Georgios Karamanlis (1890-1932)

[yannis-3]

Georgios Karamanlis (1890-1932)



Georgios Karamanlis (1880 - 1932) was also born in 'Kiupiui' Serres . He started working as a teacher in Kerdylia, in 1903, a small town twenty miles to the south of his village. In the same year, he was enlisted as "First in the row Agent" by the Hellenic Nationalist Organisation; the Turks soon became aware of his actions and dismissed him from his post in 1904. His fellow villagers never stopped calling him "teacher" when he returned to the village, even though he never worked as a teacher again. He began cultivating tobacco fields -the basis of the Macedonian economy at the time- and managed to prosper. In 1905 he decided to get married to Fotini Dologlou, a girl from ‘Kiupiui’ as well, and since her parents didn’t agree to this marriage, they eloped. A year later, Georgios Karamanlis started building a new house, at the building site next to the house he had been born. The old house was used as a storehouse and stable, before it was brought down, while the new house was getting bigger; the eldest son, Konstantinos, could hardly recall that first house of the family. The number of children in the family was eight; Konstantinos, born in 1907-1998, Athena, born in 1909 (who died in 1914), Olga, born in 1911, Alekos, born in 1914-2005, another girl named Athena in 1917, Antigoni, born in 1921, Grammenos, born in 1925-1990, and Achilleas, born in 1929. In the beginning, the children stayed in the same room; later on, there was a separate bedroom for the boys and another one for the girls. Konstantinos enjoyed the rights of the eldest son: his own room and a desk for his books.
In the mean time the father of the family continued his patriotic action. The early remembrance of Konstantinos was closely connected to the turbulent life of the Macedonian land. His father was secretly keeping guns for the guerrillas, in a cellar below the stable. The young boy pretended he would look after their cow in the stable and took close looks at the guns. He could still remember the men that used to get the guns out of the cellar, the slaughter of Turks in 1913, «the glow of fierceness in the eyes of our fellow villagers» and the conversion to Christianity of some Ottoman women. «My heart is still aching when I think of it, even after all those years» Konstantinos told his French biographer. War and violence used to be a way of life for the peoples of Macedonia, and they all believed that it was the only way to keep the nation alive. The same was true for the children of the village; they organised fake battles against the children of the nearby villages, using stones instead of guns. The «teacher’s» son soon became a leading figure in these stone-throwing battles; at the same time the young boy realised that the ‘guerrilla-war’ was not at all like their stone-throwing battles. In 1908, his father was assigned the leadership of the "Committee of Freedom" in the region of mount Paggeo by the bishop of Drama (a town 20 miles to the north-east of the village). The man mainly responsible for the organisation of the movement in Eastern Macedonia, known as "Kapetan" (i.e. Captain)Tsaras, came to the village at some point, to see Konstantinos' father. The young boy was presented to the Captain, and when asked, he said that he would like to become a "Kapetanios" himself when he grew older. This ambition was slightly changed, when after the Balkan Wars, the guerrillas became more like normal soldiers and the title of "Kapetanios" slowly vanished: «I am going to become a leader», he used to say. It was truly a dangerous ambition; he himself had witnessed his father's "punishment" for being a leader: Georgios Karamanlis had been twice arrested, imprisoned and abused -once by the Turks in 1908, and another time by the Bulgarians in 1917. The first time that father Karamanlis came in conflict with the Bulgarians was when they occupied the village and he refused to issue orders in their language. During that incident the young boy clung to his father feet and desperately shouted at the Bulgarian officer to let his father go. The second time was when the First World War reached the region of Macedonia, and the Bulgarians arrested Georgios Karamanlis and kept him hostage for eighteen months, in the years 1917-18. His wife refused to get any financial support, strongly believing that her husband would manage to survive. Georgios Karamanlis was awarded a metal for his action during the Macedonian War in 1936, after his death.

http://www.protiserron.gr/nprot/historyen.htm

[Tsontos]

thanks yannis. I knew the PM Karamanlis' great grandfather (?) from Serres was involved in Macedonian struggle but I assumed he had a different name and that thenceforth a refugee family from Karaman had married into the family and hence the surename. I didnt know this surename existed in Greece before the 1920s.

[Mygdonia]

ANything with a -is -as or -os suffix is usually from indigenous Macedonia.

idis & oglou is primarily from the Black sea region - East of Adrianople - West of Trapezounta. Including the Black sea coast of Bulgaria. So it is primarily Thrax.

..and no, oglou ain't Turk

Helleno-Thracian --- Papazoglou...

http://www.tountouris.com/img/0000egalaris5.jpg

[edessa]

-idis is pontian. -ides is cypriot
Dopika names are most commonly 5 letters and under eg ninis, dimou, nikou, kitkis, tsipis, tanis etc

[Amarantos]

-idis is not always pontian.

[edessa]

Originally Posted by Amarantos

-idis is not always pontian.

9 times out of 10 file

[Andrew]

in the Emathia plain all the indigenus end in -poulos . I measn more of 80% is -poulos like in Messenia & Kalamata.

[edessa]

Originally Posted by Andrew

in the Emathia plain all the indigenus end in -poulos . I measn more of 80% is -poulos like in Messenia & Kalamata.

do u mean the local slavophones?

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by edessa

do u mean the local slavophones?

No man ...I mean the local greeks from the plain of Emathia called by the Turks "Rumlook" (place of the Greeks , Ρωμιότοπος) . No such things as Slavophons were I came from

[Andrew]

My region is the area between Haliakmon and Loudias river
take a look at the demographics on this maps...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demogra...y_of_macedonia