CHRISTOPHER A LONG - The Massacres Of Chios 1822 (3)

The Massacres of Chios (3)

1823 Onwards & Documentation

Part lll

The Greek War of Independence against the domination of the Ottoman Empire was still raging in 1822 when one of history's most tragic and comprehensive acts of genocide took place in the Massacres of Chios. Around 20,000 islanders were hanged, butchered, starved or tortured to death. Untold thousands more were raped, deported and enslaved and the island itself devastated. Now the survivors set about rebuilding shattered lives and fortunes elsewhere throughout Europe and the Black Sea in what is now known as the Chios Diaspora.

Page 1 – Introduction & 1814-1821

Page 2 – Events & Massacres of 1822

Page 3 – Events from 1823 Onwards & Documentation

Page 4 – The Chios Diaspora 1823-99

Page 5 – The Chios Diaspora 1900-99

The Island Of Chios

Vlasto Family Properties On Chios

A Warning To Anyone Planning To Visit Chios

Scenes from The Massacre At Chios

by Eugène Delacroix, first exhibited in 1824, two years after the massacre, and bought by King Charles X for The Louvre in Paris.

This and the works of Lord Byron did much to draw the attention of mainland Europe to the 'katastrophe' that had taken place on Chios.

It also captured the imagination of the author who was introduced to it quite suddenly, in 1961, at the age of twelve.

1824 – Public outrage at the horrors on Chios in 1822 spreads through Europe and North America.

Eugène Delacroix exhibits Scenes of the Massacres of Chios, bought for the Louvre by King Charles X of France.

Victor Hugo writes The Child of Chios.

Lord Byron, whose prolific writing promoting Hellenism has inspired a generation, dies aged 36.

Two years later, Picauld's tragedy, Léonidas, is performed at the Théâtre Français with the young sons of the Greek admirals Kanaris and Miaulis as guests of the Duke of Orleans.

The famous Koraïs Library on Chios, founded by the scholar Adamandios Koraïs (right) in 1792, was sacked in 1822. Its treasured collection of books, records and exhibits were either destroyed or stolen. Among the few sources still available to historians of Chios now are the recorded testimony of survivors, the drawings and paintings of travellers and the archaeological evidence on the ground. Today the library houses the Philip Argenti Collection of Chios diaspora family portraits, as well as books, domestic artefacts, costumes, textiles and memorabilia.

In a repeat of the Chios massacres, the Sultan now orders the neighbouring island of Psara to be laid waste as a reprisal for the assistance it gave to Chios two years earlier.

Eighty frigates, brigs and transports carrying 3,000 Janissaries and 4,000 Asiatic troops invade the island, led by Mehmet Pasha,. Eight thousand men, women and children are butchered or wounded, being left to die of exposure, untreated wounds, starvation or disease.

Only 3,000 of the original population of 20,000 survive. Large numbers are captured as slaves and 500 heads and 1,200 ears are shipped to Constantinople to be displayed in 'victory pillars' at the Seraglio Gate.

Few Chian refugees are caught here since most have already moved on to Syros, Tinos, the Cyclades and elsewhere in Europe. However, some 12,000 refugees from Smyrna and Lesbos are caught up in a massacre for a second time.

Rather than fall into the hands of the Turks and the inevitable torture, rape and slavery, many choose to blow themselves up with their own gun-powder – echoing accounts of women throwing themselves off cliffs with their children and infants on Chios. The few who escape flee to Momemvasia and found Nea (New) Psara.

1825 – Many Chian refugees have set about establishing a 'second Chios' on the nearby island of Syros, a predominantly Catholic French protectorate.

Stephen Zygomalas, Ambrose Scaramanga and Emmanuel Scaramanga are among the committee of four – the epitrope – representing Chian interests.

In many respects Syros comes to resemble the way life had been conducted on Chios before the massacre. Concentrating around its excellent natural harbour, the Chians embark on rapid construction projects and re-establish their shipping and trading enterprises in Egyptian cotton and spices from the East.

Within a few years the city, renamed Ermopoulos by the community's leader, Luke Ralli, becomes the administrative centre of the Cyclades, the main coaling station of the Eastern Mediterranean and the premier port and warehouse in the new Greek state.

