Monument of Hasan Tahsin Pasha and Kenan Mesare

What I can see

Hasan Tahsin Pasha was a commander-in-chief of the Ottoman army; he was of Albanian origin and the person who surrendered Thessaloniki to the Greek army on October 26, 1912. The Greek forces arrived in Thessaloniki faster than the Bulgarians and he was forced to surrender the city after the victories of the Greek army to Sarantaporos of Elassona and Giannitsa. Hassan Tahsin came from a noble family, he had studied at the Zosimaia School in Ioannina, was a military commander and gendarmerie commander in Crete, he was also transferred to Iraq, Syria and Yemen, until he ended up in Thessaloniki and served under the orders of the then major Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk). In the precincts of today’s Museum of the Balkan Wars, where the surrender negotiations took place, are the tombs of himself and his son, Kenan Messare. Hasan Tahsin’s bones were transported here, as this is not his original grave.

What I can't see

Although Hasan Tahsin did not act on his own, but he had consulted the Ottoman governor and the foreign consuls, he is considered a traitor by the Turks, thus he was sentenced to death in absentia. However, the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in Macedonia was certain and Hasan Tahsin managed to avoid bloodshed and set free 25,000 prisoners. He then fled to France and died in Switzerland. It is rumored that he preferred to surrender the city to the Greeks rather than the Bulgarians, because he had philhellenic feelings. This is another reason why he is considered as traitor in Turkish history. In his reports, the German consul was extremely dissatisfied about the surrender of the city to Greece and described some atrocities of the Greek army. He acknowledged, however, the Greek authorities’ effort to enforce law and order and especially deal with larcenous phenomena, originating mainly from Bulgarian groups.

Info

• Address: Courtyard of the Museum of Balkan Wars

Bibliography