Greece to honor foreign warriors on Byron's death day

[zefs]

Posted: October 16, 2008 at 08:20 AM EST (13:20 PM GMT)

ATHENS -- Greece will hold events to honour the English poet Lord Byron and other foreigners who fought in the early 19th century Greek war of independence from Ottoman rule, officials said on Thursday, cited by AFP.

A decree signed by Greek President Karolos Papoulias establishes April 19, the day Byron died fighting the Turks in 1824, as the "day of philhellenism and international solidarity," a Greek parliament statement said.

Byron died of a fever inside the besieged city of Messolonghi, western Greece, around a year after arriving with money and resources for the bedraggled Greek revolutionary forces.

His sacrifice inspired other young men from Britain, France, Italy, the United States and other countries to join the uprising which eventually liberated Greece with the intervention of the British, French and Russian governments.