Today Syros still has the monopoly on the manufacture of Turkish Delight, made from the mastic plant uniquely cultivated on Chios and a 'Chian' speciality.

Two other important gathering points and trading centres for refugees from Chios are Trieste and Livorno. However, the preferred destinations for many of the island's most prosperous leading families are London, Liverpool, Manchester, Paris and Marseilles.

Of the Vlasto family, few settle in Syros other than Nicolas Vlasto (1805-1861) with his wife Marie Louca Mavrogordato and their daughter Angerou Vlasto (1835-1845) – who dies aged 10 in Marseilles where most of the Vlastos have settled.

1827 – Although an expedition by Fabvier to relieve Chios fails, the third and final phase of the Greek War of Independence ends with the defeat of the Turkish fleet at Salona and victory at Navarino for the combined British, French and Russian fleet under the command Britain's Admiral Codrington.

1828 – The Turks evacuate mainland Greece after 400 years of Ottoman rule.

1829 – Mahmoud, Sultan of Turkey, acknowledges the independence of Greece.

1830 – The Protocol of London proclaims Greece an independent kingdom and a Greek Embassy is established in London.

The 'Greek Community of London' is founded predominantly by members of the Chios diaspora. Soon after a 'Brotherhood' of 24 (almost all Chians and including seven Rallis) establish their first church at Finsbury Circus, importing their Archimandrites from Chios. Similar churches are established by Chian merchants in Manchester and Liverpool.

1831-32 – Austria, Britain and Russia recognise Greece as an independent kingdom (though Chios is still occupied by the Turks and not included in the new state).

1881 – After the Chian massacre and the diaspora of 1822, another catastrophe hits Chios.

An earthquake (6.5 on the Richter scale) kills 3,550 and injures 1,320. Chios town is devastated and has never fully recovered – bearing the deep scars of both man-made and natural catastrophes.

Only about 10,000 inhabitants survive the earthquake. Bodies lie piled in the streets in the summer heat while the inhabitants are too weak to bury them all. Eventually typhoid pits are dug.

Some 40,000 extra Turkish troops are dispatched to Chios to assess the situation and to preserve what remains of the island's previous wealth – now mostly lost in rubble and fires – but they have difficulty entering the harbour because of the number of corpses floating in the water. Turkish records show that every church apart from St Antoine is destroyed.

Bands of other Turks loot and harass the Chian survivors. Again, thousands of Chians flee to the island of Psara where, fifty years earlier, 20,000 Chians fled to escape the Turkish invasion. Again Psara provides a welcoming sanctuary.

1912-13 – After the two Balkan Wars, Chios is liberated and, under the Convention of Athens, Turkey and Greece settle ownership of the Aegean Islands. Chios becomes part of Greece, though it should be noted that sovereignty of some of these Aegean possessions was still in dispute between Greece and Turkey as late as 1999.

Eugène Delacroix was born in Charenton-St-Maurice, France, on 26 April 1798. A pupil of Pierre-Narcisse Guérin in 1815, he produced more than 850 paintings and great numbers of drawings, murals, and other works. In 1822 he submitted his first picture Dante and Virgil in Hell to the important Paris Salon exhibition. A technique used in this work – many unblended colours forming what at a distance looks like a unified whole – was later used by the impressionists. His next Salon entry was Massacre at Chios in 1824. With great vividness of colour and strong emotion it pictured an incident in which 20,000 Greeks had been killed by Turks on the island of Chios two years earlier. The French government purchased it for Fr.6,000. Impressed by the techniques of English painters such as John Constable, Delacroix visited England in 1825. His tours of the galleries, visits to the theatre and observations of English culture in general made a lasting impression upon him. From 1827 to 1832 he continued to use historical themes in The Battle of Nancy and The Battle of Poitiers. Lord Byron's poetry inspired a painting for the 1827 Salon, Death of Sardanapalus. He also created a set of 17 lithographs to illustrate a French edition of Goethe's 'Faust'. The French revolution of 1830 inspired the famous Liberty Guiding the People, the last of his truly romantic works. He found new inspiration on a trip to Morocco in 1832. From 1833 to 1861 Delacroix painted murals for the king's chamber at the Palais Bourbon and panels for the Louvre and the Museum of History at Versailles. This involved long, uncomfortable hours on scaffolding in draughty buildings and his health suffered. He died on 13 August 1863 in Paris where his apartment is now a museum.

