Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias’ address at the International Conference “The Italian Philhellenic Movement and the Greek War of Independence”organised by Sapienza University (Rome, 09.11.2021)

Gentili signore e signori,

E’un grande piacere per me partecipare all’ inaugurazione della Conferenza sul movimento italiano filellenico e la lotta per l’indipendenza Greca.

Innanzitutto, vorrei ringraziare l’Università di Roma, la Sapienza, per questo progetto in collaborazione con l’Iniziativa sul bicentenario 1821-2021.

Philhellenism forms a very important chapter of the history of the Greek War of Independence.

Among the most prominent philhellenic movements in Europe was the Italian one.

I would not elaborate on the history of Italian Philhellenism, addressing specialists who will speak extensively on this subject.

However, I would like to make a few remarks about the close ties between our two peoples, some of them not necessarily so widely known.

Italian Philhellenes admired Greek culture and history, but they probably felt much closer to it than Philhellenes coming from other countries.

Not just because of their geographical proximity, but also because of a feeling of connection and continuity between Greek and Roman civilizations.

Both nations were Christian, an element that motivated Italians to assist a Christian people seeking liberation from an Ottoman oppressor.

Vibrant Greek communities in the Italian peninsula, in cities like Livorno, Trieste, Venice and Naples contributed to the growth of the philhellenic movement.

Some of these communities were formed by Greek exiles who left the collapsing Byzantine Empire in the 15th Century.

The Greek Revolution started just a few months after the Revolution in Naples and Sicily in 1820 and about the same time as the Revolution in Piedmont in March 1821.

It was no coincidence that a big number of Italian Philhellenes who fought in Greece had participated in those two Revolutions.

For example Alerino Palma and, of course, Count Santorre di Santarosa, who died fighting in Greece in 1825.

Another Italian, Vincenzo Gallina, assisted in writing the Constitution adopted by the first National Assembly of Epidaurus in Greece in 1822.

Many of these Italians came to the Greek mainland through the island of Corfu, which was for centuries under Venetian rule and which also happens to be my birthplace. Therefore, there is a personal dimension for me to the strong ties between Greece and Italy.

However, what is less well known, is that the new Greek state was the destination of Italians who participated in revolutions in 1831 and 1848-49. Greece became the refuge for those who participated in the Risorgimento.

No wonder that many of them went back to fight for Italian unification in 1860, and that Greek volunteers fought among the ranks of Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Italian volunteers came to fight along with Greeks on several more occasions.  Such as the Greco-Turkish war of 1897 in which Ricciotti Garibaldi saw action with the Greek forces. As well as the first Balkan war of 1912, in which his son Peppino Garibaldi fought alongside Greeks at the battle of Drisko, in Epirus.

Allow me to close my remarks by quoting another Italian revolutionary, Giuseppe Garibaldi, who said when addressing the «Società Democratiche della Grecia»:

«Io servirò la causa della Grecia con la stessa devozione di quella del mio paese, e vi considero come fratelli».

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