Painting of the doxology held in Kalamata on 23 March 1821by Evangelos Drakos, Benaki Museum
Part 2 of 2 articles
The Turkish commander of Kalamata, Suleiman Agha Arnautoglu, who, as was mentioned in Part 1 of this two-part series, received misleading information from Greek dignitaries that bandits were operating in the area. He approved of the plan that was discussed with him and officially requested reinforcements from Petros Mavromichalis. Thus, on March 20, a unit of 150 Maniot Greeks under Mavromichalis son, Elias, arrived in the Messinian capital to "supposedly" protect the city.
However, the developments for the beginning of the Revolution were already underway. On March 22, 1821, from the afternoon until dawn the next day, 2,000 armed men of the "Western Sparta" unit led by Theodoros Kolokotronis, along with the support of various powerful clans (i.e. the Mourtzinos, Kapetanakis, Koumoundouros, Kyvelos, the Christeas and other clans) and Panagiotis Venetsanakis, occupied the hills around Kalamata. As historian Dionysios Kokkinos writes, Kolokotronis held a long staff, had no weapons and wore the red robe of an officer of the Ionian battalions.
At the same time, Papaflessas approached from the other side of the city with Nikitaras and Anagnostaras. Turkish commander Arnautoglu, who had some suspicions until then, became very alarmed. He initially thought of fleeing to Tripolitsa, but Nikitaras and Kefalas had cut off the road to the center of the Morea (the Peloponnese). Only one Turk, a doctor and surgeon, fled Kalamata for Tripolitsa with his family, but was eventually killed. His widow, with her now orphaned children, returned to Kalamata. All the Turks gathered in the strongest houses of the city to defend themselves. However, when on the morning of March 23, 1821, the armed rebels entered Kalamata, the Greeks of the city welcomed Petros Mavromichalis with jubilant cheers. At noon on the banks of the Nedonas River, in front of the Byzantine church of the Holy Apostles in a festive atmosphere with bells ringing, 24 priests and hieromonks, after a moving doxology, blessed the Greek flag and the fighters took an oath to defend the nation.
Petros Mavromichalis took the oath first: "I will defend the homeland alone and with everything, and I will honor the sacred territories of the homeland." The other chieftains followed with their soldiers: "Let us not disgrace the sacred weapons, nor abandon the defenders, even if we are defeated."
As Dionysios Kokkinos explains: “The stubborn Arnautoglu, still confined to his house in Kalamata, learned of the events and as if all that had happened were not enough to convince him of the seriousness of the movement, he sent his men to Petros Mavromichalis and asked him what all this meant. He, laughing at the stupid question, replied that the Greeks had declared a revolution against Turkey.
Arnautoglu, fearing for his fate if he were forced to flee, immediately surrendered to Mavromichalis with one hundred and fifty armed Turks, whose weapons were divided among the Greeks who were assigned to the revolutionary body. Mavromichalis settled in the city and established a revolutionary committee, which he called the Messinian Senate in Kalamata."
On March 25*, Mavromichalis issued a statement to the Great Powers. A quoted excerpt of his statement is as follows:
The Turkish commander of Kalamata, Suleiman Agha Arnautoglu, who, as was mentioned in Part 1 of this two-part series, received misleading information from Greek dignitaries that bandits were operating in the area. He approved of the plan that was discussed with him and officially requested reinforcements from Petros Mavromichalis. Thus, on March 20, a unit of 150 Maniot Greeks under Mavromichalis son, Elias, arrived in the Messinian capital to "supposedly" protect the city.
However, the developments for the beginning of the Revolution were already underway. On March 22, 1821, from the afternoon until dawn the next day, 2,000 armed men of the "Western Sparta" unit led by Theodoros Kolokotronis, along with the support of various powerful clans (i.e. the Mourtzinos, Kapetanakis, Koumoundouros, Kyvelos, the Christeas and other clans) and Panagiotis Venetsanakis, occupied the hills around Kalamata. As historian Dionysios Kokkinos writes, Kolokotronis held a long staff, had no weapons and wore the red robe of an officer of the Ionian battalions.
