 6, 1913 and at Strumica on June 26 / July 9 ^[3] , and then in the last battle of that war in the Kresnensky Gorge .

World War I

In 1914, Tsangaridis was promoted to the rank of lieutenant of cavalry and then, in 1916, to the rank of captain of cavalry. During the National Schism, Tsangaridis was exiled to Santorin Island. He was recalled by the government of E. Venizelos to the army and took part in hostilities on the Macedonian Front . In November 1918, he was appointed head of the 1st Operations Division of the Crete Division.

In 1919, Tsangaridis was promoted to major of cavalry. In the same year, under the Entente’s mandate , the Greek army occupied the western coast of Asia Minor . Subsequently, the Sevres Peace Treaty of 1920 secured the control of the region over Greece with the prospect of deciding its fate in 5 years at a referendum of the population ^[4] . The fighting that began here with the Kemalists acquired the character of a war that the Greek army was forced to wage alone.

Philadelphia - Prusa

In the initial period of the campaign Tsangaridis fought as part of the 1st regiment of the cavalry brigade. On June 9, 1920, on foot, cavalrymen of the Tsangaridis squadron distinguished themselves in the defense of Keremets, which made it possible for the 1st cavalry regiment to attack the Turkish cavalry in Bin Tepe. On June 11, the Tsangaridis squad dismounted repulsed the attack of the Turkish infantry, after which, having jumped on its horses, it joined the offensive on Philadelphia ( Alashehir ). Philadelphia was taken by the 1st Cavalry Regiment on the same day, while the 3rd Cavalry Regiment took Aksar, Kirkagach and Soma . On June 20, the new headquarters of the cavalry brigade was formed, in which Tsangaridis became the chief of staff on June 25, the cavalry brigade, in its advance to Prus , entered Turkish defensive positions 10 km west of the city. With the support of the "Division of the Archipelago" and its artillery, the Greek cavalrymen broke the resistance of the Turks.

While the 3rd Cavalry Regiment entered the city, the rest of the cavalry brigade pursued fleeing Turks up to 15 km east of the city. The Turks threw their weapons and supplies in their flight. In addition to a large number of hacked Turkish soldiers, more than 200 were captured ^[2] .

East Thrace

The Greek army did not take action to occupy the Ottoman territories without the consent of the allies. East Thrace was only occupied in 1920. Prior to this, for two years, most of East Thrace, with the exception of the straits, was under the control of the Sultan government. The Thracian Sultan Army, under the command of Cafer Tayyar Eğilmez, consisted of 3 divisions. The operation was authorized by the Allied Command and Greece received a mandate to occupy East Thrace after Jafer Tayyar declared in March 1920 that he no longer recognized the Mudros Agreements and joined the Kemalist movement. Together with other manifestations of growing Turkish resistance, Tayyar’s actions became one of the reasons for the dissolution of the Turkish parliament in April ^[5] . Having received the instructions of the allies, Venizelos ordered General Paraskevopoulos to prepare an army corps for the occupation of Thrace. Thayyar’s army was twice as large as the Greek Thracian army in manpower and three times in artillery. Between June 9 and June 19 / July 2, the Greek Asia Minor Expeditionary Army defeated the Kemalists in northwest Asia Minor and occupied Ushak and Prus ^[5] , after which the Greek command decided to provide the “Smyrna Division” and the cavalry brigade in support operations to occupy East Thrace. The Thracian army forced Evros on July 8th. Despite their superiority in manpower and artillery, the Turks (and several thousand Bulgarian “volunteers”) showed little resistance and began to retreat to the Bulgarian border. As early as July 9, Greek units entered Adrianople. The ceremonial accession of King Alexander and the solemn service of Metropolitan Polycarp in the Orthodox Cathedral Church of the city took place on July 10. The Thracian army continued its offensive to the Black Sea coast, capturing thousands of Turkish soldiers. Since July 10, thrown to Thrace, the Greek cavalry brigade advanced in the direction of the city of Babaeski . At about 9 a.m. on July 11, cavalrymen of the first platoon of the 1st squadron of the 1st cavalry regiment overtook a group of 25 Turkish cavalrymen trying to leave Bulgaria in Dar Dera, 6 km north-west of Babaeski. Among them was Jafer Tayyar in civilian clothes. During the chase, Tayyar fell from his horse and (unidentified) was considered dead. After lying unconscious for a day, Tayyar was subsequently identified by the inhabitants of the Greek village of Bostanli and transferred to the Greek army ^[2] . The captured General Tayyar ^[6], at the direction of Venizelos, was sent to Athens, with honors appropriate to his rank. Foreign military journalists noted not only an impeccable attitude towards Turkish prisoners, but also an ideal attitude towards the Muslim population ^[7] .

