Pavlos Melas
He was married, since October 11, 1892, to Natalia Dragoumi-Melas, daughter of the nationalist Stefanos Dragoumis—an archaeologist, linguist, and politician, described as "one of the most ardent and fervent supporters of the Ethniki Etaireia"—who later became Prime Minister of Greece, and sister of Ion Dragoumis, a pioneer of Greek nationalism. With Natalia, he shared a deep agreement in both ideas and upbringing. From their marriage, they had two children: Michael [or Mikis], an Army officer born in mid-1894, and Zoe [or Zeza], who later married the physician-microbiologist Georgios Ioannidis.
Pavlos was a member of the historic Melas family, which traces its origins to the village of Parakalamos in the Pogoni region of the Ioannina Prefecture in Epirus, where the ruins of the family tower still stand. Members of the Melas family were among the most powerful in the Byzantine Empire and were active in Constantinople before 1453 and its conquest by the Turks.
Pavlos was the third of seven children of Michael G. Melas, a wealthy merchant in Marseille, and Eleni Voutsina, daughter of a well-known Cephalonian merchant from Odessa. The couple moved to Athens in 1874 to settle and raise their children. They purchased and lived in the building on Panepistimiou Street, where the "Athenian Club" is now located, while also residing at times in Odessa, Phaliro, or Kifisia, where they had a summer house.
Pavlos' siblings included Leon M. Melas (Marseille 1872 – Athens 1905), Konstantinos M. Melas (Marseille 1874 – Athens 1953), Vasileios M. Melas (Athens 1879 – 1956), and Georgios M. Melas (Marseille 1866 – London 1931), as well as two sisters, Maria, wife of Hector Romanos, chamberlain to Prince Nikolaos, and Anna Melas, known as the "Mother of the Army," who later married Apostolos Papadopoulos.
Among the five sons of the family, three were career officers, while one, Georgios, served as a reserve officer, reaching the rank of epilarchos and later becoming the private secretary to King Constantine I. Leon pursued a political career with Theodoros Deligiannis' party and was elected Member of Parliament for Agia. After the Balkan Wars and his retirement from the army, Konstantinos also entered politics.
His father, Michael Melas, served as the mayor of Athens. Pavlos Melas was named Pavlos, and not Georgios like his grandfather, in honor of his grandfather’s brother, Pavlos, who served in the Souliot battalions under Markos Botsaris and heroically fell in battle during the Exodus of Messolonghi. Pavlos was deeply influenced by the environment in which he was raised:
“The atmosphere of his home, the patriotic actions of his father... the accidental encounter with many weapons secretly stored in the basement of his house, destined for Crete, made a great impression on him. From then on, he dreamt of enlisting in the army when he grew up…”
Pavlos' favorite book was Gerostathis, written by his uncle, his father’s brother, Leon Melas, while his cousin was the renowned author Dimitrios Vikelas.
The Russo-Turkish War ended before Greece could even participate in it, and a truce was signed between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. The only benefit was an amnesty for the fighters of Crete, Thessaly, Epirus, and Macedonia, along with the appointment of a Christian governor for Crete.
The Ethniki Etaireia and the War of 1897
In August 1894, Melas, along with 85 other officers, took part in the destruction of the offices of the newspaper Acropolis, which had published a front-page article condemning the authoritarianism of the officer corps after three officers had unjustifiably beaten a civilian. The officers were referred to a military court, but their arrest warrants remained unenforced, and they were ultimately acquitted.
In November, fourteen of them, acting on an idea proposed by Second Lieutenant Nikostratos Kalomenopoulos, founded the Ethniki Etaireia (National Society), a secret organization of young officers. Their goal was to respond to the challenge posed to the political role of the officer corps and to offer a solution to Greece’s multiple crises in the aftermath of the 1893 bankruptcy, seeking a nationalistic outlet in irredentism. Among its founding members, Melas was registered as member No. 25 while serving at the Cartographic Service in Mylos, Argos.
Beyond being a founding member, Melas was one of the most active officers in establishing new local branches of the society across the provinces and ensuring their communication with the leadership. He assigned responsibility for expanding the organization in the Peloponnese to Ioannis Metaxas, who was stationed in Nafplio, where he established a chapter of the society. Michael Melas also joined the Ethniki Etaireia and, in 1897, was appointed to organize a major fundraising campaign for the purchase of weapons.
During the summer and autumn of 1896, the Ethniki Etaireia began sending numerous irregular fighters to Macedonia. However, these activities ceased after the Greek government intervened. On January 31 (Julian calendar) of 1897, while Melas was serving as chief guard at the University of Athens, he was ordered to return with his men to the artillery barracks.
Despite the Greek government’s reluctance to intervene in the uprisings in Crete and the explicit diplomatic opposition of the Great Powers, public pressure—heavily influenced by organizations like the Ethniki Etaireia, which demanded the island’s union with Greece—pushed the government to act. Fearing accusations of national betrayal, it decided to send an expeditionary force under Timoleon Vassos.
