Ioannis Kolettis ΙΩΑΝΝΗΣ ΚΩΛΕΤΤΗΣ
Born
1773 Died 1847
Section 2, Number 30A
Ioannis
Kolettis, a Greek of Vlach(1) extraction, rose
from a modest background in a settlement south of Ioannina to first become a
doctor at Ali Pasha’s Court, then a freedom fighter and wily politician. He is best
remembered today as the man who hounded Odysseas
Androutsos to death and as the man who raised to the level of government policy
the “Great Idea”, a political manifesto that would guide Greek history for 80
years and still resonates today
Life
Born and raised in
Syrrako in Epirus, Ioannis’s parents were well enough off but he was fortunate
to have a wealthy uncle who could finance his medical studies in Pisa.
Otherwise, he may have remained in Ioannina as a shopkeeper. With his medical degree and liberal ideas
garnered from his seven years in Italy, he settled in Ioannina in 1813 and eventually
became the court doctor of one of Ali Pasha’s sons. At that time, Ali’s court was
quite cosmopolitan, with British and French consuls in residence and Greek as the
court language.(2) Ali Pasha was in the process of attempting to
carve out what he hoped would be his own future kingdom in what is now Greece
and Albania and he was happy to negotiate with European powers in order to
achieve that goal. They, in turn, saw him as an important player as the Ottoman
Empire declined. At one point Ali controlled
all of what is mainland Greece today and he was a force to be reckoned with: a
good ally, but a formidable and cruel enemy.
Kolettis stayed in
Ioannina until Ali’s rise was curbed by an exasperated Sultan Mahmud 11 in a power
struggle that would result in Ali’s head being offered to the sultan on a silver
platter. Ali’s long decline began in 1820 and continued after the outbreak of
the Greek revolution until his death in 1822.
In 1821, Kolettis joined the Filiki Etairia
and, when the fighting broke out, left Ioannina and dedicated himself to
the Greek struggle.
He was
not a very experienced soldier. His
early military efforts in Roumeli against the Ottomans failed and 1822 found
him in Nauplio at the First Greek National Assembly where his efforts as a
politician met with more success. He claimed to represent the fighters of
Epirus and Roumeli although Odysseas Androutsos
also claimed the latter area’s loyalty. As an infighter Kolettis had no match.
He was instrumental in the arrest and probably also in the death of his rival
Androutsos. He managed to keep his balance during the worst of the Greek civil
war of 1824 although he did not always support the same faction.
When Kapodistria arrived in Greece in 1828, Kolettis
was made governor of Samos(3), a north Aegean
Island that had repulsed the Ottomans. When Samos was reabsorbed into the
Ottoman sphere, Kolettis returned to the mainland and in 1831 became Minister
of Defense. During the regency of King Othon
he was Minister of the Navy and Defense; in 1835 did a stint as the Greek
ambassador to France, only to return to Greece in 1843 when the king was forced
to create a constitution. He took part in the subsequent Constitutional
Assembly. Under the banner of the French Party,
Kolettis was twice prime Minister.
He died in office in 1847.
If that were all,
Kolettis may have simply gone down in history as a far better politician than
military leader and as a man who somehow (some say by astute skullduggery) managed
to either destroy or best his enemies along the way. But there is more.
It was Kolettis who raised the Megali Idea (the
Great Idea) to overt government policy. This policy would dominate Greek
foreign policy for the next 80 years.
The Megali
Idea ( Η Μεγάλη Ιδέα)
The Great Idea, - to reunite
all Greek speakers in an expanded Greece that more or less resembled the
Byzantine Empire was not new. It was deeply embedded in the Greek psyche since
the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. It had strong religious overtones: freeing
the Christian Greeks from the Muslim Ottomans – a crusade in fact. The idea was to incorporate all Greeks into the kingdom and/or, at the same
time, expand the kingdom to incorporate the Greeks.
Kolettis expressed this idea
eloquently at the National Assembly in January 1844:
The kingdom of Greece is not Greece; it is
merely a part, the smallest, poorest part of Greece. The Greek is not only he
who inhabits the kingdom, but also he who inhabits Ioannina or Salonika or
Serres or Adrianopolis or Constantinople or Trebizond or Crete or Samos or any
other region belonging to Greek history or the Greek race…
There are two great centers of Hellenism. Athens
is the capital of the kingdom. Constantinople is the great capital. The City,
the dream and hope of all Greeks”
This was a natural aspiration
of the new state, particularly at a time when borders in the Balkans (and
elsewhere in Europe!) were elastic and altering rapidly.
In 1864, as a reflection of Kolettis’ idea,
King George 1 was given the title King of the Hellenes, not just king
of Greece which had been King Othon’s title. After many initial successes, The
Great Idea met with disaster in Smyrna in 1922(4).
In some ways, the Megali Idea has made the Greek concept
of Hellenism (Ελληνισμός) narrower than is convenient in the twenty first
century, especially in the context of the European Union. It is more backward than forward looking and
has offered demagogues countless opportunities to channel public thinking into
the narrows of nationalistic jingoism. Kolettis’ reference to a Greek race has often been misused, most
recently by the Golden Dawn party.
There is even an organization (www.byzantiumnovum.org) whose
goal is nothing less than a return to the Byzantine Empire.
Kolettis’ grave is just west of the
Agios Lazarus Church in Section 2,
Number 30A
Footnotes
(1) Vlachs: a term for a varied group of people speaking a
derivative of Latin whose origins are somewhat unclear. Populations existed
(and exist) in Greece, Hungary, Ukraine, Serbia, and Croatia. Some have
assimilated into local populations; some have not.
(2) Ali Pasha is a
fascinating character: ruthless and cruel and yet imbued to some extent with
the modern ideas of his era. He seems to have been religiously neutral, at
least in his policies, and therefore many Greeks had the opportunity to thrive
economically and to be educated under his erratic rule.
(3) Samos is an
example of the tremendous local efforts of Greece to throw off the Ottoman
yoke, only to be frustrated as their territory was reabsorbed into the Ottoman
Empire. Of course, their efforts along with so many areas that had Greek
populations desiring freedom fueled the Megali Idea.
(4) A Map showing Greek expansion
(and hoped for expansion) after 1832.
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