Matthaios Kofidis
Matthaios Kofidis ( Greek Ματθαίος Κωφίδης Mattheos Kofidis , born March 22, 1855 in Likast ', today Çorum province ; † 1921 in Amasia ) was a Pontic Greek entrepreneur and Ottoman politician. He was a member of the Ottoman Parliament , to which he was elected three times from 1908 to 1918. In 1921 he was one of the Greeks of the Pontus region who were killed by the Turkish nationalists.
Early life and political career
Kofidis was born in the Ottoman village of Likast 'in what is now the province of Çorum . He moved to Trebizond in northeastern Turkey, where he became a member of the local tobacco monopoly .
Kofidis was elected for the Vilâyet Trebizond to the parliament of the Second Constitutional Era in three terms : 1908-1912 , 1912-1914 and 1914-1918 . Before that he took part in the Young Turkish Revolution . Like other Christian Orthodox citizens of the Ottoman Empire, Kofidis hoped that this movement would strengthen the various ethno-religious groups ( Millette ).
Kofidis represented a district that was badly affected by ethnic cleansing policies. He became one of the Greek representatives in the Ottoman Parliament who vehemently protested and called for strict measures to stop the ongoing genocide. In these circumstances, Kofidis tried to approach the situation cautiously and negotiated with the Ottoman authorities whenever possible.
In 1917 Kofidis briefly represented the Orthodox Archbishop of Trebizond, Chrysanthus , in his non-religious duties. In 1920 he refused to lead an armed guerrilla fight in the Pontus, because he feared that this would cause the destruction of Trebizond by the Turkish national movement Mustafa Kemal Pasha .
execution
In the middle of 1921 a large part of the male Orthodox Christian population was deported and formed into labor battalions in Erserum . Kofidis' son was killed during this deportation. During this time, a Turkish “ad hoc independence court ” in Amaseia , which was controlled by the Turkish nationalists, sentenced Kofidis to death by hanging. Kofidis was executed in Amaseia. The same court sentenced several figures from the local Greek community to death, most notably business people, politicians and religious leaders. All of them were charged with participating in the founding of the Pontic Republic .
The execution of Matthaios Kofidis enraged even the Muslim population of Trebizond, who refused to hand over any more Pontic Greeks to the radical Turkish nationalists.
swell
- Bruce Clark: Twice a Stranger: The Mass Expulsion that Forged Modern Greece and Turkey . Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts) 2006, ISBN 978-0-674-02368-0 ( online ).
- Ioannis Karachristos: Kofidis, Matthaios. Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World, Asia Minor, March 15, 2002, accessed May 10, 2014 .
- Kostas Photiades: The Islamization of Asia Minor and the Crypto Christians of Pontus . University of Tübingen , 1985 ( online ).
- Maria Vergeti: Ethno-Regional Identity: The Case of Pontian Greeks. Panteion University , 1993, accessed May 23, 2014 (Greek, doi: 10.12681 / eadd / 2548 ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Karachristos, 2002.
- ↑ a b c d e Clark, 2006: 114
- ↑ Photiades, 1985: 285-286
- ^ Clark, 2006: 112
- ↑ Vergeti, 1993: 77
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kofidis, Matthaios |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Ottoman entrepreneur and politician of Pontic Greek origin |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 22, 1855 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Likast ', today Çorum Province , Ottoman Empire |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1921 |
| Place of death | Amaseia , Ottoman Empire |