One Hundred Years Ago this day, October 27, 1912, at 01:30 in the morning, the Ottomans surrendered the city of Thessaloniki to the Greek Army.
The final push of the Ottomans out of Europe was nearing to its end.
Another important page in the history of modern Europe was being written.
The protocol of the surrender was dated Oct. 26, when the first Greek troops had actually entered the city.
Crown Prince Constantine enters Thessaloniki
ON 26 OCTOBER 1912, the Turkish commandant of Thessaloniki, General
Hasan Tahsin Pasha, surrendered the defending Ottoman forces and the city to
the Greek army. He did so by signing a protocol of surrender along with the
officers representing the Greek army, General Victor Dousmanis and Major
Ioannis Metaxas. That same night, the first Greek troops (two battalions of
the 7th Division) entered the city, while four more divisions bivouacked
around it, sealing it completely. However, this result was far from smooth -
and not just due to military reasons.
http://www.athensnews.gr/old_issue/13258/16861
October 26 1912 - Liberation of Thessaloniki
I watched an interesting interview of the grandson of Hassan Tahsin Pascha, the military commander of Thessaloniki that surrendered and delivered the city to the greek army (he is an architect living in Thessaloniki).
The interesting detail is that Hassan Tahsin Pasha , who had choosen to sign the surrender only with the greek side, thus keeping the bulgarians out of Thessaloniki, and guaranteeing the occupation of the city from the greeks, was Albanian!
According to his grandson, he decided to surrender the city in order to avoid city battles and bombing that could cause thousands of deaths among civilian population, since he was convinced that the city, with the bulgarians north-east and greeks on west side, and greek warships in Thermaic gulf, was already lost for the turks. He also had chosen to surrender to the greeks only, because his military pride said to him that he could surrender to the army that had won his army a few days ago in the battle of Gianitsa, and not to an army that he had not met on the battlefield..........
From what I understood he feels (the grand son) a cosmopolite greek citizen, I think he mentioned that politically he is involved with SYRIZA
http://www.balkanium.com/forum/showthre ... essaloniki
P.S. Turkish video: Probably the one mentioned previously. Its in Turkish only but maybe our TC friends in the forum will tell us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnvO05F_jK8
