Greece :

 

Up until the early decades of the 20th century many parts of Greece, Crete, Macedonia, and islands were in moslem rule .  The Balkan wars of 1912-13,  and the exchange of Greek and Turkish populaion changed everything in a brutal manner.

Also the civil war after WWII and the seven years of military dictatorship under the colonels junta 1967-73.

 

By 1827, Russia, France and Britain had finally agreed on seek autonomy  for certain parts of Greece.

Turkish-Egyptian fleet in Navarina was attacked and destroyed.

The following year Russia delared war on Turkey  and the Sultan was forced to accept the existenceof an autonomous country.  In 1830 its independence was confirmed by the western powers and borders were drawn;  Orthodox Russians were encouraged to immigrate there.

   Great western powers imposed the first president for the republic,  Capoadistrio who was assassinated  by 2 chieftains (Vendetta) 1831.

   They then decided to create a monarchy  and put in the thrown a Bavarian prince Otto son of Ludvig , who proved an autocratic ruler bringing in fellow Germans to fill in posts.

 

  In  1862 he was forced from the country by a popular revolt and again Europeans introduced a new prince from Denmark George I.  Athens was the the egde of territories for the new forged Greece , which was yet to include Northern Thessaly , Epirus, Macedonia or any of the islands beyond her cyclades.  Capital and court was moved from Nafplio to Athens in 1834.

 

  In 1897 it failed to achieve enosis (union ) with Crete,  by attacking moslems in the mainland and in the process virtually bankrupted the  state. 

 The outset of 1821 revolution : villages at Patra, Korinthos, Athens and virtually  all other moslem villages were put to the sword;  survivors of the various masacres fled north ,  to the terrritories that remained under Ottoman control.

 

The expansion of the forged Greek nation thereafter resulted in the decline of the moslem population.   New expansions or conquests of Thessaly in 1878, Epirus, Macedonia, the north Aegan and Crete in 1913 provoked a wave of moslem immigration to the other side of receding Ottoman frontier .  Moslems or Turks as it was a genuine term for any moslem even Greek moslems were subjeted to various expulsion orders.  The moslems of Crete were forced to choose between apostasy to christianity or exile.  Those who opted to stand by their faith were summarily deported to the closest Ottoman border, either Kos or nearby village of Platani  and Rhodes (still Moslem then).

 

   But even after the 1878, 1913 acquisitions of Thessaly, Epirus and Macedonia,  moslem villages continued to exist in these regions, The Tsamidhes, an Albanian Moslem tribe localised in Epirus and Thespratia existed until 1940-41 , but after that were hunted dawn and expelled by naitional army and guerilla bands. 

 

 Thesaloniki  when the city passed to new orthodox greek control, the authorities allowed the pure jews to stay but insisted on the departure of Moslems.

 

World war I , a new king Constantine was imposed - Eleftherias Venizelos reorganised allaince  of Balkan powers to fight the two Balkan wars (1912-13) compayns that saw moslems virtually driven from Europe, on its completion,  and the capitulation of Bulgaria.   Thrace was occupied.

 

    In 1920 monarchists factions took over.  WWI was also the end of  Moslem populations in island of Thasos,  Somethraki and Samos (exodus to Smyrna).

 

   In 1936 King George II appointed general John Metaxas as prime minister.  By end of May 1941German invading forces completed occupation of Crete and other islands- joint Italian-German  occupation of Greece where nearly half a million civilians starved to death as food was requisitional to feed occupying armies and entire villages throughout mainland especiallly Crete were burned and slaughtered at the least suspision of resistance.(estimated 2000 deaths daily from starvation.

 

   In 1944 Germans had finally left.

  Battle of Athens:  first civil war with British forces (previous greek allies)  being ordered to fight against them by resistance army of Elas. 

 

By 7th century, Eslam astonishingly spread theoughout the world;  Eastern Europe had been incorporated in the huge moslem caliphate.

 Macedonia then stretched from Albania far to mid Asia  (Khanate of the Golden horde-present russia);   Cyprus, Crete , Rhodes and other meditteranean islands were all parts of the united arab world.

