The Greek School of Glasgow

Greece kicked off yesterday its celebrations to mark the bicentenary of the start of the country’s war of independence. Alexandros Ypsilantis, leader of the Friendly Society, set off from Russia and arrived in Iasi, capital of Moldova, on 22nd February 1821. Two days later, Ypsilantis handed out he revolutionary proclamation “fight for faith and country” in which he asked the Greeks to revolt. The revolt started in the Mani region of the southern Peloponnese peninsula on 25th March and continued for years without official foreign support. In 1827, with the revolution almost squashed, the war fleets of Britain, Russia and France intervened to destroy a Turkish-Egyptian fleet in the Bay of Navarino, in the western Peloponnese. This crucial blow enabled the Greeks to fight on and eventually gain independence in 1830 with the island of Aegina becoming the country’s first capital, with the installation of Ioannis Kapodistrias as the first Governor