Chios Massacre

The Massacre at Chios (1824) by Eugène Delacroix.

The Chios Massacre refers to the slaughter of tens of thousands of Greeks on the island of Chios by Ottoman troops in 1822.¹

Background

For over 2,000 years, Chios merchants and shipowners had been prominent in trade and diplomacy throughout the Black Sea, the Aegean, and the Mediterranean. The Ottoman Empire allowed Chios almost complete control over its own affairs as Chian trade and the very highly-valued mastic plant harvested only on Chios were of great value to the Empire. The cosmopolitan Chians were also very prominent in Constantinople. Following the massacre, however, the island never regained its commercial prominence.

Historians have noted that the island's ruling classes were reluctant to join the Greek revolt, fearing the loss of their security and prosperity.² Furthermore, they were aware that they were situated far too close to the Turkish heartland in Asia Minor to be safe.³ At some points, Chios is only two miles from the Anatolian mainland.

Massacre

Georgios Stravelakis was a survivor of the Massacre of Chios, sold into slavery⁴ he eventually became Prime Minister of the Tunis, from 1837 to 1873.⁵

In March 1822, several hundred armed Greeks from the neighbouring island of Samos landed in Chios. They began destroying mosques and attacking the Turks, who retreated to the citadel. Many islanders also decided to join the Revolution.³ However, the vast majority of the population had by all accounts done nothing to provoke the massacre, and had not joined other Greeks in their revolt against the Ottoman Empire.⁶

Approximately 20,000⁷⁸⁹ Greek islanders of Chios were hanged, butchered, starved or tortured to death. 50,000 Greeks were enslaved and another 23,000 were exiled. Fewer than 2,000 Greeks managed to survive on the island. The Greek word sfaghi (English: butchery or massacre) is commonly used to describe these events since the island itself was devastated and the few survivors that dispersed throughout Europe became part of the Chian Diaspora. Some young Greeks enslaved during the massacre were adopted by wealthy Ottomans and converted to Islam, some even managing to rise to levels of prominence in the Ottoman Empire such as Georgios Stravelakis later renamed Mustapha Khaznadar and İbrahim Edhem Pasha.¹⁰

The massacre was well-documented and reported, which sparked significant levels of outrage in Europe. French painter Eugène Delacroix painted a masterpiece depicting the horrors that occurred; his painting was named Scenes from the Massacres of Chios. A copy of the painting was displayed in the local Byzantine museum on Chios, but was withdrawn from the museum on November 2009. The Greek press protested, as the withdrawal was meant to be a "good faith initiative" for the improvement of Greek-Turkish relations.¹¹¹²

See also

• Massacres during the Greek Revolution
• Ottoman wars in Europe
• List of massacres
• Mustapha Khaznadar
• İbrahim Edhem Pasha

References

Further reading

• Christopher A. Long - The Series of Events
• The Massacres of Chios Described in Contemporary Diplomatic Reports, edited and with an introduction by Philip P. Argenti (London: John Lane the Bodley Head Ltd., 1932).

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