Greece Independence day

[komnenos]

Today , 25th March is Greece independence day. I congratulate this day to all of Greeks who live around the world. I wish more succession for my grand country,Greece.
This Revolution was a successful war against Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1832.
When The Great Byzantine Empire fell down in 1453 by the Turks. Greece and Asia minor came under ottoman rule. The Greeks especially followers of Palaiologos dynasty tried to destroy the Turk's Sultanate but they couldn't achieve success.
But in 1814 Greeks founded a secret organization called Filiki Eteria in order to liberate Greece. This organization provoked revolts in Peloponnese, Constantinople, and Danubian Principalities. For example in 6 March 1821 in the Danubian Principalities as the first revolt they fought with Turks however Turks put down them. But this urged Greeks into action. By October the Greeks had captured Tripolitsa by lead of Theodoros Kolokotronis. And this revolt followed by revolts in Crete, Macedonia, and Central Greece, which would be soon suppressed. Also Greek navy achieve success against the Ottoman navy in the Aegean sea and prevented Ottoman reinforcements from arriving by the sea.
In this time Ottoman Sultan negotiated with Mehmet Ali of Egypt who agreed to send Ibrahim Pasha, his son to Greece with an army to suppress the revolt. Unfortunately by the end of 1825 most of the Peloponnese was under Egyptian control and Ibrahim retook Athens.
In this terrible situation three Great powers decided to intervene in the conflict and they sent a navy to Greece. The allied fleet intercepted the Ottoman-Egyptian fleets at Navarino. Following a week long standoff, a battle began which resulted in the destruction of the Ottoman-Egyptian fleet. With the help of a French Expeditionary force , the Greeks drove the Turks out of the Peloponnese and proceeded to the captured part of Central Greece by 1828. As a result of years of negotiation, Greece was finally recognized as an independent nation in May 1832.

[komnenos]

This is the complete map of this revolution.

[komnenos]

And these are some of important revolutionaries:
1.Alexander Ypsilantis(who was a prince of Danubian Principalities, a leader of the Filiki Eteria and also a senior officer of the imperial Russian cavalry during the Napoleonic Wars.
2.Ioannis Kapodistrias (who was elected as the first head of state of independent Greece and is considered the founder of the modern Greek state. He had been a Greek foreign Minister of the Russian Empire.
3.Otto of Greece (who became the first modern King of Greece in 1832 under convention of London)
4.Theodoros Kololotronis (who was mentioned before)
5.Demetrios Ypsilantis (who was a dragoman of the Ottoman Empire, served as an officer in the Imperial Russian Army and was appointed as modern Greece's first field Marshal by Ioannis Kapodistrias.
6.Lord Byron ( was an English poet, who travelled to fight against the Ottoman Empire and Greeks reserve him as anational hero.
7.Antonios Kriezis (who was a captain of the Greek navy during the war of independence and a Prime Minister of Greece from 1849 to 1854.)
8. and the others

[komnenos]

Some event pictures are here:
1.Battle of Navarino :
2.The burning of the Ottoman frigate at Eressos:
3.Massacres of Chios : (During the independence war many civilians were killed by Turks especially in Anatolia, Crete, Constantinople, Cyprus, Mani, and the Aegean islands)
4. The sortie of Missolonghi:

[Hax]

Well, congratulations.

[Zarakas]

'Long Live the Greeks'

My ancestors fought and died in most of those battles for independence.

May they, and all others who sacrificed, long be remembered for their sacrifices. Lest we forget.

Zarakas

[Kralizec]

Nice pictures.

[komnenos]

I wish more succession and more achievements for my countrymen. Good Luck.

[komnenos]

I again congratulate this great day, 25th March! And again wish more success for my all countrymen!
Usually in 25th march or some days after is great days for gamers! For example this year many games or DLCs are going to be released like: Rajas of India, Hannibal at the gates, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate HD , Age of wonders III ,etc. Just in about 5 days we see many gifts from God!
ευτυχισμένος Ημέρα της Ελληνικής Ανεξαρτησίας

[Fisherking]

Another Happy Independence Day Greece! Wish I were there to help celebrate.

A great people.

[HopAlongBunny]

A belated (but sincere) Happy Independence Day!

[The Wizard]

What exactly is so celebratory about an event that inaugurated twelve years of bloodshed for the population of that part of the Balkan peninsula; killed the prospect of a liberal republican Greece in favor of an authoritarian, patriarchal, monarchic regime in which we find the roots of Greece's 20th century predicaments; produced 100 years of wars, hatred, enmity and ethnic cleansing on both sides of the Aegean; and birthed a distorted relation with the past and Greece's great eastern Other that persists to this day?

I am charging the issue, of course, but given the shrill nationalistic tone and its unidimensional approach to history seen in this thread, it's warranted. I don't begrudge Greece its independence, but I do begrudge anyone their sentimental, nationalistic triumphalism about it (or any other violently begotten independence).

[rvg]

...killed the prospect of a liberal republican Greece...

I'm not sure there was ever a prospect of that back in the 1820s-30s.

[El Barto]

No, but that was the usual promise that revolutionaries (including the US ones ;)) made all over the world in that time.