Having broken the resistance of the Turks at Luleburgaz and Chorlu , the “Smyrna Division” stopped, by order of the Allied command, 50 km from Constantinople occupied by the allies ^[8] .

This step was dictated by inter-alliance agreements, but it was fully consistent with the geopolitical plans of Venizelos: Back in the Balkan wars , the army commander, Crown Prince Constantine asked Venizelos whether the government plans to occupy Constantinople. To which Venizelos replied: “No, but we will stand so close to Constantinople that, by lighting a cigar, you have enough time to document it on the Bosphorus .”

The geopolitical situation changed radically and became fatal for the Greek population of Asia Minor after the parliamentary elections in Greece in November 1920. Under the slogan “we will return our guys home”, the monarchist People’s Party won the election. In his memoirs, I. Tsangaridis claims that he prevented the commander-in-chief of the Asia Minor Expeditionary Army, General Leonid Paraskevopoulos, from falsifying the results of the front-line elections in favor of E. Venizelos.

The return of the Germanophile Constantine to Greece freed the Allies from their obligations towards Greece. Unable to find a diplomatic solution to the issue of the Greek population of Ionia , in a completely different geopolitical setting, the monarchists continued the war.

On the other hand, during the subsequent visit to the front of Asia Minor by King Constantine and Prince Andrew , Tsangaridis expressed to the crowned persons his wishes for the pacification of political passions in the army, as well as his hope for the speedy liberation of his homeland, Cyprus.

In the ranks of the cavalry brigade, Tsangaridis took part in the subsequent "Spring Offensive" of the Greek army. On March 11, 1921, the cavalry brigade, bypassing the lines of resistance of the Kemalists, reached the village of Kepeler. Here Tsangaidis handed over the authority of the chief of staff of the brigade to Colonel Stykos, taking command of the machine gun squadron. The next day, the brigade entered Bilejik , after which it took part in the battle for Avgin ^[2] .

June 29 / July 12, the Greek army launched the "Great Summer Offensive" / Having broken the resistance of the Turks at Uch Seraya ^[4] , the cavalry brigade attacked Ak Bunar. On July 8, the Turks launched their Great Counteroffensive to encircle the advancing Greek divisions in the Eskisehir region.

The advanced cavalry corps timely informed the other Greek units about the Turkish maneuver, after which they covered the gaps in the location of the Greek divisions and attacked Ak Bunar at 12:30 by the 3rd cavalry regiment and squadrons of I. Tsangaridis and George Stanotas . Greek cavalry broke through the line of attacking Kemalists and advanced to a depth of 4 km, making a stir in the location of the Turkish units and ensuring the victory of Greek weapons at Ak Bunar. More than 500 Turkish soldiers died from sabers of the Greek cavalry and about 100 were taken prisoner ^[2] . Developing its offensive on all sectors of the front, the Greek army defeated the Turks in the biggest battle of the war at Afyonkarahisar-Eskisehir , but the Kemalist army escaped defeat. The Turks moved 300 km east to Ankara, and the Greek government again faced a dilemma: what to do next ^[4] . Having set itself the goal of putting an end to the war by peace enforcement, the monarchist government decided to continue the offensive and raid Ankara.

On July 28 / August 10, 9 Greek infantry divisions and 1 cavalry brigade reached their starting positions for a raid on Ankara. The raid on Ankara began on 1/14 August. Having passed through the Salty Desert, and after heavy battles over the heights of Tambur Oglu and Sapanca, the I and III Greek corps occupied not only the first line of defense of the Turks, but also intermediate fortified lines, from which they were preparing to break through the second line of defense. In the north of the VII division, with combat, crossed the Sakarya River on the night of August 10-11 and created a bridgehead on the eastern bank of the river. Bypassing the Turkish left flank was entrusted to the II Corps of Prince Andrew (V, IX and XIII divisions). In front of the building were “impregnable cliffs” of Calais Groto. On August 13/26, the V division attacked the “impregnable cliffs”. The Turks did not expect this attack and in just an hour left their positions. The Greek infantry continued to advance without stopping, and by 9 pm took the highest peak of Calais Groto and with bayonets drove the Turks of the XXIV division from the trenches, whose retreat escalated into a stampede. The 13th Greek division attacked the heights west of Calais Groto on August 14/27, but was stopped by Turkish artillery fire. At night, the Turks tried to counterattack in this sector, but were thrown back by the Greek counterattack. The 9th Greek division and the cavalry brigade in which Tsangaridis fought tried to bypass the cliffs of Calais Groto on the right, but their vanguard met Fakhredin's cavalry, who managed to protect the Turkish left flank from encirclement. Greek successes troubled Kemal, who arrived in this sector, where direct command was carried out by the chief of the General Staff, Chakmak, Mustafa Fevzi . Upon arrival, Kemal issued an order: “All units will defend their positions until the last soldier. The sporadic successes of the enemy are explained by night storms and the inconsistency of our units. We should not doubt that by defending our positions with calm, we will finally stop the enemy. ” D. Fotiadis writes that this “we should not doubt” on the contrary betrayed how great the anxiety of the Turkish headquarters was. Kemal himself subsequently wrote that “there were minutes when I thought that everything was lost” ^[4] . During these battles, Tsangaridis was wounded three times in two days. After the first two wounds, he remained in service, but his last wound was severe. It is noteworthy that his last wound on August 17, 1921 was described by the journalist Nikos Karvounis , who was at the headquarters of the corps of Prince Andrew, a former soldier of the battalion of Greek Garibaldians . Acquaintance on the battlefield served as the beginning of the friendship between Tsangaridis and Karvounis, who later became a poet and author of the most famous pean of the Greek Resistance - “Thunder Olympus ” ^[9] .

