In the previous article ("The Crisis of the Ottoman Empire and the Evolution of the Situation of Gentiles"), it was told about the situation of Jews and Armenians in this country. Now we will continue this story and talk about the situation in Turkey of the Christian peoples of the European part of this empire.
European Christians in the Ottoman Empire
The position of European Christians (primarily the Slavs) was, perhaps, worse than that of the Armenians who professed Christianity. The fact is that, in addition to jizya and kharaj (poll and land taxes), they were also taxed with a “blood tax” - a set of boys according to the famous “devshirme” system. It is generally accepted that they all became janissaries.
This is not entirely true, because the children brought to Constantinople were divided into three categories. Most of them did indeed become professional soldiers.
However, some who were deemed lazy and unsuitable for training were designated by the servants. Well, the most capable were transferred to the Enderun school, located in the third courtyard of the Topkapi palace complex.
One of the graduates of this school, who completed all 7 stages of training in it, was Piiale Pasha - either Hungarian or Croat by nationality, brought from Hungary in 1526. At 32, he was already the head of the internal security of the Sultan's palace. Later he became the commander of the Ottoman fleet, the second vizier of the empire and son-in-law of Sultan Selim II.
But, as you can imagine, such a career was not at all typical for “foreign boys” (ajemi oglan): they had a much greater chance of dying in one of the countless wars, or vegetating all their lives in auxiliary jobs.
Greece as part of the Ottoman Empire
As you know, Constantinople fell in 1453. Then, in 1460, the last Byzantine city, Mystra, was captured by the Ottomans. In 1461, the Greeks of Trebizond were also ruled by the sultans. Other areas inhabited by descendants of the Hellenes (Peloponnese, Epirus, islands of the Mediterranean and Ionian Seas) still remained outside the sphere of Ottoman influence, but did not belong to the Greeks themselves. These were the possessions of Venice, with which the Ottomans waged a stubborn struggle for a long time both on land and at sea. Kerkyra and many of the islands of the Ionian Sea did not become Turkish.
After the fall of Constantinople, the majority of Orthodox Greeks did not flee to the Catholic West, but for quite a long time they faithfully served the Ottoman rulers. During the 1914 census, 1,792,206 Greeks were counted in the Ottoman Empire - about 8.5% of the total population of this country.
The Greeks lived not only in the European part of the empire, but also in Asia Minor (Anatolia), sometimes holding high government positions. The Greeks of Constantinople (Phanariots), who traditionally supplied the Porte with high-ranking officials, up to the governors of the provinces, were especially prosperous (Phanariots were especially often appointed to Moldavia and Wallachia).
The famous Greek "oligarch" of the Ottoman Empire was Mikhail Kantakuzen, who in the 16th century received the right to a monopoly trade in furs with the Muscovy. In Constantinople he was given the “speaking” nickname Shaitan-Oglu (“Son of the Devil”).
The Greeks were the natives of Lesbos, Khair ad-Din Barbarossa (one of the most famous admirals of the Ottoman Empire) and his older brother Oruj, who proclaimed himself Emir of Algeria and recognized the power of Sultan Selim I.
When the Venetians captured Morea in 1699, the local Greeks acted as allies of the Ottomans, which ended with the expulsion of the Catholic Europeans in 1718.
However, over time, the policy of the Ottoman sultans towards Christians changed for the worse - military failures and failures in foreign policy are always easier to explain by intrigues of internal enemies.
Therefore, at the end of the 18th century, the Greeks were already allies of the Russian co-religionists, which, in turn, led to the most severe repressions. In 1770, Albanians loyal to the Turks killed (in the same Morey) a huge number of civilians. The result was a new uprising in 1821 and the long-term struggle of the Greeks for independence, which ended with the formation of their own kingdom in 1832.
Greek uprising of 1821-1829
One of the symbols of that liberation war was the Turkish siege of Messolonga, which lasted for almost a year (from April 15, 1825 to April 10, 1826). By the way, it was in this city that Byron died in 1824.
Russia abstained
In relation to Russia, the Ottomans also behaved defiantly at that time.
On Easter in April 1821, the Patriarch of Constantinople and seven metropolitans were hanged - an insult to Orthodox Christians around the world was simply unheard of. The body of the patriarch, by the way, was later found at sea and delivered to Odessa on a Greek ship under the British flag.
Russian ships loaded with bread were arrested.
Finally, the Turkish government did not even respond to the note of the envoy Stroganov, because of which he was forced to leave Constantinople.
