The siege of Tripolitsa or fall of Tripolitsa ( el, Άλωση της Τριπολιτσάς, Álosi tis Tripolitsás, ), also known as the Tripolitsa massacre ( tr, Tripoliçe katliamı), was an early victory of the revolutionary Greek forces in the summer of 1821 during the

Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. The Greeks were later assisted by ...

, which had begun earlier that year, against the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. Tripolitsa was an important target, because it was the administrative center of the Ottomans in the Peloponnese. Following the capture of the city by the Greek revolutionary forces, a

massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

of its Turkish and Jewish population occurred.

Background

Situated at the center of the Peloponnese,

Tripolitsa Tripoli ( el, Τρίπολη, ''Trípoli'', formerly , ''Trípolis''; earlier ''Tripolitsá'') is a city in the central part of the Peloponnese, in Greece. It is the capital of the Peloponnese region as well as of the regional unit of Arcadi ...

was the pre-eminent town in southern

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, and the capital of the

Morea Eyalet The Eyalet of the Morea ( ota, ایالت موره; Eyālet-i Mōrâ) was a first-level province (''eyalet'') of the Ottoman Empire, centred on the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece. History From the Ottoman conquest to the 17th century ...

(first-level province of the Ottoman Empire) since 1786, which made it an important target for the Greek revolutionaries. Many rich Turks and Jews lived there, together with Ottoman refugees, such as Turks and Albanians from Vardounia (Βαρδούνια), who had been driven there by the outbreak of the revolt and escaped massacres in the country's southern districts. It was also a potent symbol for revenge since its Greek population had been massacred by the Ottoman forces a few months earlier, after the failed rebellion at Moldavia in early 1821. Other massacres of the town's Greeks had occurred in 1715 (during the

Ottoman reconquest of the Morea The Ottoman reconquest of the Morea took place in June–September 1715, during the Seventh Ottoman–Venetian War. The Ottoman army, under Grand Vizier Silahdar Damat Ali Pasha, aided by the fleet under Kapudan Pasha ('Grand Admiral') Canım Hoca ...

) and on

Holy Monday Holy Monday or Great and Holy Monday (also Holy and Great Monday) (Greek: ''Μεγάλη Δευτέρα'', ''Megale Deutera'') is a day of the Holy Week, which is the week before Easter. According to the gospels, on this day Jesus Christ cursed ...

, 29 March 1770, after the failed Orlov Revolt. The ''de facto'' commander in chief of the Greek forces,

Theodoros Kolokotronis Theodoros Kolokotronis ( el, Θεόδωρος Κολοκοτρώνης; 3 April 1770 – 4 February 1843) was a Greek general and the pre-eminent leader of the Greek War of Independence (1821–1829) against the Ottoman Empire. Kolokotronis's g ...

, now focused on the province's capital. He set up fortified camps in the surrounding places and established several headquarters under the command of his captain,

Anagnostaras Anagnostaras ( el, Αναγνωσταράς; 1760 in Poliani – May 8, 1825 in Sphacteria) was a Greek revolutionary, a leading member of the Filiki Etaireia, and later a general and War Minister of the Greek War of Independence. Anagnostaras is ...

in the nearby villages, notably Zarachova, Piana,

Dimitsana Dimitsana ( el, Δημητσάνα) is a mountain village and a former municipality in Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Gortynia, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. The ...

and

Stemnitsa Stemnitsa ( el, Στεμνίτσα) is a mountain village in the municipal unit of Trikolonoi, Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. It was the seat of the former municipality Trikolonoi. Stemnitsa is a traditional settlement and is considered one of th ...

, where local peasants provided his men with food and supplies. In addition, a fresh and compact force of

Maniot The Maniots or Maniates ( el, Μανιάτες) are the inhabitants of Mani Peninsula, located in western Laconia and eastern Messenia, in the southern Peloponnese, Greece. They were also formerly known as Mainotes and the peninsula as ''Maina''. ...

troops under

Petros Mavromichalis Petros Mavromichalis (; 1765–1848), also known as Petrobey ( ), was a Greek general, politician and the leader of the Maniot people during the first half of the 19th century. His family had a long history of revolts against the Ottoman Empi ...

, the Bey of Mani, arrived and camped at

Valtetsi Valtetsi ( el, Βαλτέτσι) is a former municipality in Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Tripoli, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 210.243&nb ...

so as to take part in the final assault to the Ottoman capital of

Morea The Morea ( el, Μορέας or ) was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The name was used for the Byzantine province known as the Despotate of the Morea, by the Ottoman ...

