The official proclamation of the union took place in sunny Chania on Sunday 1 December 1913, in the presence of King Constantine and Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, in a very festive atmosphere. "The city woke up adorned. And the sky is celebrating, restored from the night of peace and the rising of the spring sun. The streets are like meadows scented with myrtle. Everywhere are Byzantine flags hung among the blue and white. Everywhere there are clusters of rustic high-towered zigzags and icons of Theotokopoulou. The Cretan children in swarms are walking around with their fufflings. From Nikiforos Fokas, who expelled the Arabs from Crete, the first Greek king has landed on the island for the first time", writes the Athenian newspaper "Estia" in its response from Chania. The events culminated at 11:50 in the morning, when the old fighters Anagnostis Mandakas, 94 years old, and Hadjimichalis Yannaris, 88 years old, raised the Greek flag at the Firkas fortress, while at the same time 101 cannon shots were fired from the Greek warships at sea.
Crete came completely under the Ottoman Empire on 4 October 1669, when the great Vizier Kioproulis solemnly entered Chandakas (today's Heraklion), ending 465 years of Venetian rule on the island (1204-1669). Despite the flight of many inhabitants and the population alteration by the new conquerors, the Cretans never bowed their heads to the Ottomans. The rebellions of 1692 ("Movement of 1692") and 1770 ("Revolution of Daskalogiannis") bear witness to this.
In 1821, the Cretans participated in the national uprising, but their efforts were unsuccessful due to the large number of Turks and Turkish Cretans on the island and the lack of supplies. The uprisings against the conqueror continued with undiminished intensity and density, in 1833 ('The Mournia Movement'), in 1841 ('The Revolution of Chhretis and Vassilogeorgi'), in 1858 ('The Movement of Mavrogenis'), in the triennium 1866-1869 ('The Great Cretan Revolution'), in 1878 ('The Revolution of 1878'), 1889 ("1889 Revolution") and the two years 1897-1898 ("1897-1898 Revolution"), when Crete gained its autonomy under the blessing of the Great Powers, after the unbelievable atrocities committed by the Bazivouzuki (Turkish irregulars) in Heraklion on 25 August 1898. On November 2 of the same year, the last Turkish soldier left Cretan territory.
Crete was placed under the protection of the Great Powers and only the high suzerainty of the Sultan. From 1898 to 1913 the Cretan State was created, with the Greek King George as commissioner and a government consisting of five Christians and one Muslim (Muslims accounted for about 25% of the population of Crete in 1900). The dominant figure of that period was the young lawyer Eleftherios Venizelos, who quickly came into conflict with George because of his overbearing powers. The "Revolution in Therissos" (10 March 1905), organised by Venizelos, forced George to resign and the Greek politician Alexandros Zaimi to assume the supreme office. The main demand of the rebels was the immediate union of Crete with Greece.
The victorious outcome of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) for Greece, due to the farsighted policy of the Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, accelerated the developments. On 30 May 1913 the Sultan renounced all his rights to Crete by the Treaty of London (Article 4), while by a separate treaty he also renounced his suzerainty over the island (1 November 1913). Crete was free and its union with Greece had taken place. The Cretan Question, which had long been a matter of international politics, had been resolved.
In 1923, with the exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey, the last Muslims left Crete, most of whom settled on the coast of Asia Minor. From the middle of the first decade of the new millennium, a rumour began to spread, mainly via the internet, that in 2013 the people of Crete will be asked to decide in a referendum whether they want the island to remain in Greece or become independent, based on a secret protocol of the terms of its cession to Greece in 1913. Experts assure and time has shown that it was a joke or a wishful thinking of some circles.
Source: sansimera.gr
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