Page 246 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo I

246 XXXIX Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

27
Hetaireia published a proclamation calling upon their “Cretan brethren” to fight for
the union of Crete with their “Hellenic motherland”. When rumour spread that the two
ships had arrived off Canea, Cretan rebels reacted by hoisting the Greek flag at Haleppa
on 7 February, declaring the union with Greece and appealing to King George to take
possession of the island. 28
Rumours that the Ottoman Empire was preparing reinforcements for Crete were met
by the Greek government with the dispatch of a torpedo-boat fleet under the command
of Frigate Captain Prince George, the son of the Greek king, to Canea on 10 February
29
1897. Five days later a Greek contingent under the command of Colonel Timoleon
Vassos landed at Kolimbari Bay off Sitia with the explicit order to occupy the island for
the Greek sovereign and to expel the Ottoman troops but to avoid any confrontation with
the great powers. 3,000 insurgents were already waiting for him in the bay joining the
30
Greek contingent on the spot. One day after he had entered Cretan soil, Vassos handed
over a proclamation to the authorities of the island declaring the formal occupation of
Crete in the name of King George of Greece. 31

3. The blockade
The proclamation and the news that the Greek government was sending land forces
to Crete alarmed the European cabinets, who now suddenly became very busy to avert a
new international crisis which could endanger the carefully cherished balance of power.
The Greek activities could encourage other Christian peoples in the Balkans to rise and
these uprisings could possibly spread over to other multi-ethnic states like Austria-Hun-
gary or Russia and create serious problems there. Austria-Hungary therefore once again
called for an immediate blockade of the Greek ports. And also Britain had performed a
volte-face by now and became an advocator of a combined operation.
On 16 February 1797 an international detachment of 100 Russian, 100 French, 100

27 The Ethnike Hetairia (National Society) had been established in 1894 by young officers with the purpose of
raising the morale of the country and liberating all Greeks still within the Ottoman Empire (e.g. Macedonia,
Crete). It developed an extreme influence on Greek politics over the years. According to Zürrer 75 percent
of the officers of the Greek army belonged to this organization. As the mood within the officer corps was
an anti-dynastic one and the Greek population and government without doubt favoured this nationalist
agitation, the Greek king was well advised not to oppose its aims. Zürrer, Die Nahostpolitik Frankreichs
und Rußlands, p. 345. See also Ekinci, The Origins of the 1897 Ottoman-Greek War, p. 11; Hugh Poulton,
Who are the Macedonians?, London, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000, p. 59; Charles and Barbara Jelavich,
2
The Establishment of the Balkan National States, 1804-1920 (A History of East Central Europe, vol. VIII,
Seattle, London, University of Washington Press, 2000), p. 174.
4
28 HHStA, PA XII 281, fol. 248: telegram Pinter, Canea, 7.2.1897. See also Ekinci, The Origins of the 1897
Ottoman-Greek War, p. 21f.; Zürrer, Die Nahostpolitik Frankreichs und Rußlands, p. 345; Berthold Sutter,
Die Großmächte und die Erhaltung des europäischen Friedens zu Beginn der Kreta-Krise von 1897 in
Südostforschungen, vol. 21, Munich 1962, p. 214-369, here p. 245f.
29 HHStA, PA XII 281, fol. 371: telegram Pasetti, Rome, 11.2.1897; ibid., fol. 385: Széchényi to Gołuchowski,
Athens, 11.2.1897.
30 Geza Dell’Adami, Die k. u. k. Streitkräfte auf und vor Kreta 1897/98, Vienna 1901, p. 14.
31 HHStA, PA XII 281, fol. 598: telegram Széchényi, Athens, 15.2.1897. See also Anton Tuma von Waldkampf,
Kreta und die neueste Phase der orientalischen Frage, Leipzig, Verlag Zuckschwerdt & Co, 1897, p. 40.