Melas was disappointed to learn that his unit was not included in the expeditionary force. However, the next day it was announced that the field artillery battery under the command of Prince Nikolaos, to which he belonged, would be sent to Larissa. On February 16, the unit departed by ship from Piraeus, traveled via Chalkida, and then took the railway from Volos to Larissa. From Larissa, they moved to Volos, where, under Melas' initiative and with the cover of his superiors, a 55-carriage train was arranged to transport irregular fighters of the Ethniki Etaireia to the Greco-Ottoman border. Their aim was to provoke a war by infiltrating Ottoman territory.
Disobeying an order from his commander, Nikolaos Zorbas, to return to Larissa, Melas arrived two days late and was imprisoned until April 5. The failed incursion of Greek irregulars into Macedonia on April 9 provided the Ottoman government with the pretext it had been seeking. On April 5/17, diplomatic relations between the two countries were severed, and war was declared.
The War of 1897
Engulfed in the fervent nationalistic atmosphere of the time, Melas anticipated the capture of Thessaloniki before the war even began. His diary entries reveal his enthusiasm at the outbreak of hostilities. While his unit was stationed at the border, he remained in Larissa, where he soon learned of the collapse of the front.
The swift deterioration of the situation, the chaotic retreat of the Greek army, and the evacuation of Larissa deeply disheartened him. Failing to recognize the operational weaknesses of the Greek forces, he blamed politicians and high-ranking officers (except for the Crown Prince), whom he held responsible for the lack of Greek victories. He witnessed the Battle of Farsala and the Battle of Domokos.
Two days later, on May 7, his regiment camped at Alamana, but a doctor, seeing Melas’ exhaustion, sent him to Lamia. Accompanied by a friend, he traveled to Agia Marina, where the hospital ship Thessalia was docked. There, his wife, Natalia, was serving as a volunteer nurse. Together, they returned to his family home in Athens, where he remained for a week before requesting to return to Lamia.
In June, he received news that his father was ill and returned to Athens. On June 17, two days after Pavlos’ arrival, Michael Melas passed away, sorrowful over Greece’s defeat. At his father’s casket, Pavlos swore to dedicate his life to his country.
In 1898, Melas served in Thessaly, initially overseeing the reoccupation of towns vacated by the retreating Ottoman army. Later, he accompanied a commission from Queen Olga that toured the region to assess the extent of the war’s devastation.
In January 1899, Melas became a member of the board of directors of the Ethniki Etaireia (National Society), which dissolved itself in December 1900 following widespread public outcry over the defeat of 1897 and a conflict with the government regarding the management of its financial resources. However, following a proposal by Melas and Nikolaos Politis, it was decided that the board would continue to convene on national issues, “proposing appropriate solutions to the government of the time.”
Involvement in Macedonian Affairs
The Dragoumis Network
Haunted by guilt over the outcome of the 1897 war, Melas became deeply involved in Macedonian affairs. As the Bulgarian national movement gained strength, its territorial claims came to include regions considered "historically Greek lands," such as Macedonia, which for Greeks was inextricably linked to modern Greek national identity, shaped through its connection to classical antiquity. The establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1870 alarmed the Greek political establishment, making the Macedonian question the most significant issue in Greek foreign policy. At the heart of this conflict were the Slavs of Macedonia, who dominated the rural hinterland of the region.
In an unprecedented cultural and educational struggle, rival factions seeking control over Macedonia engaged in fierce competition over churches and community schools, where, beyond language instruction, national identity was being shaped. In 1893, the IMRO (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization) was founded as a Bulgarian-Macedonian revolutionary group aiming for Macedonian autonomy. It soon focused on preparing for an armed uprising and establishing a parallel state within the Slavic villages of Macedonia, using armed bands and terrorist methods to consolidate its influence, which by the early 20th century had become substantial in the region.
The Macedonian issue held great significance for the Dragoumis family, a prominent political dynasty whose members, including the women, actively participated in the cause. Stefanos Dragoumis, a third-generation Macedonian, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and long-time advocate of Greek irredentist aspirations, was one of the few figures pressuring Athens to take action on Macedonian matters. The Dragoumis household, frequently visited by Macedonian refugees and migrants in Athens, to whom Melas often gave his photographs, was widely regarded as the strategic center of the Macedonian cause. Around the Dragoumis family, and under the initiative of Melas' brother-in-law, Ion Dragoumis, a network was formed to defend Hellenism in Macedonia.
The idea resonated strongly with young officers, particularly those who had been members of the National Society, including Melas himself. Officers serving in the Army Cartographic Service transported weapons to the border, which eventually reached Macedonia and fell into the hands of figures such as Metropolitan Germanos Karavangelis of Kastoria. Karavangelis, the most aggressive representative of a group of young bishops within the Patriarchate of Constantinople who supported Greek interests, began, from early 1902, attempting to undermine IMRO by recruiting disillusioned members and forming armed bands under its former chieftains, with the first being Kottas, a Slavophone Patriarchist from Roulia in Florina.