.Stratiki, p. 83.

Arvanites Arvanites (; Arvanitika: , or , ; Greek: , ) are a bilingual population group in Greece of Albanian origin. They traditionally speak Arvanitika, an Albanian language variety, along with Greek. Their ancestors were first recorded as settlers ...

were present alongside Greek revolutionaries during the siege and the massacre that followed. Other commanders present at the siege were

Bouboulina Laskarina Bouboulina ( el, Λασκαρίνα Μπουμπουλίνα; 1771 – 22 May 1825) was a Greece, Greek naval commander, heroine of the Greek War of Independence in 1821, and considered the first woman to attain the rank of admiral. She ...

Panagiotis Rodios Panagiotis or Panayiotis ( el, Παναγιώτης, ), "Παν" (all) "άγιος" (holy or saint) suffix "-της" (which can mean "of the"), is a common male Greek name. It derives from the Greek epithet Panagia or ''Panayia'' ("All-Holy") for ...

Olivier Voutier Olivier Voutier (born 30 May 1796 in Thouars, France; died 18 April 1877 at Hyères, France) was a French naval officer who discovered the statue of the ''Venus de Milo'' in 1820, and fought in the Greek War of Independence. Discovery of the '' ...

, Maxime Raybaud as chief of the artillery,

Kanellos Deligiannis Kanellos Deligiannis ( el, Κανέλλος Δεληγιάννης; 1780–1862) was a Greek magnate from the Morea and the son of Ioannis Deligiannis. He was one of the main organizers of the Greek War of Independence and a politician in the ind ...

and

Demetrios Ypsilantis Demetrios Ypsilantis (alternatively spelled Demetrius Ypsilanti; el, Δημήτριος Υψηλάντης, ; ro, Dumitru Ipsilanti; 1793August 16, 1832) was a Greek army officer who served in both the Hellenic Army and the Imperial Russian Ar ...

(left before the city was taken). The Ottoman (Turkish and Albanian) garrison was reinforced in May by some troops and cavalry sent by

Hursid Pasha Hurshid Ahmed Pasha (sometimes written Khurshid Ahmad Pasha; tr, Hurşid Ahmed Paşa, ; died 30 November 1822) was an Ottoman-Georgian general, and Grand Vizier during the early 19th century. Early life He was born in the Caucasus and was of ...

from the north and was led by the Kehayabey Mustafa. The rebels' decisive victory in the

Battle of Valtetsi The Battle of Valtetsi was fought on 24 May ( N.S.), 1821 in Valtetsi between the Ottoman army and Greek revolutionaries. Background The Greek War of Independence officially began on 25 March 1821. During the war, the city of Tripoli in Arca ...

and several other victorious clashes, such as those in

Doliana Doliana ( el, Δολιανά) is a community of the municipality North Kynouria, in eastern Arcadia, Greece. It consists of the villages Kato Doliana, Ano Doliana, Dragouni, Kouvlis, Prosilia and Rouneika.St. Clair, p. 43. During the early stages of the siege, the Ottoman garrison could sortie and forage for supplies, but after the

Battle of the Trench The Battle of the Trench ( ar, غزوة الخندق, Ghazwat al-Khandaq), also known as the Battle of Khandaq ( ar, معركة الخندق, Ma’rakah al-Khandaq) and the Battle of the Confederates ( ar, غزوة الاحزاب, Ghazwat al- ...

in August, that was no longer possible, and the blockade became tighter. Conditions worsened inside the walls for the scarcity of food and potable water. Taking advantage of that, Kolokotronis began quiet negotiations with the leaders of the besieged, aiming at an orderly capitulation. He convinced the Albanian contingent, led by Elmas Bey, to make a separate agreement for safe passage to

Argos Argos most often refers to: * Argos, Peloponnese, a city in Argolis, Greece ** Ancient Argos, the ancient city * Argos (retailer), a catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland Argos or ARGOS may also refer to: Businesses * ...

, thereby greatly reducing the strength of the defenders. The deal itself was guaranteed by

Dimitrios Plapoutas ) , birth_place = Paloumpa, Morea Eyalet, Ottoman Empire (now Greece) , death_place = Paloumpa, Kingdom of Greece , allegiance = * First Hellenic Republic * Kingdom of Greece , branch = * Filiki Etaireia * , serviceyears = ...

