Ali Pasha, Lion of Ioannina

by Eugenia Russell

  The history of the Suli War has become the stuff of legend and partisan storytelling. The versions that portray Ali as the epitome of the cruel and duplicitous tyrant, especially those heavily reliant on Perraivos’ History of Suli and Parga, portray all his actions as ones of betrayal. In these versions he cynically sets his men on the Suliote refugees as they make their way to Parga, the Suliotes only surviving because the soldiers have not got the stomach to kill them. The Suliotes who remained, under a promise of protection from Ali withdrew to the safety of the mountain of Zalongo. Whether this was all a ploy or a typical piece of Ali double-dealing, he reneged on his promise and ordered his troops to attack them. Many of the Suliote men were prepared to fight to the death, the women also preferred death rather than be taken and sent into slavery. In order to cheat fate over fifty women, holding their children in their arms, formed a circle dance on the cliff at Zalongo and then one by one, reaching the edge they threw themselves over. The dance became commemorated in folklore as the Dance of Zalongo and the news of the mass suicide of the Suliote women so well known that it spread throughout Europe. These events may have happened but another version makes Ali’s motivation different. The Alipashiad does not gloss over that many Suliotes were made slaves but puts the emphasis on Fotos’ desire for peace and Ali’s honourable dealings with him, releasing his wife who had been made hostage, and giving him and several families safe passage to Parga. William Plate of the Royal Geographical Society, summarizing the evidence in The Biographical Dictionary (1842), infers that Ali was infuriated by the deception of the monk Samuel and sought to take revenge on the fugitive Suliotes, who were then forced to fight their way through to Parga. Some decided to double back and seek refuge at the convent at Zalongo. The convent was stormed and the defenders slaughtered. Those that could escape, mainly women and children, made their way to the mountain top where they performed their dance of death rather than dishonour before they could be reached. Of those Suliote men who survived in exile some went on to find service wherever they could, for the Russians or the French, in the Ionian Islands or the Turkish Army, or even with Ali. For those unfortunates that were captured the harem awaited the women and children, while for the men a slow death of torture, followed by impalement or burning.

  The defeat of the Suliotes had an effect on the relationships among the neighbouring tribes and families. Treaties of friendship and non-aggression existed between Muslim and Christian families. Fotos Tzavelas was a blood brother of Isliam Pronios, the most powerful bey in Paramythia. Ali became aware that the Pronios family was only giving half-hearted support to his cause, even passing information to the other side. Ali was not prepared to turn a blind eye. At first he invested their castle at Galata with a token force as a gesture only to increase it at the first so-called provocation, a fabricated alliance with the pasha of Berat. The Pronio family were soon thrown off their land and the village of Paramythia destroyed. Using this technique he infiltrated the district bit by bit. The ascendancy of his one-time allies, the Tsaparis family, similarly came to an end. In 1807, like their neighbours the Proniates before them, they were forced by Ali to abandon their properties and seek refuge in the Ionian Islands. From there they went to join Muhammad Ali Pasha who had taken control in Egypt, only returning on the death of Ali to resume their positions as tax collectors and chiflik holders.

  Ali’s victory over the Suliotes was soured by the death of his wife, Emine, who according to the melodramatic account expired after her entreaties for Ali to show clemency towards the Suliotes fell on deaf ears, leaving him heartbroken and blaming himself for her murder. They had been married thirty years or more and Ali was now around 60 years old. It was towards the end of 1802 that his third son Selim was born to one of his slaves, perhaps an indication that domestic matters were a little more complex. She was then put in charge of the harem at Tepelene. From a letter to Lord Elgin, British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, from his chaplain Philip Hunt who was in Corfu, we learn that on hearing the news he had a brother, Mukhtar shot the unfortunate Tartar messenger dead on the spot. It is usually attested that as a reward for his destruction of Suli, Ali was made beylerbey (lord of lords) or Valisi of Rumeli and his son Veli, the pasha of the Morea, a promotion that may also have caused some friction between the brothers. The beylerbey was a high rank equivalent to a viceroy with military authority for the province. There were probably other reasons. Constant war was having a disruptive effect on the stability of the Balkans. While Ali had his hands full subduing the Suliotes, the activities of the klephtic bands had not been curtailed. In a letter to Ali in March 1802, Ismail Pashabey informed him that he had mustered 200 men to go after the robber bands in Patraziki (Ypati) and Agrafa straddling the road to Lamia. This region in the southern Pindus was where the one-time shepherd turned klepht, Antonis Katsantonis, operated and his exploits were such that he was rapidly becoming a local hero.