After his severe wound, Tsangaridis was sent to Greece for treatment and seized the moment to visit Cyprus. In turn, Karvounis visited Cyprus in November 1921, as a correspondent for the Athenian newspaper Politia. His journalistic task was to write about the fate of thousands of Armenian and Greek refugees who fled to Cyprus from Cilicia after the Franco-Turkish agreement of October 1921. Karvounis seized the opportunity and visited his friend Tsangaridis in his father’s house in Lapithos. Together they made a number of trips to the diocese of Kerinia , which Karvunis described in his reports. In one of the reports, Karvunis described a visit to a municipal school in Lapithos. The report characterizes one of the main pylons of Cypriot irredentism. The wounded Tsangaridis came to school, where he studied at the time, in the uniform of the captain of the Greek cavalry. Tsangaridis asked one of the students the question "what do you want to become when you grow up." All children's eyes were bound on a deep scar on his face. The student, to whom the question was asked, answered without hesitation: “An officer, just like you.”

The reign of the monarchists ended with the defeat and evacuation of the army from Asia Minor and the Asia Minor catastrophe. Evacuated to Greece, parts of the Malaysian army rebelled in September and deposed King Constantine .

The ministers of the governments of the monarchists, the last army commander and Prince Andrei appeared before the tribunal, accused of sacrificing national interests for the sake of personal and party interests and the interests of the throne. Prince Andrei, among other things, was accused of the fact that during the battle for Ankara and as commander of the III Corps he refused to carry out the order of the previous army commander, General A. Papoulas . Karvounis met closely with Prince Andrew, being at his headquarters near Ankara for several weeks. Karvunis was not a monarchist. He was a liberal and later became a member of the Communist Party of Greece. However, he considered it his duty to testify before the tribunal in defense of Prince Andrew. Tsangaridis, who was neither a monarchist nor a liberal, in turn wrote a letter in defense of Prince Andrew, which Karvounis read to the tribunal.

By the decision of the tribunal, called the Process of Six , five former prime ministers and ministers of the monarchists and General Hadzianestis were sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out.

Prince Andrew escaped execution due to the intervention of European royal courts. Prince Andrey, who escaped execution, left his descendants. One of his grandchildren, Charles, Prince of Wales , is the heir to the British throne ^[4] .

The world with the Turks has not yet been signed. In Thrace, the Greek army was withdrawn at the insistence of the allies across the river Evros ( Maritsa ). The resumption of hostilities was not ruled out, and one of the primary tasks of the Revolutionary Government was to strengthen the so-called “Army of Evros”, which in historiography was named the “Miracle of Evros”. Under the leadership of General T. Pangalos , a well-equipped and efficient army of 100 thousand bayonets was created. The English historian D. Dakin writes that if at that moment a decision were made to resume hostilities, the army of Evros could have reached Constantinople with lightning speed and the Turks were not able to stop it ^[5] . Tsangaridis was appointed chief of staff of the cavalry division and became a member of the revolutionary leadership. However, E. Venizelos, who led the Greek delegation at the Lausanne Peace Conference, used the Evros Army as a threat and diplomatic weapon, but signed on to leave East Thrace within the new Turkish state. Tsangaridis was sent to France for retraining and, upon his return, led the garrison of the Greek capital.

After the 1926 election

After the 1926 election, Tsangaridis became a student of the Higher Military Academy. At the end of the academy's courses, he again headed the garrison of the Greek capital. While in this position, he assisted N. Plastiras in neutralizing the reaction of members of the Military Council, after deciding to withdraw part of the monarchist officers expelled from the army in the army in 1923.

