This account was written by Colonel Nikostratou Kalomenopoulos on 27th of January 1917, a few weeks after the tragic events:
(quoted after Vasilis N. Kollaros, Dr. Istorias Panteiou Panepistimiou – I EKTHESI NIKOSTRATOU KALOMENOPOULOU GIA TIN KATALIPSI TON KYKLADON APO TO STRATO TIS ETHNIKIS AMYNAS (1916–1917), In: Flea, EKDOSI POLITISMOY KAI POLITIKIS, DELTIO TOU ISTORIKOPOU OMILOU NAXOU – ARSOS, TEYXOS 72, selides 5–18, 32–33, 41–50; translation by Sofia Kritikou)
“After the disembarkation [2 December] of the military force of 100 infantrymen sent to Naxos under Lieutenant Roussaakis, all the communities of Naxos willingly joined the National Government of Thessaloniki and enthusiastically accepted the new regime, except for two communities, Apeiranthos and Moni. Thus, of the 16 communities of the island of Naxos, two remained loyal to the anti-national government of King Constantine and reacted to the New Regime recognized not only in Naxos but also in the prefecture of the Cyclades.
As for the community of Moni, it did not recognize the new status, but it also did not perform such acts and deeds as to cause violent measures to be taken against it and continued to simply refuse to formally vote to join the National Movement.
But the public of Apiranthos from the very beginning not only against our military detachment and the officials of the National Government, but also against the joined their sympathisers have committed acts, punishing them, oppressive and predatory of the kind that only bandits and anarchists commit.
In Naxon, when it came to an end, flour was sent, which was immediately distributed to the inhabitants, except, of course, those of Apiranthos.
On the 7th of December the English ships of the control here present knew that the inhabitants of Apeiranthos, having descended into the city of Naxos, attempted to break through the flour sent. I therefore sent a telegraphic order to Lieutenant Roussaakis, commander of the military detachment in Naxos, to arrest the perpetrators of this mutinous attempt.
On that day, December 7, Lieutenant Roussaakis reported to me by telegraph that there were demonstrations against the National Government in Apiranthos and that the inhabitants of the village had destroyed the telegraph line. In reply, I ordered Mr. Lieutenant-General to arrest the leaders, and to consult with the governors of Apeiranthos and the governors of Tragaia before any force is used, and to inform the inhabitants of Apeiranthos that if they persist in their rebellious attitude, martial law will be declared in their village and the perpetrators of the rebellious behaviour of the inhabitants will be severely punished.
At the same time the lieutenant was ordered to report to me the result of his actions.
On December 8 he reported to me that the provosts of Tragea and the private Apeiranthios, the reserve lieutenant-general Protopapas, who lives there, undertook to reconcile things completely, and on December 9 he reported to me that despite all the concerted measures taken, nothing had been achieved and that only violence had been used.
On the same day I sent him an order forbidding the use of force, and I ordered him to close the village and seek a conciliatory solution.
At the same time English officers who had mediated a compromise, received the answer that they would only join when it was declared to them that they would not enlist. The English officers left, stating to them that if they harassed the liberals, they would not be allowed to leave.
they would consider them enemies of the Entente and bomb their village. The Apiranthians again persisted unconvinced.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Roussac, desperate for a compromise, ceased all negotiations with the Apeiranthian and excluded the village from importing foodstuffs.
At this time various information from Naxos convinced me that the attitude of the Apeiranthia was beginning to affect the morale of the other communities of the island. In order to ascertain this, I sent the following order to Lieutenant-General:
No. 58/14 December. “Inform all the communities that we have not come to their island to shed brotherly blood. In the face of the reactionary attitude, we are forced to withdraw, ready to return as soon as everyone, recognizing the importance and purpose of the national movement, calls us. Upon notification of my order you will assemble at Naxon town a full force of detachment and constabulary and report to me to send further orders.”
The expected result of this measure was as expected. The news of the withdrawal of our army from the island greatly alarmed the inhabitants of the island, and especially the numerous liberals there.
As is well known, the Apeiranthans being mountainous and destitute, and having no lands, but subsisting on their scanty husbandry, and as they were smyrched and channelled, were always a veritable scourge to the sensual inhabitants of the island, whose wolf’s blood Recently, exasperated by the change of regime and our dialectical attitude towards them, they exceeded all limits of anarchy and pressure, openly breaking into flocks and beating the inhabitants of the villages they joined.
Before this situation the inhabitants of the island begged us not to withdraw the military detachment and not to abandon them to the distinction of the savage Apiranthians.
At the same time (17 December), Lieutenant Roussaakis protests against this situation and requests that he be allowed to use violence against the anarchist Apeiranthos.
