Page 296 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

296 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

was not a difficult one for the officers-agents. By their side, heeding the call of Hellenism,
were the Greek employees of the Ottoman railways, who offered invaluable services as re-
gards to the transportation of arms and equipment, as postmen for the secret correspondence
of the struggle, and as gatherers of intelligence. There also existed the great number of va-
rious Greek societies and associations, whether charitable, musical, educational or athletic,
which served the struggle and provided centers for enlightenment and promotion of the Gre-
ek cause from the very first moment. The Greek big landowners, doctors and lawyers, throu-
gh the influence they held over the population and their acquaintances among the officials
of the Ottoman Administration, contributed to a great extend to the formation of the Greek
organization. Even without any of those, however, in many villages, minor towns and cities
of central and eastern Macedonia, the Greek Macedonians started organizing their defense
at their own initiative and by their own means. One central coordinating body would suffice
automatically to organize the struggle of the Greek people. 9
The Greek governments stood for confronting the Bulgarian Committees though the ec-
clesiastical organization of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Consulates co-operated
with the ecclesiastical authorities of the Patriarchate, and this co-operation, resulted in si-
gnificant achievements, especially in those districts which were host to determined prelates
and active consuls. Many slavophone Macedonians were forced by the behavior of the Otto-
man military forces, despite their whole hearted identification with Hellenism and the Great
Church of Constantinople, to join the Bulgarian Committees. The Bulgarian and Ottoman
savagery led the Greek population to a revolt. On 10 August the Support Committee of Ma-
cedonians was organized, chaired by the Archbishop of Athens and distinguished civilians.
Its purpose was to raise funds through donations towards the financial support of suffering
Macedonians. For this purpose it appealed to all Greeks, in domestic as well as subjugated
lands and communities in foreign lands. A great demonstration was organized on 15 August
1903 at the Pillars of the Olympian Zeus in Athens. The initiative for the demonstration was
assumed by the Macedonian Societies of Athens and Piraeus and a resolution of protest was
delivered at its conclusion to the Great Powers’ Embassies in Athens. The direction and or-
ganization of the struggle apparently stemmed from the Macedonian Committee, whose seat
was in Athens and whose president was Demetrios Kalapothakes, publisher of a news paper
by the name Empros. 10
In Macedonia, the appointment of Germanos Karavangeles to the Metropolitan see of
11
9 Zannas Alexandros, O Makedonikos Agon-Anamneses (=The Macedonian Struggle-Memoirs), Institute of
Balkan Studies, Thessaloniki 1960.
10 HAGS/AHD, The Struggle…, o.c., pp.125, 126, 133, 134.
11 Born in the village of Stypse, Lesvos in 1866. His father came from Psara, the island of the naval fighters
of 1821. A young man with an impressive bearing, well educated in philosophy, theology and history at
the Theological school of Chalke and at the Universities of Leipzig and Bonn, he had every qualification
necessary to serve Hellenism of the key district of Kastoria. He already had given proof of his powerful per-
sonality and ability since February 1896, while serving as bishop in Peran of Constantinople. He reorganized
the schools in Peran on a sound, Greek basis and founded new ones in order to raise the moral of Hellenism
there. In the Metropolis of Kastoria, he was the right man at the right place. Germanos Karavangeles, Apom-
nemoneumata Makedonikou Agonos, Institute of Balkan Studies, Thessaloniki 1959, pp.1-6.
See also, Bellou-Threpsiade Antigone, Morphes makedonomachon kai ta “Pontiaka” tou Germanou Kara-
vangele , trochalia, athens 1992.