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Post by Arxileas on Oct 26, 2008 5:25:16 GMT -5
St Demetrios and Liberation of Thessaloniki. 26th of October, ST DEMETRIOS DAY and LIBERATION OF THESSALONIKI Saint Demetrios was born in Thesaloniki, Greece in 270 AD. He came from a wealthy family and because he was athletic in appearance and heroic in spirit, he became a high-ranking officer in the Roman Army at a very young age. (This is why he is depicted in Byzantine icons in military dress, either standing or riding a horse.) He considered himself a soldier of Christ first, and a military soldier second. He spent most of his time as a devout missionary, preaching the Gospel at secret meetings and converting pagans to the Christian faith. At one of these meetings, he was captured and placed in front of the Emperor Maximian, who wanted to learn the truth about the conversions. Saint Demetrios proclaimed his faith by saying: "...only in Christ do I believe." With that proclamation, Maximian ordered that Saint Demetrios be sent to prison and subjected to the cruelest tortures. Even though Saint Demetrios was imprisoned, he did not stop preaching the gospel to those who came to see him. In jail, he was visited by his follower, Nestoras. Nestoras was a man of small stature and had come to ask for his beloved teacher's blessing to fight in the upcoming gladiator games. The emperor had decided to use the games as a duel between Christianity and paganism by challenging any Christian to a fight against the athletic giant, Leo. With the blessing of Saint Demetrios, Nestoras fought and killed Leo. Enraged at the loss of his favorite gladiator, the emperor commanded that Nestoras be beheaded on the spot. Recognizing that Saint Demetrios was the inspiring power behind Nestoras, the emperor ordered that Saint Demetrios be executed by spear on October 26, 306 AD Christians buried the body of Saint Demetrios at the place of his execution and because of the beautiful scent that emanated from his tomb, he was named Mirovlitis or "The Myrrh Gusher". Thessaloniki suffered repeated attacks and sieges from the Slavic peoples who moved into the Balkans, and Demetrius was credited with many miraculous interventions to defend the city. 26th Octomer 1912,on St Demetrios day, Thessaloniki was liberated! Venizelos send direct orders to prince Constantine to advance to Thessaloniki as the Bulgarians were quickly moving towards he city. The Greek army moved quickly and the I, 11,111 and IV Divisions crossed the river Axios on 25 October. On St Demetrios day 26 October, the Ottoman authorities agreed to the terms of Constantine and surrendered the city to his army.
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Post by Arxileas on Oct 26, 2008 5:32:14 GMT -5
Immediately after the victorious battle of Giannitsa, the Hellenic Field Army made the necessary preparations to cross the river Axios and to move from there to Thessalonica. Timely orders issued specified that its units advance to the Axios, which was to be bridged as quickly as possible using makeshift materials. The bridges (one wooden road bridge and two railway bridges) had been destroyed by the Turks during their withdrawal, while the river waters had risen due to the constant rainfall. In order to facilitate operations, General Headquarters asked the Ministry of the Army to order the fleet to make a demonstration and stage a feint landing at Epanome bay, east of Thessalonica, so as to deceive the Turks.[/FONT] On 23 October, General Headquarters was relocated from Giannitsa to Adendro village. At the same time, the Ministry of the Interior informed General Headquarters that the Bulgarian Army had captured Didymoteicho, which meant that communications between the Ottoman Army of Macedonia and Constantinople had been cut-off. Furthermore, the ministry informed General Headquarters regarding the situation prevailing in Thessalonike and the demoralization of the Turkish army there, which was ready to surrender. Reports generally indicated that the Ottomans were withdrawing towards Thessalonica and to the northwestern heights of the city, where its forces were hastily organizing temporary defensive positions. In the meantime, the Ministry of the Army had not been informed about the progress of military operations since the day of the battle at Giannitsa, and, having been concerned about the fate of Thessalonica ever since it received information about the swift movement of strong Bulgarian forces towards the city, sent the following telegram to the Commander of theArmy, with a copy to King George, who was then in Beroea. The prime minister informed General Headquarters by another telegram of the actions taken for the execution of the feint landing at Epanome, which had been requested by it. He also recommended that the Hellenic Army hasten its entry into Thessalonica and informed General Headquarters that the consuls of the Great Powers were negotiating with the Turkish authorities for the city's surrender. Moreover, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs advised General Headquarters about information in the foreign press regarding the condition of the belligerents in Thessalonica, and pleaded for the entry of the army into the city as soon as possible. Divisions I, 11,111 and IV crossed the river Axios on 25 October. They were not, however, able to arrive at the assembly areas designated by General Headquarters until the early hours of the night. General Headquarters was established on the morning of the same day at the village of Gephyra. On the same day (25 October), as the Hellenic Army was advancing, the consuls of the Great Powers in Thessalonica, persuaded the commander of the Ottoman