Emmanouil Papas

Emmanouil Papas, bust, Athens

Emmanouil Papas (* 1773 in Dovista ; † December 5, 1821 ) was a commander in the Greek struggle for independence.

He was born in Dovista, a village near Serres in Macedonia , which is named after him today. After completing his basic school education, he moved to Serres to study, where he also graduated. He then returned to Dovista, where he married and, thanks to his successful work as a banker and merchant, quickly became an influential and respectable figure in the region.

Soon afterwards, Papas was accepted into the Society of Friends (Greek: Philiki Etaireia ) of Ioannis Pharmakis, which had the goal of achieving Greece's independence from the Ottoman Empire . His four brothers and other notables from the region also joined this secret society and began to set up paramilitary groups. In order to achieve better cooperation with the leaders of the Philiki Etaireia , Papas moved to Constantinople (now Istanbul), where he even planned an assassination attempt on the Sultan , which however failed due to treason. Meanwhile, his fame for his patriotic activities had spread to all parts of Greece.

When the revolution was proclaimed in 1821 , Emmanouil Papas left Constantinople and was appointed commander of the Macedonian revolutionary troops in Athos , which consisted of around 2500 men. An unsuccessful uprising that broke out in Serres resulted in his family being imprisoned by the Turks, his property confiscated and his house burned down.

Papas did not allow himself to be dissuaded from his goal and continued the armed struggle in Macedonia in the hope of receiving support from the Philiki Etaireia and General Alexander Ypsilantis , which did not materialize. His successes were thwarted by an expedition army under Abdul Aboud sent by the Sublime Porte , which devastated entire areas of the Chalkidiki peninsula and the Strymonian Gulf in pursuit .

Aware of his defeat and bitter by the failure of the uprising in Macedonia, Emmanouil Papas decided to flee to the island of Hydra - one of the most important centers of the independence movement - in order to plan further actions from there. During this trip, however, he died on December 5, 1821 as a result of a heart attack. His body was brought to Hydra and buried with military honors. In 1843 he was recognized by the Greek Parliament as one of the protagonists of the War of Independence.