Athens, 24 March 2021

President of Parliament speech in Plenary: “Feeling proud of bicentenary of 1821 Revolution we move in optimism towards better future”

On the occasion of the National Anniversary of the 25th of March and the bicentenary of the glorious Greek Revolution of 1821, the President of the Hellenic Parliament, Constantine Tassoulas, addressed from the Plenary of the Parliament all Greeks, and conveyed the message that each of us ought “to guard in their heart this Anniversary as an amulet that will help them in their next steps, that will be, can be and must be steps that will safeguard everything we have achieved, but also steps that will lead to more achievements, steps from liberty towards joy”. 

“Ladies and gentlemen colleagues, clearly we are not celebrating the proclamation of our National Revolution of 1821 under the conditions we would have hoped, but, nevertheless, may the difficult circumstances bow to History and may we recognise that even these difficult circumstances that have been ongoing for months now due to this health care demon, do not surpass in sentiment and meaning the honour we should bestow upon this high anniversary of Hellenism. 

“Greece shall form an independent State, and shall enjoy all the rights, political, administrative, and commercial, attached to complete independence.” This is the first article of the London Protocol of 3 February 1830 between the then Great Powers, Great Britain, France, and Russia, with which the independence of our country was recognised. 

 “All territories to the south of this line will belong to Greece”. The territories to the south of this line. Which line, ladies and gentlemen colleagues? The line demarcated by the estuaries of the Acheloos and Sperchios rivers. This was Greece in 1830, a Greece to the south of the line of the estuaries of the Spercheios and Aspropotamos (present day Acheloos) rivers, plus Evia, the Sporades and Cyclades island groups. And with that Greece as a springboard, we find ourselves here today, 200 years later.  

 “Memory” - writes Dionysios Kokkinos in the striking “History of the Greek Revolution” – “was the major first chapter of thinking man towards conquering new routes. Out of the need to develop this weapon History was created. It is the knowledge of the tried strengths of a people and their manifested capabilities”, - notice how he says, of the tried strengths and the expressed capabilities – in the obstacles, the trials and achievements with the passing of the centuries. Without knowledge of the past, it is impossible to count the strenghts of the present, nor to look to the future” says the academic Dionysios Kokkinos. 

Today, strikingly enough, two centuries have passed since the outbreak of the Revolution, i.e. the outbreak of the most glorious and significant event in the History of modern Hellenism, which led to the establishment of the Greek state following an epic 9-year struggle against an adversary incomparably more powerful. 

What prepared the ground for the Revolution of 1821 is well known. I will make a brief reference. The tradition of the Greeks (the Génos), not just as a conscious understanding of History but as inherited and taught subconscious tendencies that awaken and lead us to our destiny, when necessary. Not all revolutionaries of 1821 were aware of the constitutional tradition of the French Revolution or the American Revolution, had studied Aristotle or Plato, despite the Enlightenment, despite the admiration of antiquity that set the stage for the Revolution. Most of them were much simpler folk who felt a clear need for liberation and the creation of a Greek state. 

“The rifles I hear hollow, the swords meeting, I hear wood, I hear axes, I hear teeth grinding”. This is how the Revolution happened and of course the Enlightenment and naturally the admiration for Antiquity and of course the first institutions played their part, but the most important part was played by the indomitable spirit of a people inspired, who had a sense of returning to the forefront of History. 

Ladies and gentlemen colleagues, when Constantinople was first occupied by the Franks, a precursor of the Megáli Idéa (Great Idea) was heard in one of the empires that were created after the exodus of the Byzantines from Constantinople. It was heard before the fall of Constantinople: “And we shall reclaim the homelands which we lost through our mistakes”. 

This moving precursor of the Great Idea was at work for centuries in Greek consciousness and when the conditions were ripe the Revolution of 1821 broke out. 

The tradition therefore of the Greeks (the Génos), the connecting tissue that was the Greek Orthodox Church, which preserved the language and customs and acted as a State substitute, the spiritual leaders of the nation, of which I spoke, all these teachers of the Greeks, who cultivated both in Greece and abroad the need for a Greek state, the Filikí Etaireía (Friendly Society), clearly, in capital letters, the height of the Hellenic Navy and the military force of Hellenism through the Kléftes (mountain brigands) and Armatoloí (armed militia) were the factors that contributed to the outbreak of the Revolution.

Events unfolded with the invasion of the Sacred Band of Ypsilantis in the region of the Danubian Principalities, in Moldavia and Wallachia. This first revolutionary outburst created a strong diversion for the Revolution to break out, which happened a month later, in March 1821, in Southern Greece. 