 

During Persian rule after the collapse of the Ommiad caliphate, Byzantine emperor grasped the chance and started a series of attack against Moslem territories; he then promised Moslem Khanates of Bulgaria  peace (Any persian moslem ruler used to be called Khan meaning ruler), but taking their army by surprise , he attacked and rooted it, the few survivors were blinded and left with a lucky one-eyed fellow to lead them away,  terming it noble war as none of  his army was hurt by this treacheon.

 

   After crusaders raised their war in the middle ages, Alexas promised to force catholicism on Greek lands if crusaders helped him in attacking Constantinople. In 1204, the Venetians, Franks and Germans turned their armies on Byzantine and sacked and occupied Constantinople, massacred its inhabitants and ruled for 58 years; results of this fourth crusade was the looting and distruction of Byzantine.

 

 Crusaders then attacked Balkan,  but their two invasions of Balkans ended in defeat at Nikopolis 1396 and at varna 1444 as Ottomans moved for rescueing Moslem territories,  and whole of eastern Europes was under Ottoman  rule

 During Ottoman rule  the sultan used Acropolis as his home residence and the parthanon was a Mosque.

   By 1687, Venetians, under the Dodge Fransisco Morsini laid seige to Acropolis, and a shot fired by Swedish mercenary from the hill of Filapappiou rent the temple in two igniting fire in it for 2 days.

   At the end of the eighteenth century came the western looters , Elgin levering away sculptures from the Parthanon, the French embassador Fauvel gatheing his share for the Louvre. Byron a sympathetic luninary amidst all this unenlightened activity, visited Greece in 1810 in time to see the last of Elgin's ships looded with marbles.

 

   In 1834 Ottomans parted , while the archeologists stripped awy all the Moslem embellishments from the Acropolis.

   An Orthodox modest city started to take shape; Turkish quarter of the lower town , current Plaka,   was occupied and Orthodox laid seige to the Acropolis fortifications. Ottomans reoccupied it five years later but were forced from it due to various attacks and masacres.

  After Greek Turkish war, remaining ethnic population were exchanged , over a million and a half refugees from Asia minor arrived Greece,  half of them settled in Athens.

  Western Thrace was he last bastion of Greek Moslems, and it remained so after 1920-21 Asia minor war.

  The treaty of Lusanni 1923, confirmed the right of Moslems to remain, in return for Greek Orthodoc presence in Istanbul.

The prince's island and tenedos, Miros islands: Moslems there order the third of the population of Greek Thrace.  During World War Two, loyalty of these Moslems was demonstrated as they resisted the invading Nazis side by side with christians.   In return two occupying forces harrased and deported to death camps many local Moslems.

 

Pomaks: Moslem clan of Bulgarian dialect (north of Xanthi).

  During 1946-49 civil war, Thracian Moslems suffered again at the hands of ElAs. Treatment of these Moslems today functions as a barometer of relationships between Greece and Turkey.   Authorities still keep the Pomaks on tight rein and they require a transit permit to leave their area of residence.

 

 Eslam spead in Rhodes since the seventh centuy as it spread in medditterannean islands by arabian merchants. Gradually majority of its inhabitants became Moslems and it came under Arabian rule and had hundreds of Moslem mosques.

 

During middle ages , crusaders stormed Rhodes in 1304 and forcibly conquered it. But Ottomans finally regained it,  and it remained Moslem till 1912 when Italy occupied it , then it was given to Greece in return for siding with the allies after world war two  in 1948.

 

Crete : though it was united with Greece in 1913, many ancient Moslem mosques still survive with their arabian Ommiad architecture.

   Arabian immigration to crete started since the seventh c., they had their cultural center near Iraklion. Crete became Moslem under arabian rule.

But in 961, Nickoforis army bloodily stormed Crete that arabian heads were used as ammunition for their arms. Around 200,000 Moslem Cretan were masacred and the same number emprisoned and Venetian dictatorship rule was imposed.

 

But Ottoamans regained Crete for Moslems and again Moslems became majority. Ottoman rule continued till twentieth century.1898 . By 18th century Russsian agents were set by emperor Catherine of Russia to ignit revolution in Greece.

  Then Russia attacked Turkey in 1770-1780;  In the process hundreds of Moslem villages in black sea were attacked.   Villages were given new names.

 

In 1821, free fighters agents from different nationalities made revolution in Pellopenese and attacked and destroyed Moslem villages. In Tripolita alone 12,000 Moslems were masacred.