Post by rex362 on Feb 18, 2013 11:00:36 GMT -5
The death of Marko Bocari
another good more in-depth read I cam across
Marko Bocari:
One of the brightest figures of the Greek revolution of 1821 was Marko
Bocari who came from a big Albanian family. He was born in Suli,
Ioannina in 1790, in the same big family in which brave men like: Kico
Bocari, Costa, Dimitri, Jorgji and the great captain of the 1821
uprisings, Noti Bocari came from.Noti Bocari, Marko Bocari´s uncle, was
also the first defence minister of Greece, and he died in 1841
Marko's father, Kico Gj. Bocari was married three times, and had 18 children,
five of them died young. Kico Bocari was killed in 1813 in Arta by Gjoko
Bakola.
In the years of the rebellion in 1821, Marko Bocari pardoned Bakola Gjoko his father´s blood for the common good.
According to documents, the first residents
in the mountains of Suli were the soldiers guards of Gergj Kastrioti
Skanderbeg. After Skanderbeg´s death, about 200 Albanian soldiers with
their families, such as the tribes of Bocari, Bouchatti, Llalla,
Dangèllia, Dragova, etc, formed the village of Suli near the town of
Ioannina and continued the fight against the Turkish Ottomans for their
freedom.
Suli was later expanded from a tiny village to a province and was soon populated
by Orthodox Cham Albanians. They had managed to escape the Ottoman
slavery by fleeing their cham villages in ca 1500-1600 and settling in
Suli, Ioanninna, creating new villages with Albanian names. The
territory inhabited by Albanian Chams, was known as Chameria, which is
known as one of four branches of natural Albania.
The Suliotes spoke the Albanian language with a Cham dialect from Chameria.
A portion of the Suliot population after being subjected to Ali Pasha of
Tepelena, was sent on the island of Corfu and other islands around it as
a punishment for their aggression towards the rule of Ali Pasha. After
the death of Ali Pasha of Tepelena, the majority of the population in
Suli fled to the surroundings of the Holy mountain of Tomor in Albania
to escape from Ottoman persecution, aggression and massacres. Here they
formed the new Suliot province with villages such as St Mary, St.
Demetrius, Dardhzezè, Sulki, Dushkè, Kushov, Janc, Tunjè etc.
Even today we can find surnames such as Llalla, Dragoi, Karaj in this
particular region in Albania, surnames that can also be found in the
former Suliot province of Ioanninna, in today´s Greece.
The dream of Marko Bocari:
The Suliot Marko Bocari was not only one of the biggest Albanian Arvanite
heroes of the Greek Uprising for independence in 1821, known for his
remarkable courage and military skills, but also for his great desire
for education and literature. Marko, along with Odise Andrucon and
Gjeorgjio Karaiskaqi was educated in the court of Ali Pasha Tepelena in
military art, politics and intelligence.
Marko's dream was to educate the Suliot people, the warriors who only knew the
life of war, a life that according to Marko was a life without a peace
and meaning. Marko was worried that the lack of proper education will
eventually lead to the loss of some known qualitative features that make
the Suliotes a great popular figure.
"I want you to get education", Marko wrote in the letter to his son,
Demetrios, located in Ancona, Italy "but I want you to preserve the
Suliote traditions, and always remain a Suliot as your dad was".
In that period of great politically and cultural changes in the Balkans as
in Europe, it was clear that the freedom-loving Albanian swords were
not sufficient enough to achieve a better life and to create a greater
intellectual society.
The Suliots, these Albanian Arvanites of Greece, needed education, and this
particular need created anxiety among the Albanian Arvanites. Could
this weaken the qualitative features of a Suliot? And if they were going
to be educated, it had to be in greek language as it had become one of
the most important languages in the region. This scared the
Suliotes!Clearly the Suliots rejected the life of other societies,
especially the Greek society, which according to them was a life of
indolence, infidality, many words, and a life where the spirit of
humility, submission, shamelessness and surrender ruled.
The character of the Albanian Suliot is that he had to be the first and
greatest in everything, to show the world his pride, courage and that he
is the one who could never fall into the submission of his enemies. The
Suliot Arvanites desired education, but they would reject it if the
possibility of its interference into the strong traditional values of
the Suliot Arvanite society existed.
