On March 30, 1822, Ottoman forces under commander Vahit Pasha carried out one of the most documented atrocities of the G...

On March 30, 1822, Ottoman forces under commander Vahit Pasha carried out one of the most documented atrocities of the Greek War of Independence on the island of Chios. When the killing stopped, 42,000 Greek Christians had been slaughtered and 52,000 more had been sold into slavery. The scale of the violence recorded by eyewitnesses was extreme. Young girls were raped publicly in the streets. Women over 40 were set on fire and burned alive. Pregnant women were killed and their unborn children taken from them. Children were thrown against rocks. Men were mutilated and killed in front of their families. Several women of Chios chose to jump from cliffs rather than be taken into slavery. When it was over, Vahit Pasha had the heads of the remaining Christian prisoners cut off. Their skulls were stuffed with straw and packed alongside five loads of additional heads and two loads of severed ears, all sent to the Sultan in Constantinople as trophies. Eyewitness accounts describe the sea around the island running red, and the smoke from burning homes so thick that the flames lit the night like daylight. The massacre shocked Europe. Eugène Delacroix painted "The Massacre at Chios" the following year, bringing the atrocity to international attention and fueling philhellenic support for Greek independence. Victor Hugo also wrote about it, helping turn European public opinion against the Ottomans. Chios had been one of the wealthiest and most prosperous islands in the Aegean before 1822. After the massacre, its population was effectively destroyed. The date, March 30, 1822, remains one of the darkest in modern Greek history. #Chios #GreekHistory #MassacreOfChios