Hasan Tahsin Pasha: “I Was Defeated by the Greeks, and to Them I Surrender”
113 years ago today, an Ottoman general made a decision that changed Thessaloniki's history forever.
Hasan Tahsin Pasha, a 67-year-old senior Ottoman officer of Albanian descent, surrendered Thessaloniki to Crown Prince Constantine on October 26, 1912, refusing to share the city with Bulgaria despite intense pressure and outright bribery. His forces had just been defeated at Sarantaporo and Giannitsa after twenty days of fighting exclusively Greek troops. He would hand the city to the army that beat him, not to the Bulgarians who showed up late.
"We took Thessaloniki from the Greeks, and to the Greeks we shall return it." — Hasan Tahsin Pasha
When Bulgarian envoys arrived and demanded he co-sign a protocol acknowledging joint occupation, Tahsin's response was unambiguous. According to his son Kenan Mesare, who served as his aide-de-camp and witnessed the negotiations firsthand, Tahsin told them directly: "We fought only the Greeks for twenty days, from Elassona to Thessaloniki. Not once did we meet Bulgarian soldiers. I was defeated by the Greeks, and to them I surrender the city."
The Bulgarians then offered Kenan himself a cheque for a staggering sum to influence his father. Kenan refused. The Protocol of Surrender was signed in the early hours of October 27, but the official record was backdated to 11:30 p.m. on October 26 to coincide with the Feast of Saint Demetrios, Thessaloniki's patron saint.
Tahsin was no stranger to Greece. Born in 1845 near the Greek-Albanian border, he had studied at the Zosimaia School in Ioannina and spoke fluent Greek. He served as military commander of Crete from 1889 to 1896, where he earned a reputation for fairness between Christians and Muslims. In 1911, he took command of the 3rd Army Corps in Thessaloniki with a young Major Mustafa Kemal among his officers.
His decision was personal as well as pragmatic. He had personal respect for Eleftherios Venizelos, whom he knew from his years in Crete, and trusted the Greek army's terms. The Ottoman government charged him with high treason. With Venizelos's help, he fled to Athens and later Switzerland, where he died in 1918. His reported last words on Thessaloniki: "We took Thessaloniki from the Greeks, and to the Greeks we shall return it."
