Macedonia in the 16th and 17th Centuries
akritas
Apostolos Vacalopoulos
While maintaining their resistance to the Jesuits' attempts to
proselytize them, the inhabitants of Macedonia — whether in the large
towns, in the rural areas, or on Mount Athos — demonstrated in no
uncertain terms their deep loathing for the Turks. The unrelieved
oppression and the manifold hardships that they encountered in daily
life combined in reinforcing an attitude altogether hostile toward
their conquerors. As in other Balkan lands, the mountains became the
refuge of desperate groups who lived by banditry. However, in view of
the overwhelming strength and ruthlessness of their rulers, they did
not as yet venture upon operations of a wider scope. Thus the
inhabitants of Macedonia looked on in a state of daze while Suleyman I
(1520-1566) marched through their country in 1537 on his way to Avlón.
The Sultan was at that moment bent on crushing the Chimariotes of
Epirus and then crossing over to Italy to attack Charles V on his own
territory on behalf of Francis I of France, then an ally of the Turk.
Nevertheless, there could not have been a Macedonian, whether in the
mountains or in the plains and towns (see fig. 63), who did not live
in hope of liberation. Fostered by a wealth of legends, traditions and
folk-songs, their faith in the ultimate restoration of their nation
grew ever stronger with the passage of time. The increasing harshness
of Turkish rule only served to stimulate them into taking more drastic
steps. One wonders what can have occurred in 1565 to have necessitated
the calling in of the reserve detachments (ikinci nöbetli) of Yürüks
from Thessalonica and Tríkala to defend Thessalonica? The situation
grew worse as the years went by. Α little later, in 1568, during the
reign of Selim II (1566-1574), the Turks proceeded to seize "metochia"
and other estates belonging to the monasteries on Mount Athos and
throughout the empire generally, under the pretext that the
monasteries had tax obligations to settle. At this juncture they
appear to have plundered and destroyed monasteries even within the
confines of the holy peninsula itself, slaughtering those distraught
and enraged monks who attempted to oppose the Turks' high-handed
behaviour .