, the renowned ''Koliopoulos''. The city was taken before the 2,500 Albanians had departed, but they had a safe passage out of the Peloponnese a few days after the fall.Kolokotronis, p. 89. Greek leaders were in constant contact with the Ottoman defenders in negotiations but without much co-ordination. The successive petitions of the remaining Ottoman defenders for a truce were in the end, regarded by the besiegers as a temporizing ruse in ultimately-hopeless anticipation of Ottoman reinforcements. In anticipation of the fall of the city, by September 22, about 20,000 Greeks had gathered around it. On September 23, the Greeks broke in through a blind spot in the walls, and the town was completely overrun quickly. The fortified citadel in it surrendered three days later for lack of water.

Massacre of civilians

Tripolizza Phase 1 (recolored version, light)

In the three days following the city's capture, the Muslims (Turks and others) and the Jewish inhabitants of Tripolitsa were exterminated.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'." The total number of Muslims killed during the sack was estimated by Thomas Gordon, who arrived in the city shortly after its fall, at 8,000. Beyond the 2,500 Albanian troops vouched for in advance; a tiny contingent of Turkish cavalry escaping to

Nauplion Nafplio ( ell, Ναύπλιο) is a coastal city located in the Peloponnese in Greece and it is the capital of the regional unit of Argolis and an important touristic destination. Founded in antiquity, the city became an important seaport in the ...

; a few women who were taken as slaves; along with the harem of Hurshid Pasha; and a few notable Turks held for

ransom Ransom is the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release, or the sum of money involved in such a practice. When ransom means "payment", the word comes via Old French ''rançon'' from Latin ''red ...

were spared. The Ottoman official historian of the time, Seyyid Mehmed Es'ad Efendi, stated that none of the Jews were spared, and that of the Turks, only 97 were spared for ransom. Justin McCarthy stated that the perdition of the Turks in Greece, with the looting and massacres in the Peloponnese, was not the usual demise of the war; all of the Turks, including women and children, were taken away and killed by Greeks. The only exception was the enslavement of a few women and children. Kolokotronis says in his memoirs:

Inside the town they had begun to massacre. ... I rushed to the place ... If you wish to hurt these Albanians, I cried, "kill me rather; for, while I am a living man, whoever first makes the attempt, him will I kill the first." ... I was faithful to my word of honor ... Tripolitsa was three miles in circumference. The
reek Reek may refer to: Places * Reek, Netherlands, a village in the Dutch province of North Brabant * Croagh Patrick, a mountain in the west of Ireland nicknamed "The Reek" People * Nikolai Reek (1890-1942), Estonian military commander * Salme Reek ( ...
host which entered it, cut down and were slaying men, women, and children from Friday till Sunday. Thirty-two thousand were reported to have been slain. One Hydriote oasted that he hadkilled ninety. About a hundred Greeks were killed; but the end came
hus Hus or HUS may refer to: Medicine * Hemolytic-uremic syndrome, a disease characterized by haemolytic anemia, kidney problems and a low platelet count People * Hus (surname) * Hus family, an 18th-century French dynasty of ballet dancers and ac ...
a proclamation was issued that the slaughter must cease. ... When I entered Tripolitsa, they showed me a plane tree in the market-place where the Greeks had always been hanged. I sighed. "Alas!" I said, "how many of my own clan – of my own race – have been hanged there!" And I ordered it to be cut down. I felt some consolation then from the slaughter of the Turks. ... efore the fallwe had formed a plan of proposing to the Turks that they should deliver Tripolitsa into our hands, and that we should, in that case, send persons into it to gather the spoils together, which were then to be apportioned and divided among the different districts for the benefit of the nation; but who would listen?

There were about one hundred foreign officers present at the scenes of atrocities and looting committed in Tripolitsa, Friday to Sunday. Based upon eyewitness accounts and descriptions provided by these officers, William St. Clair wrote:

Upwards of ten thousand Turks were put to death. Prisoners who were suspected of having concealed their money were tortured. Their arms and legs were cut off and they were slowly roasted over fires. Pregnant women were cut open, their heads cut off, and dogs' heads stuck between their legs. From Friday to Sunday the air was filled with the sound of screams... One Greek boasted that he personally killed ninety people. The Jewish colony was systematically tortured... For weeks afterwards starving Turkish children running helplessly about the ruins were being cut down and shot at by exultant Greeks... The wells were poisoned by the bodies that had been thrown in...

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....It was hard to believe then that Greece once contained a large population of Turkish descent, living in small communities all over the country, prosperous farmers, merchants, and officials, whose families had known no other home for hundreds of years...They were killed deliberately, without qualm or scruple, and there was no regrets either then or later.

