The sieges of both regions began at the end of March 1821, after the Revolution had broken out in various regions of the Peloponnese. Apart from the Turks of the city, the Turks of Kyparissia, including many women and children, were closed in Neokastro, while the besiegers of the two castles also came from the neighboring areas of Trifylia and Kyparissia.
With the news of the siege, Koumoundourakides, Papaflessas, Kapetanakides and Papatsonis also moved to the area. At the instigation of the besiegers of Trifylia, it was requested to strengthen the siege, as a result of which the so-called General Care Company was established, which took over the administration and economy of the siege, with Ambrosios Franzis in the position of President and its members Korakopoulos, Anastasopoulos and Poniropoulos.
The Turks of Trifylia initially went with their families to the fortress of Niokastro and after leaving the women and children inside, they tried to move towards the area of Trifylia. There they met with those who had revolted from the area and were also heading towards Niokastro. This first unexpected meeting made them return to the strong fortress. The Greek force exceeded a total of 1,600 rebel soldiers, while the emblematic bishop of Methoni Grigorios with 160 Methonians and the chieftains Georgakopoulos and Oikonomides also headed towards the fort. Gregory was declared leader of the siege.
In the period following Easter the camp of the besiegers was broken up and emptied. So the besiegers withdrew and returned to their ancestral lands to celebrate the Christian feast days. This fact was perceived by the besieged Turks (about six hundred) and they decided to escape by making an offensive exit on Easter Monday, April 11.
The Turks, after fierce resistance from the few Greeks who had remained in their positions, became pinned down due to the rocky point and estimated that significant forces were coming to the aid of their enemies. The only help that came was Dufas with a few more men from neighboring Methoni. As soon as he appeared, they all together came out of their makeshift fortifications and rushed against the enemy. The escape of the Turks was immediate and quick if with few losses forcing them to retreat and close in the fort again. Those of the Greeks who had visited their homes for the Easter days were informed of the clashes and returned to their original positions, while the arrival of Constantinos Mavromichalis with one hundred and twenty Maniates additionally strengthened the position of the besiegers.
The need to block it from the sea was necessary to hasten the surrender of the Turks who were inside it. After the appeal of the besiegers, two Spetsian ships arrived from Monemvasia that had temporarily moved. The blockade with the ships brought results and the food of the besieged Turks quickly ran out. By the beginning of July the blockaded had reached despair.
On July 8, two Turks managed to get away in a small boat. On July 15, the Turks asked for help from neighboring Methoni with food, but after the intervention of the two ships from Spetses who realized what had happened, the ship from Methoni failed to dock at the port and unload the food it was carrying, as a result return to the neighboring town.
The loss of this aid led the besieged Turks of the city of Neokastro to keep the scarce food for themselves and not to distribute it to all the Turks. The only possibility of water supply was through wells, because the aqueduct had in the meantime been destroyed by the besiegers. To deal with the difficult situation regarding the availability of water they followed the idea of the Austrian consul who was stranded with them to collect water from the sea and distill it, however multiple health problems created by this tactic increased the psychological pressure on the stranded.
Then an attempt was made to get a Turk, named Murtos, down from under the wall to go to Tripolitsa and warn his compatriots, but the Greeks arrested him. Due to the very difficult situation, one hundred and twenty-five Turks from Kyparissia were forced to leave the castle, to surrender asking for mercy. Of those who came out, the elders and women were distributed among the villages, while the rest were excluded to the fortress of Kyparissia, where they were massacred a few days later. Another sixty Turkish men followed who were loaded and disembarked at Helonaki, the small island in the center of the harbor, and left to their own devices. The only persons who managed to be rescued were Grigorio Methonis' personal friends Moula Halil and Mehmet Agas, who were placed under his protection.
Negotiation
Those Turks who remained blocked inside the fort had no other choice but to surrender. But they decided to negotiate its terms with the leader of the besiegers, Grigorio Methonis. At the same time, a request was sent to Dimitrios Ypsilantis who had just arrived in the Peloponnese and they requested that a representative be sent to negotiate with him.
But the politicians did not let Ypsilantis send a man of his choice just for the negotiation, and thus Typaldos was accompanied by Poniropoulos, as a representative of the political wing. The purpose of this movement was, of course, to reduce the prestige of Ypsilanti and the authority and to strengthen the individual local authorities.
Poniropoulos and Typaldos moved and approached the area at the beginning of August 1821, presenting documents that had conditions that referred to the surrender of the fort, but also to the rescue and salvation of the imprisoned. The two men do not seem to have been on the best of terms since Poniropoulos began to undermine the movements and actions of Typaldos, which resulted in most of the chieftains bypassing the presence of Typaldos and starting to negotiate alone with the Turks.
The basis of the negotiation was that they surrender and board ships to go safely to Tunis. Then, under the pretext of persuading the sailors there, they sent Typaldos to Kalamata, after the pressure exerted by Poniropoulos, in order to come to the area to transport the Turks. The ultimate goal, however, was the removal of Typaldos from the area so that they would be handed over to them and not to the representative of Ypsilanti.
Excerpt from the treaty of August 7, 1821
"...we agreed by mutual letters and they handed over the castle to us. And we from the other side, in a friendly manner, agreed with them free passage by land and sea with all their belongings, except for the chariots, to be taken from wherever everyone wanted".
However, there was also a second document calling on the Turks to surrender and board the ships that were in the port and these were those of Androutsos, Dendrolivanos and Botasis. The delay in transferring their belongings to the ships caused a kind of irritation among the Turks, and when they found that the texts they were to sign did not bear the seal of Ypsilanti as they had originally requested, but of the local Senate and the Ephorate through Frantzis, they began to resent it.
The anticipation of the surrender of the fortress by the Turks had raised an alarm, with the result that more than 3,000 Greeks gathered around it. On August 8, before the agreement between the two sides was even completed, there was tension in the neighboring fortress of Methoni when the blockaded Turks tried to leave the castle. As soon as the besiegers of Neokastro were alerted they were called to intervene, as it was thought that doing so would dissolve any agreement between the two sides. Then the forces around Konstantinos Mavromichalis moved against them and as soon as they saw them, they attacked forcing them to return to the castle. But the cannonading began on the part of the besieged, again attempting a great exit, killing Mavromichalis himself and some of his brave men.
The death of Mavromichalis and his men led the attackers to Neokastro to forget any agreement, and Poniropoulos with about a hundred men entered the lower part of the castle raising the Greek flag. Then the Turks were forced to surrender, because they feared that the rebels might invade by making a general raid. The next day (August 9) in the morning they began to leave the fort to board the ships according to the agreement, which they considered still in force.
Two of the rebels originally from Triphylia decided to find out who among the crowd of Turks had killed a Christian priest, causing a commotion. Then the enraged armed crowd fell furiously upon the Ottomans and within a few hours the drama was completed. Few managed to escape the fury of the insurgents.
*Stathis Koutrouvidis is a historian.
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