Souliotes Greece

Souliotes

The Souliotes were the inhabitants of a mountainous region in Thesprotia,Greece,called Souli.The name most probably originates from the Homeric word ''Seloi'' (Iliad P, 234)or it is related to the city of Sollion mentioned by Thucydides (2,30).The Souliotes lived in the area from the 16th century to 1822 (Lampridis,"Continental Studies").They were fierce warriors and are known for their long confrontation with the Ottoman rule and their participation in the Greek war of Independence of 1821.The Souliotes lived in 11 villages,in an area with steep "high and infamous rocks" (Kalvos).According to Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos,they were "a mixture of Greeks and Hellenized Albanians".They spoke Arvanitika and Greek. They were divided into 47 large families (fares) with the most important being those of Zerva,Tzavela,Drakou,Dagli, Koutsonika,Botsari,Karabini and Nika.

The Souliotes were more or less reminiscent of the ancient Spartans.They were trained in weapons from an early age and knew nothing else but the art of war.They punished with death those who violated agreements and moral principles,so in their closed society revenge (vendetta) was an inviolable rule. They paid a part of their income to the Sultan to ensure their autonomy.The Ottoman Turks attempted numerous times to conquer the territories of the Souliote confederacy.In 1731,Hadji Ahmed received orders from the Sultan to subdue the Souliotes and he lost his army of 8000 men.In 1754,Mustafa Pasha lost his army to the Souliotes as well.In the following years,Mustafa Koka came in with 4000 soldiers and Bekir Pasha with 5000.In the end,both failed to defeat the Souliotes.

Souliotis Fotos Pikos in local clothing.Painted lithograph by Louis Dupre from the album "Voyage a Athenes et a Constantinople" Paris,1825.

Ali Pasha of Ioannina was the one who finally subdued the heroic Souliotes.The first campaign against them took place in the spring of 1789.In July of the same year,Ali Pasha was forced to sign a peace treaty.The new campaign of Ali in July 1792 was also unsuccessful but he succeeded on the third attempt,in 1800,when he had reached the height of his power but again it took him three years to subdue them.On December 12,1803,the Souliotes were forced to capitulate.The basic condition of the agreement was to evacuate their villages.On December 16 they split into three groups and left their ancestral land behind.Only the monk Samuel remained in the Kougi hill along with five Souliotes and as soon as the Turco-Albanian approached,he set fire to the gunpowder warehouse of the Monastery of Agios Athanasios dragging many of them to their deaths.

During their evacuation,the first group of the Souliotes led by Photo Tzavela,arrived in Parga safely and from there processed in Corfu.The second group under Botsari,was heading for Agrafa,when it was hit by Ali (as a revenge for the Kougi incident) at the Monastery of Seltsou (April 20,1804) resulting in many casualties.The third group was also attacked at Zalongos (December 16, 1803),many were killed,while 60 women and their children danced the "Dance of Zalongo" and threw themselves on the rocks to avoid being captured by the Turco-Albanian soldiers.

In May 1820 a final rift occurred between Ali Pasha and Sultan Mahmud II and the Souliotes found the opportunity to return to their villages on December 12,1820.When Ali Pasha was killed (January 17, 1822) the Souliotes continued to fight the Turks in the Greek war of Indepedence.Of the 11 villages of Souli,Samoniva is the only inhabited village today while the ruins of Kougi and the Fortress of Kiafa have been preserved.

Kougi hill

The Albanian dispute on Souliotes origin

A number of Albanian historians and journalists are supporting that all the great Greek personalities were Albanians. From Homer to Socrates, from Achilles to Alexander the Great, even Saturn, Gaia and Zeus. According to some of them, the Albanian language is considered the "mother" of all the rest (Fredi Balaj). People who are hiding behind the idea of the Greater Albania are using the social media and Wikipedia to disinform the public.

Constantine Porphyrogenitus calls the Albanians,a race of the Caucasus.Georgios Kastriotis - Skenderbeis who is considered a national hero of today's Albanians,called himself an Orthodox Epirotian (15th century).In the Venetian manuscripts (15th century) the word "Albanian" is interpreted as "Greeks from Epirus and the Peloponnese" without questioning their Greek consciousness.The Albanians fought in the ranks of the Ottoman army.Many of the members of the Ottoman army who planted the persecution of the Souliotes were Albanians (Turco-Albanians).The ''Arvanitis'' term that refers to the Souliotes and many inhabitants of the Mediterranean,comes from the word "Arvanon",a toponym of Northern Epirus (Anna Komneni 11th century).The Greek population who was located in Arvanon,spoke the ''Arvanite'' dialect,offer us characteristic evidence that in the Balkans during at least the last five centuries,the Orthodox faith - and religion in general - shaped the national consciousness much more than the linguistic idiom.