Agriolidis

Agriolidis or Agrialis ( Greek Αγριολίδης ; * 1785 ; † August 15, 1828 in Kappariana , Crete ) was an Ottoman leader of the Janissaries . He was highly valued by his Turkish compatriots for his courage. The Greek people hated him for the atrocities he had perpetrated against them. He himself boasted that he had killed thousands of Greeks with his own hands.

Episodes from his life

In 1811 he resided in Agios Ioannis, then part of the Ottoman Empire, on the Messara plain . On March 6, 1811, Dimitrios Varouchas planned an attack against Agriolidis there and had made an appointment with his servant Mertzanis. As discussed, the servant left him in his residential tower in Agios Ioannis, but then he called the guards and the assassination attempt was foiled.

After the Turks suffered a defeat in fighting with Greek insurgents in 1822 , the crew of a watchtower near Tymbaki on the Strait of Mires was besieged and sealed off from supplies. It was not until the Greek Michael Kourmoulis , who was released by Agriolidis, that the Turkish soldiers could withdraw after they were disarmed.

After Baron Friedrich Eduard von Rheineck was sent by Ioannis Kapodistrias with an army to Crete in mid-July 1828 , the Greek rebels were encouraged to revolt again. Agriolidis was now a Seraskan from East Crete and had his headquarters in Megalokastro, as Heraklion was called at the time. The Greeks lured Agriolidis and his army into a trap near Kappariana on August 15, 1828. They could not win, but they could kill the hated leader.

In revenge, the Ottomans closed the city gates in Heraklion and killed all Greek citizens, a total of 750 men, women and children. Twenty men were initially left alive. They were supposed to bury the dead, after which they too were killed. Only the metropolitan could evade the assassination by seeking protection from the pasha .

Web links

Tower of Agriolidis at cretanbeaches.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ Anton Freiherr von Prokesch-Osten : History of the fall of the Greeks from the Turkish Empire in 1821 and the foundation of the Hellenic Kingdom , Fifth Volume, Vienna 1867, p. 362
2. ↑ Revue des Deux Mondes - 1829 - tome 1
3. ↑ Latest state files and documents in monthly booklets , thirteenth volume, Stuttgart and Tübingen 1829, p. 279
4. ^ Hanns Eggert Willibald von der Lühe: Militair Conversations-Lexikon, edited by several German officers in 1836, p. 699