  At the same time in the north, Pazvantoğlu had resumed his raids along the Danube and the threats from both Muslim and Christian bandits (hayduks and klephts) were so intense that Selim III had been forced to issue a decree (10 July 1801) renewing the virtually dictatorial powers granted to the Valisi of Rumeli, Hadji Mehmed Pasha for a further two years. This appointment must have achieved little as, faced with the continued anarchy, the Sultan then gave the post to Ali on 28 January 1803, before he had subdued Suli in the winter of that year. Ali was not one to miss an opportunity to make the most of his new position and summoned the neighbouring pashas to contribute to an army that would make a show of strength in the troubled districts. Having amassed 80,000 troops Ali made a tour of inspection of the new territories in Macedonia that were now under his official authority, issuing advance orders for their provision with food and money, expenses that naturally fell on the local inhabitants, particularly the trade-guilds. By the spring of 1804 he was encamped outside the walls of Philoppopolis (now Plovdiv in southern Bulgaria) having left a trail of destruction and dispensing rough justice to those who had disturbed the peace. This exhibition of his power did not fail to raise alarm bells at the capital and unrest amongst Ali’s tributary troops was put down to the connivance of his enemies. Ali prudently decided it was time to go home, laden with booty taken from the robbers. Back in Ioannina he met with the newly arrived British Consul-General John Philip Morier, to whom he expressed the possibility of Epirus becoming an independent state built from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire with British support. The Sultan was right to be worried.

  The activities of the klephts closer to home continued, and those of a devious mind implicated Ali in encouraging the state of affairs to manipulate the Sultan into giving him more power. In 1806, probably due to the death of Mihrişah the year before, Ali achieved his wish to get control of Karli-Eli, so that his domains encircled the southern Pindus where Katsantonis operated. It is not clear whether the actions of klephts like Katsantonis were in support of the Suliotes, motivated as some would have it by their display of stubborn courage, or the exploitation of Ali’s preoccupation in Suli and the diversions of Pazvantoğlu. Amongst some of the armatoli and klephts Russian propaganda was having its effect, turning their disaffection into a growing freedom movement, but ideas of national identity were not fully formulated, so the notion that Suliotes and klephts would join forces to create a new state rather than for their own personal version of liberty were perhaps still premature. Prominent amongst the band captains who later became acknowledged supporters of Greek liberty were Nikotsaras (Nikos Tsaras) from Olympus, Demitrios Palaeopolos from Karpenissi and the priest Euthemos Blakavas, names that would go on to be celebrated in klephtic and patriotic song. Blakavas was an example of a man turned outlaw through the outrage he felt at the injustices put on his people, whereas Nikotsaras and Palaeopolos were at various times armatoli in Ali’s service. When Nikotsaras turned bandit after shooting a Turkish soldier he caused such havoc to the population of Thessaly that he had a price put on his head. After a suitable hiatus i
n his activities he made up with Ali and was reinstated as one of his armatoli, but the mood of the freebooters was changing. Nikotsaras’ intentions became clearer when he joined the Serbian uprising.

  The situation along Turkey’s border had deteriorated once more. As a term of their cooperation with the Ottomans, the Russians had imposed the rule of two Phanariot Greeks with pro-Russian leanings as hospodars in Wallachia and Moldavia, Constantine Ypsilantis and Alexandru Marusi respectively, thereby drawing the provinces into their orbit. Previously Ypsilantis had been active in Vienna in 1799 in the nascent Greek independence movement and he was sympathetic towards the Serbian uprising. After the Austrians and their Russian allies were crushed by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, the fragile relationship between Turkey and Russia cooled with Selim, who had tried to pursue a course of neutrality between the competing powers, beginning to favour the French interest. Ypsilantis’ loyalties were now too much for the Porte and the two hospodars were deposed. In retaliation Ypsilantis turned on his previous masters, returning the following year at the head of 20,000 Russian troops heading towards Bucharest to unite with the Serbs. To counter the Russian offensive a large army was mustered by Sultan Selim under the Grand Vizier Ibrahim Hilmi Pasha with regular troops and a core of janissaries drawn from Constantinople and the Balkans. Ali and Ismail Pasha of Serres were given responsibility for provisioning the army. With Russia back at war with Turkey, and its ally Britain, Ali saw another opportunity to show his loyalty to the Sultan by attacking the Ionian Islands, ostensibly to bring them ‘back’ under Turkish control, as dependencies, while at the same time resuming his claim on the coastal towns of Epirus directly controlled by the Porte. Under the pretext of defending the towns from Russian aggression, he got Veli to drive out the governor Abdulla Bey from Preveza and move his forces into Butrint, Igoumenitsa, and Vonitsa. Ignoring the treaty of 1800 he imposed his own arbitrary system of government, confiscating property and levying new taxes. Once again Parga stood out against his entreaties. Turning to the Russians for protection, the admiral commanding at Corfu responded by sending a garrison.