In November 1902, Ion Dragoumis was appointed vice-consul in Monastir, where he maintained correspondence with Melas, informing him by letter, requesting the shipment of weapons and funds, and recommending the bribing of European newspapers. In early 1903, he established his own organization in Monastir, named "Defense," to more effectively organize the Greek effort in western and central Macedonia. In a letter from Monastir in January 1903, Dragoumis wrote to Melas about the imminent establishment and objectives of a Society formed by "a few wealthy and noble individuals."
At the request of the Metropolitan of Kastoria, Dragoumis' circle and Melas organized, in May 1903, with the help of the Sfakian second lieutenant Georgios Tsontos and the financial support of Louisa Riantcour, the dispatch of eleven Cretan mercenaries—Ottoman subjects—including Efthymios Kaoudis, to assist Germanos Karavangelis. These Cretans either accompanied the metropolitan as armed guards, forcibly conducting liturgies in Exarchist villages, or attacked IMRO komitadji groups and, following the outbreak of the Ilinden uprising, rebel villagers. By August, Karavangelis sent them back to Athens, to Melas and Stefanos Dragoumis, where they were smuggled out with great difficulty.
For the Greek government, the Ilinden uprising of July 1903—the peak of IMRO's activity—signaled the danger of Macedonia being annexed by Bulgaria. Frustrated with the slow pace of diplomacy and the cautious approach of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and doubting the ability of Greece’s constitutional parliamentary system to achieve national aspirations, in October, Ion Dragoumis wrote to Melas from his new post in Serres, urging him to be ready to act militarily—either against the Bulgarians in Macedonia or through a coup to seize power in Greece, led by General Timoleon Vassos, in order to replace the Rallis government with a friendlier one and secure Macedonia for Greece. However, a few days later, after reconsidering the constraints of reality, he sent new, revised instructions.
Reconnaissance Missions
In November 1903, the Ottoman Porte accepted the Mürzsteg Agreement, signed the previous month by Russia and Austria. The third point of the agreement proposed the redrawing of Macedonia’s administrative subdivisions after the region was pacified, aiming for a smoother distribution of its various ethnic groups. While for the Great Powers, the agreement was meant to maintain stability and preserve the status quo, the Christian peoples of the Balkans interpreted it as a guarantee of future support for their claims.
The Balkan states focused on the third point of the agreement, and since, under Ottoman rule, ecclesiastical affiliation was a criterion for national categorization, one’s allegiance to either the Bulgarian Exarchate or the Patriarchate of Constantinople defined them as "Bulgarian" or "Greek," respectively. Greece feared a rapid pacification of the region before it could reverse, usually under pressure, the Exarchist expansion of recent years, while IMRO leaders saw it necessary to support the Exarchate. Ottoman repression had weakened both the Exarchist movement and IMRO, whose remaining groups, during the winter of 1903-4, focused their efforts on securing the recognition of the Exarchate in villages that had recently reverted to the Patriarchate, particularly in western Macedonia.
The precise ecclesiastical allegiance of each village became difficult to determine and was not fixed, as the dominance of one faction over another often shifted due to the actions of armed groups. Typically, both sides coexisted within the same village, but by the spring of 1904, violence erupted, leading to massacres.
In February 1904, Kotas, Lakis Pyrzas from Florina, and Pavlos Kyrou, a Slavic speaker from Zélovo, came to Athens to present to the Greek government the situation in Macedonia. The first two met with Melas at the Dragoumis family house. In early 1904, under the pressure of public opinion, the Greek government turned its attention to Macedonia and appointed Alexandros Kontoulis as the head of a four-member officer team tasked with evaluating the situation in western Macedonia and the possibilities for armed Greek involvement in the region. Kontoulis chose as his companions Anastasios Papoulas, Georgios Kolokotronis, and his friend Melas, despite the objections of Foreign Minister Athos Romanos, who considered Melas unsuitable due to his "enthusiasm." Despite Natalia’s disagreement and the condescending attitude of the other Dragoumis family members, Melas was filled with excitement and awe at the prospect of going to Macedonia, a region he barely knew but which would allow him to fulfill the oath to his father and dedicate himself to a noble cause. His anxiety about the future and the prospect of being separated from his children troubled him emotionally, but he was calmed by his wife.
After selecting four companions, including Kaoudis, the four officers traveled separately and met at the end of February at the Greco-Ottoman border in Velemishti with Kotas, Pyrzas, and Kyrou. For confidentiality, the officers used pseudonyms on their passports, with Melas using the name "Zezas," which in Arvanitic means "black" or "dark-haired," a name given to him by Kontoulis, who spoke the language. The mission was delayed due to bad weather conditions, and they crossed the Aliakmon River on March 9 (Julian)/22 (Gregorian) and then proceeded via Siatista to the Monastery of Saint Nicholas in Tsirilovo. Guided by an envoy of the Metropolitan of Kastoria Karavangelis, they reached the village of Gabres on March 15/28. The next day, Melas and Kolokotronis financially assisted the local teacher, and in the afternoon, Kotas, Kontoulis, and Melas addressed the locals, advocating for alignment with the Greek side. They then moved on to Roulia, Kotas' village, Ostima, and Zélovo. Kotas' personality impressed the young Melas, who treated him with admiration and respect, and began to perceive the situation in Macedonia through Kotas' perspective, as one of the last representatives of the klephtic tradition and the unquestioned leader of the irregulars in the area.
