At the dawn of the 20th century century, Greece was in a particularly difficult position. The bankruptcy of 1893 was followed by the “unfortunate war” of 1897. The nation’s dreams of northward expansion were buried on the Greco-Ottoman border of Thessaly, where the Greek army under Crown Prince Constantine was forced into a disorderly and humiliating retreat. The image of the collapsing Greek army caused sadness and indignation. The young artillery lieutenant Pavlos Melas from the front line of the battle recorded the heartbreaking sight in a letter. “A long line of human beings, which rather resembled a herd of animals due to the disorder of their march, appeared slowly moving through the desert plain. No one dared to look up, because everyone was shy.”
Under the burden of the developments, the government of Theodoros Diligiannis resigned, after previously requesting the mediation of the Great Powers to conclude an armistice. The hostilities came to an end on May 7, 1897, having certainly dragged the Greek national prestige to the Tartars. On September 6, peace was signed on onerous terms. The payment of war reparations to the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of an International Commission for the control of public finances were considered dishonorable acts, which tarnished the national prestige. The day after the defeat, Greek society was in turmoil. The spark for the explosion of some social unrest was missing.
The reason for the outbreak of riots in November 1901 was the publication in the newspaper “Acropolis” of the New Testament in elementary school. The transcription of the New Testament in the elementary school had begun on the initiative of the Russian-born queen Olga, wife of George I, who had noticed that the Greek soldiers were unable to understand the passages of the Holy Texts of the orthodox Christian faith. Having the consent of the Metropolitan of Athens Procopius II, the queen arranged for the printing of the rendering of the New Testament in the elementary school first in 1898 by Iulia Somakis and then in 1901 by Alexander Pallis.
Its publication According to Matthew the Gospel in continuations in the newspaper “Akropolis”, in September 1901, caused the reaction of the conservative circles in Greece, who saw how Hellenism was fading away from Pan-Slavism. Motivated by professors of the Theological School of the University of Athens, student demonstrations were organized at the beginning of November. On November 8, he disrupted the main demonstration of students and citizens, which ended in a fierce conflict with the security forces. As Academician Christoforos Charalambakis reported (“A Gospel that divided instead of uniting”, Kathimerini, History Pages, issue 1, March 2023, p. 203), ironically among the protesting students were Manolis Triantafyllidis and Dimitris Glinos, who were fighting for the defense of the cleaner.
The toll of the clashes was eight dead and around thirty wounded. Under the burden of the developments, the Metropolitan of Athens Prokopios, the head of the Gendarmerie and the director of the Police submitted their resignations and a few days later, on November 11, the Prime Minister Georgios Theotokis.
Column editor: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigone-Despina Poimenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