Russian society and the closest circle of Alexander I demanded that the emperor protect Orthodoxy and co-religionists. Alexander said nothing. In 1822, at the Verona Congress, he explained his position as follows:
“Now there can no longer be a policy of English, French, Russian, Prussian, Austrian: there is only one policy, a common one, which must be adopted jointly by peoples and states in order to save all. I must be the first to show loyalty to the principles on which I founded the union. One case presented itself to that - the uprising of Greece. Nothing, no doubt, seemed more in keeping with my interests, the interests of my peoples, the public opinion of my country, as a religious war with Turkey; but in the unrest of the Peloponnese, I saw signs of revolution. And then I abstained."
The British assessed this stupid "fair-heartedness" of the Russian emperor correctly and adequately:
“Russia is leaving its leading position in the East. England should take advantage of this and occupy it."
This was stated in 1823 by the British Foreign Secretary Charles Stratford-Canning.
At first, the uprising in Greece developed quite successfully, but with the help of the Egyptian troops of Ibrahim Pasha, the Ottoman authorities practically defeated the rebels, whose situation became completely desperate.
Navarino battle
It was only in 1827 that the "great powers" (Russia, Great Britain and France) intervened and sent a united fleet to the shores of Greece, which defeated the Ottoman-Turkish squadron in the Battle of Navarino.
The British squadron then had 3 ships of the line, 3 frigates, 4 brigs, a sloop and a tender.
The French sent 3 ships of the line, 2 frigates, a brig and a schooner under the command of Admiral Henri-Gaultier de Rigny (future Minister of Foreign Affairs of France).
Russian Rear Admiral L. P. Geiden (Westphalian, who joined the Russian service in 1795) brought 4 battleships and 4 frigates.
The total firepower of the united allied squadron was 1,300 artillery pieces.
At the disposal of Ibrahim Pasha, who headed the Turkish and Egyptian ships, there were 3 ships of the line, 5 two-deck 64-gun frigates, 18 small frigates, 42 corvettes, 15 brigs and 6 fire ships. From the shore, they were supported by 165 guns of the Navarino fortress and the island of Sfakteria. Different authors estimate the total number of guns from 2,100 to 2,600.
The hostile fleet was blocked in the bay and completely destroyed, which caused the displeasure of King George IV, who did not want the Ottomans to be unduly weakened (and, consequently, Russia strengthened). On the margins of the decree awarding Codrington the Order of the Grand Cross of the Bath, the monarch allegedly wrote:
"I am sending him a ribbon, although he deserves a rope."
The allies in this battle did not lose a single ship.
In 1828, Russia entered the war with Turkey, which ended in victory the following year.
On September 2 (14), 1829, a peace treaty was signed between Russia and the Ottoman Empire in Adrianople, under which Greece received autonomy. On behalf of Russia, it was signed by Alexei Fedorovich Orlov - the illegitimate son of one of the younger brothers of the famous favorite of Catherine II - Gregory.
And at the London Conference of 1832, an agreement was reached on the creation of an independent Greek state.
Enosis Movement
Even after the emergence of the Greek kingdom, many Greeks remained on the territory of the Ottoman Empire, and the ideas of Enosis (the movement for reunification with the historical homeland) were increasingly spreading among them.
It should nevertheless be said that not all Ottoman Greeks shared these ideas: there were also those who were quite satisfied with the situation in the Ottoman Empire.
Alexander Karathéodori (Alexander Pasha-Karathéodori) from an old Phanariote family in 1878 became the head of the foreign affairs department of the Ottoman Empire and represented Turkey at the Berlin Congress of 1878.
Constantine Muzurus served as the Ottoman governor on the island of Samos, the ambassador of the Port to Greece (since 1840) and in Great Britain (since 1851).
Banker Christakis Zografos, a native of Epirus, was one of the largest creditors of the Ottoman state in 1854-1881, and had awards from three sultans.
Galatian banker Georgios Zarifis was the personal treasurer of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
There were 26 Greeks in the Turkish Parliament in 1908, and 18 in 1914.
However, against the background of the spread of the ideas of Enosis, the Ottoman authorities trusted the Greeks less and less.
And in the Greek kingdom, hatred of the Ottomans, who hindered the formation of Magna Graecia, was very great.
In the XX century, this country fought three times with Turkey: during the First Balkan War of 1912-1913, during the Second Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922. (after which about one and a half million people were forced to move from Turkey to Greece, this will be discussed later) and in the hostilities on the island of Cyprus in 1974 (We will talk about them in the next article devoted to the situation of Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire and Muslims in socialist Bulgaria, as well as the "Cyprus syndrome" by Todor Zhivkov).