In Zélovo (now Antartiko) in Florina, Melas noted the influence of the sermon by Anastas Yankov of the Supreme Macedonian Committee from Zagoritsani (now Vasileiada, Kastoria), which claimed the existence of a separate Macedonian nation among the Slavic-speaking villagers. While they were there, Papoulas and Kolokotronis disagreed with Melas and Kontoulis regarding whether Greek interests would be best served by sending armed forces from Greece, as the former argued, or by organizing local groups, as Ion Dragoumis had suggested to Melas for over a year. After Zélovo, they went to Orovnik, where, thanks to a photograph of Melas at the home of Father Stavros Tsamis in Pisoderi, the village priest recognized Melas as the person whose arrival would bring about "great things."
On the same day, they received a message from Dragoumis stating that Melas had to return immediately to Greece because the Ottoman authorities had learned of his presence. Melas visited Dragoumis in Monastiri, who convinced him to comply. Disappointed, Melas took the train to Thessaloniki wearing a fez, a symbol of prestige in the Ottoman Empire, and arrived in Athens on March 29. Five weeks later, the other three officers returned after an order from the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while Kaoudis remained with Kotas. From Macedonia, the three officers had sent a report stating favorable conditions for Greek action, but Papoulas and Kolokotronis had secretly sent letters mentioning the unfriendly reception of their mission and the unsuitability of the locals for armed action. Back in Athens, an argument on May 13 between Melas and Kolokotronis about whether or not to send armed forces to Macedonia led to a duel organized at Kolokotronis' request on the 28th of the same month—an honored method of restoring honor among Greek officers following the dishonorable '97 war—which resulted in a light injury to Kolokotronis from a gunshot.
Afterward, Melas took on duties at the Evelpidon Military Academy, but after a special request from two men from Kozani, who visited Stefanos Dragoumis at the end of June and spoke of the readiness for action, he took a twenty-day leave to return to Macedonia, surprising and saddening his family. Having gained initial experience in action in the Macedonian region, Melas departed for Macedonia after encouraging his "inconsolable" wife and family. Together with Pyrzas, he arrived in Kozani, almost entirely Greek, on July 19 as a livestock merchant, using the alias "Pavlos Dedes." There, Melas realized that the preparations had not progressed as he had been informed, but he met with the six-member committee of "Ámyna" at the episcopal residence of the city, with whom he discussed the need to create seven units of fifteen men each, who would operate in the Kastoria and Vodena areas under the leadership of the klephts Karalivanos and Visvikis, and the amount of the monthly salary to be paid to the men. While Pyrzas handled the action preparations in Vogatsiko, Blatsi, and Kastoria, Melas sent a report to Stefanos Dragoumis requesting the dispatch of funds to Kozani and visited Siatista, where he was impressed by the local committee he met. Although he planned to visit Veria, Naousa, and Vodena, as his leave days were running out, he returned to Athens on August 3.
While in Kozani, Melas realized the need for sending armed forces to Macedonia and decided to undertake guerrilla action himself, following the example of two of his fellow students from the Evelpidon Military Academy, Second Lieutenants Tsontos and Katehakis, whom he had learned had been appointed heads of armed groups by the Macedonian Committee. It was a semi-official irredentist organization founded in May 1904 by former members of the National Society under the presidency of Dimitrios Kalapothakis, funded by the government, with the aim of preparing armed units. Around the same time as Melas' mission, a mission from the Committee reached the conclusion of the need for coordinated Greek action to avoid reprisals. Although Melas himself, like Stefanos Dragoumis, did not become a member of the Committee, they did cooperate with its members, using their own network.
Towards Macedonia
The betrayal to the Ottoman authorities in June 1904 of Kottas, who had greatly contributed to strengthening the Greek faction in the area, by his former accomplices, Pavlos Kyros under the guidance of German Karavangelis, deprived the Greek side's influence in the Korrestia region. By the end of July, it was decided to send armed forces from Greece to Macedonia.
Within the internal structure of the Macedonian Committee, one faction under Kalapothakis supported Kaoudis, while another, which advocated aligning with the government, backed Melas, who was a known associate of Prime Minister Theotokis. On August 14th, shortly after his return from Kozani and following an intervention from Prime Minister Georgios Theotokis, Melas was appointed by the Macedonian Committee as the leader of all the forces operating in the Monastir and Kastoria regions. Kaoudis refused to join Melas’ group, as he had already committed to Kalapothakis, from whom he had received full authorization for independent action. On August 18th, he crossed the Greek-Ottoman border, leading a unit with guide and co-leader Kyros.
On the same day, Melas, calmer than in his previous two attempts, though certain he would not return to Greece, departed somewhat secretly and without emotional farewells, only accompanied by his children, for his third tour in Macedonia. He was accompanied by three Cretans, among them Sfakian Ioannis Karavitis, who pressured Melas until he included him in his group, and Pyrzas, who joined after his failure to form his own unit. In Larisa, four Macedonians and the Deskati outlaw Katsamakas with six men joined the group. There, Melas was hosted by second lieutenant Charalampos Loufas, who, according to a letter Melas sent to his wife, asked him to take a photograph. Melas agreed and was photographed on August 21st by Larissa photographer Gerasimos Dafnopoulos, armed — holding a Mauser carbine, wearing a Mauser Zig-Zag revolver, and dressed in a black embroidered doulamas.