Bibliography:

The impressive and seminal work The Libro d'Oro de la Noblesse de Chio by Philip Argenti is far from a complete or entirely accurate genealogical record. Many individuals are known to be missing and the selection of those families included is partial.

Furthermore, Argenti's attempts to impose a system of ranking the island's families – placing his own at the top of the list! – has no basis in historical fact. Such a system could never have worked since the families were so inter-married, and over such a long period of time, that any two individuals were likely to be related to each other by several routes at once.
Above: The author at work at the 'Mavrogordatico' hotel in the Kampos, in Spring 1999. The appallingly kitsch conversion of this once grand home of the Mavrogordato family has set a poor example to those who might be considering restoring ruins in the Kampos.
Argenti appears to have imported this concept from the system once used in Byzantine Constantinople. His reason for doing this appears to be connected with his life-long, obsessive need to establish the excellence of his pedigree and his own and his family's 'credentials' – perhaps in order to obscure some aspects of its origins and the fact they were relative new-comers to Chios and to 'Greece'.

There are also doubts and discrepancies regarding his discriptions of the role and importance of the Argenti family in Chian history – not least the precise number he claims were killed in Chios or elsewhere during the period of the Greek War of Independence.

Nevertheless, in general terms, the value of Philip Argenti's contribution to the record of Chian history, in a large output of books and papers, is beyond doubt and was duly acknowledged by Greek goverments and institutions which heaped accolades upon him during his lifetime.