The massacre at Tripolitsa was the final and largest in a sequence of massacres against Muslims in the Peloponnese during the first months of the revolt. 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. Accounts of the behavior of the Greek forces during the atrocity, and the religious exhortations associated with them, closely resemble what St. Clair describes as the longstanding Ottoman methods employed in the

Massacre of Chios The Chios massacre (in el, Η σφαγή της Χίου, ) was a catastrophe that resulted to the death, enslavement, and refuging of about four-fifths of the total population of Greeks on the island of Chios by Ottoman Empire, Ottoman troop ...

, suffered by the Greeks themselves eight months later, in 1822.

Steven Bowman Steven B. Bowman is an American scholar and academic particularly known for his research of Greek and Jewish relations throughout the past three millennia, with emphasis on Byzantine and Holocaust periods. He is a professor of Judaic Studies at the ...

believes that, although the Jews were murdered, they were not targeted specifically, in fact: "Such a tragedy seems to be more a side-effect of the butchering of the Turks of Tripolis, the last Ottoman stronghold in the South where the Jews had taken refuge from the fighting, than a specific action against Jews per se." A friend of Kolokotronis, Anagnostis Zafeiropoulos, along with Fotios Chrysanthopoulos, rescued a Jewish family named Hanam before the siege. During the siege and the subsequent nassacre, another Jew, called Levi, was rescued personally by Kolokotronis himself. During the siege, eight Greek Orthodox

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...

s of

Peloponnese The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic regions of Greece, geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmu ...

were incarcerated inside the city, and five of them died before the fall.

Aftermath

The capture of the city of Tripolis had a salutary effect on the morale of the revolutionaries. The Greeks then saw that their way towards victory was possible and secured approximately 11,000 arms, with the entire Peloponnese bearing hardly any trace of Ottomans anymore. On the other hand, it also marked the first strong point of discord in what had been an apparently-cohesive force since the atrocities committed during the siege were at the time strongly decried and criticised by some Phanariote figures of the

such as

Dimitrios Ypsilantis Demetrios Ypsilantis (alternatively spelled Demetrius Ypsilanti; el, Δημήτριος Υψηλάντης, ; ro, Dumitru Ipsilanti; 1793August 16, 1832) was a Greek army officer who served in both the Hellenic Army and the Imperial Russian Ar ...

and

Alexandros Mavrokordatos Alexandros Mavrokordatos ( el, Αλέξανδρος Μαυροκορδάτος; 11 February 179118 August 1865) was a Greece, Greek statesman, diplomat, politician and member of the Mavrocordatos family of Phanariotes. Biography In 1812, Mavroko ...

. The residual bitterness over the ultimate disposition of the spoils,Finlay pp. 267–271. along with the generalized anarchy following the fall of the city, emphasised the divergent perspectives between the Peloponnesian chieftains (''military faction'') and the intellectual mentors of the uprising (''political faction''). In time, they would develop into an internal conflict and later into civil wars within the same struggle for independence.

References

Sources

* Phillips, Alison W. ''The War of Greek Independence, 1821 to 1833''. London, 1897. * General Makriyannis, ''Απομνημονευματα (Memoirs)''. Athens, 1907 * William St. Clair. ''That Greece Might Still Be Free The Philhellenes in the War of Independence''. London: Oxford University Press, 1972. * Stratiki Poti. ''To Athanato 1821''. Ekdosis Stratiki Bros. Athens, 1990. * Kolokotronis, Theodoros. ''Memoirs''. Ekdosis Vergina. Athens, 2002.
Digitised online copy
of Elizabeth M. Edmonds' English translation, ''Kolokotrones, the Klepht and the Warrior, Sixty Years of Peril and Daring. An autobiography''. London, 1892. * Diamantouros, Nikiforos. ''The beginning of the constitution of the modern state of Greece''. Athens, 2002. * Finlay, George. ''History of the Greek revolution, Volume 1''. William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1861
Online copy
* Grenet, Mathieu. ''La fabrique communautaire. Les Grecs à Venise, Livourne et Marseille, 1770-1840''. Athens and Rome, École française d'Athènes and École française de Rome, 2016 () {{DEFAULTSORT:Siege Of Tripolitsa Conflicts in 1821

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...

Massacres in Greece Tripoli, Greece Ottoman Peloponnese History of Arcadia, Peloponnese 1821 in the Ottoman Empire Ethnic cleansing in Europe Jewish Greek history Persecution of Ottoman Muslims Peloponnese in the Greek War of Independence Massacres of Muslims Persecution of Balkan Turks

Background

Massacre of civilians

Aftermath

See also

References

Sources