Melas sent the first copy of the photograph to his wife, "on the condition that it would never see the light of day," but remain as a memory for her and their children, should he lose his life during his mission, finding it "comic" and "martyrdom" if he returned empty-handed, seeing "his face thus disguised." The following day, they departed from Larisa and by the 27th reached the Monastery of Meritsa, where they received the unwilling hospitality of the abbot.
On the night of August 27th to 28th, Pavlos Melas, using the operational name "Kapetan Mikis Zezas," which referred to both his son and his father, and an armed group of approximately 35 men, Cretans and Macedonians, crossed the Greek-Ottoman border and invaded the territory of Macedonia, near Ostrovo (now Agnantia, Trikala). As with his first two expeditions in Macedonia, Melas was half-focused on family life; he kept his watch set to Greek time and reflected on the activities of each family member throughout the day.
In Melas' group were local outlaws and Cretans with similar pursuits, who moved and operated like traditional klephtic bands. Crossing the border, Melas tried to adopt the klephtic stance, removing his officer's uniform and opting for the traditional doulamas as his permanent attire, which earned him the respect of his men. Despite its impracticality, especially in bad weather, the traditional klephtic costume made him feel more comfortable, finding, like many Macedonian fighters, that it encouraged his men.
On August 30th, the outlaw Thanasis Vagias, whom Melas had hired as a guide, deserted and then betrayed Melas' group to the Ottomans. For over a week, Melas' armed group wandered the Samarina region, climbing mountains at night, often in the rain, to avoid being noticed, with the unusually enduring Melas himself suffering from exhaustion.
On September 5th, after several days of travel, during which they faced the suspicion of the local population, Melas and his companions reached the village of Zansko, where they were assisted and supplied by a trusted person. On the 7th, they crossed the Aliakmon River, making intermediate stops at the Greek-speaking Patriarchal Kostaratsi, where they stayed for three days receiving requests for help from neighboring villages, in Vogatsiko and at the Monastery of Saint Nicholas in Tsirilovo, a stronghold of the Greek forces in the area. On September 13th, they arrived at the Albanian-speaking Patriarchal village of Lechovo. There, they met the local outlaw Zisis Dimoulio, who, with the approval of the Ottoman authorities, maintained a group of nine men and worked for the Patriarchal interests, and at his house, he had displayed, among other things, a photograph of Princess Sophia and Stefanos Dragoumis.
With Pyrzas, Melas discussed, somewhat reluctantly, the need for revenge for the murder of the priest of the Slavic-speaking village of Strembeno, who had been killed by komitadji fighters in November 1901.
For Melas, as for other Greek officers who came from the free Greek Kingdom to Macedonia, the silent refusal of Slavic-speaking villagers to recognize the Bulgarian Exarch as their religious leader instead of the Ecumenical Patriarch was evidence of their Greek "loyalty." Melas considered the Slavic-speaking villagers as Greek as the Greek-speaking Cretans who accompanied him, believing they had become Slavic-speaking as a result of foreign rule, migration, and lack of Greek education. He referred to them as "Macedonians," meaning they were residents of Macedonia, and their language as "Macedonian," considering them similar to the rest of the non-Greek flock of the Patriarch. Realizing the difficulty of associating the villagers with national concepts, Melas explained to his men that the basis of the struggle they would fight was religion, which was being attacked by the actions of the Bulgarians. He himself chose to have a cross on his seal, which he had requested Karavangelis to send him, and, influenced by the similar seal of the National Company, the inscription "En touto nika," symbols understandable to the villagers he aimed to win over.
Armed Action
On September 15th, Melas conducted his first operation in Strembeno, where he captured two wanted Exarchists, whom he had identified with the help of Zisis, and early in the evening, the group entered the village. After pleas from locals, he ultimately decided not to kill the two wanted men on the condition that they would go to the Greek Metropolis and declare their allegiance to the local Metropolitan, as they swore on a Bible to do so. At the same time, he gave the village's leading figures a ten-day deadline to recognize the Greek Metropolitan of Kastoria and request the sending of a teacher and priest so the village could return to the Patriarchate. He also financially supported the relatives of the victims, dismantled the local committee of the EMEO, and in its place established and equipped a "defense committee" of Patriarchists. Melas' lenient stance provoked the anger of the Patriarchists in the village, who had hoped for retaliatory actions against the violent acts committed against them in previous years by armed Bulgarian groups, and made Karavitis doubt whether Melas possessed the physical and mental toughness required by the circumstances. Despite the doubts of the insurgents about Melas' military abilities, they recognized his moral integrity and kindness, earning him their respect.
