Souliotes

The Suliots ( alternate spelling: Souliotes; Greek Souliotes Σουλιώτες; Albanian Suliotët ) were a warlike community that the mountains around Souli in the south of the vilayets of Ioannina, the ancient Epirus, inhabited.

History

The Suliots studied in the 17th century before the Ottoman pressure in the mountains near the town of Parga is a refuge.

With the exception of the village Souli itself also three other important villages that were in close contact with this developed: Kiafa, Samoniva and Avarino (southeast of Paramithia, in the valley behind the village Glyki ). The inhabitants were (Albanian for " grain ", " seeds " or " tribe ", " clan" ) from so-called Faras. These four large villages united and there was a council of the heads of the largest clans formed. This made ​​all decisions together and also taught in disputes and offenses. There were no written laws, but it was decided after the customs. A similar legal system of clans and their relationships to each other can be found also in the Kanun in northern Albania.

The Suliots operated on cattle breeding and agriculture. In addition, they had a dubious reputation as a perennial and crafty thieves and robbers. Their attacks were particularly hostile to the Ottomans, against the overwhelming power they stood up to some time in a simple but persevering defense system. They lost in 1803 and then left the region of Souli by then, sold only to Parga by the threats and intrigue Ali Pasha also from there, moved to the Ionian Islands.

Here they entered the military service of various powers ( Russia, France, Britain ), then successively who possessed these islands. Ali Pasha, 1820 included in Ioannina from the Turks under Hurschid Pasha and abandoned by the Albanians, was looking at the Suliots help and admitted them a fortress Kiafa. The Souliotes accepted his invitation, but came through the passage of the Albanian leaders to Hurschid Pasha and the unfortunate failure in the summer of 1822 to assist efforts made by Greece from the campaign in great distress and had to leave the Turks in September, their festivals Souli. At the 3000 Suliots were then placed on English ships to Kefalonia, while the rest fled into the mountains. Many of them participated bravely in the Greek struggle for freedom and arrived in Greece later to reputation and dignity, the Botsaris and Tzavelas.

Ethnicity of the Souliotes

To the ethnicity of the Suliots argue Greeks and Albanians, which the current dispute of minority rights in Albania Northern Epirus (Greek Vóreios Ipeiros Βόρειος Ήπειρος ) and Greek Südepirus reflects (Albanian Cameri / a). Members of both nations see the fight against the Ottomans Suliots of a heroic national use, which have contributed to the founding of its modern state. However Originally Suliots were Camen, so ethnic Albanians. Over time, this community was transferred to the Greek nation.

At least in the 19th century were largely Suliots hellenized, but remained substantial remains of their Albanian vernacular payments, of which the written by Markos Botsaris Greek- Albanian Dictionary generated.

The name of the city, after the Suliots are named, comes from the Albanian word suli, German " mountain peak ".

Famous Suliots

• Markos Botsaris (1788-1823), military leader of the Suliots in the Greek War of Independence
• Kitsos Tzavelas (1800-1855), politician, Prime Minister of Greece and General