army, Hasan Tahsin Pasha, to agree to negotiations in order to avoid needless bloodshed. Hasan Tahsin Pasha then charged two staff officers to deliver a document to the Greek outposts; in the document he announced that a delegation consisting of the consuls of the Great Powers and General Sawfik Pasha had been authorized to talk with the commander of the Hellenic Army, and for that reason it would be proper to avoid all military action before the delegation's mission was accomplished. The document was delivered at the outposts of Division I and then forwarded to General Headquarters. On noon at the 25 October the consuls of the Great Powers and General Sawfik Pasha arrived at the village of Sindos on a special train. But since their timely arrival at General Headquarters at the village of Gephyra was not possible via Sindos, the train returned to Thessalonica, escorted by the commanders of the Evzone Detachment and the divisional Cavalry of Division III. In Thessalonica the train changed rail lines and then reached the village of Gephyra via the Skopje line. The commander of the Hellenic Army received the delegation immediately, and the conditions of Hasan Tahsin Pasha were submitted to him. The most important term was that Tahsin Pasha be allowed to withdraw his army, with all its weapons, to the eastern outskirts of Thessalonica and remain there until the end of the war. The commander of the Hellenic Army rejected the terms, demanding the immediate surrender of the Ottoman Army, which would be considered a prisoner-of-war and transported, at Greek government expense, to a port in Asia Minor; only the Ottoman officers would be allowed to keep their swords. The delegation was given a deadline to respond on 26 October, and returned on the same train to Thessalonica. In the meantime, the Ministry of the Army and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed General Headquarters of the southward advance of the Bulgarian Army following the capture of Serres, and expressed fear that a dangerous situation would be created if the Bulgarian and Greek armies arrived in Thessalonica simultaneously. A little after midnight, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs forwarded new information to General Headquarters on allied operations and affirmed that the entire city of Thessalonica was awaiting the entry of the Hellenic Army in order to participate in the doxology at the church of Agios Demetrios. On the next day, 26 October, late noon , General Sawfik Pasha arrived at Gephyra village and announced that Hasan Tahsin Pasha had accepted all the terms set by the commander of the Hellenic Army. He only requested that the Turks be allowed to keep 5,000 weapons for the training of new consciipts. The request was rejected and the Ottoman general asked for a two-hour deadline to respond. However, the deadline passed without a Turkish response. Meanwhile, the advance of the Greek divisions continued, wit,h the encirclement of the Turkish army becoming ever tighter, after which, seeing the futility of persistence and the consequences of a purposeless battle on the Ottoman army, Hasan Tahsin Pasha decided to accept all the terms set by the commander of the Hellenic Army. Shortly thereafter, Hasan Tahsin Pasha sent an officer on horseback to deliver a written statement according to which he accepted the terms of surrender of his army. At the same time, General Headquarters sent a letter to the commander of the Bulgarian forces moving towards Thessalonica, informing him of the Hellenic Army's imminent occupation of the city by evening, and stating that the Bulgarian column could spare itself from the effort of further advance towards the city and turn to where its presence would be more important strategically. The Bulgarian forces spent the night south of Asseros, while Bulgarian officers visited the Cavalry Brigade commander and were briefed about his intentions for the following day and on the Hellenic Army's plan of operations. Meanwhile, the Greek officers who had been dispatched to Thessalonica immediately began negotiations with the commander of the Ottoman Army; after a two-hour conference, at night on 26 October, the protocol of surrender of the city and of the Ottoman Army was signed. On the morning of the same day, 27 October, the representatives of the Greek commander in chief in Thessalonica and of the Ottoman commander signed a supplementary protocol agreement which settled various details relating to the Turkish Army's surrender and the capture of the city ==================================================================== sources1.Konstantinos Avitzigiannis,The Entrance of the Hellenic Army in the Thessaloniki at 1912,ekdoseis Amyntiki Grammi2.GES,The Balakn wars 1912-1913 Source. www.macedoniaontheweb.com/forum/free-speech-macedonia-forum/1224-94th-anniversary-liberation-thessaloniki.html
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Post by Arxileas on Oct 26, 2008 5:36:25 GMT -5
Xronia pola se olous tous Dimitris kai Dimitras, pou yiortazoun simera.
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Post by leandros nikon on Oct 26, 2008 6:45:12 GMT -5
xronia polla,Ellhnes!!!!
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Patrinos
Amicus
Peloponnesos uber alles
Posts: 4,763
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Post by Patrinos on Oct 26, 2008 7:37:13 GMT -5
Xronia polla!! O Ag.Dimitrios itan Skopianos??? Agiovski Dimitrovski???
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Post by leandros nikon on Oct 26, 2008 21:20:06 GMT -5
popofski makedonskata...
btw,the suffix -skata is real and the fyromians use it instead of -skaya....
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