On 20 December I sent to Naxos the commander of the company under my command with 100 men, so that, together with the other 100 already there, he could close off the village and at the same time act to persuade the Apeiranthians to give up any further resistance.
On 25 December the company commander, Mr. Samartzis reports to me by telegraph that he summoned 22 Apeiranthians to a meeting, but that only six of them came, the others were prevented from coming by the villagers or were unable to come, that he sent workers to repair the telegraph line destroyed by the Apeiranthians, and that these workers were arrested by 30 armed Apeiranthians, that these armed men have made it known that their village will never accede, that the Apeiranthans have about 150 guns and plenty of dynamite, that their village is overcrowded and finally requests that a torpedo boat be sent
On December 25 the commander of the company telegraphs me from Naxos that the Apeiranthians have declared to him that they will not surrender under any circumstances, that the rebel garrisons placed around the village fired about 60 shots and about 10 dynamite shells against the army during the night, that the military detachment did not fire back, and finally he requests reinforcement.
On 26 December soldiers escorting 2 Apeiranthian captives near Vothra were shot by 12 Apeiranthian soldiers present near the village of Halki to release the captives. 138
This attitude of the Apeiranthians brought despair to the liberal inhabitants of the island, and it seemed to affect the spirit of those who had joined the National Movement without much enthusiasm. In the village of Moni, near Apeiranthos, a rebellious movement was formed. A large group of inhabitants held a demonstration against the National Government and the allied Great Powers, cheering for the King, etc. The small police force that was sent was met with disapproval and cries of “go away traitors, etc.”. A military force dispatched to the scene arrested 19 of them as first responders, including the president of the monastery community. They were forced to seize them from the hands of the detachment by others, and finally they were led away and sent to the prisons.
At the same time, on the small island of Kimolos, which had already joined the movement, other riotous demonstrations took place, with demonstrators shouting “Down with Venizelos, down with the traitors, down with France, down with England, long live the King” etc. And they were arrested by the military force sent from there and led away to the prisons there. The reactionaries throughout the county, who are becoming more and more indignant, assume our conciliatory attitude as weakness, or rather explain it as a consequence of the false news reported by the royal newspapers of Athens that the allies are being defeated everywhere, that the Germans are triumphant, that the allied armies in Macedonia have been defeated everywhere, that the Germans are triumphant, that the allied armies in Macedonia have been driven into the sea, that Mr. Venizelos and his few followers have just fled to Mytilene, etc.
At the same time, the Apeiranthian people, praised for their heroism by the Athenian newspapers, whose sheets, unknown how, were published in that mountainous county, became even more impudent. And the consequences were suffered by the villages that had joined the national movement, where the Apiranthian, punishing them, destroyed the land and tore up the animals. Overnight they destroyed the vineyards of the village of Vothri, as the liberal MP Mr Papavasiliou assured me, in Apeiranthos the meat was sold to the wealthy for 65 cents an ounce and to the needy it was distributed free of charge. Such was the abundance of meat in Apeiranthos as a result of the number of stolen flocks.
Meanwhile the military detachment besieged the village and forbade the importation into it of flour, etc., and while the soldiers were subjected to privations and hardships, exposed without resistance, in the midst of winter, in the rains and colds on those mountainous parts, the Apeiranthans fired against them, reviling them as traitors, and after their cheers for the king they imitated improvised chants whose meaning was: ‘we fear no one, we have no need of flour, we have plenty of grass and meat because we know how to steal, etc.’.
This situation could not be prolonged any longer because we certainly ran the risk of seeing other communities, both in Naxos and in the other islands, imitate the example of the Apeiranthians, to the great detriment of the national movement and to the certain destruction of the liberal inhabitants of this prefecture.
I considered that the highest national interest demanded that the dangerous situation should be brought to an end, and on 28 December I also consulted with the leader of the English naval squadron in Syros, I ordered the commander of the company in Naxos to make a last effort to reconcile, and finally to enter the village, even by force, and instead of any sacrifice to arrest the protagonists of this anarchic situation, i.e. the provosts, the leaders of the conscripts, etc. etc., given that the blockade was of no practical effect, because the village, being situated on mountains, could not be completely surrounded by the forces available, and the mountain dwellers, knowing the terrain, found ways out of the village by night to break through the property of the other villages and buy food.
At the same time after this order of attack I sent to Naxos a small reinforcement under the reserve lieutenant Mr. Tarasoulean consisting of 15 soldiers and a machine gun which was provided by the leader of the English naval squadron in Syros. (The use of this machine gun was taught in advance to the daily soldiers by English sailors). This reinforcement was carried to Naxos by the daily torpedo boat “Thetis” commanded by Lieutenant Voulgaris, who was ordered by the English naval chief to sail to the cove of Moutsounan below Apeiranthos and, if there was a need for violence, to fire some artillery shots from there to intimidate the Apeiranthans.
