The decision to pre -declare the revolution in the Danube hegemonies was taken by Alexander Ypsilantis on February 16th 1821 in Kisnovi (note Kisinau). Ypsilantis made this decision fearing the possibility of the Ottoman mobilization against his forces, following information on the preparations of the Greeks to revolutionize. On February 21, he abandoned Kisnovi and the next day he crossed the frozen cold river, entering the Ottoman territories.
The Danube hegemonies of Moldova and Wallachia were part of Ottoman Empirehowever, in a regime of autonomy. During the 18th century, the tradition of taking over the duties of princes (rulers) of hegemonies was imposed by members of the strongest families of the Fanariots, the aristocracy of the Roman Millet in Constantinople. Many Greeks had been installed in the hegemonies, who were mostly involved in trade and various other urban professions. During the proclamation of the revolution, several Greeks lived in the area and Ypsilantis was counting on their mobilization in favor of the Greek struggle for independence.
On February 24, he arrived in Iasi, the capital of the Moldovan hegemony, where he was warmly welcomed. Both the ruler Michael Soutsos and about 2,000 men, among whom were many, were with Ypsilant. Serbs, Bulgarians and local Romanians. Locating in the Greek camp in Iasi, Ypsilantis issued his first revolutionary notice entitled “Battalion for Faith and Homeland”. “It is time to shake off this unbearable yoke, to free the homeland, to slip from the clouds of the crescent, in order to raise the point for always winning, I say to Stavron and so to revenge it. Ypsilantis and his staff dealt in the following days with the recruitment of volunteers and by issuing notices both to the locals and the Greeks.
In addition to Ypsilantis, the Romanian chieftain was also active in the area of Vlachia Tudor Vladimirecu.
Despite his limited finances on March 1, Ypsilantis started with his men for the Bucharestthe capital of the hegemony of Wallachia. In Foxani, on the Moldovan border with Wallachia, he made up the Sacreda body consisting of young Greeks. In addition to Ypsilantis, in the area of Vlachia, the Tudor Vladimirecua Romanian chieftain who had been initiated into the Friendly Society in the hope of the motion of the local element, to assist in the struggle of the Greeks. In practice it turned out that Vladimirecu acted independently of the friendlysetting himself the leader of his own uprising, which took advantage of the discontent in the hegemonies against the Fanariots and the Ottomans.
Vladimirecu’s actions worried Ypsilantis, who made the decision to enter Bucharest to raise the prestige of his revolution. On March 25, he camped in the gloom, outside the city. Two days later, on Sunday, March 27, 1821, Ypsilantis entered Bucharest. The reception held by the local lords and the Metropolitan, however, was not as festive as that of Iasi a month earlier. Fear not exposed to the Ottoman power, some of the heads of power in Wallachia avoided welcoming the Greek leader. It was a few days earlier being the concern of Ypsilantis and his movement by Ecumenical Patriarch Gregory II, who was under the pressure of the gate, which prevented many from participating in the revolution in the hegemonies.
Column: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigoni-Despina Poumenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