We reach the end of 1821. The Revolution establishes itself in Southern Greece and on 1 January 1822 the political existence and independence of the nation is expressed in Epidavros by a Parliament which votes on a Constitution. In 1822 and 1823 the Revolution stabilises after Dramalis is defeated and Kanaris burns down the flagship of the Turkish fleet off the island of Chios. In 1824 we have the first decline. The first civil wars. In 1825 Ibrahim enters the Peloponnese. In 1826 we have the Messolonghi Exodus and the ensuing glory and the impact thereof mainly in Europe due to the Turkish atrocities.  

In 1827 Karaiskakis revived the struggle in Central Greece. Nevertheless, problems persisted. The Acropolis surrendered. But what I mentioned earlier has now been kindled, the indomitable will to fight – for eight years now – is piquing the interest of the international diplomatic powers-that-be, which, spurred by philhellenism and their own interests, decide to resolve the issue of the Greek Revolution as an issue of international diplomacy. 

In 1827 the battle of Navarino takes place, of which a great diplomat and author, Angelos Vlachos, wrote: “When I came back to Greece and went on a pilgrimage to Navarino, I crossed by boat that sea surface, the baptistry of Greek freedom and the crystal clear water allowed you to see laying at the bottom of the sea vessels and masts of the once powerful Ottoman fleet. And on the surface a soft breeze covered the sea with bright smiles. And that blue-golden expanse seemed like a - dare I say - smiling grave”. 

In 1928, Kapodistrias enters the scene and it changes drastically. Central Greece is recaptured and in September 1829 Dimitrios Ypsilantis achieves the last victory of the Greeks against Turkish troops in Petra, in Viotia. 

On 3 February 1830, in London, an Agreement is signed establishing Greece, with its borders at the line of the Spercheios and Achelloos rivers’ estuaries. On 8 April 1830 the ambassadors of the three Great Powers to the Sublime Porte submitted a copy of the London Agreement to the Ottoman Porte. A few days later, the Ottoman Porte accepted the London Agreement and recognised Greek independence.

The Hellenic Parliament, ladies and gentlemen colleagues, partakes in the festivities and we will all enjoy, I am certain – at first carefully online and later live – the great exhibition that we have prepared. The exhibition is displayed across two levels. In the colonnaded lobby (“Peristylio”) we will present the awakening of Hellenism, i.e. all that led up to the outbreak of the Revolution from 1770 to 1821 and which is linked to philhellenism, the Enlightenment, the influence of the Orthodox Church, i.e. the need to resurrect what was called Greece within the vast expanse of the Ottoman Empire, which was still powerful. 

In the Trophy Room upstairs, in the Eleftherios Venizelos Hall, we will display diplomatic, military and political events from 1821 to 1833, i.e. up to the first and second recognition of Greek independence and the arrival of King Otto. There we will present most of the important events that led to independence. 

In the Peristylio we have therefore the preparation, in the Trophy Room the process, the outbreak and the conclusion of the Revolution. 

We have amazing material. We’ve been watching recently this exciting adventure of our nation in the last two centuries unfold, through the Press, the “Greece 2021” Commission, foundations, banks, institutions, everyone. I am certain that the Greek people, pandemic notwithstanding, especially these days, especially tomorrow, will realise that everything, even this unbelievable challenge that we are going through, bow to the honour of this anniversary. We must overcome this crisis, we will overcome it, but we must also reflect, because it is optimistic to reflect upon how we started out, how hard things were when we started out against all odds and we managed to become a country that participates in the European core and feels that under specific conditions, tangible ones, it can develop and move far beyond what it has achieved until today.  

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the 3rd centenary of modern Greece, under difficult circumstances, but with no defeatism. We march into the next 100 years with optimism, aware, I repeat, of how hard things were when we started out and where we have arrived. The “Hymn to Liberty” did precisely this, praised what we achieved in 1821. The “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 has been the European Union’s hymn for decades now. And the “Ode to Joy” is just music, there are no lyrics. Music without lyrics can potentially inspire equally intense emotions. 

So at the threshold of this new era, knowing our History and being proud of it, we can claim, we can attain and we can protect our priceless freedom, but also claim and achieve well-being, prosperity, the ode to joy, that every Greek person deserves.

A happy 200th anniversary to all and rest assured that these circumstances, however difficult, unprecedented and strange, do not put a damper on tomorrow’s anniversary, nor do they diminish, reduce or marginalise it. Every Greek, woman and man, guards it as an amulet in their heart, to help them in their next steps that will be, can be and must be steps that will safeguard everything we have achieved, but also steps that will lead to more achievements, steps from liberty towards joy. 

Χρόνια πολλά!

 

 

 

 

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