  On his part Ali demanded that the Russians surrender up the Suliotes who had taken refuge in the islands. The Suliotes had been joined by klephts from the Morea fleeing Veli’s attacks, including the most famous of all and future leader of the Greek revolt, Theodore Kolokotronis, making up a sizeable force. When Count Georgi Mocenigo, an Ionian Greek in Russian service, refused Ali’s demands, Ali prepared to attack Santa Maura where many of the Greek captains and their men were exiled. After Austerlitz Ali had reopened diplomatic relations with France and Pouqueville was appointed ambassador to his court in November 1805 replacing Julien Bessières who had been resident in Ioannina for a year. Bessières and Pouqueville were already acquainted; they had been on the same ship taken by pirates in 1798. Napoleon’s victory had forced the Habsburgs to leave the Third Coalition against France that included Britain and Russia and dissolve their Empire, and formally relinquish their claims in the Treaty of Pressburg to any territory in Italy and Dalmatia, making Epirus and France neighbours. According to Pouqueville it was through his efforts and the good auspices of French diplomacy at Constantinople that Veli had obtained the Morea and Mukhtar the sanjak of Lepanto, including Kari-Eli, although how he would have achieved this seems far-fetched as he was in Paris after his release by the Turks in 1801. Good relations with Napoleon meant Ali could count on French aid for his designs on Santa Maura. Ali’s force of 5,000 men was augmented with two gunboats, French officers and artillery and Guillaume de Vaudoncourt, an artillery general from Napoleon’s Italian service, was put to work on the siege emplacements and defences at Preveza. Since around 1800 Ali had embarked on an ambitious programme of castle building and public works and Vaudoncourt went on to refashion Ioannina on a grand scale. In response Moncenigo persuaded the Senate of the Septinsular Republic to send Count Ioannis Antonios Kapodistria, who had no military experience, to organize the defence of the island. Kapodistria, the former Inspector of Education, was given the title of Military Governor and Commissioner Extraordinary; he would go on to become the head of the Greek state.

  Over the summer Kapodistria set about fortifying the narrow isthmus by which any attack on the island was likely to come. He was aided by Archbishop Ignatios who had grown sick of Ali’s methods and escaped his agents to join the other Greek volunteers from Corfu, the other islands and the mainland, and Colonel Michaud, a French engineer in Russian service, and a force of Russian troops. The Russian troops included a regiment of Light Riflemen led by General Papadopoulos, a Russian Greek. This was an irregular force made up of 3,000 Himariotes, Suliotes, Greeks and Albanians who had fled from Ali and were now in Russian service, veterans of conflicts in Naples, Tenedos and Dalmatia. With Russian troops behind him and confronted by Ali with his French officers, Kapodistria prepared for a more ‘European’ battle. He built a regular system of defence along an extended and well-prepared line, while Bishop Ignatios hired a fleet of small boats against a sea attack. Meanwhile Ali proceeded with caution; in part waiting for reinforcements and restrained by his French advisors who were reluctant to fight their fellow countrymen on the opposing side in a matter of little concern to them. A stand-off ensued broken up by skirmishes during which Kapodistria’s men took prisoners to gain information on Ali’s movements. Kapodistria’s cause was aided by the raids of Katsandonis and Kitso Botsaris, a son of the ‘traitor’ Georgios Botsaris, and their 700 armatole who attacked one of Ali’s villages, burning much of his property and forcing him to retaliate. Kitsos too had changed sides, having served Ali as armatole of Radovizi near Zalongo and as a negotiator between Ali and the Suliotes. While the ‘patriotism’ and commitment of some of the other volunteers was questioned and complaints made against Kolokotronis for seizing ships indiscriminately, Ali’s attempt to bring up five guns from Lepanto was seen off by a Greek ship manned by armatoli. Such efforts delayed the build-up of his forces in Preveza including some Greeks and forty French artillerymen. As he waited for more French reinforcements, a further interruption occurred when he had to return to Ioannina with 1,600 men to meet with emissaries from the Sultan.