On September 17th, Melas attempted to organize an attack on the village of Aetozi, as it was a center for Exarchist separatists, but the reluctance of Zisis from Lechovo changed his plans. Lacking anyone who knew the area and unable to follow the fleeting movements of the Exarchist groups, Melas was forced to turn to punitive actions against individuals and decided to move the same day to Prekopana (modern-day Perikopi). There, he surrounded the local population, who were attending a funeral at that time, and captured the Exarchist teacher and the Exarchist priest Pop-Nikola, who in July 1903 had murdered his predecessor, Papa-Christos. Partly due to their fear, as Melas realized, the villagers and the local leaders expressed their aversion to the Exarchate, and Melas demanded they swear an oath to declare loyalty to the Greek Metropolitan and request the sending of a Patriarchal priest and teacher, threatening, as he had in Strembeno, to return and punish any perjurers. The execution of the two komitadji by his men just outside the village seemed to disturb Melas, who had doubts when reflecting on the discrepancy between the "noble and honorable mission" he had undertaken and the "harsh necessities" required to fulfill it.
He then headed to Belkameni (modern-day Drosopigi), a village of Albanians and Vlachs. Melas gave a speech, organized a "defense" committee, and imposed the closure of the village's Romanian school. Afterwards, Melas planned to capture five komitadji of the EMEO in the Slavic-speaking village of Neret (modern-day Polypotamos), and his men entered the village secretly, but they failed to meet with the local Patriarchists. Their plan was overturned as soon as they began to execute it when they discovered that a significant Ottoman military force was present in the village. Due to Melas' inexperience in guerrilla warfare, during their disorganized retreat, Filippos Kapetanopoulos, a member of the Monastir Defense Committee, who had joined Melas' group in Belkameni the previous day, was fatally wounded. Melas covered him with his cloak, in which he had carelessly left a letter from Kapetanopoulos to Dimitrios Kallergis, the Greek consul in Monastir. The discovery of the letter later led to a protest from the Sublime Porte to the Greek government and the recall of Kallergis. According to an unfinished report, Melas wrote to the Kaima-kami of Florina that the sole purpose of his actions was "the punishment of the Bulgarian murderers and the protection of our brothers from their hordes." The actions of Melas' group caused discontent among the political Ottoman officials, but not among the military ones, and did not result in action to neutralize him.
From Neret, Melas' group moved to the Patriarchist Lechovo and then to Negovani (modern-day Flambouro), a village of Albanians and Vlachs, which was also predominantly Patriarchist. They stayed there for several days due to the continuous rainfall, organizing the defense of the broader region. On September 30th, the leaders of the Vlach village of Neveska (today’s Nymfaio, Florina) met them, supplying them with food and clothing. Melas, relying on the composition of the local population, based himself in Lechovo, where Zisis was, and in Negovani, where he paid the armed leader Kole Pina with the funds from the Macedonian Committee; Pina had previously worked for Karavangelis. The center of their operations was set in Neveska, where Melas appointed a five-member defense committee, just like he did in other villages, similar to the defense organization of Ion Dragoumis. The task of these committees was to supply the partisan groups, guard the villages, and carry out propaganda activities in the surrounding area. With the Committee’s resources, he also hired armed guards, messengers, and spies to monitor Bulgarian activities in the villages. At the same time, the partisan group of Kaoudi and Kyros was active in the Koresia area, forcing many komitadji to abandon the villages they were in.
On September 18th (Julian calendar)/October 1st (Gregorian calendar), this group launched a surprise attack on Ostima (modern-day Trigono, Florina) against Mitros Vlahos, who after a long battle managed to escape, although he lost around twenty men. While in Lechovo, Melas learned of Kaoudi’s victory, to whom he had sent messages asking him to meet, which Kaoudi had not received. This led Melas to believe that the lack of response was intentional. Due to the lack of stable communication channels, three attempts to meet after their first contact on September 25th were unsuccessful.
Disheartened by the bad weather, encounters with Ottoman troops, the opponents' ability to escape, the locals' reluctance to assist him, and the absence of reinforcements in money and men from the Committee, Melas planned to return to Athens and return to Macedonia in March with a new group, leaving small garrisons in the villages of the area. However, on October 9th, he unexpectedly received reinforcements from Greece when Karalivanos arrived in Negovani with about forty men, making Melas' group grow to over 70, now divided into four groups under Karalivanos, Yovannis, Poulakas, and Pyrzas. Melas expressed his desire to stay in the area in a letter—the last one he wrote—sent to his sister-in-law, Effie Kallergi, the daughter of Stefanos Dragoumis and wife of the cavalry officer Yiannis Kallergis, with whom Melas had had a romantic relationship in the last months of his life. Having organized the defense of the villages of Kastoria, he planned to leave around fifty men to control the area and to pass through Zelovo and Pisoderi to the area of Megarovo and Monastiri, to expel the komitadji partisan groups from there and organize their defense for the winter. In a report to the Committee, he wrote that after Monastiri, he planned to move towards Vodena and Veria to expand his activities throughout the region for which he had been made responsible.
Two days later, with a force of 60 men, he attacked known members of the komitadji groups in Neret (modern-day Polypotamos), where he warned them that three komitadji gangs were hiding, including the son of the murdered priest from the village, who had also been targeted by the EMEO. The operation was unsuccessful, and during the retreat, the Greek group was attacked by komitadji, forcing them to flee.
