Efstratios Pissas (1797 – 1885)

Efstratios Pissas (1797 – 1885)

From Aivali in Ionia, he was a fighter during the Greek Revolution of 1821, later rising to the rank of Lieutenant General.

Like many Greeks from Asia Minor, Pissas set off for the Greek mainland to participate in the Greek War of Independence.

Aivali, Smyrni and the surrounding region of Ionia, with its large Greek presence and population, were an easy target and the scene of multiple massacres by the Turks during the centuries of Ottoman occupation, all the way into the mid-20th century.

Whenever there was an uprising in the Peloponnese, Epirus or Sterea Ellada, due to its close proximity to Constantinople, towns in Ionia, places like Aivali and Smyrni, were always the first to bear the brunt of any Ottoman reprisals.

Pissas fought for a decade with distinction in battles at Tripoli, Nafplio, Chios, Evia, Athens and Crete.

He was a respected military figure even by 1864, when the Greek Government despatched him to the recently liberated Ionian Islands, to take over control from the British.