The siege of Tripolitsa or fall of Tripolitsa (Greek: Άλωση της Τριπολιτσάς, romanized: Álosi tis Tripolitsás, Greek pronunciation: [ˈalosi tis tripoliˈt͡sas]), also known as the Tripolitsa massacre (Turkish: Tripoliçe katliamı), was an early victory of the revolutionary Greek forces in the summer of 1821 during the Greek War of Independence, which had begun earlier that year, against the Ottoman Empire. Tripolitsa was an important target, because it was the administrative center of the Ottomans in the Peloponnese.
Following the capture of the city by Greek revolutionary forces, the Muslim and Jewish population was massacred.
Background
Situated at the center of the Peloponnese, Tripolitsa was the pre-eminent town in southern Greece, and the capital of the Morea Eyalet (first-level province of the Ottoman Empire) since 1786, which made it an important target for the Greek revolutionaries. Many rich Turks and Jews lived there, together with Ottoman refugees, such as Turks and Albanians from Vardounia (Βαρδούνια), who had been driven there by the outbreak of the revolt and escaped massacres in the country's southern districts.
It was also a potent symbol for revenge since its Greek population had been massacred by the Ottoman forces a few months earlier, after the failed rebellion at Moldavia in early 1821. Other massacres of the town's Greeks had occurred in 1715 (during the Ottoman reconquest of the Morea) and on Holy Monday, 29 March 1770, after the failed Orlov Revolt. The de facto commander in chief of the Greek forces, Theodoros Kolokotronis, now focused on the province's capital. He set up fortified camps in the surrounding places and established several headquarters under the command of his captain, Anagnostaras in the nearby villages, notably Zarachova, Piana, Dimitsana and Stemnitsa, where local peasants provided his men with food and supplies.
In addition, a fresh and compact force of Maniot troops under Petros Mavromichalis, the Bey of Mani, arrived and camped at Valtetsi so as to take part in the final assault to the Ottoman capital of Morea. Arvanites were present alongside Greek revolutionaries during the siege and the massacre that followed. Other commanders present at the siege were Bouboulina, Panagiotis Rodios, Alexandros Kantakouzinos, Olivier Voutier, Maxime Raybaud as chief of the artillery, Kanellos Deligiannis and Demetrios Ypsilantis (left before the city was taken).
The Ottoman (Turkish and Albanian) garrison was reinforced in May by some troops and cavalry sent by Hursid Pasha from the north and was led by the Kehayabey Mustafa.
The rebels' decisive victory in the Battle of Valtetsi and several other victorious clashes, such as those in Doliana and Vervena, meant that the Greek revolutionaries had effective control over most areas in the centre and the south of the Peloponnese.
Siege
Four large bodies of besiegers formed a semicircle around Tripolitsa. On the left was Kolokotronis with 2,500 men; on the right, Giatrakos with 1,500; in the center, Anagnostaras with 1,000; and behind the right and center was Petrobey Mavromichalis with 1,500 men. The roads to Argos and Leontari were guarded by 150 and 300 men respectively. Petrobey Mavromichalis was proclaimed commander-in-chief under the supreme leadership of Demetrios Ypsilantis, but the actual leader was Kolokotronis.
Until August, skirmishes took place between the combatants, in which the Greeks had the advantage when confronting the Ottoman infantry. Even when the Ottoman cavalry attacked, they withdrew to the foothills of the mountains and again inflicted damage on the Turks, protected by the terrain.
In August, it became known that Kiamil Bey would transport reinforcements and supplies to Corinth, which was also under siege. Kolokotronis ordered a trench to be dug along the road the Turks would take, but Kiamil Bey did not ultimately set out. However, on 10 August more than four thousand Turks emerged and gathered abundant food from the surrounding villages. On their return, they were attacked by the Greeks lying in ambush in the trench, suffered heavy losses, and all the food and animals fell into the hands of the besiegers. This battle, known as the Battle of Grana or Battle of the Trench, drove the already starving Turks into despair.
At the end of August, the Scottish philhellene Thomas Gordon arrived by ship from Marseille, with Greek and philhellene volunteers, three artillery pieces, and six hundred rifles. However, the Greek artillery was able to inflict very little damage on the enemy, despite the efforts of the foreign volunteers, among them Jean-François-Maxime Raybaud.
Ypsilantis then, while epidemics had already broken out in the city, proposed the surrender of the city on favorable terms, but this was arrogantly rejected by the Turks.
On 26 August, a rumor spread that the Turkish fleet was bringing 10,000 soldiers to Patras for a landing, whereas in reality it had only 1,000 Albanians. Since there was a fear that these troops would reinforce besieged Tripolitsa, Ypsilantis marched to the Gulf of Corinth with 500 of Kolokotronis's men, including his nephew Apostolis and his sons Panos and Gennaios. The Ottoman fleet anchored at Zakynthos, was supplied by the island's neutral authorities, and on 7 September sailed into Patras. Around the middle of September, 700 Albanians from the fleet landed, entered the abandoned Aigio, and burned it down, while they dispersed throughout the province, plundering. On 19 September, the Turkish fleet sailed toward Galaxidi, where it captured 34 ships, destroyed the rest, slaughtered a few elderly people who had remained in the town, and burned it. Ultimately, however, the fleet did not relieve the besieged at Tripolitsa. Its purpose was to facilitate the movement of troops to the Peloponnese, but this expedition failed because of the Turkish defeat at the Battle of Vasilika. Meanwhile, the fortresses of Monemvasia and Navarino surrendered to the Greeks.