  As Ali was poised to attack, and with nerves fraying on the opposing shore, he was thwarted by events far away in East Prussia. Napoleon’s decisive victory over the Russians at the Battle of Friedland forced Tsar Alexander to make peace and the Treaty of Tilsit (July 1807) put the Ionian Islands, Butrint, Parga, Preveza and Vonitsa back under the protection of France, rather than as was implied by French promises, giving them to Turkey. By August, French troops under General César Berthier were arriving in Corfu. When Kapodistria notified Ali of the situation he replied that a truce between France and Russia had nothing to do with him, but he would respect it as long as no armatoli remained on the mainland. Ali’s interpretation meant he held on to Butrint, Preveza and Vonitsa, but he was unable to influence events at Parga where the Russian garrison handed over to the French as agreed. Kapodistria would have preferred the exiled armatoli to remain in Russian service but he managed to convince them to enrol under French command as an alternative to a life of continued outlawry. The change of alliances did not dampen Ali’s desire to acquire Parga, but now he tried the diplomatic tack through Berthier, who in turn notified Napoleon. Napoleon was not impressed with Ali’s demands and told the Pargians to defend their country. When Kapodistria learnt of the death of an armatole during Katsantonis’ defeat of Ali’s troops at an engagement known as the Battle of Mount Prosiliako near Agrafa, his statement that the fighter had ‘sacrificed his life for his country’ gave expression to the growth in nationalistic feeling. For his part Ali lost Veli Gega, a member of his Supreme Council. But for the moment Kapodistria and the armatoli had to bide their time. Even if Ali was aggressively beyond control and the Ottoman government a chaotic ‘tyrannical and unjust domination’ that had to be destroyed, the Septinsular Republic was not at war with the Porte, but part of the French
Empire. Liberty, equality and fraternity were no longer the watchwords; Napoleon had crowned himself Emperor of the French in 1804, King of Italy in 1805 and Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806, an equivalent post to that of Holy Roman Emperor previously held by Francis II, the Emperor of Austria. For the future though, the siege of Santa Maura was a boost to Kapodistria’s standing during which he gained the confidence of the armatoli and klephts, and the belief in the possibility of a free Greece.

  Despite Ali’s threats toward Parga, General Berthier was prepared to negotiate with him for the sale of 300 horses for his cavalry. At the same time he persuaded Napoleon to let him form the displaced armatoli into a regiment arguing that it was dangerous to leave them unemployed. The volunteers left by the Russians were reformed into the Régiment Albanais and they were joined by assorted Greek refugees who were put into their own Battaillon du Chasseurs à Pied Grecs in 1808. The regiments were later amalgamated with the hope of introducing some discipline into the Epirotes who had brought their families and flocks with them and were prone to slipping back to the mainland for a spot of pillaging. In 1809 Les Chasseurs d’Orient, a mainly Greek regiment under Colonel Nicole Papasoglu from Smyrna, joined the Corfu garrison. Papasoglu and other members of Les Chasseurs were veterans of the Légion Grecque, two battalions made up of local Greeks that had served Napoleon in Egypt. They had been mainly active along the Dalmatian coast from 1806, particularly at the relief of Ragusa from the besieging Russians; a few were even present at the Battle of Trafalgar. Papasoglu had seen diplomatic service in Constantinople, and from Dalmatia he had been sent on a goodwill trip to Ali in Ioannina heading up a small group of artillery envoys and instructors. He used the opportunity to recruit some Greeks for the regiment along the way. A number of other Greeks transferred to Les Chasseurs from the Russian’s own short-lived Greek Corps active in Wallachia between 1807 and 1808 with the help of the French consul in Bucharest.