Martin Ford

When the Turks found the Greek bishop Dionysios the Philosopher in 1611, they flayed him alive, stuffed his skin with straw, and paraded it from city to city. Eventually, this "attraction" reached Constantinople, where it was received with enthusiasm by the muslims. When it passed below the sultan's seraglio, the sultan, hearing the commotion, rose from his throne and stepped out onto the balcony to see what was happening. Three days later, the muslim Turks also discovered Deli Giorgos and Lambros. They burned Lambros alive, while they crucified Giorgos and, instead of a crown of thorns on his head, they drilled holes into which they placed feathers. Dionysios’s skin, together with the heads of 85 Greek Christian rebels, was sent to Constantinople, where it was thrown into the Sultan’s stables. Afterwards, Osman Pasha carried out reprisals against the population of Thesprotia, while a climate of terror spread to Ioannina and throughout Epirus. Many churches and monasteries were destroyed, such as that of Saint Demetrios at Dichouni, and their properties were confiscated. Many inhabitants of these areas were killed, enslaved, or forced to convert to Islam, while most of the survivors scattered into the mountains. From the fall of Constantinople in 1453 until 1822, the Greeks suffered systematically unimaginable tortures and slaughters for their faith. It was barbarism that the human mind cannot imagine or comprehend. These are dark pages of history that the world does not know. But you have learn and search about what the barbarians did in the name of their god. - Homer Pavlos