The military defeats caused the Ottomans inside Tripolitsa to split into three factions: the local Turks, led by Kiamil Bey; the Turks who had come from Asia, led by Kehaya Bey and the Kaymakam; and the Albanians sent by Hurshid, four thousand according to Fotakos, who were led by Elmas Bey. According to Trikoupis, the first group sought security, the second honor, and the third money. All three regarded any further resistance as futile once they learned that the land reinforcements had been defeated at Vasilika. However, the Asian Ottomans around Kehaya Bey proposed a sortie and escape toward Nafplio, while the Albanians did not want to risk the attempt (especially knowing that if the others left, they would easily come to an agreement with the Greeks). The local Turks, meanwhile, did not want to risk the safety of their families and therefore favored a compromise, relying also on their relations with the Greek notables. The Asians and the Albanians had no families to care for.
Meanwhile, skirmishes took place inside the city between the Albanian soldiers and the Turks. The former looted the property of local Turks, causing unrest among the besieged. They also engaged in a black market in food and water, while receiving their back pay after first surrounding and confining Kehaya Bey in his palace. The Greek besiegers, for their part, had reached 15,000 "in the hope of plunder", and some of them sold supplies to the besieged at night. The Greeks gave the besieged food and received weapons and valuable objects in return. The military commanders saw these transactions but did not intervene because most of the Greeks were unarmed. As Fotakos says, some fought "with the goad of their oxen".
The Turks who favored compromise incited the women, something that was customary among the Ottomans in times of crisis, and so on 6 September they gathered beneath the palace and vehemently demanded a compromise because they were dying of hunger and thirst. At a meeting held immediately afterward, Kehaya Bey was forced to yield, and it was decided that proposals for a compromise would be made to the Greeks through the archbishops and notables who were being held hostage in Tripolitsa.
Because of the hot and humid weather and the hundreds of dead who were being hastily buried inside and around the city, an epidemic of typhus broke out that initially wiped out a large part of the besieged. After the city's capture, the epidemic spread to the Greeks as well, and according to some estimates one quarter of the population of the Peloponnese died during the winter of 1821. The cases of the epidemic are described, among others, by the Polish physician Kutzofski, who accompanied Ypsilantis.
Hostages
The archbishops and notables were initially merely confined within the city. At the beginning of April, the Turks disarmed and imprisoned eighteen bodyguards of the hostages who had entered the city with them, and on 16 April they beheaded the nephew of a notable and one of his men as persons who were communicating with the besiegers. Immediately afterward, the Turkish crowd rushed at the hostages, but was repulsed by the guard. On 17 April, the hostages were imprisoned "to calm the mob", but the following day the eighteen bodyguards were murdered so that the chain to which they were shackled could be freed, after which the clergymen were to be chained to it.
The hostages lived for five months under tragic conditions. When the Turks released them from prison in order to use them in the negotiations, one metropolitan and one deacon had already died. Six more died immediately after their release in a single day, and two more shortly thereafter. The Turks justified their imprisonment by saying that they had confined them in order to protect them from the mob, and they dictated letters to the besiegers for them to send. When the Turks realized that the capture of the city was approaching, they showed remorse for their treatment of the hostages and began passing outside the prison, greeting them and visiting them. They asked the prisoners not to bear a grudge, because whatever had happened was "teşirati" (fate), and asked them to say good things about them.
Negotiations
The negotiations were conducted by letter, but the letters were more threatening than conciliatory. The Turks called on the Greeks to lay down their arms and appeal to the Sultan's mercy; otherwise, they would be sold, just as the Serbs had once been sold for three grosia per man. Finally, they asked what the Greeks wanted. The Greeks replied that they guaranteed the lives and honor of the Turks and would allow them to go elsewhere. The Turks requested a meeting of plenipotentiaries, the besiegers agreed, and a truce was concluded.
Immediately, a crowd of starving women and children poured out of the city. The Albanians stationed at the gates stripped them of whatever they had. The Greeks accepted the first people who came out, but they fired upon and drove back the second wave of those leaving. At the same time, however, the Turks also drove them back, firing from the walls. Eventually, those who had emerged from the walls were allowed to remain behind the Greek camp, on the road toward Kalavryta, and to feed themselves as best they could.
On 15 September, a tent was set up on the plain outside the city, near Agios Athanasios, where the plenipotentiaries of the three factions came to negotiate with the Greeks. The Greek side repeated its previous demands, and the Turks returned to the city to consult among themselves. A second meeting was also held, during which the Turks requested 1,800 animals so that they could transport armed men to Myloi, near Nafplio, and 40 European ships to carry them to a place of safety. The Greeks agreed to transport the Turks by ship, but unarmed. They stated that they would allow them to keep their movable property, but demanded fifty million grosia for the devastation of the Peloponnese and as war compensation. No agreement was reached at a third meeting, and hostilities resumed.
Private agreements
Since the Albanians in general were regarded as being aligned with Ali Pasha of Ioannina, Souliot envoys, now allies of Ali, proposed that a separate agreement be concluded with the Albanians of Tripolitsa. This would both weaken the city's defense and strengthen Ali in his struggle against the Sultan's forces, to the benefit of the Revolution.