Dimitrios Karatasos

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Monument to Dimitrios Karatasos in Thessaloniki

Dimitrios Karatasos ( Greek Δημήτριος Καρατάσος , or Tsamis Karatasos, Greek Τσάμης Καρατάσος , * 1798 or 1796 in Dichalevri, Imathia ; † 1861 in Belgrade ) was a Greek freedom fighter. He distinguished himself as a fighter during the Greek Revolution and after gaining national independence.

Karatasos was a son of Anastasios "Tasos" Karatasos called "Gero Karatasos" ( "Old Karatasos"), a Armatoles -Anführers in Macedonia .

Karatasos took part in the siege of Naoussa with his father in 1822 and fled with him to southern Greece when the revolution in Macedonia was suppressed by the Turks.

In August 1828 he fought as the commander of a regular force for the restoration of Greek rule in east-central Greece. In 1831 he organized the uprising in Albania.

As a bitter opponent of Ioannis Kapodistrias , he led a failed uprising against the governor of Thebes in May 1831 and was imprisoned in Nafplio with Theodoros Kolokotronis .

In 1835 he was released. In 1839 he took part in the fighting in Thessaly .

In 1854 he gathered a force of 500 irregular fighters around him and returned to Macedonia via Euboea to take up the fight against Ottoman rule on the Chalkidiki peninsula . After initial successes, however, his troops were not up to the Ottoman superiority; He fled via Mount Athos to liberated Greece and returned disappointed to Athens, where he served King Otto as adjutant.

Karatasos was convinced that only a Greek- Serbian pact could accelerate the withdrawal of the Ottoman Empire from the Balkans. In 1859 he began to publish his proposals in newspaper articles and sought the support of the representatives of the Serbian community in Greece for his idea of ​​a joint uprising between Greeks and Serbs. King Otto encouraged these contacts. Karatsos traveled from Italy to Belgrade in 1861 to sign a formal agreement between the two countries. During his stay there, he died under unknown circumstances, probably of an illness. A few months later Otto was overthrown by a popular uprising, so it took 25 years until the Greek Prime Minister Charilaos Trikoupis and his Serbian counterpart signed the first agreement in 1887 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Varban N. Todorov: Greek federalism during the nineteenth century: ideas and projects. 1995, p. 61
  2. ^ Gunnar Hering : The political parties in Greece, 1821-1936. Volume 1 1992, p. 161 [1]
  3. ↑ James J. Reid: Crisis of the Ottoman Empire: prelude to collapse 1839–1878. 2000, p. 251
  4. ↑ Ioannis Michaletos: Dimitrios Karatasos - A Forerunner of Greek-Serbian Friendship
personal data
SURNAME Karatasos, Dimitrios
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Καρατάσος, Δημήτριος (Greek); Karatasos, tsamis; Καρατάσος, Τσάμης (alternative spelling, Greek); Karatassos, Dimitrios
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek freedom fighter and partisan leader
DATE OF BIRTH 1796 or 1798
PLACE OF BIRTH Dichalevri , Imathia , Greece
DATE OF DEATH 1861
Place of death Belgrade