Death
After the failed raid on Neret, Melas remained with half of his men, spent the night in rain at Vitsi, and moved towards Statitsa (modern-day Melas), where he met Dinas or Dine Stergiou, a twenty-four-year-old former komitadji and member of Mitros Vlahos' group, who had left due to rivalry and, introduced by the Metropolitan of Kastoria, Germanos Karavangelis, had joined the Kaoudi and Kyros group in August, although he had not gained their full trust regarding his permanent shift to the Greek side. Dinas invited Melas to stay in Statitsa, a village that at the time was Slavic-speaking with a mixed population of Patriarchists and Exarchists, and had an organized Bulgarian core. Despite Pyrzas’ objections, suggesting that it would be safer not to enter Statitsa due to its position as a passage for Ottoman forces moving regularly from Zelovo to Konoplati, Melas insisted on entering the village. From there, he sent a message to Kyros and Kaoudi to meet early on October 14th near Statitsa. Kaoudi prepared to go to Statitsa, thinking that Melas had come to reinforce his group, but Kyros, who did not want to distance himself from his village, the Patriarchist Zelovo, which was exposed to Exarchist attacks, and who had grown cold towards Melas after he had accused him of the betrayal of Kotas, opposed the meeting, and only two people were sent to guide Melas' group to Zelovo.
In Statitis, Melas' body received the hospitality of local leaders and of Dinas, who would lead Melas' group to meet with Kaoudi and Kyrros on October 14. Dinas also helped Melas divide the men into five houses. On the afternoon of October 13, when they learned that an Ottoman detachment had departed from Konoplati, Melas wasn’t worried, knowing that it wasn’t Ottoman policy to attack Greek groups who relieved them from chasing down the komitadji. However, the detachment had been mobilized after receiving a misleading letter written in Greek by the wanted komitadji Mitros Vlahos, who had sent it with a villager. The letter stated that Mitros Vlahos himself was in Statitis, assuming the Turkish captain would attack Statitis to collect the bounty on Vlahos, but this would instead lead to Melas' death. The village was surrounded by the Ottoman detachment of several dozen men, and skirmishes broke out. By the dawn of the next day, Melas would be found dead under foggy conditions.
There are numerous versions of the exact circumstances of Melas’ death. The Ottoman detachment found one of the Greek hideouts, and gunfire erupted. They also surrounded the house where Melas, Nikolaos Pyrzas, Dinas, Petros Chatzitasis, and a Cretan named Stratinakis were staying, which was clearly indicated in the letter by Mitros Vlahos. Most of Melas' comrades' accounts question the existence of a major battle, and it is doubtful whether Melas and his men participated. All accounts agree that at some point during the night, Melas tried to escape but was fatally wounded. The testimonies vary on whether Melas was injured by a bullet from the Ottoman detachment or from his own men's weapon, specifically Pyrzas' gun misfiring. After being wounded, Melas asked Pyrzas to give his cross to his wife, his rifle to his son, and his Konstantinato to Efi Kallergi. The testimonies also vary on whether Melas died from his wounds, committed suicide, asked Dinas to finish him off, or if Dinas killed him himself. It seems that Melas was the only fatality on the Greek side. All of his men escaped, except for the seven who were at the house surrounded by the Ottoman army. They surrendered and in 1905 were sentenced to five years in prison for forming a gang. Melas' companions left his body in the barn of the house where they were, which was buried by the villagers of Statitis, possibly the same night, before heading to the nearby Zélo.
Aftermath
On the morning of the next day (October 14), the four companions of Melas arrived in Zélo (now Antartiko) and met with Kaoudi and Kyrros, informing them of their leader's death. On the same day, Dinas was sent to Statitis, and two days later, he returned saying there was a danger of them "taking the head" of the body. On the evening of the 17th, all the Macedonian fighters except for Kyrros, who remained in Zélo, departed for Belkameni (now Drosopigi), while Dinas was sent again to Statitis, supplied with five pounds by Kaoudi, to retrieve Melas' body. On the morning of October 18, Dinas arrived in Zélo with Melas' head and told Kyrros and the Greek consulate employee from Monastir, who had just arrived in the village, that while exhuming the body, the Ottoman army appeared, prompting him to hurriedly cut off the head and leave.
Melas' head was buried in the chapel of the Church of St. Paraskevi in the village of Pisoderi by Father Stavros Tsamis. After an investigation in Statitis on October 23, the Ottoman army found the headless body and transported it to Kastoria. According to the memoirs of the Metropolitan of Kastoria Germanos Karavangelis, the Kaimakami of Kastoria found letters addressed to "Mr. Tzetza," Melas' alias, which revealed the identity of the deceased. Karavangelis insisted that the body be handed over to him for burial as a Greek. Facing the Kaimakami's insistence on handing the body to a Bulgarian priest, Karavangelis mobilized the youth of Kastoria and sought the mediation of local beys, warning that disturbances could occur, which would harm the peaceful coexistence of Turks and Greeks. The beys of Kastoria forced the Kaimakami to hand over Melas' body, which was buried in the yard of the Byzantine chapel of the Archangels near the Metropolitan Palace of Kastoria. In 1907, Stefanos Dragoumis asked Karavangelis to ensure that Melas' widow, Natalia, would attend the exhumation of her husband's body after three years, and to retrieve Melas' head. Karavangelis made arrangements to bring Melas' head from Pisoderi to Kastoria, and Natalia confirmed, thanks to three golden teeth found by the sister of the bishop, Kleoniki, that it was indeed Melas' head, which Karavangelis buried in Kastoria alongside the rest of his body, under the Holy Altar of the metropolitan church. In July 1950, Melas' remains were transferred to a grave inside the chapel of the Archangels.
