Greek nationalist organisations active in Macedonia 1878-1903

[serendipity]

Hi, I'm wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of which were the key Greek nationalist organisations that were arguing the Greek position in Macedonia?

I'm writing a short project on Balkan Nationalism in the Balkans since the congress of Berlin in 1878, as part of this I intend to give a brief summary of the various nationalist organisations that had an interest in Macedonia, especially those of Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece. Have found some relative info and references to the Serb and Bulgar side but I'm finding very little about the Greek position.

Can you head me in the right direction please?:)

[akritas]

Welcome serendipity in the macedonianontheweb forums.Your thread is intresting but also huge. In face of the Exarchist peril the Greeks had somewhat belatedly and spasmodically begun to create a Macedonian organizations.

In Western Macedonia this counter-movement had depended to a great extent upon Ion Dragoumis, upon Karavangelis and upon all those - parish priests, schoolmasters, notables and local klejts - who had chosen to support them. It is difficult, owing to lack of sufficient precise information, to give a complete picture of the Greek organisation created by Ion Dragoumis. But some idea of the way he worked may be gained from the papers of Argyris Zachos, a banker from Siatista. Extracts of these papers were published by Mr. Philip Dragoumis under the title [The Macedonian Struggle] in Nea Estia, vol. 850, December 1962, pp. 1875-1885. Further information will be found in the papers of Vardas; in A. Metallinos, [The men of Monastir during the national struggle], in the Memoirs of Pirzas, op. cit.; and in the Greek Consular reports from Monastir in the Greek Foreign Ministry Archives (these include many letters and reports of Ion Dragoumis). It appears from these sources that Ion Dragoumis established Greek Committees in most of the centres of Greek population in Western and North Western Macedonia. By March 1903 the organisation was raising considerable sums of money and was buying arms. Melas in his letters to his wife (Mela, passim) constantly pays great tribute to the organization built up by Ion Dragoumis.

In Monastirion a committee of three (Th. Modis, Kapetanopoulos and Doumas) had built up a considerable movement which was in touch with Karavangelis and with similar movements in various Macedonian towns-Kozani, Florina, Naousa, Veroia, Edessa, Serres, Krushevo and Kavala. Th. Modis was the uncle of the historian, G. Modis, and founder of the Macedonian Filiki Etairia. He was killed by one Vardar on 15 September 1904. Two of Vardar's accomplices were caught, but Vardar escaped. Shipley the English ViceConsul at Monastir wrote:
'There can be no doubt but that M. Modis was the victim of his devotion to the Greek cause. By the Bulgarians he was-though I am not able to say with what amount of Justification-looked upon as an informer, while from a Greek source I learn he was known as one of the most active and uncompromising opponents of Bulgarian propaganda, going so far even as to provide revolvers to those peasants who applied to him for assistance against the pressure which was being put on them by the agents of the various Bulgarian revolutionary committees to compel them to pass over to the Exarchate.

(Shipley to O'Conor, 20 September 1904. A.P. 1905 (2), p. 17. See also Kalergis's telegram of 2fl5 September and despatch No. 872 of 7/20 September 1904 which confirm this information. Kalergis adds that this crime caused a great stir in Monastir. In a telegram of 3/16 September Kalergis reported that the Greek organisation in revenge attempted to kill Giovkoff of the Bulgarian Committee but succeeded only in wounding him.) After the deaths of Modis and Kapetanopoulos the organisation in Monastir was in charge of Dr. Demetriades, Matsalis, NaIIis and Doumas, who was the secretary. (K. Mazarakis, op. cit., p. 24.)

In Florina, Vasileios Balkos, the ecclesiastical agent of Karavangelis, was a member. He was frequently employed by Karavangelis to distribute arms. In Naousa the energetic committee included Perdikaris, Syndikas, Demetriades and Theologis. Of perhaps more vital importance was the committee at Veroia, a town which commanded the route from Thessaloniki into the Western Mountains. This town which consisted largely of a Turkish garrison, of official Turks, Jews and 'Rumanising' Vlachs, was not an easy place for the Greeks to work in. Here the Greek effort depended largely on E. Manolakis, who owned the estate of Mikrogouzi (a place of great importance in the struggle); on the merchant, M. Karakostas; the priest, Papa Kostas; the schoolmaster, A. Tsikridanos; the merchant, Papadonios; the tailor, Foundoukas; Tsovatopoulos, the head of the Vlach school and on one Amniotis. The Committee at Edessa was likewise. of great importance as the town was, like Veroia, a gateway to the mountains. At Serres the fuller development of the Committee took place in 1906, when a fierce struggle was waged in the areas Serres, Zihna, Drama and Kavala. The Committee members were: Karadjas, formerly a French consular agent; Sanos, of the Ottoman Regie; Christakis and Lagos, secretaries at the Greek Consulate; the schoolmasters, Parakidis and Mahalidis; the Akopedis brothers and Langarolle, who were business men: and several officials of the workmen's corporations. In Krushevo the head of the Committee was Lakis Smarkos, who was killed by the Exarchists on 22 April 1906. The chief terrorist working for this Committee was Lakis Kussoras, who killed many Exarchists in the town. Similar committees were to be found in all the important Greek villages. Many details of those committees are given in the memoirs of Gyparis and in those of K. Mazarakis.

All these organisations were in touch with the Consulates, which, following the appointment of new consular officers, began in 1904 to give a real cohesion to the Greek movement. The new consuls were: Kalergis at Monastir, with Ion Dragoumis as ViceConsul; Sachtouris at Serres, Mavroudis at Kavala, Kontogouris at Thessaloniki.

All the above quoted in the book of the Douglas Dakin (The Greek Struggle in Macedonia 1897-1913), pages 198-214

Soon I will post informations as about and the Thessalonika Organization (Athanasios Souliotes-Nikolaides)

[serendipity]

Hi Akritas, thank you so much for the info. I'm sorry my post was very general in terms of what I'm studying, or at least trying to study. The more I seem to study the further I realise what a complex topic I'm dealing with. :wacko:

I had found a few references to Filiki Etairia and obviously the Krushevo Republic will have a place in my work.

Will have a look through the info again now, brilliant thank you so much!

[Tsontos]

I had found a few references to Filiki Etairia and obviously the Krushevo Republic will have a place in my work.
!

the Ethniki Etairia (national society/ organisation) is the one you are after. they had alot to do with the Greek-Turkish war of 1897. the war was meant to bring Greece borders up to Macedonia (and ultimately did).

Since the Greek uprising of 1821 not much had happened in the way of insurrections. Most of the "action" took place from 1903-1908.

This link has a bit about the period your after:

The period from 1870 to 1913 (http://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/HellenicMacedonia/en/A3.3.html)


By the way you might want to mention a spontaneous uprising which took place around Mount Olympus when San Stefano awarded most of Macedonia to Bulgaria in 1978, which was put down by the turks

[Tsontos]

Εθνική Εταιρεία - Βικιπαίδεια (http://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%95%CE%B8%CE%BD%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%AE_%CE%95%CF%84% CE%B1%CE%B9%CF%81%CE%B5%CE%AF%CE%B1)

I dont have time to translate it all but it says the Ethniki etairia was a secret society made up mainly of Greek officers which met in may 1894. According to this wikipedia article it was based along the lines of the Philiki Etairia