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"I have never obeyed but one idea: to be useful to my neighbor and to the Fatherland." These virtues, the ideals, seem distant and outdated, as if they have been locked away forever in the time crypt of History. But these ideals were what created the Greek state. That liberated since 1821 the country that today we tread freely and carefree, without reflecting on the blood that has watered the land of our ancestors.

Pavlos Melas belongs to the pantheon of Heroes of Greece. Because with his example and his sacrifice he awakened the patriotic feeling of the Greeks, so that they ran to liberate Macedonia. Born in Marseille, France in 1870 and raised in Athens, he entered the oldest educational institution in the country, the Military School of Evelpidon in 1886 and graduated in 1891, named Second Lieutenant of Artillery. His father was a prominent businessman with large donations to the Cretan and Macedonian fronts, while two of his four brothers also followed a military career. The Melas family made a great contribution to the National Struggle. In 1892 he married the daughter of the later Prime Minister Stefanos Dragoumis, Natalia, and became close friends with his sister-in-law Ionas. They had two children, Michael (Miki) and Zoe (Zeza).
Pavlos took part in the unfortunate War of 1897, while he was a member of the National Society and the Macedonian Committee, which took action to confront the Bulgarian raids and their operations to Bulgarize Macedonia. During that period, from the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate (1870) to the beginning of the Macedonian Struggle (1904), the Bulgarians attempted the complete Bulgarization of the population of Macedonia, which consisted of Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Albanians. And the Greeks also included the Slavic-speaking and Vlach-speaking inhabitants of Macedonia with a purely Greek conscience. A typical example is one of the greatest figures of the struggle, Captain Kottas (Konstantinos) Christou, who was a Slavic speaker, but a Greek to the core.
The Bulgarian raids became known to the Greek state, the government absent, the entire burden fell on the Macedonians, the consuls and the enormous contribution of the clergy. Besides, the northern neighbors were "hitting" education and religion, posing the dilemma: Patriarchal or Exarchic. Teachers were killed, women were kidnapped, clergy were humiliated. And all this under the gaze of the Turks, who sometimes allowed the Bulgarian actions to annihilate the Greek element, sometimes feared the Russian power that was hidden behind Bulgaria (let's not forget that the Russians were the initiators of "Greater Bulgaria" with the Treaty of Saint Stephen, which gave Bulgaria almost all of Macedonia). Many Greeks of the Greek kingdom, including Melas, could not tolerate this situation.
His missions to Macedonia are divided into three: The first in February 1904, accompanied by A. Kontoulis, A. Papoulas and G. Kolokotronis, to assess the current situation. With the help of the chieftains Kottas, Pyrzas and Kyrou, they learned a lot about the difficulties that Hellenism was facing. He returned to Athens in March, since the Turks had noticed his presence. The second in July of the same year, where during his reconnaissance in the wider area of ​​Kozani, he urged the residents to organize themselves into armed forces, while he himself decided to act as a guerrilla against the Bulgarians. He returned to Athens to be appointed leader of the guerrilla groups of Western Macedonia and in August he returned again for the last time. Under the pseudonym Mikis Zezas, he confronted Bulgarian partisans and raised the morale of the Macedonians, always in the company of Pyrzas. However, in October 1904, on the night of the 13th, he was killed in a clash with an Ottoman armed force in the village of Statista in Kastoria. His body was buried in the village, later, with the risk of the body falling to the Turks, his head was buried in Pisoderi, while his body was received by the Metropolitan of Kastoria, Germanos Karavangelis, and he buried it in Kastoria. Eventually, his head was also received and buried with the body.
Pavlos Melas did not take part in many battles of the Struggle, did not demonstrate impressive victories, did not rise through the ranks of the military hierarchy. But he became a symbol, the symbol of a Struggle of an enslaved people for the preservation of their identity, liberation and ultimately integration into the national body. His death inspired, thousands of fighters ran to liberate the homeland of Alexander the Great and lay the foundations for the fulfillment of the Great Idea. This rich man, raised in the salons of Athenian society, Officer, father of two children, originally from Epirus, ran to enslaved Macedonia. Showing by his example that the freedom of the homeland is the concern of all Greeks. From Orestiada to Kastelorizo, and from Kastoria to Chania, this homeland belongs to all Greeks and its defense is the responsibility of all.
"People are crying for you. May the grass always be green and green."
To the place where the bullet struck you, oh young man!
Miltiadis B. Parlantzas
Assistant Professor (EM), MSc