The dictionary:
When he was interned in Corfu, Marko learned Greek and made the famous
Greek-Albanian dictionary in 1809, with the help of his father Bocari
Kico (1754 -1813), uncle Noti Bocari (1759-1841) and his father in law
Kristaq Kallogjeri from Preveza. We are dealing with a cultural hero
here, who created a work of linguistic and cultural importance, and by
this being also known as the author of the first dictionary of simple
Greek-Albanian.
Marko Bocari´s dictionary came as a consequence of passing events in Greece,
where the Arvanites had to give up their weapons in order to adapt
themselves into the greek society, which was a very difficult thing for
the Arvanites. Another important reason for the the birth of the
Greek-Albanian dictionary was that Greek used to be the main language
used for trade in the Balkans. If the Arvanite Albanians wanted to
become part of these trades, they were kinda forced to learn Greek
This dictionary was of great importance because it contained many elements
of the Albanian language in the Cham-dialect, and also this dictionary
served as a political tool to bring the Albanians and the Greeks closer.
As a result of many foreign invasion, the Ottomans in particular, the
Arvanites had lived hidden for centuries in unreachable mountains
regions and islands and therefore had little or no contact at all with
other cultures. The Arvanite language remained therefore a pure national
language, spoken only by its people and by this, it continued to
maintain its antiquity and linguistic purity.But it did not manage to
develop further because there were little or no entering of new words
that could make the language fit the social developments of the time.
The bilingual dictionary:
Marko Bocari, with a strong will and courage, brought us the first
Greek-Albanian dictionary at the age of only 19. The bilingual
dictionary consisted of 111 pages, 1494 Albanian words, and 1701 Greek
words. The original dictionary is now at the National Museum of Paris
(it was donated in May 1819 by the french consul Pukèvili)
The
French Consul in Ioannina, Pukèvili studied the dictionary of Bocari
Marko, and managed to create a small French-Albanian dictionary, with
about 440 words and the original of this dictionary can be found in the
National Museum of Paris.
The last farewell:
Before the great battle in Missolonghi, Marko wanted to send his family to
Ancona, Italy. All the Suliotes shared tears with their wives without
speaking, and in those moments Marko said to the love of his life- "In
the hour of freedom I want us to be together, but in the hour of battle I
want to be alone.". Those words marked the last farewell.
Marko was the captain of the army of western Greece.
On August 9, 1823, Marko Bocari was killed fighting against the army of M.
Bushati, the Pasha of Shkodra. Marko Bocari´s death became known in all
of Europe. The great British poet Lord Byron, came to Greece and gave a
speech on the grave of Marko Bocari wearing one the finest Albanian
Arvanite costumes. Marko Bocari died, but his figure became legend.
Documents on fire:
In 1831, Mamuri and Papakosta (assassins), on behalf of the Greek
government, blocked the house of Noti Gj. Bocari and set fire on it. All
documents of great historical importance that were preserved for
centuries regarding Albanian Arvanite´s long presence in Greece and
their importance throughout the history were lost in that fire. The
Greeks assumed that they could exterminate the Albanian origin of the
Bocari family.
Greek attempts of faking the history:
Many Greek historians declare that Marko Bocari and many other Albanian
Arvanite heroes of the uprisings of 1821 were both Greek and
non-Albanians, given that Marko and other heroes belonged to the
Orthodox religion.
It realy is unfortunate for a nation, when historians of that nation
confuse religion with race. That Marko Bocari was born to Albanian
parents, both from great Albanian families was confirmed once again in
1994, by one of the direct descendents of Marko Bocari, him also with
the same name, Marko Bocari, professor in the University of Queensland
in Australia. In 1994 he strongly condemned the statements of*greek
minister who denied the strong Albanian assistance during the Greek war
of independence, and the Albanian origin of Marko Bocari – one of the
greatest heroes from that war.
"My comments relate to an article published by a Greek minister, in which
he declare that there are no Albanians in Greece. It clearly indicates
that this minister does not know what is currently happening in his
country, or has decided to ignore the facts. The fact is that there are
more than one million Orthodox Albanians currently in Greece. My parents
never spoke Greek to me, because they were to proud of their Albanian
origins"