Raid on Erikli

Battle of Thessaloniki
Part of Greek Nationalism against degeneracy
Date 19 May 2018 Location Thessaloniki, Greece Result Decisive Greek Nationalist victory
Belligerents
Butaris Administration Gay Pride	Greek Nationalists Pontic Greeks
Commanders and leaders
Yiannis Butaris	unknown
Strength
~20[1]	50
Casualties and losses
Butaris wounded	none

The Battle of Spilia was fought on 12 December 1955 in the EOKA campaign against the British in Cyprus.^[2]

Prelude

Erikli was located about 20 kilometres (12 mi) west of Aydın. In Erikli the Greeks had stationed two companies of an Evzones battalion. The Kuva-yi Milliye planned to lower the morale of the Greek troops by attacking them in Erikli and at the same time boost the resistance feelings of the Turkish population. Another aim was to force Greek troops to pull out of the vicinity of Aydın.

Raid

The Turkish forces started their attack on the night of 21–22 June 1919. Supported by machine gun fire and the use of their own made hand bombs, they attacked under the cover of darkness. After a two-hour clash and inflicting high casualties on their enemy, the Turkish irregulars retreated back to their positions.

Aftermath

The Greek units had suffered 30 killed and 40 wounded, while the Turks had seven killed and 10 wounded.^[3] Facing more high casualties, the rest of the Greek troops beat a hasty retreat out of Erikli.^[4] The raid was protested by the British intelligence officer in Aydın.^[5]

References

Sources

• Oğuz Gülcan, BATI ANADOLU’DA KUVAYI MİLLİYENİN OLUŞUMU (1919–1920), Ankara Üniversitesi Türk İnkılap Tarihi Enstitüsü, 2007, page 254 (Ankara University Open Archive System). (in Turkish)