As soon as the destroyer arrived, the captain of the destroyer and the commander of the military force conferred on the manner of their action, they reconnoitred the ground between Mutsunah and Apeiranthos, and discharged the ship’s artillery fire. In accordance with the agreement reached, the ‘Thetis’ was to fire some shots to intimidate between 10 and 10.30 a.m. on the following morning (2 January) unless she was notified by an agreed signal not to fire or to cease firing. Thereupon liaisons and messengers were set up between the cove and the places to be occupied by the army, and then the commander of the company sent a letter to the inhabitants of Apiranthos telling them that he had irrevocably decided to enter their village the next day, and exhorting them in their holy feelings not to resist, for they would be beaten by land and by sea, and would be severely penitent for their conduct.
The time was also approaching by which they were to send their reply. As soon as they received this letter they tore it up, uttering vulgar insults against the army and the National Government which had sent it.
There were also some wise men who advised their fellow countrymen to join in their salvation. The others insulted them and massacred them, and at the same time, in order to inculcate the mob, they spread the word that German submarines, which landed in Mutchuna at night, had unloaded hundreds of weapons and thousands of cartridges, as well as plenty of food, and they were careful to collect semi-human beings to take them back to their village.
At the same time they summarized their preparations for resistance and determined the positions which each platoon would occupy. For the mutineers were divided into 13 platoons with all the ranks, etc. The women were also divided into platoons. 14
At 8.30 in the morning of the next day (2 January) the army occupied the heights around the village, when the trumpet of the rebels sounded the call to arms, and after a short time groups of men and women took up positions around the village. The army advanced to a distance of 500 meters from them and at 10.05 the “Thetis” fired two shots flying in front of the village. These shots were met by the Apiranthians with jeers, insults and boos. The commander of the company again tried to persuade the inhabitants to surrender because he would beat them, and to this end he sent the president of the community, who from the beginning had prevented his comrades from any action of resistance. The President was insulted by the villagers as a traitor and was arrested and finally he took his family and left the village, blaming his persistent accomplices for what had happened.
At exactly 10.30 the army advanced towards the village and fire was opened on both sides. The Apeiranthian people, seeing then that they could not resist the army, raised white flags and declared that they surrendered.
During this engagement one soldier was slightly wounded, and of the rebels 28 were wounded and 49 wounded.
The army entered the village and arrested about 200 of them, of whom 87, as first responders, were taken to Naxon the next day.
All those arrested confessed that they bore all responsibility for the events and acknowledged the long patience of the army, and that their persistent resistance was the result of systematic and long-standing teaching and encouragement by their fellow citizens, especially by the long-time deputy and retired lieutenant colonel Manousos Derleres, who had been in the village for a long time.
These things I was also personally assured when I went to Naxon to examine these sad events.
Since then the order has been completely restored, thanks to the hard but enforced lesson taught there in the ever-robber and anarchic village of Apiranthus, and no one in the future will dare to raise his head against the National Establishment, whatever the suggestions and devils of the reactionary rulers of the vicious faulocracy of which the uncouth inhabitants of that mountainous community have fallen victim, but on the contrary, the simple-minded people will be left alone to fulfil their duty to their country under the orders of the National Government.
And indeed, when a few days afterwards, that is, on the 15th of January, the conscripts of the class of 1916 were called to come under arms, none of the Apeiranthites, and all the Naxians, failed to answer the call, and 15 all of them, except, of course, those far from the island, came willingly and with characteristic enthusiasm joined the army, cheering for the nation and for the leader of the National Movement and President of the Government, Mr. Eleftherios Venizelos.
Syros 27 January 1917
The Military Commander of the Cyclades signed
Other sources used:
Michalis Fragkiskos: Ta gegonota tou ’17, In: APERATHITIKA – Triminiaio Periodiko paideias kai politismou tis koinotitas Aperathou Naxou, Teuchos 1, 1988, selides 25–31
Loukia Varthalitou – Prosegizontas ta gegonota tou ’17 sti Naxo – I ypothesi Aperathou. In: APERATHITIKA – Triminiaio Periodiko paideias kai politismou tis koinotitas Aperathou Naxou, Teuchos 1, 1988, selides 34–45
Nikos I. Levogiannis, I NEOTERI ISTORIA TIS NAXOU 1800–2000, TOMOS B’, Teuchos 3o, 1900–1940, selides 79–107