Republic of Metsovo
Coordinates: 39 ° 46 ' N , 21 ° 11' E
Republic of Metsovo is used as a name for an autonomous community in the Pindus Mountains during the Ottoman rule in the 17th and 18th centuries. It included the region around today's city of Metsovo .
prehistory
Metsovo was originally the name of the area around today's city of the same name, which was settled by Aromanians who immigrated in the Middle Ages . In addition to the Aromanians, Greeks and Balkan Slavs who had immigrated since the 7th century also lived in the area. The area around the main ridge of the Pindus was ruled by the tribal confederation of the Aromanian Malakasians , who were organized in patriarchal tribal associations without a strict central management. When they came into conflict with the despot of Epiros Thomas , he called the Ottoman sultan for help. In 1380 he sent an army that advanced as far as Metsovo and crushed the mountain dwellers, who then came under the tyrannical rule of the despot Thomas. The reports of this battle are the first written mention of the name Metsovo.
When the Ottomans under Sinan Pascha again advanced into the Pindus in 1430 to conquer the despotate of Epiros, the mountain tribes did not offer any resistance, but even supported them. Sultan Murad II therefore left the hill tribes unmolested and allowed them their freedoms. The freedoms of the mountain dwellers led to a steady influx of Greeks from the areas conquered by the Ottomans, so that a number of areas in the mountains were linguistically completely Grazized, while others became bilingual. The population growth and economic boom caused by immigration made the mountain dwellers fear attacks by neighboring Turkish rulers, so that in 1480 the mountain dwellers placed themselves under the protection of the Valide Sultan . It is assumed that the mountain dwellers were organized in a federation of the 4 mountain cantons Malakasi , Zagori , Syrrako and Kalariti , which in turn were divided into sub-units. One of the subdistricts of Malakasi was Metsovo with the main village Proseljo or Aromanian Soare, which later took the name of the district. The federal government paid an agreed tribute to the Valide Sultan and otherwise administered itself. Details of the internal order of the federal government are not known. The autonomy led to a further influx of Greeks and an economic boom, which aroused desires and from 1645 led to the fact that both the tribute and the villages in Malakasi were given to Ottoman dignitaries as Tımar . In 1648 the union was broken, only Zagori and Kalariti were able to keep their freedoms. In Metsovo part of the population emigrated and the economy began to decline.
Establishment and flowering
According to tradition, Metsovo became autonomous again in 1660. This regulation is said to be based on a non-preserved Ferman of Sultan Mehmet IV , who in turn was arranged by the later Grand Vizier Köprülü Fâzıl Ahmed Pascha , who temporarily found refuge with an Aromanian shepherd named Kyriakos or Sterjios Flokas during persecution due to an intrigue should have. However, during this period of alleged persecution, his father, Köprülü Mehmed Pascha, was Grand Vizier.
Get but a confirmatory Ferman of the Sultan from 1730, addressed to the Scheichülislam , the Beylerbey of Rumelia , the Pasha of Yanya and Tırhala and relevant Kadis . Accordingly, the territory of the republic included the villages of Voutonosi, Derventista (today: Anthochori), Prosiljo (Metsovo), Anilio, Milia, Malakasi, and Koutsofliani (Platanistos). No Muslim dignitary should not even take "dust on his horse's hooves" out of the area. The region was designated as sacred and inviolable and placed under the protection of the holy places in Mecca and Medina. Administratively it was subordinated to the Sanjak in Eğriboz ( Euboea ) and thus to the Kapudan Pasha , judicially it belonged to the district of the Kadıs of Livadia . Inside, the republic administered itself, it had to pay the jizya , a pasture tax of 108,000 Akçe and a levy of 585 balls of cloth for the agha of the Janissaries . The taxes were collected by a Bostancı for a sultan's domain in Thessaly, who also took over the protection of the area.
According to tradition, the delegates of the landscape met in Prosiljo and elected the head ( Gerontas ) of the district and 6 other committee members, a commissioner for the school system ( Ephoros ton Scholion ), one for the water distribution ( Phrontistes ton Hydaton ), one for the church system and social institutions ( Epitropos Ekklesion ), a tax collector ( Eispraktor ton Phoron ), a market overseer ( Agoranomos ) and the Kapetan der Armatolen , the commander of the police force. In Constantinople, the community maintained a Vekil as a representative , who had to represent Metsovo's interests at the Sultan's court, in particular to submit complaints and requests and to seek confirmation of the freedoms in the event of a change of throne.
The Gerontas was called Voyvoda by the Ottomans and the community it represented was called Metsovo Voyvodalığı .
Due to the existing freedoms, the republic experienced a lively influx, especially after the suppressed Orlov revolt . The economy flourished and the main town, Prosiljo, which took the name of the Metsovo region, developed into an urban community. The economy flourished. The products are woolen fabrics, dresses, coats, embroidery; Housewares made of tin and copper, weapons, saddles and gold and silver work called. A bank was established and commercial offices in cities such as Venice, Trieste, Rome, Livorno, Constantinople, St. Petersburg, Odessa, Vienna and Alexandria. In 1719, French merchants set up a branch in Metsovo. The wealth led to a flourishing of the school system, the first secondary schools were founded, as well as a hospital, an orphanage and an old people's home, the first in modern Greece.
Descent and decline
In 1795 Tepedelenli Ali Pascha , the ruler of Ioannina, who wanted to create his own empire in Greece, put an end to the autonomy of Metsovo by force of arms. The population then decreased. After the fall of Ali Pasha, Metsovo regained some of his privileges. The economy also recovered. Social tensions between rich and poor ultimately led to the demise of the community. The shepherds and day laborers who demanded a share in the city government rose up against the urban aristocratic upper class of merchants and artisans. They allied themselves with insurgents of a failed uprising in 1850 in Epirus, holed up near Metsovo and attacked an Ottoman unit. This led to an Ottoman punitive expedition in which Metsovo was looted and burned. From this event Metsovo did not recover until the end of the Ottoman rule and sank to a village with 2,000 inhabitants (from previously 10,000).
swell
Johann Benos: The Autonomous Republic of Metsovo 1659–1795. In: Thetis Mannheimer Contributions to Classical Archeology and History of Greece and Cyprus , Volume 1 (1994), pp. 89–94.