On October 16, Pyrzas sent a delayed informative letter to the consulate of Monastir, whose telegram on October 17 reached Athens on the 18th, informing the Dragoumis family of Melas' death. The next day, the news was published in the press. According to the dominant narrative, Melas met a voluntary death, defying the dangers he faced because of his patriotism, as the Athenian press reported that Melas was shot after breaking through the Ottoman soldiers' lines with his group. The spread of many different rumors about the event and the attempt to conceal disturbing details—such as that the Macedonian fighters expected no attack from the Ottoman authorities, and that they were attacked because the Ottoman forces mistook them for a Bulgarian group—were covered under a veil of mystery regarding the circumstances of Melas' death.
Although Melas was ideal for the task of promoting Hellenism in Macedonia, the immediate results of his actions as a guerrilla leader were modest. However, the death of a prominent officer, well-known in political and journalistic circles, who embodied the traditional "brave man" image of the "thief"-liberator, a role Melas consciously sought to identify with when he went to Macedonia in the autumn of 1904, at a time when the regular army was considered ineffective and irregular fighters were regarded as the true "army of the nation," elevated Melas to the status of a national hero. His death shook public opinion, encouraged many volunteers to follow his example, and made it impossible for Greek governments to ignore the Macedonian issue. Even before Macedonia joined the Greek state, Melas had become a national hero and symbol of the Macedonian Struggle.
During the interwar period, as the ongoing efforts to assimilate Slavic speakers into the Greek nation and the continued disputes among politically active Macedonian fighters led to the exclusion of the Macedonian Struggle from official public discourse, honoring Melas served as a substitute for publicly commemorating the Struggle itself. In Macedonia, in 1920, a bust was placed at Melas' cenotaph in Kastoria, ordered by Natalia and co-financed by the local municipality, featuring an inscription that labeled him the "first martyr of Macedonian freedom," in analogy with "ethnographic martyrs" like Rigas and Gregory V. In 1927, Melas' name was given to the village where he was killed, Statis, which is now called Melas. That same year, an anti-communist "National Organization," predominantly consisting of local Macedonian fighters, was founded, which quickly spread to cities and towns across Macedonia, aiming to satisfy the material demands of its members through clientelist networks. In 1931, a military camp in western Thessaloniki was renamed in his honor as "Pavlos Melas Camp." In 1934, a monument was erected at Melas' first grave in Statis, which was destroyed by unknown persons in October of that year (the Venizelist senator Leonidas Iasonidis blamed "Bulgarian-speaking Bulgarians" for the act), but was rebuilt by the local community. During the second half of the 1940s, the deliberate portrayal of communists as "Bulgarians" and the view of the Civil War as a repeat of the early 20th-century Greek-Bulgarian conflict led to the mobilization of symbolic figures like Dragoumis and Melas in the nationalist rhetoric of the time, with Melas' name being used for a series of landmarks and organizations.
In 1907, Melas' brother-in-law, Ion Dragoumis, published the first narrative text about him under the pseudonym "Idas," in the book The Blood of Martyrs and Heroes, presenting Melas as the only supporter of the Greek cause in Macedonia until his death and portraying him as a "brave man" worthy of admiration and emulation by the youth of the time. Penelope Delta, who listened to Dragoumis' memories, made Melas' death the central event of her novel O Magkas. In 1926, a biography of Melas, written by his wife Natalia Dragoumi and illustrated by Fotis Kontoglou, was anonymously published in Alexandria and later in 1963 under her name in Athens. Natalia revised the language of Melas' diary and letters to make them more suitable for publication, censoring references to personal moments with her, their children, or Effie Kallergi, as well as practices that could demystify the Macedonian Struggle in public opinion, such as the provision of money to those involved in the Struggle or Melas' stories about the irresponsibility of many participants. Melas also inspired postwar fiction, from the short stories of Georgios Modis to, ninety years after his death, the novel The Head by Nikos Bakolas. During the period of the military dictatorship, the film Pavlos Melas, a heroic war melodrama with questionable historical accuracy, was made, focusing on Melas' personality and actions. Directed by Filippou Filaktos, with Lakis Komninos in the lead role, the film was commissioned by the military government and produced by the Army Headquarters (which concealed its role) to propagate the position of the continuous and exclusive Greek identity of Macedonia. It was briefly shown in 1974, mandatory for all students, provoking a reaction from Bulgaria and receiving negative reviews for its artistic value, but positive ones for its ideological content.
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