After the revolutionary upheaval on Mount Olympus and the victory of the High Gate over Ali Pasha, the conditions were ripe for the declaration of the Revolution in the region. On 19 February 1822, on the day of the Sunday of Orthodoxy, Naoussa Zafeirakis (Zafiris Theodosiou) raised the revolutionary flag in the church of Agios Dimitrios, after the end of the service.
On 21 February, about 1,800 Greek fighters headed to the Monastery of Panagia Dovra and from there attacked Veria, without any significant result. On the contrary, the rebels scored a significant victory on 12 March at the monastery of Dovras, led by the charioteer Gero-Karatasos (Anastasios Karatasos), Angelos Gatsos and Zafeirakis, in a battle against 4.000 Turks, who left the battlefield with heavy losses (300 dead and many wounded).
The Turks, with new reinforcements arriving in the meantime from Thessaloniki, recaptured the monastery and organized the plan to strike Naoussa, which was the main focus of the uprising in the region. The operation was undertaken by Abu Lubut with a large military force. On 26 March, in a letter he called on the rebels to lay down their arms and after their negative response, he camped at Rodia on 6 April and began the siege of the city, the defence of which had been reinforced by the Olympus thief Diamantis Nikolaou.
On the night of 12 to 13 April, the Turks managed, after a general attack and heavy cannonading, to enter the city, where fierce street fighting began. Zafeirakis with Gero-Karatasos, Diamantis Nicolaou and 500 men continued the fight for three days locked in the tower of Zafeirakis, and when the encirclement became threatening, they managed to escape towards Vermio. Shortly afterwards, however, Zafeirakis and Giannakis Karatasos (son of Gero-Karatassos) were falling dead at Sofolio, when they were surrounded by a Turkish detachment.
Inside Naoussa the massacres had turned the city into a veritable hell, and pages of self-sacrifice and heroism were written of the most glorious of the Revolution. At Sdoubani, at the bridge of Arapitsa, thirteen young women, to avoid disgrace, fell into the waterfall, while others fought to the last moment, hand to hand, against the Turks.
The dead, including Kostas Kasomoulis, father of the fighter and historian Nikolaos Kasomoulis, and the prisoners reached 5,000, according to Spyridon Trikoupis. Of the prisoners 'many were ruthlessly tortured, many women were thrown into the flames, pregnant women were disembowelled, children were slaughtered in front of their parents', according to Trikoupis. But the Turkish testimonies also show that the fury of the Turks against the civilians was unrestrained.
On 21 April 1822, Abu Lubut wrote to the priest of Veroia about the results of the campaign against Naoussa. The prostitute's text is revealing: "When we triumphantly entered the said city, becoming its masters, their captains, taking advantage of the darkness of the night, managed to escape to the neighbouring mountains [] BUT THOSE OF THE SAID REBELS WHO DID NOT MANAGE TO ESCAPE, HIDING WITHIN THE CITY, WERE ARRESTED, THE PROVISIONS OF THE ISSUED SACRED FATWA BEING STRICTLY AND MERCILESSLY APPLIED TO THEM. THESE, EXCEEDING TWO THOUSAND, WERE ALL PUT TO DEATH, EITHER BY BEING PUT TO DEATH WITH A KNIFE, OR BY BEING CRUCIFIED IN HELL BY HANGING; THEIR CHILDREN AND WIVES WERE CONQUERED, AND THEIR PROPERTY WAS TAKEN AWAY AND PUT TO THE FIRE, THUS COMPLETING THE VICTORY AND FULLY CARRYING OUT THE IMPERIAL WILL'.
With the capture of Naoussa the revolution in Macedonia was effectively extinguished, although the Greeks did not cease to harass the Turks in the region, while Gero-Karatassos with 300 men fled to southern Greece, where he continued the struggle.
Source: sansimera.gr
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