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Pavlos Melas

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Pavlos Melas
Παῦλος Μελᾶς
Pavlos Melas in uniform.
Nickname(s)Kapetan Mikis Zezas
Καπετάν Μίκης Ζέζας
Born29 March 1870
Marseille, Second French Empire
Died13 October 1904 (aged 34)
Statitsa, Ottoman Empire (now Melas, Greece)
Buried
Kastoria, Greece
Allegiance Kingdom of Greece
Service / branch Hellenic Army
Years of service1891–1904
RankSecond lieutenant
Battles / wars
Alma materHellenic Army Academy
Spouse(s)Natalia Dragoumi
Children2
RelationsMichail Melas (father)
Vasileios Melas (brother)
Anna Mela-Papadopoulou (sister)
Natalia Mela (granddaughter)
Stephanos Dragoumis (father-in-law)
Ion Dragoumis (brother-in-law)
Other workMember of the Ethniki Etaireia
Member of the HMC

Pavlos Melas (Greek: Παύλος Μελάς, romanized: Pávlos Melás; 29 March 1870 – 13 October 1904) was a Greek revolutionary and artillery officer of the Hellenic Army. He participated in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and was amongst the first Greek officers to join the Macedonian Struggle.

Early life and career

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Melas was born in 1870 in Marseilles, France, as the son of Michail Melas who was elected MP for Attica and mayor of Athens and brother of Vassileios Melas, who was also an officer of the Hellenic Army. The Melas family was of Greek haute bourgeois descent.[1] His father was a wealthy merchant from Epirus.[2] In 1876, his family moved to Athens.[3] He graduated from the Hellenic Army Academy as an artillery lieutenant in 1891.[3] In 1892, he married Natalia Dragoumi, the daughter of Kastorian politician Stephanos Dragoumis and sister of Ion Dragoumis.[3][4][5] In 1895, the couple had a son named Michael and a daughter, Zoe. He became member 25 of the Ethniki Etaireia. Melas participated in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897.[3] He was an Orthodox Christian.[6]

Armed action

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Melas, with the cooperation of his brother-in-law Ion Dragoumis, the consul of Greece in the then Ottoman occupied Monastir (now Bitola), Kottas Christou, and Germanos Karavangelis, metropolitan bishop of Kastoria, tried to raise money for the economic support of Greek efforts in Macedonia. After the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie uprising, he decided to enter Macedonia in June 1904, to assess the situation and to see if there is any possibility of establishing a military unit to fight the Bulgarian Komitadjis (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, IMRO) and the Ottoman Turks.

Death

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In July 1904 (under the alias "Captain Mikis Zezas", Καπετάν Μίκης Ζέζας), he reentered Macedonia with a small unit of men and fought against the VMRO until 13 October 1904 when he was killed after being surrounded by Ottoman forces in the village of Siatista.[7] News about his death spread in Greek society. In Athens, the Journalists' Union of Daily Newspapers organised a memorial service to honour him, which was attended by 100,000 people. Schools and shops were closed, and numerous flags, mourning ribbons and portraits of him were set up.[4] The village in which he was killed has been renamed Melas in his honour, after joining Greece.[8] After his death, Greek efforts were intensified, resulting in more resources being dedicated for Macedonia by the Greek government.[5] The efforts were aimed at weakeaning Bulgarian military influence.[9]

Legacy

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He is considered to be a national hero of the Macedonian Struggle.[3] Many of his personal belongings can be seen in the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle in Thessaloniki and Pavlos Melas Museum in Kastoria. A bust of him was made on his cenotaph at Kastoria, commissioned by his wife and co-funded by the municipality in 1920, with the inscription calling him "first martyr for Macedonian liberty".[4]

His granddaughter Natalia Mela was a distinguished sculptor.

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References

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  1. ^ Keridis, Dimitris; Kiesling, John Brady (2020). Thessaloniki: A City in Transition, 1912–2012. Routledge. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-429-51366-4.
  2. ^ George C. Papavizas (2006). Claiming Macedonia: The Struggle for the Heritage, Territory and Name of the Historic Hellenic Land, 1862-2004. McFarland. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-4766-1019-1.
  3. ^ a b c d e Graham Speake, ed. (2021). Encyclopedia of Greece and the Hellenic Tradition. Taylor & Francis. pp. 1030–1031. ISBN 978-1-135-94206-9.
  4. ^ a b c Christina Koulouri (2022). Historical Memory in Greece, 1821-1930 Performing the Past in the Present. Taylor & Francis. pp. 160–162. ISBN 978-1-003-04881-7.
  5. ^ a b John Athanasios Mazis (2022). Athanasios Souliotis-Nikolaidis and Greek Irredentism: A Life in the Shadows. Lexington Books. pp. 55, 80. ISBN 978-1-793-63445-0.
  6. ^ Katerina Zacharia, ed. (2008). Hellenisms: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity from Antiquity to Modernity. Ashgate. pp. 243–244. ISBN 978-0-754-66525-0.
  7. ^ İpek Yosmaoğlu (2014). Blood Ties: Religion, Violence and the Politics of Nationhood in Ottoman Macedonia, 1878–1908. Cornell University Press. p. 41. ISBN 9780801479243.
  8. ^ Maria Todorova, ed. (2004). Balkan Identities: Nation and Memory. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 208. ISBN 9781850657156.
  9. ^ Aristotle Tziampiris (2017). Greece, European Political Cooperation and the Macedonian Question. Taylor & Francis. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-138-73705-1.
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