In France

Tsangaridis was again sent to France, where in the period 1928 - 1930 he was responsible for the Greek officers sent there for retraining. In Paris, he became close with the son of E. Venizelos, Sophocles Venizelos , who at that time was the military attache of Greece in the French capital ^[10] . At the same time, Tsangaridis maintained constant correspondence with one of the leaders of the revolution, Nikolaos Plastiras .

Meanwhile, in 1931 in Cyprus his brother Theophanes took part in the October demonstrations against the British and was persecuted by the British authorities ^[1] .

In a period of political turbulence

In the absence of Tsangaridis, in 1929 the cavalry forces were reorganized, the cavalry division was disbanded and two brigades Larise and Thessaloniki were formed in its place ^[2] .

Upon returning from France, Tsangaridis was appointed commander of the 2nd cavalry regiment in the city of Larisa , and by 1932 he was already leading the cavalry brigade in the same city. In the September 1932 elections, the monarchists won. After the ensuing period of political turbulence in March 1933, the government of P. Tsaldaris did not receive a vote of confidence and the new government was formed by E. Venizelos , who held new elections. Despite the relative majority of votes received, due to the electoral system, the party of E. Venizelos did not receive a majority in parliament. With the support of the III and IV corps of the army, General Plastiras insisted that Venizelos not surrender the powers of the prime minister ^[10] . This was already a mutiny, to which Tsangaridis, being the commander of the 2nd cavalry regiment, refused to take part. The failure of Tsangaridis to some extent influenced the development of events in the II Army Corps and the failure of the rebellion as a whole.

Sofia Military Attache

General G. Condilis , suppressing the rebellion and establishing essentially a dictatorship, abolished the republic and declared himself royal regent. In the initial period of the Asia Minor campaign, Tsangaridis served under General Condilis and was the last to be presented with a reward for courage. In addition, Tsangaridis refused to take part in the rebellion. As a result, he was invited to lead the gendarmerie, but he refused. After that, Tsangaridis was appointed director of the Evelpids Military School , but the appointment was canceled. After a short mission to Hungary, Tsangaridis was appointed military attache to Sofia. Relations between Greece and Bulgaria were difficult from the very beginning of the creation of this state at the end of the 19th century and were weighed down by the revanchist sentiments of the Bulgarians after their defeats in the Second Balkan and World War I. As a military attaché in Sofia, Tsangaridis prepared a report on the military preparations of Bulgaria, which impressed the military and political circles of Greece. In 1935, Tsangaridis was promoted to the rank of Major General.

Returning to Greece, Major General Tsangaridis was appointed division commander of the XII Division. Meanwhile, the dictatorial regime of General I. Metaxas was established in the country. In 1937, Tsangaridis headed the underground anti-dictatorship organization of officers "Defenders of Popular Freedoms", which included, among others, Colonels G. Avgeropoulos and K. Davakis . To one degree or another, up to 800 officers were involved in the organization ^[10] . The organization initially managed to create an underground network in the army, but its members pursued different goals and gradually the organization's activities began to decline. Tsangaridis himself was arrested at the denunciation of General Dedes in January 1938 and sent into exile. Tsangaridis was accused of criticizing the Metaxas government for not taking serious measures to prepare the country for the impending war, as well as for the professional insufficiency of General A. Papagos , who was appointed army commander ^[10] . It should be noted that Tsangaridis personally knew Papagos, being his colleague in the cavalry brigade during the Asia Minor campaign, and that in the last period of this campaign, Papagos was one of two brigade commanders whose actions (or inaction) were sharply criticized by the military and historians. General Tsangaridis was exiled initially to the island of Sifnos, and then to the island of Ikaria , where he died in March 1939. His family never acknowledged the authorities' statement that he died a natural death ^[10] .

The brother of General Tsangaridis, architect Odysseus Tsangaridis, took the steps of posthumous rehabilitation of the general. However, the ensuing World War II and the Civil War (1946-1949), the participation of Odyssey Tsangaridis in the struggle for the reunification of Cyprus with Greece and British persecution and then the death of Odyssey Tsangaridis caused the general’s rehabilitation to be delayed for several decades. General Tsangaridis managed to write his memoirs, which, under the heading “The Diary of a General,” and edited by the historian K. Daphnis, were published by his sister Rebekah Polimer - Tsangarid ^{[11] [12]} .

His native village of Lapitos was occupied in 1974 by Turkish troops. Today in the village there is not a single Greek, in the houses, including his father’s house, the newcomer Turks settled. But the municipality of Lapitos continues to function in exile. In its publication, among the glorious sons of Lapitos, the municipality mentions General Tsangaridis and his two brothers ^[1] . At the exposition of the Athens War Museum there is a separate stand, which displays a photograph, uniform, saber and awards of General Tsangaridis.