On Friday 1st December the Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and the deputy minister for Climate Change and Civil Protection Evangelos Tournas, representing the government, were in Chania for the ceremonies marking the 110th anniversary of the union of Crete with Greece. Also present were the Regional Governor of Crete Stavros Arnautakis, the Deputy Regional Governor for Chania Nikos Kalogeris, Chania MPs Sevi Voloudaki, Dora Bakogianni and Alexandros Makrogiannakakis, and representatives of the Armed Forces. The occasion was organised by the Regional Unit of Chania, the Municipality of Chania and the National Foundation “Eleftherios K. Venizelos”.
The ceremonies began at Chania Cathedral at 7.30 am, where a divine liturgy was held, followed by a memorial service to Eleftherios Venizelos and his associates, presided over by Metropolitans Damaskinos of Kydonias and Apokoronas and Amphilochios of Kissamos and Selino.
The Greek flag was then carried in procession to the Venetian Harbour, where a commemorative address was delivered by Panagiotis Simandirakis, the Mayor of Chania, following which the President herself raised the flag on the staff of the Firka fortress, while F16s of the 115th Fighter Wing flew in formation overhead. A frigate of the Hellenic Navy was meanwhile anchored in the harbour. Following the ceremony the President and her entourage visited the Naval Museum and subsequently the Chania Town Hall.
At 7.30 pm on the same day a commemorative event was held at the Eleftherios Venizelos Foundation in Halepa, where two guest speakers examined the theme of “The Cretan issue and national integration” – Paschalis Kitroumilidis, Professor Emeritus at the University of Athens, and the well-known English authority on Greek history Roderick Beaton, Professor Emeritus at Kings College London and President of the British School of Athens. The event ended with the presentation of medals to the two speakers and their induction as associates of the Eleftherios Venizelos Foundation.
The union of Crete with Greece
Cretans had participated in the Greek War of Independence, but their uprising had been brutally suppressed by the Ottomans. There had followed several rebellions during the course of the 19th century, culminating in the arrival of Greek troops on the island in 1897, which led to a war between Greece and the Ottomans. In order to restore order, the Six Great Powers (Austria-Hungary, France, the German Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, the Russian Empire, and the United Kingdom) sent warships to Crete – the International Squadron – and subsequently arranged for the island to be governed by an Admiral’s Council consisting of admirals from the Great Powers.
The Council decided that Crete would become an autonomous state under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. Following further conflicts between Cretan Greeks and Muslims, all Ottoman troops were expelled from the island and in December 1898 the autonomous Cretan State was created, with Prince George of Greece and Denmark as its first High Commissioner.
An Executive Committee was formed, which included the young Eleftherios Venizelos, who had trained as a lawyer in Athens, as minister of Justice. Differences soon developed between Venizelos and Prince George over domestic policies, as well as the issue of union with Greece. In March 1905, Venizelos and his supporters gathered in the village of Theriso, formed a “Revolutionary Assembly” and declared the “political union of Crete with Greece as a single free constitutional state”.
The Cretan Assembly voted for Venizelos’ proposals, and the Great Powers brokered an agreement whereby Prince George would resign and a new constitution be created, which happened a year later. However, while the Cretans pressed for union with Greece, the mother country itself was at first reluctant and it was not until May 1913 – by which time Venizelos was Prime Minister of Greece – that with the Treaty of London Sultan Mehmed V relinquished his formal rights to the island.
On 1 December, the formal ceremony of union took place: the Greek flag was raised at the Firka Fortress in Chania, with Eleftherios Venizelos and King Constantine I in attendance. The Muslim minority of Crete initially remained on the island but was later relocated to Turkey under the general population exchange which took place under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne between Turkey and Greece.
Statements at Friday’s ceremony
Addressing journalists after the ceremony of raising the flag at the Firka fortress, the Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou said: “110 years have passed since the 1st of December 1913 when the blue and white flag was raised at the Firka fortress, putting the seal on the union of Crete with Greece and vindicating the successive generations of Cretans who fought for this sacred cause. We honour their sacrifices and commemorate with gratitude the leading figure of Eleftherios Venizelos, who with farsightedness and persistence brought about the union of the island of Crete with the body of the nation.”
In his commemorative address, after a lengthy exposition of the Cretan people’s journey from the formation of the Greek state in 1823 to the island’s incorporation into the nation in 1913, the mayor of Chania Panagiotis Simandirakis concluded: “Let us stand in solidarity at every human crisis, let us resist intolerance and obscurantism and simultaneously obstruct the arbitrary domination of the weak by the strong. By acting in this way we give meaning to the struggles of our ancestors and demonstrate in practice that we have absorbed the elevated lessons of history, and only thus can we contemplate our nation’s future with optimism.”
Alexandros Makrogiannakakis, newly elected as MP for Chania in the July elections, said: “The union of Crete with Crete was the crowning achievement of the Cretans’ years-long struggles. Under adverse conditions, faced with every kind of difficulties, against the great might of the Ottoman Empire and the complex demands of international equilibrium, the Cretans did not for a moment cease to lay claim to their great national objective. Through continuous rebellions and always with faith in the ideals of nation and freedom they gradually achieved their aim.
“The inspirational leadership of Eleftherios Venizelos was catalytic in the achievement of 1st December 1913 when Greece, now the victor in two Balkan wars, was able to officially incorporate Crete into the national soil. Today with respect and pride we honour all those who with their struggles and their sacrifices made a reality the great desire of all Cretans: Union with the national body, with the motherland Greece.”
(Haniotika Nea, Skai.gr, Wikipedia)