At the same time, Papaflessas approached from the other side of the city with Nikitaras and Anagnostaras. Turkish commander Arnautoglu, who had some suspicions until then, became very alarmed. He initially thought of fleeing to Tripolitsa, but Nikitaras and Kefalas had cut off the road to the center of the Morea (the Peloponnese). Only one Turk, a doctor and surgeon, fled Kalamata for Tripolitsa with his family, but was eventually killed. His widow, with her now orphaned children, returned to Kalamata. All the Turks gathered in the strongest houses of the city to defend themselves. However, when on the morning of March 23, 1821, the armed rebels entered Kalamata, the Greeks of the city welcomed Petros Mavromichalis with jubilant cheers. At noon on the banks of the Nedonas River, in front of the Byzantine church of the Holy Apostles in a festive atmosphere with bells ringing, 24 priests and hieromonks, after a moving doxology, blessed the Greek flag and the fighters took an oath to defend the nation.
Petros Mavromichalis took the oath first: "I will defend the homeland alone and with everything, and I will honor the sacred territories of the homeland." The other chieftains followed with their soldiers: "Let us not disgrace the sacred weapons, nor abandon the defenders, even if we are defeated."
As Dionysios Kokkinos explains: “The stubborn Arnautoglu, still confined to his house in Kalamata, learned of the events and as if all that had happened were not enough to convince him of the seriousness of the movement, he sent his men to Petros Mavromichalis and asked him what all this meant. He, laughing at the stupid question, replied that the Greeks had declared a revolution against Turkey.
Arnautoglu, fearing for his fate if he were forced to flee, immediately surrendered to Mavromichalis with one hundred and fifty armed Turks, whose weapons were divided among the Greeks who were assigned to the revolutionary body. Mavromichalis settled in the city and established a revolutionary committee, which he called the Messinian Senate in Kalamata."
On March 25*, Mavromichalis issued a statement to the Great Powers. A quoted excerpt of his statement is as follows:
“The unbearable yoke of Ottoman tyranny [...] has reached a climax, to the point that the unfortunate Peloponnesian Greeks are left with nothing but a voice, [...] to mainly stir up their secret sighs. In such a miserable situation, deprived of all our rights, with one opinion we unanimously decided to take up arms and rush against the tyrants […]
We are asking for the assistance of all enlightened Europeans of all ages so that we may more quickly reach our sacred and just goal and receive our rights and resurrect our suffering Greek race. It is right that our mother Greece, from which you have also been enlightened, urgently demands your philanthropic assistance, both in the form of money and arms and advice, of which we are confident that we will be worthy, and we will acknowledge our utmost obligation to you and in due time we will show our gratitude for your assistance.
In the Spartan camp of Kalamata
on March 25, 1821
PETROS MAVROMICHALIS
Leader and Commander-in-Chief
AND THE MESSINIAN SENATE IN KALAMATA"
There is disagreement about the date on which the above proclamation was written due to the many scribes who were employed at that time to make hand-written copies, intended for mass international dissemination. In an article published in August of 1821 (No. 3- 20/8/1821) in the first newspaper during the Revolutionary Struggle in Kalamata, the proclamation was dated “March 28, 1821.” Historian Ioannis Filimon, in his essay about the Greek Revolution (Vol. 3, pp. 28-29), dates it March 25. However, in 1963, one of the original texts of the statement was found in the Archives of the Foreign Office of Great Britain (found in the Zante file), which overturns the previous dates. It was dated: “1821, March 23. In Kalamata.” That is, the same day that the Maniot Greeks entered Kalamata.
Petros Mavromichalis sent a separate letter to the Emperor of Russia and also to Ioannis Kapodistrias informing them of the proclamation of the Revolution. Apparently Mavromichalis, as mentioned in the first article of this two-part series, still thought that Kapodistrias was the leader of the secret organization Filiki Eteria and that the Russians were inciting him. However, he had not been informed of the murder of his trusted friend Kyriakos Kamarinos who he had assigned to go to Russia with a letter outlining his concerns. By the time Mavromichalis eventually found out that Kapodistrias was not involved in the Filiki Eteria and, in fact, opposed the organization, and that there were no military or financial guarantees forthcoming from Russia, it was too late; the Greek Revolution was already underway.
It should be noted that the events of the early days of the Greek Revolution were not properly recorded, given the confusion on the ground and the fact that for many observers, this was yet another of many attempts (over 120 attempts) by the Greeks to revolt against the Ottoman Empire since the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. As such, there are three competing theories in regards to which city was the first to be liberated during the national struggle of 1821 between Kalamata, Kalavryta and Patras.
...this article is a continuation from the March 17 article about the Maniot Greeks declaring war on the Ottoman Empire.
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