Page 253 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo I

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ActA
Officers of the 8
th
company, wearing
the special uniform
and headgear (The
officer on the left
with stick is from
the Navy) – http://
www.austro-
hungarian-army.
co.uk/troopscreta.
htm

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of the island to protect and rescue Muslim civilians besieged and attacked by insurgents.
To protect the main base of the Austro-Hungarian naval squadron at Kissamos two block-
houses right above the bay had to be destroyed in order to prevent them from falling into the
hands of the insurgents.
Colonel Guzek himself was entrusted with a rather delicate mission. After bashibazouks,
irregular troops in the service of the Ottoman army, had attacked insurgents at Akrotiri, he
had to disarm all bashibazouks in and around Canea. Vehement opposition made mediation
efforts by Consul Pinter and the Ottoman commander Edhem Pasha necessary. Within a few
days around 1,300 guns were handed over. 52
Due to the outbreak of hostilities between the Ottoman Empire and Greece in April
1897 which ended with an overwhelming victory of the Ottoman Empire , the Cretan
53
problem faded from the spotlight. On the island itself the Greek-Ottoman War did not
seem to have any far-reaching effects, as Consul Pinter noted in a report to Foreign
Minister Gołuchowski:
“The outbreak of hostilities between Greece and Turkey has not brought about

51 A detailed account on one of the rescue operations at Candano is given by a member of the Austrian detachment,
Petty Officer Sigismund Ritter von Pozzi, in a letter of 11 March 1897. War Archive, Nachlässe, B/183:4,
letter of 11.3.1897. Pozzi speaks of about 500 men in five landing detachments, and 400, who participated
in the rescue operation. According to him the number of inhabitants amounted to around 1,500. See also
the report of “Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie”, HHStA, PA XII 283, fol. 466-469: “Abschrift eines
Berichtes des Commandos SM Schiff Kr. Erzh. Stefanie an das k. u. k. Escadre Commando in Sudy Bay”,
Suda Bay 11.3.1897.
52 Dell’Adami, Die k. u. k. Streitkräfte auf und vor Kreta 1897/98, p. 89.
53 See Ekinci, The Origins of the 1897 Ottoman-Greek War, passim.