Anderson, R.C.Naval Wars in the Levant 1559-1853 Liverpool University Press, 1952
Argenti, Philip Libro D'Oro de la Noblesse de Chio Oxford University Press, 1955 (see caveat above)
Argenti, Philip The Massacres of Chios Described in Contemporary Diplomatic Reports, edited with an introduction by Philip Argenti. John Lane/The Bodley Head, London, 1932 (a copy in the collection of C.A.L.)
Barber, Noel Lords of the Golden Horn Macmillan, London, 1973
Barty-King, Hugh The Baltic Exchange The History of a Unique Market. Hutchinson Benham, London, 1977
Boardman, John and Vaphopoulou-Richardson, C. E. Chios. A Conference at the Homereion in Chios, 1984 Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1986
Bouras, Charalambos Chios. Guides to Greece The National Bank of Greece, Athens, 1974
Bradford, Ernle The Companion Guide to the Greek Islands Collins, London, 1963
Burn, A. R. and Mary The Living Past of Greece Herbert Press, 1980
Calvocoressi, Peter From Byzantium to Eton, A Memoir of a Millennium Centre of Contemporary Greek Studies (occasional paper 2, N.D.), King's College, London – the basis of a 1980's BBC radio talk in the 'Migrations' series
Catsiyannis, Timotheos, Bishop of Militoupolis Pandias Stephen Rallis (1793-1865). The Founder of the Greek Community in London London, 1986
Catsiyannis, Timotheos, Bishop of Militoupolis The Rodocanachi of London. A Pictorial History London, 1987
Comnene, Anne L'Alexiade Vol. 1 p. 430I (Bonn edition)
Clogg, Richard The Struggle for Greek Independence, Essays to mark the 150th anniversary of the Greek War of Independence Macmillan, London, 1973
Dakin, Douglas The Greek Struggle for Independence Batsford, London, 1973
Dallas-Damis, Anthea G. Windswept Signet, New American Library, 1981
Echinard, Pierre Grecs et Philhellenes A MarseilleInstitue Historique de Provence
Eusebius Ecclesiastical History (Ch. V.15 and V.20)
Facaros, Dane Greek Islands Cadogan Books, London, 1986
Finlay, George History of the Greek Revolution, And of the Reign of King Otho Zeno Booksellers Publishers, London, 1971
Frangakis-Syrett, Elena The Raya Communities of Smyrna in the 18th Century (1690-1820). Demography and Economic Activities (Actes du Colloque International d'Histoire. La Ville Neohellenique. Heritages Ottomans et Etat Grec) Vol. 1, Athens, 1985
Furse, Elizabeth (Haydon-Guest) Dream Weaver Chapmans, 1993 (unreliable references to the Vlasto & Rodocanachi families in SOE/MI9 activities 1940-44)
Gerland, E Histoire de la Noblesse Crétoise au Moyen Age Paris 1907
Gibbons, Edward Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire (Ch. XV)
Howarth, David The Greek Adventure Collins, London, 1976
Kerofilas, Kostas Les Vlasto, Une Famille Patricienne Crétoise Atlanta Press, New York, 1932 (a copy in the collection of C.A.L.)
Legrand, Emile Généalogie des Maurocordato de Constantinople Paris 1886 & 1900
Leris, Pierre La Colonie Grec A Marseille published privately 20-08-1913 (see Zarifi family archives and a copy in the collection of C.A.L.)
Liddell, Robert Aegean Greece Jonathan Cape, London, 1954
Long, Christopher Secret Papers London Portrait Magazine – November 1984 (references to the Rodocanachi family in SOE/MI9 activities 1940-44 – a copy in the collection of C.A.L.)
Long, Helen Change Into Uniform Terence Dalton, 1978 (autobiography 1920-46 with accounts of the Greek community in London)
Long, Helen Greek Fire, The Massacres of Chios Abson Books, Bristol, 1992 (a copy in the collection of C.A.L.)
Miller, Edward That Noble Cabinet André Deutch, 1973
Miller, William The Ottoman Empire and Its Successors 1801-1927 Frank Cass, 1966
Nicolopoulos, Jean Correspondences Commerciale d'Odessa
Pellegrini, G Bolletino Araldico Venice 1908
Pillement, Georges Unknown Greece (translated from the original French by Barbara Whelpton), Johnson Publications, 1975
Perri The Kampos Catalogue of the noble families of Chios and their estates (parts only in the collection of C.A.L.)
Runciman, S. The Great Church in Captivity 1985, p. 160
Sathas, C The Greek History (untranslated) Vol.11 p. 5
Smith & Wace The Dictionary of Christian Biography
St Clair, William That Greece Might Still Be Free (The Philhellenes in the War of Independence), Oxford University Press, 1972
St Tertullian The Appendix of De Praescriptione (a Montanist contemporary of Vlasto writing in Phrygia c. 180 AD
Sturdza (Stourdza), Alexandre L'Europe Orientale et le Rôle Historique des Maurocordato (1660-1830) Paris 1914)
Sturdza (Stourdza), Mihail Dimitri (Title Unknown) limited edition genealogical study of Balkan nobility (perhaps available at the Biblithèque National, Paris)
Svornos, Jean N. Corpus Inscriptionum Graecorum (archaeological descriptive documents)
Theodoret History of Heresies (Chs. 1.23 & 1.25)
Theodoret First Epistle
Thomas, Andrew Spetsai Lycabettus Press, Athens, 1977
Trivan Racconto Delle Varie Cose Successe Nel Regno Di Candia three original copies are in Venice, one in the Marciana Library (Ital. Vll, 525)
Vlasto, Alexander M. A History of the Island of Chios AD 70-1822 Translated from the second part of his work Xiaka [about Chios]. The History of the island of Chios from the earliest times down to its destruction by the Turks in 1822. (published privately), J. Davy & Sons at the Dryden Press, 1913
Vlasto, Ernest-Michel Leçons des Choses Paris (a copy in the collection of C.A.L.)
Vlasto, Etienne A Les Derniers Jours de Constantinople Paris 1883
Vlasto, Etienne A Grecs & Turcs Marseille 1899
Vlasto, Etienne A – other essays of a similar kind
Vlasto, Jack Ralli Brothers Limited (published privately for Ralli Brothers Limited), J. P McNulty & Co., Ltd, London, 1951 (a copy in the collection of C.A.L.)
Vlasto, Michel Ernest T. D. The Nursing of Diseases of the Nose, Ear and Throat Otolaryngology, Faber and Faber, London 1938 (a copy in the collection of C.A.L.)
Zernov, Nicholas Eastern Christendom Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London 1963
Zolotas, George The History of Chios translated from the Greek by Milto Calvocoressi (President of the Cultural Society of Kambos, Chios)
Published by Picard (France) in 1999 Les Patrons du Second Empire – Marseille